Only genuinely relevant attendees should be invited to meetings
According to Entrepreneur.com, there is a very bad habit of inviting to meetings people who do not really need to be there. Often they are invited only to add something to the topic if required; otherwise, the meeting does not concern them at all. In such cases, it would be more logical to write down important points and ask the given person about these later, or invite them only to the relevant part of the meeting. Learn to invite only the most crucial attendees to meetings and teach staff to value the time of colleagues.
Set a firm schedule, time frame and outline of the meeting
Every meeting, even the smallest and a seemingly unimportant one, needs a clear schedule. The organiser should decide on the topics to be covered, including their time allocation. The time then has to be checked regularly during the meeting to prevent overruns, which might negatively affect the work and timetable of individual employees who should be doing something else. Go through all the points you have planned and if there is insufficient time, schedule a new meeting.
End each meeting with a proper list of action steps
Every meeting should yield a list of action steps for individual attendees. It is quite frustrating if meetings have no specific outcome and have just wasted the time of employees without leaving them any better informed. Make a clear list of things to be done, agree with all the attendees on them (ideally at the meeting itself, then send them the meeting minutes afterwards), establish deadlines and determine how you will check whether these tasks have been successfully completed.
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