7 Great Tips for Holding an Engaging Meeting

There’s a glorious difference between boring meetings and productive ones. If you don’t want your team to start dreading those meetings, here are 7 essential tips to help you create an engaging meeting.

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Let them know what the meeting’s objective is

First thing, make the meeting’s objective clear, says Forbes. There’s nothing worse than going into a meeting blind. If you’re holding that meeting to arrive at a particular decision, you’re short-changing your team by not sending them in prepared. Let them know what the meeting’s objective is and give them time to gather their thoughts or think it through. That way, you’ll get much better responses when it’s time to hear them out.

Check the lighting and camera angle

Yes, you have a lot of things on your mind. But not taking the time to check on the quality of lighting in the room can affect your video call or conference in the worst way. The same thing will happen if you don’t check your camera angle. It might be too dark for everyone else to see you or view any of the content you share. That or the camera angle might be off, unflattering and inappropriate. These can detract from the effectiveness or productiveness of the meeting. Don’t let that happen. Make sure you fix these right up before you log on to that meeting.

Log onto the software an hour or two earlier

We all know it’s in bad form to be late for a video meeting. After all, one of the key advantages to video conferencing is that it saves you time. You don’t have to travel to somewhere just to get to a meeting. You can even log onto the meeting from any device so even if your laptop’s battery dies on you, you still have your handy mobile or tablet as backup. So whether you’re stuck in traffic or working from home, you have no reason to miss that meeting. But what if you log on, only to find out that you have to spend the next forty minutes to an hour troubleshooting a program or software issue? What if you need to reinstall a program if yours has expired? That’s going to make you late. By logging on early, you have a chance to deal with these problems beforehand. That way, your meeting can go off without a hitch when it’s time.

Know how to work the system

Aside from knowing how to adjust camera angles or the lighting, make sure you know the system like the back of your hand. That way, it’s going to be easy to facilitate or control the flow of the discussion. You can even help out other participants who might be struggling with how to turn off their mics or improve their camera angles. And if you want features that take your meetings even further, you only have to look around. Companies like BlueJeans offer the best video conference for IT since their monitors are designed with HD clarity along with content-sharing, collaborative-ready features. By knowing how to use the system you have or taking the time to find a better one, you can significantly improve the quality of your meetings.

Take a deep breath and pause

Our days are often so busy, with every moment filled to the brim and our schedules loaded up with a boatload of meetings, deadlines, and just plain getting down to business. However, if you’re heading off to a meeting, make sure you take the time to recharge. Fast Company recommends taking a pause. It’s a cliché but it works. If your mind is too busy, even if you log onto that meeting, your attention is somewhere else. That’s not going to help you or your team. So pause for a moment or two. Clear your mind of everything. That’s going to make a difference.

Make them laugh

We listen to people when they make us laugh. That’s because they engage us. What they say resonates with us. And we find ourselves tuning into what the speaker is saying. Follow the same idea for your video meetings. If you want to engage your team, make them laugh. If your meetings are too serious, you could be missing out on a golden opportunity to develop a better relationship with the rest of your staff. Whether you’re doing online or offline meetings, engaging your team should be on top of your list.

Know when to intervene

The best meetings should provide everyone with the opportunity to speak up on issues but to also leave ample time to discuss those issues. That helps improve the coverage. However, you must also know when to step in, end a discussion and steer it back on track in case someone veers off.

So put an end to those boring meetings at work. Follow these tips to help you conduct engaging meetings ones your team will love.