Running a meeting with people senior to you can be hard, especially if they do things to mess it up. Here are a few pointers for the senior people (and also, how to prepare for a meeting more effectively if you’re running it).
If you’re a team leader
Have a mindset to support up-and-coming leaders Recognize that many people may be nervous about running a meeting for people senior to them in an organization. Many of these tips are designed to address issues with the organizer ahead of time, so that you don’t put them on the spot in front of other senior leaders.
Have a mindset to respect everyone’s time Arrive on time and do what you can to help the meeting achieve its objective.
Instead of using the first five minutes of a meeting to confess you didn’t do the homework Do the homework. If you don’t have time, contact the meeting leader ahead of time and give them a heads-up.
If you think the meeting should be an email If you think the meeting is unnecessary, contact the organizer or their line manager ahead of time and ask for alternatives.
If you don’t understand the agenda or think it should be different This goes to preparation. Read the agenda, and if you have questions about it, raise them with the meeting organizer ahead of time.
If you’re running a meeting with higher-ups
Prepare well Schedule the meeting far enough in advance, and circulate an agenda both with the meeting invitation and in a separate email (because people don’t always read the body of a meeting invitation). Provide links to any materials the attendees need to read ahead of time.
Recognize that they may not care about the meeting as much as you do Most company leaders I’ve ever worked with have gotten to their positions partly through ruthless efficiency. Their emails tend to be short. They have a ton of stuff going on, and this meeting feels a lot less important to them than it does to you.
This means you should keep the meeting short and make sure the agenda is focused. If you get a reputation for calling meetings only when necessary and running them well, you’ll get better participation in all your meetings.
Offer alternatives Some of my favorite meeting subject lines are “Avoid this meeting by telling me…” or “Clear this meeting from your calendar by answering 3 questions.” Usually the meeting happens, but the attendees know it’s their fault and arrive with a sheepish smile and ready to answer the questions.
State expectations Convey the purpose of a meeting ahead of time. Is it to share information about decisions that have already been made; to gather information from the attendees; or to make decisions? If decisions have already been made, but the attendees don’t know it, that’s a place where your agenda can get derailed.
