CEO Cameron Herold’s Key Components of Running Productive Meetings

Meetings are a necessary part of business, but may not always yield efficient results. Are we running productive meetings? Cameron Herold, otherwise known as the CEO Whisperer, has the answer to holding and managing productive team meetings.

As a speaker, author, entrepreneur and business expert, he’s attended and conducted his fair share of meetings. His book, Meetings Suck, has been adopted as a guide to conducting meetings by businesses across the country. Herold believes that a major contributor to unproductive meetings is the lack of training associated with conducting and attending them.

These are the 5 key components to running productive meetings from Cameron Herold.

1. A clear purpose.

   Every meeting has to have a clear purpose. The person leading the meeting, as well as those in attendance, need to know why they are there.

2. Outcomes.

   Every meeting has to have a maximum of three outcomes. What are the three things you’re going to get done?

3. An agenda.

   Every meeting has to have an agenda. According to Herold, you need to be able to answer: What are you covering? In what order are you covering it? And how many minutes are you spending on each agenda item? Herold says to encourage employees to adopt the mindset of: “No agenda? No attenda.”

4. Start on time.

   Herold firmly believes in the old saying, “If you’re not five minutes early, you’re late.”  He says when you show up saying, “sorry I’m late,” what you’re really saying is, “my time is more valuable than yours.” Teach your employees that “sorry I’m late” actually means something different. Show them what it really means by showing up on time. They will start showing up on time too.

5. Finish five minutes early.

   To show up on time to a meeting is to finish every meeting and every phone call five minutes early. That way, you end up having enough time to walk down the hall, talk to your assistant, sit down and start your next phone call or meeting exactly on time.