Want to set yourself apart at your organization? Learn how to run an effective meeting.

I've had the opportunity to talk with many young professionals as they have started their careers, and they often ask what they can do to stand out in their teams or organizations. Jack Welch's advice to "overdeliver" is hard to beat. From a more tactical perspective, learning how to run a great meeting is a tremendously valuable way to set yourself apart from your colleagues regardless of the stage of your career.

As the great organizational efficiency guru Tyler Durden once said, "The first rule of Meeting Club is don't schedule an unnecessary meeting. The second rule of Meeting Club is... DON'T SCHEDULE AN UNNECESSARY MEETING." Generally, a meeting should be your last resort when communicating something. Can this be an email/chat/memo (i.e., will asynchronous communication suffice)? Is the meeting content relevant, timely, or urgent (or all the above)? Is bringing a group of people together virtually or in person a good use of everyone's time and company resources? These are all questions you should ask yourself before hitting that "schedule meeting" button.

If you have asked yourself those questions and still believe a meeting is necessary, executing a great meeting starts well BEFORE the meeting itself. Your pre-meeting goal is to ensure the actual meeting time is as efficient and effective as possible. Here are some practical tips for preparing to have a great meeting:

1. Determine (and refine) the objective of the meeting. Is there a problem to solve? A discussion to be had? What is the desired outcome at the end of the meeting? Defining, refining, and ultimately sharing the meeting objective will mitigate the chance of someone at the beginning of the meeting asking the dreaded "so what is this meeting about?" question. Knowing the meeting's purpose and outcome will also help you determine who to include (see number 2).
2. Ensure the right people (and only the right people) are included. Only include people who can bring relevant perspective to the conversation and/or have the authority to help execute the solution. This is vitally important as people often don't realize that a one-hour meeting with five people is NOT using ONE hour of company resources. It's FIVE hours of company resources (5 people x 1 hour each). Additionally, bringing people into the conversation who don't bring value can waste both their time and the group's time during the meeting.
3. Make an agenda. This might seem obvious, but people get busy, and sometimes an agenda is the first thing that gets forgotten. At the bare minimum, include something (like the purpose/objective/desired outcome) that lets the attendees know what will be discussed (including it in the meeting invite is super helpful). Again, your goal is to mitigate, as much as humanly possible, the dreaded "OK, so what are we here to discuss," question at the beginning of your meeting. A well-prepared agenda: a) lets the group know you are serious about the discussion and don't want to waste anyone's time, and b) helps everyone to stay on track during the meeting. It can seem like overkill for shorter meetings, but EVERY meeting deserves a timed agenda. The shorter the meeting window, the more important a timed agenda is since it is imperative that you stay on track.? Not only will a timed agenda highlight the most important topics of the meeting (which generally have longer durations), but it will also allow the meeting organizer to be realistic in the time needed. Adding time at the beginning for "open/intros" and time at the end for "close," "next steps," or "action items" can help you realize that a thirty-minute meeting, at best, generally only allows for about twenty minutes of actual discussion time.
4. Share any homework. In addition to the agenda, are there any documents that the group needs to review prior to the discussion? Share any information that can allow the actual meeting to be the most efficient use of everyone's time WELL in advance. Giving 24 hours to review any pertinent documents is the minimum time you should allow to review any relevant pre-meeting materials (3-5 days is ideal). I have been in too many meetings where I showed up only to be given something to review. There's nothing more wasteful than a room full of (often well-paid) professionals sitting around a table and silently reading a document they could have read in their own time AND been able to give thought to prior to the meeting.

Here are a few additional tips to help you execute a successful meeting:

• Make the title of the meeting as descriptive as possible (without making it a paragraph, of course) so that attendees can be reminded of the meeting topic when they are reviewing their calendars. I've been in my fair share of meetings (even those I have scheduled!) and had to ask, "So, what were we supposed to discuss?" because the meeting title was vague or ambiguous. This is especially problematic in standing or recurring meetings (the value of which is another topic for discussion!).
• Send a meeting notice a few days in advance with a "friendly" reminder to review homework. This becomes even more critical if the meeting was scheduled a week or more in advance so you can help remind everyone of the discussion and content. It also provides the opportunity to check if whatever needs to be discussed might have been resolved. If you can cancel the meeting, you will become a folk hero to everyone on the invitation, and they will sing songs about you for eons to come.
• Have a code word for the meeting when the discussion inevitably starts to get off track so that you can keep to the agenda and timeline. We used “SQUIRREL!” at a previous organization.
• Take notes! Sending any pertinent notes following the discussion is incredibly thoughtful and helpful (especially if someone could not attend). Bulleted, high-level notes are better than long-winded, copious notes as people tend not to read those. If you are leading the meeting and taking notes yourself would impact your ability to keep the meeting on track, ask a teammate (before the meeting) if they are willing to take notes for the group.
• It’s ok to have fun (depending on your team or company culture... looking at you accounting firms). Meetings can be… shall we say… boring. So, adding some fun (candy helps if the meeting is in person) or levity to the meeting will go a long way in keeping people engaged.
• If all of this seems like too much work, then consider whether the meeting is necessary in the first place.

You might be surprised (especially early on in your career) how many professionals don’t take the importance of meetings seriously enough. Learning how to run an effective and efficient meeting is a terrific way to stand out. What are your tips for ensuring an effective meeting?