Do you feel like you spend most of your time going from meeting to meeting? You’re not alone. The average professional has about 8 meetings every week, and the more seniority, the more meetings they have. Leaders spend up to 50% of their work time in meetings.

Unfortunately, though, many of these meetings don’t accomplish anything. Karin Hurt and David Dye, the founders of training firm, Let’s Grow Leaders, say too many meetings are wasteful, leaving attendees drained and frustrated.

In this issue of PromoPro Daily, we share some guidance from Dye and Hurt on how leaders can hold meetings that get results.

1. Don’t waste people’s time. In other words, only hold a meeting when you truly need one. If there’s something else employees could be working on, don’t pull them into an unnecessary meeting. Also, always start and end on time. Otherwise, you’re disrespecting your team members.

2. Know your outcomes. You should never hold a meeting just for the sake of getting everyone together. Define what you want the meeting to achieve. If your meetings, don’t result in clear action, Dye and Hurt say you’ve wasted your time.

3. Invite the right people. Meetings are more productive when the smallest number of stakeholders attend. Hurt and Dye recommend thinking about the smallest number of people who can attend while still providing you with diverse and informed input. They say most leaders go wrong by including too many people who have the same perspective.

4. Clarify the intent. According to Hurt and Dye, there are two common meeting types: informational meetings and meetings to make decisions. Most of your meetings should fall into the latter category. Whether they last 15 minutes or 2 hours, the goal is to define a specific decision to make or problem to solve. Always make sure your team is clear about the type of meeting you’ve called, Dye and Hurt say.

5. Clarify who owns the decision. Is a manager or someone else making the decision? Is it a team vote? Or are you discussing something where you can flip a coin or roll the dice? You could say, “I’m going to spend the next 15 minutes getting everyone’s input and then I’ll make the decision” or “We’re not going to move forward until everyone can live with the decision.”

6. Turn meetings into results. Dye and Hurt say every meeting should produce activities that move results forward, build momentum and build morale with healthy relationships. You can achieve all this in just five minutes at the end of every meeting. The outcome for every decision-making or problem-solving meeting you ever have is to create commitment.

If you’re going to be in meetings, you might as well maximize their value. People don’t dislike meetings in general — they dislike having their time wasted. You can make sure you’re on the right track with your team meetings by considering the points above.

Compiled by Audrey Sellers

Source: Karin Hurt and David Dye are the founders of Let’s Grow Leaders, a training firm focused on human-centered leadership.