Harvard Business Review 20-Minute Manager Ultimate Boxed Set (16 Books)

Leading Your Meeting

Even if you’ve prepared carefully, you can’t just arrive on time to your meeting and assume that your excellent agenda will ensure all goes well. A skillful meeting leader needs to actively keep a gathering on track.

The best meeting leaders play a number of different roles throughout the gathering, all while maintaining their authority. You should expect to take on the roles of gatekeeper, devil’s advocate, consensus builder, cheerleader, or even joker—whatever encourages people to contribute and keeps the team productive.

Starting the meeting

You are in a leadership position from the moment you walk into the room, so set the right tone from the start. Be clear in your comments and your bearing that this gathering will not ...