FULL TRANSCRIPT

00:00 – Show Opening

Are you a professional who wants to become a more effective leader? Then get ready for daily tips from the coach with the experience and inspiration to help you succeed in any leadership situation. You’re listening to the Meeting Leadership Podcast with Gordon Sheppard.

00:27 – Podcast starts here!

Welcome to another episode of the Meeting Leadership Podcast, where we give you the practical tips and the strategies that you need to build your leadership skills and learn how to run outstanding meetings. 

00:40 – How much time do you spend preparing your meeting agendas?

Let me start things off by asking a question that all leaders need to answer. That is how much time do you spend preparing your meeting agendas? 30 minutes, 15 minutes, 10 seconds, zero seconds? Now, as leaders, we all know that we get out of meetings what we put into it beforehand. If you’re here today, it’s because you know this is part two of the How to Create an Effective Team Meeting Agenda Five Part Series. Throughout this series we’re going to be using the word AGENDA itself as an acronym to help us remember how to dramatically improve our agendas.

01:10 – The A.G.E.N.D.A. acronym – The A and the G

Today, in part two, we’re tackling the A and the G. Tomorrow, it’s the E and the N. In part four, we’ll cover the D and the A. Then because you’ve put so much effort into creating these really blockbuster agendas that everybody’s going to enjoy, in part five we’re going to talk about how to actually market the agenda to create even more excitement. 

01:41 – Free download – https://meetingleadershipinc.com/71download

If you’d like to get the free download that fully explains the AGENDA acronym, just go to MeetingLeadershipInc.com/71download, that’s MeetingLeadershipInc.com/71download. With that in mind, let’s get started on part two of how to create an effective team meeting agenda.

02:02 – The A is for “Attention grabbing”

Now the I in our AGENDA acronym stands for attention grabber. 

02:07 – About Robert’s Rules

Before I get into a couple of suggestions about how to do this, let me just make a comment about Robert’s rules. This has created such enormous fatigue, because these old ways of running meetings, where in this case on an agenda, for example, you’ve got the committee reports at the front end of the agenda and you’ve got the new business at the back end of the agenda. This is absolutely backwards. The people at the beginning of a meeting, by starting with what we did in the past, are absolutely bored to tears. That’s why I want to recommend that you start off with a real attention grabber.

02:40 – Start with what’s important, even if it’s negative

For example, if you have to say something really negative at a meeting, then just put it right there, front and center, as the very first item. If there’s going to be layoffs, say it. If somebody is being let go, say it. Get it right there as the first thing. This will immediately get people into the flow of what you need to discuss. Of course, things aren’t always going to be negative, so when things are positive, get that as the first item on your agenda. Hey, guess what? Our lotto ticket just cashed in and we’re all millionaires. No matter what, whatever the most important thing is that you need to discuss during that meeting, get it upfront and get people’s attention right away.

03:20 – The G is for “Great goals” –  Agendas need adjectives

Which leads us to the G in the AGENDA acronym. That stands for great goals. Now, honestly, I really think that agendas need adjectives. The boring line items that we’re writing on there and people really ultimately don’t want to read and you don’t want to write them, get them enhanced by adding in a few descriptive words. For example, instead of putting monthly budget meeting on an agenda, why not put something like discuss year end bonuses, or talk about profitability, or any other type of language that people actually want to read. 

03:55 – Consult with your strategic plan

If you’re looking for even more inspiration for how to create great goals on an agenda, then check out your strategic plan, because I can tell you, there are some objectives in there that drive the entire business. Hopefully the wording of those strategic objectives can actually translate down into your agenda that you’re creating for your next meeting.

04:16 – Episode recap

Now, let me take a moment to recap what we’ve covered in this episode. The A in our AGENDA acronym stands for attention grabber, and the G stands for great goals. I think we can all agree that if you start to take the approach that I’ve recommended under those two letters, then your agendas will be something that people actually want to read and get excited about. If your team can do that, then you know you’re going to have a better meeting. 

04:42 – Free download – https://meetingleadershipinc.com/71download 

Just as a reminder, if you’d like to get the free download that explains the entire AGENDA acronym, just go to MeetingLeadershipInc.com/71download. Here’s what you can look forward to in the rest of our series that will help you learn how to create an effective team meeting agenda.

04:53 – How To Create An Effective Team Meeting Agenda – Part 1 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

In part three, we’re going to cover the E and the N. In part four, we’re going to cover the D and the A from our AGENDA acronym.Then, finally, in part five, because you put so much effort into creating outstanding agendas, we’re going to help you learn how to successfully market it, so everybody gets really excited and it really improves the overall productivity of your team meetings. 

05:22 – How To Be A Good Facilitator (3 parts) – Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

If you’ve been enjoying what you’re listening to today, then you’re going to really like our three part series called How To Be A Good Facilitator. Now, those episodes are episode 44, 51, and 58 of the Meeting Leadership Podcast. You can listen to them right now by going to MeetingLeadershipInc.com/58, or /51, or /58.

05:48 – Meeting Leadership Academy – https://meetingleadershipinc.com/academy

I also want to let you know that this episode of the Meeting Leadership Podcast is brought to you by the Meeting Leadership Academy. There you’re going to find great live training options and great online training options as well, like courses for how to be a good facilitator, how to create an effective team meeting agenda, how to connect your meetings to your strategy, and a whole lot more. As always, thank you so much for listening. We’ll see you tomorrow for part three of How to Create an Effective Team Meeting Agenda.

06:18 – Podcast Outro

Thanks for listening to the Meeting Leadership Podcast. Be sure to subscribe for more strategies to help you become an outstanding leader. Don’t forget to rate and review, so we can bring you fresh content every day. We’ll see you tomorrow, right here on the Meeting Leadership Podcasts.