Click here for a full transcript of the episode.

A Top Workplaces study reports that the average manager who leads a team of 10 people has over 260 one-on-one meetings a year – and that doesn’t account for all the other types of meetings they might have! With all this time spent in meetings, it’s important that we’re making them effective.

We start off this episode by sharing a Digital Marketing Institute article with nine tips for effective meetings. Their suggestions include setting a clear agenda, knowing your desired outcome, finding the right environment, preparing your talking points, and more. Next, we answer meeting-related questions from our listeners. We covered lots of topics, so be sure to listen to the full episode if you’re looking for meeting advice! The following are some of the recommendations we shared.

When you’re expecting strong feelings or emotions around your meeting topic, you might have pre-meetings with individuals with strong feelings, be transparent about the emotionality of the topic at the beginning of your meeting, and/or take breaks to cool off when the temperature of the conversation is getting high. If you have team members who never participate in meeting dialogue, respectfully talk to them about it to find out why they don’t feel comfortable speaking up. Challenge yourself to look at all of your regularly scheduled meetings and consider whether it’s necessary to have them that often – or at all.

If you want to feel empowered to speak up more in meetings, try your best to not check out and to ask questions, ask someone to be your accountability partner and give you feedback, and/or follow up with the meeting leader with ideas you didn’t bring up during the meeting. For digital meetings, set the expectation that cameras should be on, amp up engagement activities, and use AI and other tools to enhance your meeting.

In this episode’s listener question, we’re asked how AI has played a role in HR and whether we think it will take over HR jobs. In the news, in reaction to the death of a 35-year-old banker who worked consecutive 100-hour weeks at Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase has created a role to oversee junior bankers’ well-being.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Purple Ink
• Susan Tinder White Consulting
• ”Managers may be responsible for over 260 meetings a year – and they’re burned out”
• Episode 23, ”SHRM Credit: Meeting Skills”
• ”9 Tips for Effective Meetings”
• Adam Grant’s HiPPO effect
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
• Episode 58, ”SHRM Credit: Team Building”
• Fathom
• Robert’s Rules of Order
• SHRM’s AI + HI Specialty Credential
• ”JPMorgan creates role to oversee junior bankers’ ‘well-being’: memo”
• JoyPowered® Memberships
• JoyPowered® on LinkedIn
• JoyPowered® on Instagram
• Email JoyPowered®

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