Sam Nathan Kahn is a professional claims adjuster who owns and operates his business in Manchester, UK.

Through his decades as a businessman, Sam Kahn has developed a keen mind for business, including how to hold meetings and set agendas.

He’s a big believer in agenda’s, even if it means just writing it down on a post-it note. By using agendas he can ensure he covers everything that is needed in a meeting, and also keep the team on track and focussed.

We’ve all been in those meetings where people go off topic and suddenly you are wondering what the point of it was in the first place. This can lead to wasted time and a lack of productivity.

In order for you to help keep your meetings more structured and on track, Samuel Kahn has compiled a list of tips to help you hold more productive and efficient meetings for your business.

Let Your Team Prepare Beforehand

Depending on the topic of your meeting, it’s a good idea to let your team know beforehand. This way your employees can prepare any information that they might need.

This also gives them time to understand each topic and prepare their thoughts.

Include Relevant Team Members

Scheduling a team meeting can be difficult when taking into consideration everyone’s different timetables, so you want to make sure that the topics are relevant to all of your employees.

This way you can keep people engaged, and can avoid having someone sitting in when they really aren’t needed. Employees can find this frustrating when it eats into their time, especially when things are under the pump.

Make The Purpose Clear

Having a clear purpose for your meeting can help make it 10 times more productive, because your team members know what their task is.

It could be to share information, discuss a decision, problem solve, or come to an agreement.

If your employees don’t know what they are meant to be doing, it can be hard for them to understand what you want from them.

If you just want them to listen and learn, it’s important to make that clear. If you are looking for input, then you should state that as well.

Set a Realistic Time

Without setting a time for your meeting, you can end up taking a lot longer to get things done. However if you set a time that is too short, you may end up rushing through things and leaving important things out.

You want to try and set a realistic timeframe based on what you need to cover in your agenda.

Samuel Nathan Kahn says “When I start a meeting I tend to have my agenda in front of me and I take my watch off and put it in front of me. This keeps me on the ball and to the point.”

End On a Clear Goal And Follow Through

It’s all well and good to have a meeting and talk about things, but you need to make sure that you have a strong plan to implement what you have discussed.

Leave your employees with a strong and clear direction, so no one is confused about what needs to happen.

You also need to follow up with people. Sam Kahn says “There’s not much point doing a production meeting if you are not going to follow everything up.”

Samuel Kahn has years of experience in successfully running a business. He likes to help young entrepreneurs in his local Manchester, UK community.