10 steps to amazingly efficient CEO meetings
A bad meeting with your CEO costs upwards of $7,000 (Source: Equilar and Cedar analysis). Not to mention the intangibles which include low energy, wasted time and lack of action.
How do you avoid this? Implement Meeting Protocol in your Office of the CEO. Here are 10 steps to focused, optimized meetings with the CEO:
1. Say no
The first step is to say no to meetings that are low priority because they cover issues that should not be escalated to the CEO’s attention.
2. Solve over email
Next, try to solve the matter over email if possible. Remember, the more you get done asynchronously, the faster you can move on to bigger and better projects.
3. Delegate responsibility
If you can’t solve over email, then try to delegate decision responsibility to someone outside of your Office of the CEO. This lessens your workload and empowers your leadership team.
4. Reduce stakeholders
If a meeting is absolutely necessary, review the request and reduce the proposed number of stakeholders in the meeting. In other words, avoid large group meetings.
5. Reduce time length
Take a look at the meeting request and reduce the proposed time length by half. See if you can shorten the meeting to save everyone time.
6. Require pre reads
If a CEO meeting is necessary, then require homework to be completed by the meeting requestor. Get them to provide a complete decision package of materials.
7. Identify open questions and decision points
The pre-read should have identified open questions and decision points, which should be added to the calendar invite itself as agenda items so that the meeting stays on track.
8. Track notes and action items
During the meeting itself, take notes on discussion points. Help your CEO delegate effectively by identifying clear action items with owners, dates, priority levels and estimated level of effort.
9. Follow up
Follow up on all action items to ensure the meeting delivers its full value. Leverage your Workflow Management tool to help you track the 100s of items that come out of your CEO meetings.
10. Review calendar on weekly basis
Complete a calendar analysis each week. Run through steps 1-3 above to ruthlessly eliminate non-important CEO meetings and steps 4-5 to scope down meeting requests.
There you have it - 10 steps to amazingly efficient CEO meetings. Implement all 10 of them as part of your Office of the CEO meeting protocol to avoid wasting thousands of dollars on bad meetings.
Download our Office of the CEO playbook here for more expert tips on running efficient, high-impact meetings with your CEO.
