61. How to Prepare for Meetings (So You Look Good to Your Boss)
Episode 61
Preparing for meetings isn't just about avoiding embarrassment. (Although it's definitely about that too!)
Preparing for meetings not only makes it easier to do our job – it also sends the message that we take our jobs seriously.
Plus, being unprepared is unprofessional -- and that's not a look we're going for.
In this week's episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I share 7 strategies for how to prepare for meetings. It’s an episode for you if you’re brand new to meetings (😉) OR if you've been to a thousand of them.
🎙️Other Episodes + Resources Mentioned
Episode website (with transcript)
Episode 15: Email Management Tips
Episode 31: How to Take Notes at Meetings
Episode 46: How to be Professional
✏️Enroll in SchoolHabits University (Curious? Check it out!)
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The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I am choosing not to spend my time fixing them 😉
61 How to Prepare for Meetings So You Look Good to Your Boss===
[00:00:00] Showing up to a test without studying never ends with a good grade. Showing up to a race without training never ends with a strong finish. And meetings? They are no different. Walk in unprepared and we're going to end up confused, wasting our time, wasting other people's time, and probably not making the right impression.
Love them or hate them, meetings are a part of every job across nearly every industry, and knowing how to prepare for them is a job skill worth learning. Hello and d welcome to the Learn and Work Smarter Podcast. This is episode 61, and we're going to be talking about how to prepare for meetings so you look good to your boss.
Now, looking good to our boss or to our team is not the only reason to prepare for meetings. Obviously, the real goal here is to prepare for meetings so we can do our job better. Right? So we can work smarter. See what I did there? That said, the [00:01:00] better we do our jobs, the better we are going to look in the eyes of our boss.
Now, this goes without saying, but I'm going to say it. That's usually how I roll. How we prepare for any specific meeting is going to depend on the nature of that meeting.
If you, you know, have a meeting in a faraway city, well, that takes some sort of different kind of planning and logistics involving travel.
If you're preparing for a meeting where you are going to have to deliver the primary presentation, well that requires a different level of preparation.
And I have no doubt that I am going to cover some of that, a lot of that, in a future episode that's already planned.
But today I'm covering some best practices for preparing for meetings in general. This could be your typical team meeting, a status meeting, a weekly meeting. There are so many different names for those sort of regularly scheduled meetings, and then the strategies will also be helpful for topic specific meetings that are about a certain specific [00:02:00] project or a new initiative.
Whether you are a brand new employee and you haven't officially mastered the meeting thing yet, well, welcome to the workforce;
meetings are something that you're going to get very familiar with real fast, or perhaps you have been working for decades now, and you're thinking, gee, you know, I've been to thousands of meetings and I don't think this episode is for me, I challenge you to stick around. I close out every single episode of this show- so that is 61 episodes so far- with the advice to never stop learning.
So let this be a moment where you tap into that advice and tell yourself, "Maybe I can learn something."
All right, grab a pen to take some notes, or if you're listening to this and you can't take any notes, you can find the full transcript at learnandworksmarter.com/podcast/61 if you are listening to this on a podcast app. You could also watch it on YouTube. Please [00:03:00] subscribe if you head over there. And if you are already watching this on YouTube, then you can also find the show in all of your podcast apps. I have it available in many different places because we all have different learning preferences.
Okay, let's get started. We have a lot to cover today.
Alright, so this first tip may seem basic, but if you don't get this one down, then most certainly we are not going to be impressing anybody. And that is to put the meeting on your calendar.
Whether you're invited to a meeting through an Outlook meeting invitation, um, maybe through Zoom or just a simple [00:04:00] email message in which someone from your company is like, Hey, we're going to meet next Thursday at 2 PM, this information needs to go immediately on your calendar.
In episode 15, I talk all about email management best practices and in that episode, I'll link it below, of course, I talk about the importance of extracting calendar-based information, like meetings, immediately from your email and putting it onto your calendar.
We do not leave information like this in the mail in our email. You don't have to delete the email. You can; you can archive it. That doesn't matter, but you've got to pull that information from the email and put it into your calendar.
Also, as we're putting this meeting on the calendar, we want to check to make sure that that meeting day and time is actually possible.
Can you go to next Thursday's meeting at two? Or have you already committed to something else? Were you planning to work from home that day but the meeting is in the office? If that meeting conflicts with a prior commitment, which one are you going to keep and [00:05:00] which one are you going to cancel? Hint, if it's a meeting with multiple people, you're probably going to have to go to that one because it's not reasonable to ask multiple people to change their schedule just for you.
Obviously every scenario is different and it depends and right, obviously take everything with a grain of salt. But if the meeting is just with you and one other person and you have a prior commitment and that prior commitment is really critical, then it is an option to ask the person who called the one on one meeting to perhaps meet at an earlier time or at a later time.
Those are judgment calls that you're going to need to make for yourself. So this first tip, put the meeting on your calendar, is more than just hitting the plus add event sign right in Google or Outlook Calendar or whatever. It's assessing the context of your day and figuring out if you can actually attend that meeting at that time in that location.
Okay. All right, tip two, respond.
This may look different depending on [00:06:00] how you were invited to the meeting, but in most cases you're going to need to respond.
If the meeting is a one on one meeting, or I'd say fewer than four people, so like three people or less, and if the invitation came in an email, it's a good practice to reply to the person who wrote the email and acknowledge the meeting. Do not hit reply all unless you're asked to do so. Reply only to the person who sent the meeting.
Be careful which button you're clicking, right? The reply all has the multiple arrows. Click the one with the one arrow. Keep your message short. Something like, "sounds good. See you next Thursday at 2." All right, like really basic. Obviously, if the meeting day and time do not work for you or you're unable to attend, whatever, then that reply would look different.
This is where some professional discretion comes into play, which can be a challenge if you're new to the workforce. But if you're unable to attend a meeting that you're expected to be at, sometimes a phone call really is better than an email reply. Unless you are highly confident in your writing skills and in the [00:07:00] delivery of your tone, and unless the recipient of your email knows you well and your relationship is like mutually professional, I recommend picking up the phone for quick conversation.
That could go something like, "Hey, I got your meeting invite. Unfortunately, I have a prior commitment at that exact time. I can meet you at noon, or I can meet you at four, um, or I can just get the meeting notes from Megan." Right? Or whoever. Whatever the situation calls for.
If your boss, or your boss's boss, or your boss's boss's boss, Boss's boss is calling the meeting, you're not going to pick up the phone and call your boss's boss to tell them you won't be attending. That's just not how the office politics works. Chain of command stuff can get really funky in these situations. So the higher, the highest up on the communication ladder that you would reach out to is just your immediate manager.
When I'm saying some of this stuff aloud, I am reminded of how grateful I am to work for myself and how much I do [00:08:00] not miss corporate meetings. I attended meetings for 15 years before I worked for myself, and that was certainly more than enough to teach me, of course, the value of meetings and how essential they are to teamwork, you know, cooperation, even relationships.
But it was also more than enough time for me to see the absurdity in some of these unwritten professional rules that exist. That is neither here nor there. Okay.
Back to the point I'm making is that in most cases, you're going to want to respond to the person calling the meeting. One exception to this is a standing meeting that happens, let's say, every Monday at noon and everybody on the team knows about it and everyone in the company or your team goes to this Monday noon meeting, you don't need to reply that you are attending. It is expected you will be there. But if you won't be there, that'd be the time to reach out and let somebody know.
Okay. Best practice number three for preparing for meetings is to make sure that you understand what the meeting [00:09:00] is about. We can't prepare for something if we don't know what that something is. In a perfect world the person calling the meeting will clearly articulate the meeting's objective and also in that perfect world we would receive an agenda of the meeting so we know how long it'll last and what will be covered.
If the meeting invite comes by email, this agenda is usually going to be in the body of the email, just like typed into the body or as an attachment. If your company uses something like Outlook or Google calendar, sometimes this information is in the notes or additional information section or description section of the event.
Every email client calls it something different, but essentially if you got a calendar invite to a meeting, sometimes you have to click on it and sort of like poke around to get the details of the meeting. Attachments and information isn't always like that obvious to find. And then sometimes the objective of the meeting will actually be in the name of the meeting [00:10:00] itself.
Now, this episode isn't about how to prepare for a meeting that you are running. That is going to be in a future episode. But in that episode that doesn't exist yet, okay, but it's on my calendar, I will be advising managers who are calling meetings to name the meeting something that's actually helpful.
Something like a quarter two goals check-in or quarter three launch debrief, whatever. So if you didn't receive an agenda. That's a bummer. Okay, or there's no real details of the meeting that you can easily find, then try looking at the actual name of the meeting. Hopefully it's not something like Monday meeting.
The reason I'm including this tip, even though it sounds really basic, is that I can't tell you how many meetings that I have walked into as an employee and my fellow colleagues kind of look around saying like, Hey, what's this meeting about? Like as we're, you know, funneling into a meeting room they don't know anything about the meeting. Now, if you remember, I opened this [00:11:00] episode comparing this to, you know, running a race that we haven't trained for or showing up to a test that we haven't studied for. Okay, and that is just not what we want to do if we can help it.
Obviously, there's impromptu meetings that nobody knows anything about, right? And that gives you the pit in your stomach. You're like, are we all getting fired? Right? But if it's something you can help, then, then you help yourself out. Okay.
Tip number four, know what your role is. Depending on what kind of meeting you're going to, your role may look different.
You may be presenting. You might be note-taking. You might be just listening. You may be asked to be on a panel. Honestly, I can't even get too specific here because the nature of every meeting is so different depending on your industry and your job. But for the sake of clarity, and I know examples make everything better, let me try to give you an example.
Now, when I used to teach high school, I was a special education teacher, and I [00:12:00] would run what we call IEP meetings, Individualized Education Program, and these meetings were for students receiving special education services to assess their needs and assess their progress toward their learning objectives.
These were very, um, systematic meetings that happened, like, a certain amount of times a year. There were very specific ways that these meetings needed to be run. Okay. According to state law, we needed certain types of people and numbers of people in attendance. And there were, you know, actual laws we had to follow.
Special education, especially in Massachusetts, it's very rule based as it should be. And when I was running one of these meetings, when it was a meeting, you know, about a student on my caseload, I knew that when I walked into that meeting, I was in charge. Of course, if an administrator were there, they are essentially in charge of the whole school and they would take the lead and I would back down, obviously, but I was really the one in charge of the individualized education program.
I did the testing. I knew the [00:13:00] student more than anyone else in the room, other than the parent. Right? So I would go into that meeting knowing that I was in charge of the pace of the meeting, the flow of the meeting, getting, you know, the right document signed by the end of the meeting, asking particular people to speak or to introduce themselves - things like that.
And then there were also times when I would attend meetings at the school just as a, a spectator, shall we say, right? Maybe an English department meeting. I also taught English and my role in those meetings were just to collaborate with the other English teachers I worked with. Or maybe there would be a school-wide meeting where administration would just essentially share updates and information, and I would just sit there and listen, essentially.
When I worked as the vice president of a tutoring company, the president of the tutoring company would often have meetings together, us two. So I knew what my role was in that context.
When I worked for a big tech company, I mean, I was such a wee little player. I barely had any [00:14:00] role other than just to learn what it was like to sit in a large meeting with a large amount of people, right? So when we are invited to a meeting, we have to know our role and knowing our role is actually essential to the next step I'm going to talk about. We'll get there, but ask yourself, why am I being invited to this meeting?
And I really mean that ask yourself, why am I being invited to this meeting? I hope to goodness sake that you are being invited to a meeting for a purpose, even if that purpose is just to hear company updates, right? That's the purpose. But Lord knows how many meetings exist where half of the people don't even need to be there.
And we can file that under corporate absurdities. But again, that is neither here nor there. But if you ask yourself, why am I being invited to this meeting and you don't know, then moving on to the next step is going to be a challenge.
And the next step is essential because [00:15:00] it's tip five, prepare for your role.
Okay, so let's break this down. If you know that your role at the meeting is going to be like, that you need to present something. I'm not even talking about like a formal presentation with a slide deck, but even just maybe reporting back out to the team on something that you've been working on, right? I'm still counting that as a presentation. Okay, well then what information do you need to prepare? Do you need to collect data? Do you need to type something up so you feel more prepared to speak and less put on the spot?
Or do you actually have to create a slide deck presentation? Again, these are questions to ask yourself so that, you know, we don't walk into the meeting feeling unprepared and unprofessional because being unprepared is unprofessional. All right. So let's say that you're not going to be presenting anything, but you think your role is more of a spectator.
Okay. Well, then that means that you're probably going to be receiving information. Cool. That means that you're going to need [00:16:00] to take notes on that information, right? Awesome. Do you know how to take notes at meetings? Right? That's a fair question. Are you going to use a laptop and take digital notes? Is that even appropriate in that environment?
Or would that be distracting to have a bunch of, you know, keys clacking when no one else in the room is doing it? That's what we call a read the room moment. Right? Do you have a notebook that doesn't have, like, inappropriate stickers slapped to the front of it? In episode 31, I cover how to take notes in meetings and if this is something that you are new to or you feel like maybe you get a little bit better at it or you just want to feel easier, then that episode is a thousand percent for you.
You know, I'm going to tell you something. I work with private clients, both students and professionals, and I love to give my students who are graduating graduation gifts, whether they're graduating high school, college, graduate school, whatever. There's usually two kinds of gifts I give. Books, of course: I have a selection of very specific [00:17:00] books that I think are very valuable for graduates.
And then I often give a professional notebook.
I think there's something about how we present ourselves that speaks to how seriously we take our work. In episode 46, which is called how to be professional. I share a lot of highly specific and practical strategies for presenting ourselves as professional, not as being a professional that takes time and expertise, and we can't rush that.
But, being professional, which is in our presentation, in our actions, behaviors, our interactions, right? And something as simple as having a nice notebook at a meeting that says something about you and your relationship with your work. I am a longtime fan of disc-bound notebooks. No particular brand, but the least expensive kind is probably the ARC, A R C, disc-bound notebook from Staples or there's an Office Depot brand.
I'm not sure what they call it, but if you have a [00:18:00] Staples or an Office Depot near you, you can find it in the store or Amazon. But they're a like a hard faux leather cover and they come in multiple sizes and it gives the impression that you're there to work. It's nice thick paper too, which just makes the writing experience a little bit more delicious.
If you think about it, right, that's what we're there for. We are there to work. We are still on tip five, which is prepare for your role.
So another possible role at a meeting might be to be the note taker. Sometimes the person running the meeting will ask you this in advance. I sure hope they give you advance notice, but sometimes we're just sort of asked on the spot.
If you are asked in advance, then you most definitely want to come with a notebook and a copy of the agenda printed out. When I am coaching my professional clients and they're the ones running the meeting and writing an agenda,
I often teach the strategy of creating a separate agenda for note-taking. [00:19:00] Let me backtrack. If you're someone who's running the meeting, it can be a great, great practice to provide people at the meeting, assuming that's not like a hundred attendees, with a copy of the agenda that has more space on it than the regular agenda that was likely attached to the email.
You could simply put your agenda in two columns and leave one column, you know, for the actual agenda and the other column for them to write notes on each individual agenda item. I'm getting off-topic here a bit, and this is something that I'm, you know, covering in that future episode I keep alluding to.
But if you do this for your employees, you're going to have more efficient employees who take better notes, and if they take better notes, they'll do a better job. Right? But if you're the employee, and you're the one taking notes and someone else provided the agenda, it would be amazing if your boss gave you a note-taking version of an agenda.
But honestly, I don't ever see that happen. Nobody does that. Why? So you can just copy and paste everything from the [00:20:00] original agenda, put it in your document, format it in a way that makes sense for you to take notes on each action item as you go through the meeting.
After the meeting is over, you type this up and you share it with your team. That's, you know, the role of a note taker, to take notes and share them with the team. If you're not given an agenda or you don't want to take notes on an actual agenda, that's fine. Then just take notes in your notebook using the strategies that I share in episode 31.
Now obviously there's more potential roles that you might play at a meeting depending on what the meeting is about. But presenter, note taker, and spectator or participant are the primary ones. And you prepare for each one a little bit differently.
Okay, best practice number six. Familiarize yourself with the topics of the meetings. Now, we are assuming we got an agenda. Let me be clear here. The agenda serves a purpose, right? It's kind of like the syllabus for a college class. It tells you what is going to be covered and usually [00:21:00] when, like how much time you're going to spend on each topic.
So, at some point before the meeting, ideally at least a day before, not just, you know, one minute before, it can be smart to look over the agenda and make sure that you understand at least to a degree what's being covered?
What if you, you know, didn't look at your agenda until the moment you walked into the meeting? And as you were walking into the meeting room, you realize that the first 15 minutes was going to be spent sharing an update with the group. Like everyone, you know, needs to, to share out. Well, dang, that is something that would have been nice to have known and prepared for the day before.
Let's say that on the agenda, it says, you know, brainstorm new employee training protocol or something? Well then preparing for that agenda item would look something like thinking a little bit about new employee training protocols ahead of time. You don't need a full presentation planned, but maybe just write a few thoughts down on a sticky note or in your [00:22:00] notebook that you bring to the meeting so that you're presenting yourself as someone who is professional, someone who read the agenda, someone who pays attention, as someone who takes their job seriously.
You getting what I mean here? Just skim through the agenda you're given and make sure that you could say, I don't know, a sentence or two about each of the things on the agenda if you were put on the spot and asked to do so. Okay, so if you know your role in the meeting, prepare accordingly. If you're presenting, organize your materials.
If you're expected to give an update, review your notes and your data beforehand so you can speak clearly and concisely and like you know what you're talking about. If you're just listening and taking notes, bring what you need to do that effectively.
All right, tip seven, last tip: arrive on time and settle in.
Walking into a meeting late, scrambling to find a seat, or digging through your bag to find a pen sets the wrong tone, not just for others, [00:23:00] but for, but for us. When we're rushed, we are not mentally prepared to focus. We're not prepared to contribute or retain important information. Just like we wouldn't walk into a test five minutes late with a pencil,
we shouldn't arrive at a meeting unprepared to engaged. Aim to be a few minutes early so you can have a, you know, time to settle in. Choose a seat where you can see and hear clearly, especially if visuals will be used.
If the meeting is virtual, log in ahead of time to troubleshoot any sort of tech stuff.
You never know when your computer needs to run an update, right? Check what's in your background. Move the dirty laundry out of the camera frame. Check your lighting. Check your camera. Check your Have your materials ready, whether it's a notepad, your laptop, or the meeting agenda so that we're not fumbling once things get started.
The way that we enter a meeting shapes how we participate in that meeting. So setting ourselves up to be present and prepared from the [00:24:00] beginning is important.
Alright, we've made it through the tips, but as you likely know, repetition is the key to learning, so let's quickly review the best practices we covered today.
There were seven of them. The seven best practices to prepare for meetings so that you walk in looking sharp and competent is one, put the meeting on your calendar immediately and check for conflicts.
Two, respond appropriately, acknowledge the meeting, and communicate if there is a scheduling issue.
Number three, understand the purpose of the meeting so you're not walking in clueless.
Number four, know your role, whether you're presenting, listening, collaborating, or something else.
Number five, prepare for your role. Gather your materials, take your notes, show up ready.
Six: familiarize yourself with the topics of the meeting.
And seven, arrive on time and settle in.
Now listen, preparing for meetings isn't just about avoiding embarrassment. Although it's definitely about that too. It [00:25:00] is about showing that we take our work seriously. It's about respecting our time and the time of everyone else in the room. And honestly, it's one of those things that separates a solid professional from someone who just clocks in and clocks out.
So the next time you get a meeting invite, don't just show up. Show up ready.
That's it for today's episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast. As always, you can find a full transcript at learnandworksmarter.com /podcast/61. Thank you for listening and never stop learning.
