Many of my clients come to me when they struggle to get their teams on the same page. I have helped a number of PMs who were told they couldn’t get promoted in part because they weren’t running effective meetings.

You can improve your meetings with three simple points. If your audience knows why they are in the meeting, what you need, and how you know you will be successful, then everyone knows what to expect from the meeting and what is expected of them.

I can tell you I personally learned this lesson the hard way when I wasted the time of a number of executives by not being clear on the meeting goals and successful outcomes. If I had learned the lesson earlier in my career, I would have been exponentially more successful. And so I share my learnings with you now.

Three Meeting Points

1. Why are we here

2. What I need from you

3. How will we know we are successful

Let’s go through each one quickly.

1. Why are we here?

Too many meetings are called without the audience knowing what the goal of the meeting is. (Note: Managers are notorious for doing this and scaring the living daylights out of their direct reports.) If the audience knows the goal of the meeting, a number of crucial things happen:

• Invitees are more likely to accept

• Attendees can better prepare

• Attendees are properly engaged

2. What I need from you

Not letting the meeting attendees know exactly what you expect leads to “too many cooks in the kitchen.” It can happen at all levels. Junior people might be afraid to speak up or see an opportunity to be heard and take the conversation in the wrong direction. Leaders might feel the need to help, but they need more context to help; resulting in questions or comments that dive too much into the weeds, once again taking the meeting off the rails. Telling the room exactly what you need will help drive better conversations and often shorter meetings.

3. How will we know we are successful

If everyone in the room knows what success looks like upfront, they can be your partner in making the meeting (or even documents) more successful. Knowing what success looks like can help reduce the number of ineffective tangents that occur. And forcing yourself to answer this before calling the meeting will drive you to better meetings. You may find you can do everything offline or reduce the number of people in a meeting.

In conclusion, setting clear goals and criteria for your meetings will make you a more effective PM. Remember to tell everyone the what, why and how of your meetings.