How to Chair Any Meeting: A Guide to Effective Leadership

The role of a chair, or presiding officer, is to lead a group through its deliberations. While this role is often associated with formal committees or boards, the skills of chairing are applicable to any deliberative assembly, from a small team meeting to a large conference. The ability to chair a meeting effectively is a critical skill to develop, regardless of the group's size or formality.

The chair is pivotal to a group's effectiveness. They are responsible for controlling the agenda, moderating discussions, and ensuring that action items are assigned and followed through. This requires a strong blend of leadership, organizational, and communication skills to guide a group toward its goals.

1. Planning and Preparation

The success of any meeting begins long before it is called to order. A skilled chair understands that thorough planning is vital.

• Clarify Purpose and Goals: Before anything else, be crystal clear on the purpose and goals of the meeting, both for yourself and the group. Is it for decision-making, brainstorming, or information sharing? This clarity will guide the entire process. Consider holding a brief, informal huddle with key stakeholders prior to the meeting. Get their input on the topics to be discussed and determine who will be responsible for specific presentations or discussions during the meeting.
• Set the Agenda: A well-structured agenda is the chair's most powerful tool. It should be set in advance and circulated to all attendees, including a clear list of topics, the amount of time allocated for each, and the desired outcome. The agenda serves as a roadmap, keeping the discussion on track.
• Provide the Relevant Information: Link to any documents, reports, or data that attendees should review beforehand. This helps avoid wasting valuable meeting time on information sharing.
• Manage Logistics: Will the meeting be in-person, virtual, or hybrid of both? For in-person, book the venue, check equipment, and arrange seating to encourage discussion. For virtual, use a reliable platform, test AV, share links/passwords, and have a backup plan. For hybrid meetings, pay special attention to ensuring equal participation between on-site and remote attendees.

2. Best Practices for a Smooth Meeting

Once the meeting is underway, the chair’s role shifts from planner to facilitator.

• Set Expectations: Begin the meeting by confirming its purpose, reviewing the agenda, and establishing a time limit. This sets a professional tone and ensures everyone is on the same page.
• Facilitate Discussion: Here is where a skilled chair really shines. A good chair knows when to talk and when to listen, encouraging participation from all members, not just the most vocal ones. They gently redirect conversations that stray from the agenda, ensuring efficient use of time. A truly great chair goes further by fostering creativity and managing conflict through skillful mediation and setting clear ground rules to keep meetings productive.
• Recapitulate and Summarise: Regularly pause to summarise key points and confirm decisions. This helps everyone stay aligned and ensures there is a shared understanding of what has been agreed upon, preventing confusion and a lack of follow-through.

Timekeeping

Effective timekeeping is a hallmark of a well-chaired meeting.

• Use a timer or a visible clock to keep track of time.
• Give warning before moving to the next agenda item.
• For longer or more formal meetings, you can ask a specific attendee to act as the official timekeeper. This frees you up to focus on the content and flow of the discussion.
• If a discussion is going long, propose a smaller follow-up group to continue the conversation after the main meeting has concluded.

Leveraging Technology

Technology can be a powerful ally. Use reliable, user-friendly technology for virtual meetings and consider tools designed to assist with meeting management. For instance, a platform like BoardCloud can assist in creating agendas with its drag-and-drop agenda creator and provides a central, accessible document repository for storing and sharing the documents attendees will need to participate productively.

3. Ensuring Follow-Through

A meeting is only as successful as its outcomes. It is the chair’s responsibility to ensure that decisions and actions translate into reality.

• Assign Follow-Up: Clearly assign action items to specific individuals and set a deadline. This accountability is crucial for progress.
• Create a visible record: Whether it's a shared spreadsheet, a project management tool, or the minutes, all action items and their deadlines should be easily accessible to everyone.
• Coordinate Minutes: Work in conjunction with the meeting's secretary to ensure the minutes are accurate and timely. The minutes should reflect all decisions made and action items assigned, serving as a record for the group. Remember that minutes are not a transcript, they are a record of decisions, actions, and key discussion points. They should be concise, objective, and easy to read.
• Post-Meeting Follow-Up: A quick email or a brief chat with those assigned key actions a week or two after a major meeting can help maintain momentum.

4. Continuous Learning and Improvement

Becoming a great chair is an ongoing journey of learning and practice.

• Observe Others: Attend and observe meetings, especially those with experienced chairs. Even a boring meeting can be an opportunity to examine what works and what doesn’t. Observe skilled facilitators - study their body language, their questioning style, and how they handle interruptions. 
• Seek Mentorship: Find someone whose meeting skills you admire and ask them for advice. 
• Seek Professional Development: Take the opportunity to undertake professional development sessions led by governance experts to hone your skills. 
• Familiarise Yourself with Rules of Order: For more formal settings, familiarise yourself with established rules of procedure, such as a revised edition of Robert's Rules of Order.
• Practice and Evaluate: The best way to improve is to practice. After each meeting you chair, take a moment to evaluate your own performance. What went well? What could be improved for next time? You can also seek feedback from attendees. 
• Embrace a growth mindset: Acknowledge that not every meeting will be perfect, but every meeting is an opportunity to learn and refine your skills.