How many times have you been one of the people below in a meeting; daydreaming, complaining, or missing it altogether because you were so sure that it was a waste of time? 

Company meetings can cost time and money without resulting in any positive result for the employees or their employer. 

Here's how to make the best impact on your team: 

• Conduct short meetings; 30 minutes or less.
• Only have a meeting if it's necessary; cancel a recurring meeting if there's nothing much to report. 
• Create an agenda and allow everyone to follow along. People pay more attention to your words when they have a visual guide to follow.
• Open the meeting for discussion and questions only at certain times. Allowing everyone to speak whenever they'd like to is a surefire way to send the meeting schedule off the rails. 
• Have one clear meeting leader, and if others are epxected to speak, be sure that they're prepared before addressing them. 
• Create direct action items and let people know what the expected outcomes are from the information exhanged. 
• End the meeting on a positive note and a laugh. 
• Follow through with team members after the meeting to be sure that you've achieved your desired result from them. 

(Cartoon by Doug Savage, Infographics from Atlassian and Crunched)