13 Important Business Meeting Tips From Business Leaders [2024]

A wise person once said that you should only take advice from people who have done it and have done it plenty of times. Since this blog is about business meeting tips, who better to ask than business leaders?

So, to get a much better sense of how to run better meetings, we've collated 13 business meeting tips that successful business leaders use themselves.

But before we get into that, let's first define what a business meeting is.

What is a business meeting?

A business meeting is a gathering in which business matters are discussed. That sounds simple, right? But in reality, it's far from that.

This type of meeting is crucial for every organization. A business meeting is where teammates collectively solve problems, come up with the best solutions, and make the right decisions.  

Here are other reasons why a business meeting is important:

• It creates a space to communicate: With a good amount of people working remotely nowadays, staying on the same page can be a challenge. Gathering every team member for an all-hands-on-deck meeting provides a chance to discuss and catch up on what each one's doing and what they missed out on.
• It fosters unity: Everyone is part of your business—whether a client, contractor, or advisor. It's not just your in-office team members that make an impact on your business. Hence, business meetings invoke a sense of unity among people who are a part of the venture.
• It's a good morale booster: Think of this—wouldn't you be motivated to work towards a goal if you've been recognized and appreciated for all your hard work in front of your team? That feel-good factor is something everyone needs.

Types of business meetings

Here are four types of meetings almost every company has:

1. Formal Meetings

Formal meetings play a crucial role in corporate decision-making, often involving senior management and key stakeholders. They are typically scheduled well in advance and follow a strict protocol.

2. Informal Meetings 

Informal meetings are characterized by a relaxed and spontaneous atmosphere, encouraging open dialogue, creativity, and rapid problem-solving. These meetings are conducive to generating innovative ideas and often result in unconventional solutions.

3. Decision-making meeting

Although managers usually have the last say, discussions about crucial business choices sometimes involve bigger groups. The decision-making meetings are usually spread over multiple sessions to allow all participants to gather information, propose options, and vote on the best course of action. 

4. Status-update meeting

These meetings are intended to exchange updates on the most recent.

Businesses use these meetings to address challenges, fix communication problems, delegate responsibilities, and make any necessary choices to proceed effectively. These meetings usually end quickly and stay within the allotted time limit.

5. Innovation Meetings 

Innovation meetings are all about coming up with fresh ideas and finding creative solutions to business challenges. People use techniques like brainstorming, mind mapping, or design thinking to get creative and pool their ideas.

6. Problem-solving meeting

Problem-solving sessions have a predetermined objective: to solve any issues or remove roadblocks and bottlenecks.

Since problems differ depending on your team and company, there is no set format for problem-solving meetings, but they are nonetheless essential. These sessions could center on urgent situations that need rectification and allow you to strategize, consider options, and resolve the issue.

7. Team-building meetings

Team-building meetings foster employee engagement and loyalty and can be company-sponsored events or outings for the team, division, or entire organization. They provide the ideal chance to promote employee interaction and develop more personal bonds to help the firm advance and grow.

13 business meeting tips according to business leaders

1. Define a clear purpose

“You have a meeting to make a decision not to decide on the question.” — Bill Gates, Co-founder of Microsoft

Meetings should have a clear purpose. Before scheduling one, figure out exactly what you want to achieve. Whether it's making a decision, coming up with ideas, or solving a problem, having a specific goal keeps the meeting focused and productive.

Make sure your meeting goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

2. Set and share a meeting agenda

“If you do have a meeting, prepare an agenda and proposal far in advance.”

— Oliver Dlouhý, CEO at Kiwi.com

Once you know why you're meeting, create an agenda to guide you. An agenda is like a roadmap for your meeting. It should list what you'll talk about, how long each topic will take, and what you hope to achieve. Share this agenda with everyone before the meeting. This way, everyone can get ready, making the meeting more efficient.

3. Invite the right people

“Meetings should have as few people as possible, but all the right people.”

— Charles W. Scharf, CEO of Wells Fargo

Having more people at a meeting doesn't always make it better. Invite only those who are directly involved and have a say in what's being discussed. Start by figuring out who has the expertise for each part of the meeting and who the decision-makers are. This way, you'll have the right people there to move things forward.

4. Regularly check-In

“Bring your whole self to work. I don't believe we have a professional self Monday through Friday and a real self the rest of the time. It's all professional and it is all personal.”

— Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO

Since working professionals spend a lot of their workday in meetings, it's essential to have a check-in routine. Sandberg starts all her meetings by going around the room, giving each attendee to discuss their emotional state. This is worth it because people feel valued and build a personal connection.

5. Respect others’ time zones

“Especially during COVID where folks spread out all over the map, holding the meeting at mid-day helps with crossing time zones.” — Zach Sims, CEO at Codeacademy

With remote work, coordinating meeting times should be a rule rather than an option. It shows that you respect and value your teammates well enough to allow flexibility in your meeting schedules.

6. Stick to the time allotted

“Meetings don't have to be endless to be eternal”

— James E. Faust (American Lawyer, and politician)

One of the most important meeting tips for businesses is to respect everyone's time by starting and ending the meeting on time. This sets a professional standard and encourages everyone to be punctual. If you can't finish everything, plan another meeting instead of extending. If you end early, let everyone know you're giving them back some of their time.

7. Have less, but better meetings

“Meetings should be like salt - a spice sprinkled carefully to enhance a dish, not poured recklessly over every forkful. Too much salt destroys a dish. Too many meetings destroy morale and motivation.” — Jason Fried, CEO at Basecamp

Yes, meetings are important. But too much of it (like everything else) can negatively affect everyone on the team. It's better to avoid having meetings just for the sake of it.

And if you're invited to one where your expertise is not needed, it's okay to politely decline. You can always check the automated meeting transcript later.  

8. Actively listen

“To launch a business means successfully solving problems. Solving problems means listening.”

— Richard Branson, British Entrepreneur

Only speak when you have the floor and listen patiently. A good listener makes a good leader at all times. Active listening also creates a solid base to formulate your response.

Similarly, asking questions during the designated time or raising your hands are moral behaviors. Never interrupt a person who's speaking.

9. Stick to a core group

“Great things in business are never done by one person; they're done by a team of people.”

— Steve Jobs, Chairman, CEO and Co-founder of Apple.

A group that facilitates and influences an organization in the right direction is a tangible repository of knowledge and growth.

It's important to have a core group in every organization, especially during business meetings, because people act to fulfill the priorities and needs of these key members as they are a focal point.

10. Encourage participation

“Individual commitment to a group effort, that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

— Vince Lombardi

Meetings are all about teamwork. Make sure everyone feels welcome to join in and share their ideas. You can do this by having structured discussions, giving some open-floor time, or having a round-robin way of participation.

11. Don't be afraid of conflicts

“The best meetings are when there’s substantive debate, with different ideas that are both reasonable and well informed. That’s where real progress happens.”

— Jack Altman, CEO of Lattice.

Being assertive when working as a team is not uncommon, and conflicts among team members are inevitable. However, it's also essential to redirect these conflicts into healthy ones that help you strive to be more open and empathize with the rest of the team.

12. Document meeting norms and minutes

Staff norms must be written at the top of all meeting documents, so there’s a consistent reminder of what we expect folks to bring to the table.”

— Rahul Vohra, Founder & CEO, Superhuman

Team norms help establish agreed-upon behavior and clear goals. Getting specific about what you want from team meetings and members is indispensable.

But this shouldn't be a said-and-forgotten activity; it's important to revisit and make changes if necessary as and when the team or the organization evolves. This way, you build a team that takes accountability for their actions.

13. Follow up and take action

“The majority of meetings should be discussions that lead to decisions”

— Patrick Lencioni (American Author)

One of the most frustrating things after a meeting is not following up properly, which can lead to great ideas going nowhere. To avoid this, make sure to wrap up each meeting with a summary of what was decided and who's responsible for what, along with deadlines. Send this summary to everyone who attended so everyone is on the same page and knows what needs to be done.

Have successful business meetings with Fireflies! 

Productive meetings are crucial for effective communication, collaboration, and decision-making. By following the meeting tips for businesses in this article, you can turn any meeting into a dynamic session that delivers real results.

To enhance your meeting experience and take advantage of the latest meeting technology, consider using Fireflies. This platform blends AI-driven features with an easy-to-use interface to simplify your meeting tasks, including automated recording and note-taking, data-driven analysis, and streamlined follow-up communication.

Key features

• Accurate transcription: Generates 90% accurate transcripts in over 60 languages, including Portuguese, Spanish, French, Arabic, German, Dutch, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Hindi, and Italian
• Super Summaries: Provides a concise summary of lengthy meetings for quick review
• Smart Search: Find information quickly with smart search features. Includes Sentiment Filters to identify positive, negative, and neutral sentiments, and Topic Tracker for efficient organization and searchability
• Conversation intelligence: Offers analytics and insights such as speaker analytics, talk-to-listen ratio, call sentiment, and more
• Soundbites: Create and share sound clips of important sections
• Thread: Participants can access and add comments or annotations to the transcript, fostering teamwork and capturing multiple perspectives
• AskFred chatbot: A chatbot that answers questions about the meeting and can generate other content types from your conversations
• Playlist feature: Create a collection of soundbites from multiple calls in a single space
• Seamless integration: Integrates with over 40 popular apps, including CRMs, dialers, and video conferencing tools
• Transcript download: Download transcripts in PDF, DOCX, SRT, CSV, or JSON formats
• Supported formats: Transcribe meeting recordings in MP3, MP4, M4A, or WAV format
• Security: Ensures highest security standards, with transcripts being end-to-end encrypted at rest and in transit, and compliance with SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and HIPAA standards

If your workplace has many regular meetings or struggles with note-taking during meetings, Fireflies' meeting assistance can help make the whole process smoother. Of all the meeting tips for businesses, we recommend leveraging Fireflies' capabilities to supercharge your discussions.