Chairing Meetings Training

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We limit classes to a maximum of 8 delegates to ensure everyone has time to ask questions.

Please come wearing whatever you are most comfortable in.

We do not have a dress code for our courses.

Our virtual courses are designed to recreate the live classroom experience as closely as possible.

You should be prepared to contribute and participate in role-plays just as you would on a physical course.

Effective meetings allow for efficient information sharing, discussion, and decision-making.

If you chair meetings where you struggle to keep them on time and on topic then this training would be helpful for you.

Chairing meetings well is a learned skill and increasingly important as you progress through your career.

Learning to facilitate an open and honest discussion before guiding a group to a decision isn’t straightforward.

The skills required to do this are often acquired over a lifetime of work. Hence chairpeople often being some of the most senior employees in the room at a meeting.

Meetings represent a significant investment of time and company resources.

A chairperson is responsible for ensuring that a meeting is run efficiently and effectively so that it achieves its aims.

A good chairperson will manage the entire process from distributing a meeting agenda before the meeting to distributing minutes after the meeting with agreed action items to ensure that decisions are actioned.

Effective chairing skills remain the same whatever the meeting format.

However, they need to be implemented to suit the format of the meeting.

For example, remote attendees can struggle to contribute to hybrid meetings.

Effective meetings ensure that everyone’s views are heard.

This means that the chair should periodically engage quieter, remote attendees directly to ensure they are sharing their views.

People contribute to meetings when they feel that it is safe to do so.

When chairing a meeting, you must ensure attendees are comfortable contributing to a meeting.

Doing this requires the chairperson to ensure that people remain open minded and don’t:

1. Talk over or interrupt each other.
2. Pull faces, groan or undermine others when they are speaking.
3. Talk amongst themselves.
4. Keep their contributions relevant.
5. Monopolise the conversation.

Yes. Examples include:

1. Being consistent with meeting rules so that everyone understands how they should behave.
2. Reassuring someone who keeps repeating their point that their view has been clearly understood.
3. Ensuring participants focus on positive ways to resolve issues rather than simply criticising.
4. Keeping the discussion to the current agenda item.

Dealing with challenging situations before they derail a meeting is a key part of the chairperson’s role.

The core skills required to chair effective meetings remain the same whatever the meeting format.

Effective weekly team meetings require a different focus to a quarterly board meeting, but running an effective meeting still requires the same meeting structure and process.

For example, whatever the format, producing a formal record of decisions reached and action points agreed after the meeting is crucial. A large part of the value of meetings is that they formalise the decision making process.

Similarly, pacing meetings and breaks so energy levels stay high is more important during long meetings.

In short no! If you are an experienced chairperson, our one-day course will cover many areas you already understand.

Chairperson is a complicated, multi-faceted role. We can help you improve further but would recommend a private course.