Quick Tip - How to Set a Goal for Your Meeting

Goals are critically important for the success of a meeting. You must know what you want so you can ask for it. And the participants need to know what you want so they can help you get it. Without goals, a meeting becomes a journey without a destination.

Unfortunately, many meetings are called without goals. So, you hear people start meetings by saying, "Well, what do you want to talk about?" This is similar to walking into a factory and asking, "Well, what do you want to make?" You could end up with anything from ant farms to xylophones.

Thus, your first step is to write out a statement of the results that you want to have by the end of the meeting. I want to emphasize that you must write out the goals for the meeting. This forces you to define exactly what you want. Certainly, if you