How to Run Effective Meetings - For Every Personality Type

If you've ever wondered how to run effective meetings when everyone in the room seems to work differently, this episode is for you.

Some people get energy from a meeting the moment it starts. Ideas come out as they talk, and the room moves with them.

Others need quiet beforehand just to get their thinking straight, and being put on the spot leaves them scrambling to catch up.

In the last episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I talked about internal versus external processing (thinking), and why quiet people in meetings are often contributing more than it looks like on the surface.

This episode builds on that. Because once you understand the difference, you can actually use it, not just to manage yourself better, but to run effective meetings that work for everyone in the room.

External processors think out loud.

Internal processors think first, then speak.

Neither is better, but each one struggles in a different type of meeting, and I share a story from early in my consultancy career about working alongside someone who processes information in the opposite way to me, and what that taught me about running effective meetings that give people the room they need to think.

In this episode, you will learn how to run effective meetings, including:

The difference between internal and external processors, and why neither approach is better Why meetings sprung on people with no agenda or pre-read undermine meeting effectiveness for internal processors What internal processors can do to give themselves thinking time before a meeting starts Why external processors are genuinely useful for generating ideas, and what they're doing for everyone else while they talk A practical way to think about who needs the pre-read and who needs the room, so you can run more effective meetings whatever the mix of personalities

Ben's Key Takeaway

At its heart, this episode is about how to run effective meetings when the people in the room process information differently.