Help! My Boss Conducts Bad Meetings

This question was asked in a letter. Here are 13 thoughts.

How to act?

Your boss is terrible at running meetings. You'll be able to handle it.

You could also:

1. Offer to make the meeting's schedule. As part of this task, you should ask your boss things like, "What do you want to get out of this meeting?" or "What do you want the end result to be?" Then, ask other questions like, "What do you think is the best way to get that result?"
2. Tell your boss your idea right away. For example, you could say, "I think our meetings would go faster if we had an agenda."
3. Start with a compliment, like: "I know how hard you work. And I have an idea that could help you get more done."
4. Put a book on your desk about how to run good meetings.
5. Ask your boss to use a meeting facilitator.
6. Ask your boss to send everyone to a workshop on how to run effective meetings (because everyone else needs it). And your boss should go, if only to find out what everyone else will learn.
8. Offer to help with a small part of a meeting that would make the whole thing work better.
10. Mention in conversation (like at lunch) that you read an article about meetings that talked about a "really great" way to.. (something such as preparing an agenda, or making decisions, or etc.)
11. As a gift, give your boss a book on how to run meetings well.

If none of these ideas work, you might want to think about:

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