Before reviewing the steps to get people to arrive at your meetings on time, the best step is to look at your meetings. Take a critical look at their content, length, and objectives, along with the need for each invited individual to actually attend.
One of the most important questions about any meeting is whether it needs to be held at all. If your meetings focus on updates and reviews, they could possibly be replaced with a memos, phone calls, or email. Meetings tend to be more effective for topics that require decision making or problem solving.
In addition, if you delay the start of your meetings until the stragglers arrive, you are rewarding the stragglers and punishing those who show up on time. This will cause more and more managers to show up late.
Let the potential attendees know when your meetings will start and end, and then stick to it. Send out a reminder before each meeting, along with the agenda. At the meeting itself, keep the discussion moving, on track, and on time. If certain managers still come late to your meetings, perhaps you should have a meeting with their managers.
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