How to Shine After Every Meeting

WHERE TO: You as a recognized leader who takes responsibility and is a strong communicator.

WHERE FROM: Internal partners (aka “Stakeholders”) always wanting more information.

WHERE NEXT: Incorporating post-meeting documentation and publicity into your workflow.

There is a lot of information out there about preparing for a meeting. You know you need to share an agenda, send memos, and refine your presentation.

There is also plenty of advice on how to conduct the meeting. This includes improving executive presence, creating stellar slides, and effectively including many voices into the process of getting to a decision.

But a successful meeting doesn’t end once everyone leaves the (virtual) room.

In fact, that is the exact moment when the opportunity arises for you to be AWESOME and get recognized for it. How? By crafting well-thought-out and accurate post-meeting documentation and sharing it widely with internal partners.

After a meeting, ensuring that everyone is on the same page is crucial for clarity and accountability. Without a clear record of what was discussed and decided, misunderstandings can arise, leading to confusion and misalignment. This is especially important in dynamic environments where priorities can shift rapidly.

This may seem like one more thing to do, but it’s worth it.

The Benefits of Post-Meeting Documentation

I hear you: you are already overwhelmed with tasks and have no time to add another recurring one. But I promise you the ROI is immense! It’s a small effort that yields significant benefits:

1) It Leaves a Paper Trail

People often forget things. Having a written record of discussions and agreements from every meeting eliminates the need to remember everything. If questions arise later, you have a record of the meetings to refer back to.

Plus, whenever anyone asks about what was discussed in a meeting, you don’t need to inform them individually, which could waste you LOTS of time. You can simply forward them the post-meeting document, and they instantly get all the necessary information. It’s a win-win: you save time and effort, and they stay updated on what they need to.

2) It Helps Spread Important Information

Not everyone can or should attend all meetings.

Creating post-meeting documents is an effective way to inform those who were not present but still need to be informed about the discussion and outcomes.

Consider the people you normally cc’ in emails. They are the ones who should be informed but not necessarily spend too much time participating in the meeting or even being informed about it afterward. A simple post-meeting document helps share the information with them easily and practically.

3) It Reinforces Your Leadership

“Out of sight, out of mind” - You don’t want this happening to you.

On the contrary, you want to build a reputation as a responsible and proactive leader.

Sending post-meeting documentation helps reinforce the idea that YOU are the person who owns the initiative. It also turns YOU into the one people approach if they have any questions or comments. If you spread the notes widely enough, you also showcase to people who are not often in direct contact with you that you are the kind of person they want to be involved in key programs. This will pay off when important projects are kicking off and also when your name is mentioned to a panel evaluating promotion candidates.

What does good Post-Meeting Documentation look like?

Have I sold you on the value of sharing your meeting notes publicly? Great!

Now consider this scenario: you have a meeting where you discuss an update to your roadmap or the status of an ongoing project. Everyone seemed engaged, listening attentively and contributing actively to the meeting. You expect the discussion, or at least the main decisions, to be remembered by everyone.

Unfortunately, most of it will be forgotten.

This is not a reflection of your presentation skills or the topic discussed. It's just human nature - we all receive more information daily than we can retain.

How do you fix this? After each meeting, share a document summarizing the meeting.

Must haves:

• tl:dr (too long didn't read) 2 sentence summary of email

• Attendee list

• Key updates / decisions made

• Blockers and current resolution

• Action items with owners

Bonus ideas:

• Use text formatting to have titles bolded, bullet / numbered lists

• Include a screenshot of your updated plans, action items, and key points YOU want them to remember.

• Provide the right amount of context so that you shape the narrative and influence what people internalize.

Email the notes and cc everyone who should be informed, even if they were not on the meeting invite list. Think about including the manager of each attendee if they need to know the status of an initiative. If your organization has an internal documentation platform, store it there too. This makes it readily available for everyone without needing to search their inbox… and you might just share the link at some later point in time when someone asks about it ;)

Conclusion

Are you already creating post-meeting documentation at your organization? If so, how and with whom do you share it? If not, what’s holding you back? When you are present at every step of the initiative: preparation, meeting, and aftermath you are capturing every opportunity to shine and strengthen your reputation.

Creating and sharing documentation after each meeting is a strategic way to follow up with attendees and inform those who couldn't make it. You have nothing to lose but your reputation has a lot to gain if you start this habit.