A good meeting is like a meal that leaves participants feeling nourished and energized.

A not-so-good meeting leaves people hungry, tired and irritable.

A really-bad meeting can feel like food poisoning, an allergy attack or a fatal dose of boredom, in other words, an experience to be avoided at all costs.

To get great meeting results, team leaders need to think like both a boss AND like a host. This means focusing on the work to be done in the meeting AND on the well-being of the meeting participants.

To create productive meetings and nurture effective teams, leaders need ask and answer both sets of questions. If you notice that the questions in one of the columns above are difficult for you, get help from a colleague – or a skilled facilitator – to balance your approach to meetings. Participants will thank you for being a considerate boss and a demanding host.