Spending time with students. You’ve got this. Hanging out at Starbucks with your best volunteers. You know you love that. Prepping an age-appropriate, theologically robust message filled with enough funny stories to make the most reluctant teenagers lean in closer. Check. They are hanging onto your every word. Yup. You went to seminary and study Jimmy Fallon for that. You love everything about your job except for one thing: meetings. Meetings can fill you with anxiety or prove such a waste of time you want to call in sick to avoid them all together.

You’ve probably got a calendar filled with elder meetings and board meetings…committee meetings…staff meetings…budget meetings…parent meetings. Whether meetings make you sweat enough to have to reapply deodorant, or you’re so easily distracted you have to delete Twitter from your phone, you can rock meetings. You can show up prepared, confident and ready to lead well. I’ve been there—silently sitting and contributing very little to meetings because I was either bored or intimated. Through the years in youth ministry, I’ve learned a thing or two about meetings. Here are a handful of ideas for mastering those meetings on your calendar.

Oops, What Meeting?
First and foremost, your calendar is your BFF. It always should be the first place you begin. The best way to make a bad impression at a meeting is not to remember a meeting has been scheduled—or to walk in 15 minutes late. Look at your calendar. Buy a watch. Set notifications. You own smartphones and tablets, so use them to organize your week and assist you in remembering those not-to-be missed meetings coming your way. Look at your calendar and your church’s master calendar, and communicate with your head of staff to make sure you are not missing anything that needs to be on your calendar.

You Need an Agenda
Next, you need to review the agenda or create one. When you take the time to create or review a meeting agenda, you get a good grasp of the goals and objectives of the meeting. Leadership expert Michael Hyatt writes, “I don’t think any meeting should proceed without an agenda. If it’s not important enough to create a written agenda, then it’s not important enough to attend¹.” Headed into a budget meeting? Review the agenda and look at your budget ahead of time. Be ready to answer questions. Knowing the planned agenda of a meeting and reading the minutes or notes from previous meetings will help you prepare for productive discussions and allow you to research and prep beforehand. I led a parent meeting last week with an agenda item of how the teenage brain works. I spent a few hours before the meeting memorizing interesting facts and stories about the development of the adolescent brain. By taking the time to create an agenda and prepare, I was comfortable and confident speaking to a room full of parents.

By putting together and getting comfortable with my meeting agenda, I was able to start and end on time. I made PowerPoint slides. I stayed on task and didn’t ramble about things I could have sent in an email. I valued their time. Parents still are thanking me for how fun and informative the parent meeting was. A successful meeting needs a start time, an end time and an agenda to keep things moving along.

The First Five Minutes
Don’t underestimate the power of the first five minutes. Whether you are attending a meeting or leading one, show up early. Start winning at meetings before the meeting begins. Say hello to people who are there, and introduce yourself to people you do not know. Make eye contact. Smile. Now is not the time to have your head down with your eyes on your phone or to run out to the bathroom. It’s not the time to update your roster for fantasy football or compose a snarky tweet. Meetings are the time to shine and connect with people. Use meetings as opportunities to make a great impression, to see and be seen. It’s hard to make an impact or be taken seriously when no one knows who you are.

Contribute
Now that you’ve shown up early, prepared and read the agenda, the next thing you need to do is contribute. Be intentional about participating in the meeting, and stay focused. This likely means leaving your phone at your desk or keeping it out of site. Don’t check email, text your spouse, or work on other projects during meetings. It will be tough to contribute thoughtfully to meetings if you get lost in your thoughts and have no idea what’s going on around you. I don’t bring my phone to meetings anymore. I am too ADD with it there. I get sidetracked by the mere presence of my phone. Don’t use your computer unless it’s to take notes or unless you need it for something specific that has to do with your meeting. It’s too easy to hide behind a computer screen.

Don’t Be Annoying
Speak up, but don’t be annoying. We all can think of people who dominate meetings, talk in circles or ramble endlessly before making a point. Don’t be that person. Don’t be the one rambling or interrupting—the one everyone else tunes out for having said too much. You also don’t want to talk too little. Saying nothing communicates that you are uninterested, bored, daydreaming about tacos or didn’t prepare enough to contribute to the meeting.

Be Yourself (Unless You’re Annoying…Then Be Someone Else)
I work on a church staff with really cognitive, cerebral, intellectual people. They are all super smart. Can I share a secret? My colleagues used to intimidate me so much that I often said very little during meetings. I was afraid they’d think I wasn’t as smart as them or would look down at the practical, everyday language I use. I work with middle schoolers, not seminarians. I’ve spent years mastering how to communicate complicated theological concepts into language my middle school youth group kids understand.

Meetings are excellent opportunities to be you. I may not have mastered the theological language and long, contemplative pauses of my coworkers. I can’t cite interesting facts about the Jewish and early Christian context of some obscure Scripture passage, but doing so is not a requirement. At one of those scary annual reviews (OK, it wasn’t that scary.), my boss said, “I like that you don’t sound like a seminary professor. We need more relational people around here, not more intellectuals. We have enough intellectuals.” When I realized I have value for simply being myself, it gave me the confidence to do just that: to be me. When it comes to meetings, don’t be afraid to speak up and be you. There is a reason you are at the meeting. There is a reason you are in a position to lead a youth ministry. It probably is because some elder, pastor or search committee likes what you bring to the table. So, pull up a chair and join the conversation.

Confidently be you.

Follow Through
Meetings are when shared work gets delegated and tasks are assigned. Whether it’s something for a youth group parent, a boss or a coworker, follow through. I keep the app Wunderlist open on my computer and immediately transfer any to-dos from meetings to my work list. If you are given the task of researching bands to hire for a New Year’s Eve outreach party, you need to put that on your to-do list. Don’t perpetuate an image of the disorganized youth worker stereotype by showing up at your next meeting saying, “Oh, I forgot to do that.” Make your to-do list your ally.

I had six meetings on my calendar today, and zero of them were with students. As much as you love hanging out with students, knowing how to navigate meetings is just as important as interacting with teenagers, because it is a big part of your job. Whether you have meetings with parents, volunteers, coworkers or church board members, you confidently can walk into meetings when you use your calendar, come prepared, contribute to the conversation and commit to following through. You’ve got this.

¹http://michaelhyatt.com/seven-rules-for-more-effective-meetings.html