I led an executive update with my boss that I knew went badly. My boss kept asking questions I had answered. We spent far too much time on one topic I thought was a quick update. When we were done, I did not feel great. It certainly didn’t go as planned.

Nobody nails every meeting or presentation. Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. Don’t beat yourself up, take action. Take the opportunity to learn from the situation and get better. Apply the power of the retrospective.

I have had many meetings and presentations go badly. It happens to everyone. I certainly did not plan for them to go badly. In retrospect, I also did not plan for them to go well. After this last update, I wanted to forget about it. I had to resist the urge. I took stock of what happened, why, and what I could do about it.

First, I write down what I expected to happen compared to reality. Where did it fall short? I work to find the specifics behind why I don’t feel great. We spent more time than I expected on one topic. My boss asked the same question over and over - why didn’t he understand what I was saying? And we ran out of time!

What was the root cause behind these issues? I did not include times on the agenda to communicate where I believed we needed to spend our time. I also did not send the agenda to everyone the day before to allow time for review and feedback. I did not review my materials with anyone before presenting them to my boss.

Next time, I can develop the agenda with times to show which topics are shorter and which are longer. I will circulate the agenda to attendees the day before and ask for any feedback. I also plan to review my materials with a colleague to flag anything that is not as clear as it seems to me. Running a meeting well is one of the things that can propel your career.

Maybe you are struggling to identify why your meeting did not go as expected. You can always try the following tactics to improve the outcome:

Write and circulate goals and an agenda for your next meeting
Set time aside to review materials prior to the meeting or presentation
Send materials to attendees before the meeting to allow time for review
Ask a colleague for help reviewing the materials and ask for feedback