Leadership relies on communication. You need to be thinking about your communication strategy to get information out to your staff, your peers and your boss. If you are a leader in your organization, an important part of your role is communication.

Don’t decry all meetings as wasteful. Make your meetings matter. Use meetings as a part of your communication strategy.

Complex organizations don’t automatically coordinate and get things done. Part of the job of a leader is to communicate direction and plans for working together. Set and communicate goals and progress to support your organization achieving results.

Meetings are one part of a communication strategy. Your communication strategy will include meetings as well as other channels to effectively get information to the rest of the organization. Don’t assume every meeting is a waste of time. When you conduct meetings, don’t waste time.

I’ve heard criticism that in big organizations there are professional meeting attenders. These people make a lot of money at the top of organizations and just go to meetings. The logic goes something like this: Since we all hate meetings, these people must be useless. Let us disprove this assumption.

For those meetings you attend, avoid being the negative stereotype of a professional meeting attender. Help make the meeting effective. Offer to help set goals and an agenda. Participate and contribute to the goals of the meeting. Do not spend all your time on your phone during the meeting. Convey what you learn in meetings to others as a part of your communication strategy.

Hate meetings? Love them? Post a comment on why and what tactics you use for communication.