Recently, America lost one of giants of late night television, Johnny Carson. He was a master at his craft,because he would conduct his show, essentially like a ninety minute meeting. The program would be entertaining, insightful, informative, and leave you wanting more.

Many times we fear going to meetings because we feel, based on past experiences, that they are going to be boring, not relevant, lack information, and we can’t wait until meeting ends.

Here are my eight techniques used by Johnny Carson to make your meetings outstanding for all involved:

1. Do Your Research Johnny Carson would invest time before each show to find out information on what was important to his guests and audience members. He would find out about his guests’ personalities, their interests, and concerns.

Why not do same? E-mail participants with your agenda before meeting. Ask them for feedback or any concerns they may have concerning meeting. This allows you address any concerns before meeting and to think through any potential problems and come up with better answers for solutions during meeting.

2. Plan Meeting Master details for your meeting. Set an agenda with points to be covered and time period for which they will be covered.

3. Invite Only “Guests” That Can Contribute When Johnny was finished speaking with one guest, then it was time to bring out his next guest and engage in conversation with that guest. When he finished speaking with his guests he would excuse them so they could leave.

Invite only “guests” that are relevant to subject matter at hand. How many times have you wondered, “Why am I here, this meeting doesn’t pertain to me?” Also once your “guest” has contributed to meeting and there is nothing else in meeting that pertains to them, excuse them so they can leave.

4. Keep on Time You knew every night Tonight Show with Johnny Carson would start at its assigned time (unless there was a special event).

Starting you meeting on time shows respect for participants who made effort to show up on time, and let’s late comers know that this behavior is unacceptable.

Also designate one person to be time keeper. They are responsible for keeping you on track to stay within time limits for each subject covered in meeting. The results are that you start on time and end on time while accomplishing your meeting agenda.

Once you’ve gotten through hiring process, there’s still much more you must do now that you’ve become an employer. If you’re like most small business owners, you just don’t have time to do all you’re supposed to be doing when it comes to managing your employees.

The article aims to outline five steps you can take right now to better manage your employees. Failure to complete these steps may one day lead to trouble for your business – trouble that could easily have been avoided.

Step #1 – Publish a Company Handbook

Most employers do nothing more than chuckle at mere mention of a company handbook. Who has time for such frivolousness? Besides, no one reads them anyway. If these are your thoughts, then think again. Make time to create a company handbook and then make every employee read it. Also have every employee sign a statement saying that they have read handbook. Place signed statement into their personnel file where it will remain should you ever need it.

Step #2 – Create Files for Sensitive Employee Data

You will have a lot of employee-related documentation to keep track of and you must have a place to store it all, safely, and away from prying eyes. Payroll information, health insurance information, certifications including expiration dates, performance reviews, and kudos from happy clients as well as negative comments from clients or supervisors are just some of documentation you need to maintain.

Step #3 – Create a Schedule