Some of the most productive and valuable meetings happen between two people. In two-person meetings the dynamic is different. Your attention is required and it would be socially unacceptable for you to pick up your phone and start scrolling during it. Here are my favorite kinds of two-person meetings and why they are so valuable.

We’ve all been to meetings that could have been an email, or that ended without anything being decided, or were SO BORING that we got through 20 levels of Candy Crush. You know what bad looks like. You may even know what good looks like. But do you know how to hold a meeting that doesn't suck?

When you are late, your actions you have told this group of people that your time is more valuable than theirs and it’s not. It doesn’t matter who you are. It’s not. If this is happening regularly you should examine why and think of some strategies to prevent it from happening in the future.

The skill of quickly getting to the problem and focusing the discussion to achieve a meeting objective is an advanced communication skill. These strategies are specifically designed for when efficiency needs to be prioritized because something has become urgent.