Top EAs Know These Microsoft Teams Tricks for Running Flawless Meetings—Do You?
- Richard Arnott
- Jun 8
- 3 min read
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As an Executive Assistant, you’re not just scheduling meetings — you’re orchestrating them. From preparing agendas to ensuring the right people are involved, your role shapes how smoothly meetings run and how well they deliver outcomes.
Microsoft Teams offers a powerful set of tools that help you manage every stage of the meeting lifecycle — before, during, and after. Here’s how to get the most from them.
Before the Meeting: Set Up for Precision and Impact
✅ Meeting Templates
Standardise recurring meetings — like board updates or project reviews — by using Meeting Templates. These pre-configured setups let you:
Set default presenter and attendee roles
Control chat and Q&A settings
Enable auto-recording
Pre-load agendas or documents
EA Tip: Use templates to save time and ensure consistency across your executive’s meetings.
✅ Registration Options
For webinars, town halls, or external stakeholder calls, use the registration feature to:
Collect attendee details before the meeting
Limit participation to registered guests
Automate invite distribution after registration
EA Tip: Customise the registration page with speaker bios or pre-event materials.
✅ Pre-set Breakout Rooms
For workshops or planning sessions, assign participants to breakout rooms ahead of time. You can:
Name rooms based on topics or teams
Pre-load discussion prompts
EA Tip: Helps the meeting start smoothly and stay focused.
✅ Custom Meeting Roles
Assign specific roles before the meeting starts. For example:
Executive = Presenter
EA = Co-organiser
Attendees = View-only
EA Tip: Keeps control over who can share content and manage participants.
✅ Auto-recording Setup
Turn on auto-recording at scheduling to ensure no key detail is missed.
EA Tip: Perfect for C-suite briefings or meetings with absent stakeholders.
During the Meeting: Keep Things Running Smoothly
✅ Built-in Q&A
Use the Q&A feature for structured questions. This lets you:
Moderate incoming questions
Prioritise or group them by topic
Mark questions as answered
EA Tip: Ideal for large sessions like town halls.
✅ Controlled Chat
Decide how chat works during the meeting:
Turn it off for focus
Allow it only during Q&A
Keep it open for collaboration
EA Tip: Adapt based on meeting type and executive preference.
✅ Meeting Guide Link
Instead of Teams Wiki (now defunct), use OneNote, SharePoint, or a Teams file tab to share the meeting agenda, ground rules, and resources.
EA Tip: Include the link in the meeting invite or chat so everyone can access it easily.
After the Meeting: Streamline Follow-Up and Accountability
✅ Copilot Summary-Ready Settings
If your organisation uses Microsoft Copilot, prepare meetings so AI can generate summaries by:
Enabling transcription and recording
Clearly identifying participants
Explicitly stating decisions and action points
EA Tip: Saves time drafting minutes and ensures nothing is missed.
🔹 Extra EA Power Moves
Use OneNote or SharePoint to take meeting minutes and track follow-ups.
Pin important messages in the meeting chat.
Use Teams Tags to notify groups about meeting outcomes.
Schedule buffer time after meetings for debriefs or urgent tasks.
✅ In Summary: You’re the Meeting Strategist
As an EA, you’re more than a scheduler — you’re a meeting strategist. Microsoft Teams equips you with tools to make every meeting your executive attends professional, focused, and productive.
From calendar invite to meeting close, Teams helps you run it like a pro.
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About the Author: Richard Arnott, BA, FInatAM, FIToL, is a Director of BMTG (UK) Ltd, and the author and lead presenter of the groundbreaking, globally recognised Advanced Certificate for the Executive Assistant: ACEA® program. Richard also sits on the editorial board of Lucy Brazier OBE Executive Support Magazine.
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