Jeffrey L. Seglin

Ever been asked to review your boss? You might want to get ready. A Society for Human Resource Management survey found 32 per cent of HR professionals are using 360-degree feedback for executives at their companies.

RHI Consulting Inc., a Menlo Park, Calif.-based IT consultancy, last year asked 1,400 CIOs the main source of workplace stress.

"People complain all the time that they spend half their time at meetings and they don't get much done," says Frances A. Micale, CEO of Micale Training Corp. in Atlanta. For people who spend part of their work week closeted in meetings, such observations ring all too true. It doesn't have to be that way. From those who collectively have run enough meetings to make most of us shudder, here are some tactics to keep in mind.