A former McKinsey partner shares 7 steps to having productive meetings you won't dread

When you've had too many unproductive, time-draining meetings, you can find yourself full of dread any time one appears on your schedule.

Even worse, you may be resigned to the idea that all meetings are bad in their own way, and it's your duty to simply tolerate them as the clock ticks on.

"'Meeting' has somehow become a dirty word; when we hear someone say 'I had a day full of meetings,' we feel pity rather than envy," Caroline Webb writes in her book "How to Have a Good Day."

Webb is the CEO of consulting firm Sevenshift and a senior adviser to McKinsey, where she was formerly a partner. Her book is a collection of career best practices she's learned in her 16 years as a consultant.

She's found that the reason why so many of us dread meetings is "that we often pay a lot of attention to what we're discussing - the document we're sharing, the decision we need to make, the message we want to get across - and very little attention to how we're having the conversation."

Here are Webb's steps to improving the way you plan and participate in meetings, so that "meeting" is no longer a bad word.