Whether a company has two employees or thousands of them, they have to regularly attend meetings in order to discuss business plans, further projects, and a lot more. That does not mean that meetings are the only way to communicate; there are also memos, emails, and project management software.
Apart from this, thanks to technology, we can now view each other while we talk to each other even if we are a world apart. But if there is something that needs to be communicated to everyone in the office, then the meeting is the best way of communication.
Whether you are anxiety about business meetings from public speaking, the fear of being judged, a poor prep routine, or something else entirely, these dos and don’ts will help you navigate them successfully and whilst keeping your sanity.
Dos in Meeting
1. Prepare ahead of time
Whether you’re the facilitator or a participant, flying by the seat of your pants in business meeting situations is a surefire way to let chaos ensue.
Whether it’s by prepping your notes, going over your presentation, fact-checking, or something else. Take time to prepare before the business meeting – ideally the night before, and not the morning of.
Working professionals in leadership and senior roles ought to prepare for the business meetings more competently. To run a highly effective meeting, you will need to improve your speaking and presentation skills.
By advancing these skills, you will be able to deliver your messages more clearly and hook your audience. Participating in presentation and public speaking coaching programs will help you learn the techniques that make your speech memorable and impressive.
2. Keep Notes
Whether on your laptop, tablet, or even a spare notebook paper, keep detailed and efficient notes during the meeting so you can refer back to them later on. This will make you appear much more attentive and organized, and show your coworkers that you take their ideas seriously.
3. Speak Clearly And Confidently
If no one can hear your ideas, no one can listen! Likewise, if you seem untrusting or unsure of your own ideas, no one else will be likely to believe in them, either.
When addressing a group try to ask few questions, speak loudly, clearly, and with confidence – sit up straight, make eye contact, and say what’s on your mind!
Don’ts in Meeting
1. Talk When Necessary
While you likely have many amazing ideas and it’s extremely important to make your voice heard, feeling like you always have to contribute something to conversation – even when you don’t have anything to say – leads to repetitive points and conversations, and wasted time. Only contribute when you have something of value to add to the conversation.
2. Don’t Try To Multitask
While taking notes on your laptop, you may drift over to your Amazon tab and do some online shopping – resist this urge!
There’s nothing more embarrassing than being called on while you’re obviously not paying attention – or more infuriating for your other coworkers who are properly dedicating their time.
3. Don’t Dread The Meeting
While business meetings can be tedious at times, entering the situation with a bad attitude will only make it worse. Try some reverse psychology on yourself – act engaged (asking questions, smiling, etc…).
Talk about a great way to impress your boss! Not only will the time fly by much faster, but you’ll find yourself getting more out of the meeting and leaving feeling excited, not drained.
Good Meetings and Bad Meetings
Meetings can either be very interesting and interactive, or they can be the most boring events in our lives. All of us have known both these types of our meetings.
There are some meetings where we just want to curl up and sleep, and then there are meetings where we are taking notes so fast that we are afraid we might break the pad.
So, what are good meetings and bad meetings?
Well, when a meeting is conducted in a good way, and the employees are taken care of:
- They are empowering.
- Very effective in communicating the message.
- They help develop creativity, leadership, and other skills.
- They boost employee morale.
On the flip side, when a meeting is not conducted professionally, it tanks in a great way and produces negative effects that reverberate throughout the company. Here is what happens in bad meetings:
- People lose focus.
- Attendees or even meeting conveners are not prepared.
- Too many meetings.
- Wastage of time.
- Lower company morale.
Conducting haphazard and poorly prepared meetings have a lot of negative impacts on the company. That is why you need to make sure that your meetings are anything but poorly prepared and ineffective. There are a lot of ways that you can make that happen.
If positive and effective meetings are a challenge for your company, then you can do the following things to change that atmosphere and transform your meetings into the most productive and creative meetings. Here is what you can do:
Ways to Make Your Meetings Better
There are a lot of ways that you can turn your meetings into something that the employees enjoy and they actually look forward to it.
Unfortunately, we have all suffered through the dull and boring meetings that take up a lot of our time and make us feel dead inside. If you have ever attended such a meeting, you know how numbing the whole process is.
But do not worry. Turning the meetings around is not as complicated or as tough as you thought it was. This will ensure that your employees are motivated and energized and that they do not suffer through the meeting.
1. Be prepared
Most of us are very good at talking. That is why we think that when we step into the meeting, we will talk our way through it and everything will fall into place.
That is a faulty way of thinking. A meeting is just like any other task that we get throughout the day. That is why you have to make sure that you prepare for it.
If you have planned for the meeting, you will be better prepared, and the results will be amazing. Write down the points that you have to discuss with the other employees, also make sure that you take care of the time and conduct the meeting in a professional way.
Think about the questions that people may ask and try to prepare for them in advance. Make slides on PowerPoint or any other software so that you can make the meeting interactive.
2. Have an agenda
Make sure that you have written down the topic or the list of topics that you need to cover in the meeting as well as the time that you want to give to each topic.
This way, you can make sure that whatever the need was for the meeting, it is being met and that there is nothing left out. It also tells the attendees that you know what you are doing and increases their confidence, not just in you but also the meeting.
Sharing the agenda with everyone is better than having an agenda. People take more interest in meetings when they know where the meeting is going. If they have a complete agenda in their hands, they will be able to follow the meeting better.
So make sure that you distribute the agenda and any other paperwork amongst the attendees before the meeting starts. Once you have done this, you will see that people take more interest in your meetings.
3. Manage Time
One of the worse things about meetings is when a meeting does not start on time, and people have just to sit around and wait.
The same is true for meetings that drag on without seeming to have an end. Make sure that you manage your time so that participants attend the meeting instead of checking their phones or watches all the time.
4. Frequency of Meetings
Too many meetings break the company. Make sure that you call the meeting when it is absolutely necessary and not before that.
Before calling a meeting, ask yourself if you need it or if you can complete the task in some other way. Can you send an email to the staff and convey the points instead? Have less (and better) meetings.
5. Maintain the focus
Losing track of time and agenda is very easy at meetings. The meeting can quickly turn into chaos, and the original goals can be lost. You have to stay focused and keep everyone else focused, as well.
Keep away from personal topics or anything else that can take the focus away from the agenda of the meeting.
Final Thoughts:
Implement these dos and don’ts the next time you have a business meeting approaching and watch it go more smoothly than ever before – with less stress!
Comment down your best and worst business meeting experiences, as well as what made them good or bad – did you prepare beforehand? Leave it all up to chance? Learn any great lessons? We want to know!
