Bored Room Meetings
Tips to making your business meetings worthy of an audience
By Brian Sullivan
When was the last time you heard somebody say, “Sweet! We just scheduled another meeting to talk about the plan …. for the sixth time!” Short answer is … NEVER. Let’s face it, most company leaders, managers, and salespeople don’t seek out colleagues to chest bump immediately after their Outlook email sends them a dreaded meeting invite. So why is this? Frankly, the person calling the meeting often isn’t clear in their planning and organization of that meeting, or is making up for lack of execution in a previous meeting. Or maybe they just need to fill time in their calendar.
To prevent you from wasting your time and the time of the colleagues you love, follow these 10 Meeting Tips. By doing so, your attendees will be more eager to join in, and you will avoid being put on the “I have a conference call at that time” meeting Blacklist.
Ask yourself if a meeting is even necessary
Consider the opportunity cost of pulling people away from important and productive tasks. If “why” you are meeting isn’t obvious to you, go do something that IS obviously productive.
Reschedule your meeting so essential participants can attend
Why bother meeting if the key decision and action makers aren’t there to decide or commit?
Have a precise objective
Think through exactly what you want attendees to do as a result of the meeting. Meetings are only valuable if people go away and do something they wouldn’t have already done without the meeting.
- Example of Bad Objective: Assemble the team for a discussion about what to do to prepare for the customer presentation.
- Example of Good Objective: Get verbal commitment from each attendee to take at least one of the five action items needed to be done by next Friday. Get commitment that they will report by email by noon Friday.
Create an agenda and send it to attendees before
It will allow them to think through the objective and topics. As a result, they will come better prepared to participate. Also, ask them to think about and bring at least one idea that will advance the meeting objective. If they know they are a meeting participant and not just an attendee, they will be more interested in a successful meeting outcome.
Stick to the agenda and stop the meeting when you said you would
This makes it more likely they will come back the next time you send the invite.
Dialogue not monologue
Discussions, not sermons are the best way to achieve your meeting objective. Which means you need to use QUESTIONS as your most important meeting tool. Face it, the people attending your meeting are smart. So you need to get them talking. Questions will help you find out what they want, reduce resistance, get them to sell themselves on your ideas, prepare them to sell others, help you isolate concerns and so much more. Plus, how much can you learn while YOUR lips are moving?
Act like you want to be there
In fact, the level of enthusiasm in that room will be directly tied to your level of enthusiasm for the topic. Think about how many meetings you have attended where the leader started with, “Okay team, I know you don’t want to be here. (Sigh) We have a ton to cover today. (Wince) Let’s just get through this. (Kill me).” Remember, if you tell the participants they are about to be miserable, guess what … they will be miserable. If you instead tell them why and how this meeting will directly benefit them and their team, they will engage.
Make or obtain decisions
It’s the reason you are holding a meeting. Too many meetings are conducted like a 12-step therapy session. General George Patton said it well when he said, “I would rather have a good plan today than a perfect plan two weeks from now.”
Don’t tolerate side conversations and texting … and make it known up-front
What’s worse than an indifferent knucklehead showing you no respect? If you called the meeting, they need to know you are in charge. But the good news is, you do have some control over this. Side conversations and texting are often a sign that you haven’t followed Meeting Tips 1 through 8. But if your meeting is worth taking part in, they will have more interest in what you are discussing than in what Chatty Cathy is whispering in their ear.
Put a bow on it
Which means you need to summarize the key learning lessons and action items of the meeting.
By performing the tips above, you will get more done, more quickly. As a result, you will get several hours of your life back each week. And those hours can be spent doing more productive things … like spending time with your top customers (family and friends) And those are the types of meetings we live for.
Sales Coach and Business Consultant Brian Sullivan, CSP is the author of the book, 20 Days to the TOP - How the PRECISE Selling Formula Will Make You Your Company’s Top Sales Performer in 20 Days or Less. President of Kansas City-based PRECISE Selling, he delivers seminars and internet training programs on sales, customer service, leadership and presentation skills to companies of all sizes. He also hosts the radio talk show Entrepreneurial Moments, a show dedicated to personal and business development. To find out more, visit him at www.preciseselling.com or email Brian at bsullivan@preciseselling.com.
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