Business meetings can mean so much and so little depending on how you conduct them. For them to be effective, all attendees need to have a observe proper meeting etiquette and work cohesively as a team. There are many things you should actively do, like VITKOR’s meeting management tips explains. However, this article will focus on the faux-pas – as well as the behaviours that may disrupt the flow or waste attendees’ precious time.
Do not come unprepared
Coming to a meeting when you are half asleep, tired and clearly lacking energy can be a problematic in meetings. Part of the preparation begins the night before by getting enough sleep and not waking up 15 mins prior to the meeting.
Being unprepared means: not reading the agenda, forgetting your, or showing up well after the meeting has started. All of these common mistakes completely disrupt the meeting and will jeopardize its outcome.
Do not leave questions until the end
You may be too shy to ask questions, which is something you need to overcome. What is more common though, is the thought that by holding all questions until the end helps to preserve the flow of the meeting; this is somewhat true, however, questions evoke further discussion and should be addressed as they come up.
If everyone’s questions are left until the end, there will be too many to get through and you’ll run out of time. You’ll walk away from the meeting with more problems than you had at the meeting’s onset.
Do not have your phone out
Checking your phone during a meeting is disrespectful as much as it is unproductive. We all know this. However, what many fail to understand is, having a phone on the table is also bad form. The flashing LED light and screen lighting up with every notification is distracting for everyone in attendance. It is also going to be too much of a temptation; eventually you’ll cave and check it.
Do not hold a meeting without a goal
Every meeting should have a tangible and realistic task that it can accomplish. With no real goal, the discussion and agenda will be entirely unstructured and render itself pointless. Meetings without a clear purpose can cause employees to be less interested and come to the future meetings more unprepared.
This is also a common way for a meeting to last forever. Meetings do not need to be long for them to be productive, in fact, overly long meetings is one of the main disruptions to productivity at work. So, have a goal and keep it in a tidy time-frame.
Do not rely on buzzwords
There is nothing more meaningless than a cluster of buzzwords like “synergy” and “thinking outside the box”. Most of these overused words have become white noise to those in the business world, and they aren’t the best way to get a point across. Making