Last time, I told you a great trick for introducing yourself to people, by telling them the value you bring to them.
I’d like to share with you another great tip that will really help you make your mark at a meeting.
Why are we here?
No, I’m not suggesting that you dive in to a deep discussion about the meaning of life! The point here is to make sure a meeting stays on topic, and is kept as short as possible. We all know that our lives are filled with too many pointless meetings.
What I’m suggesting is that you do something that few people ever do when opening a meeting – and when you do it for the first time you’ll see everyone round that table saying to themselves “Genius! Why has no-one done that before?
Just tell them why everyone is there. It’s that simple! Just start off by saying to everyone:
“Let’s agree what the objective of this meeting is”.
I’m not even meaning having a detailed agenda. But by clarifying the very point of the meeting at the outset will focus everyone’s mind and make the meeting more focussed. If the meeting deviates or goes off at tangents, you can then more easily steer it back to the objective that everyone agreed with at the very outset.
Creating an Agenda
My personal trick to keep the meeting short is then to say:
“How shall we use the time in this meeting?”
In that way, in the absence of a pre-written agenda, you can quickly just write one on-the-fly. Write down the headings that are agreed on, and allocate – with everyone’s agreement – the time you’ll spend discussing each item.
In this way everyone at the meeting is happy that their objective will be discussed, and everyone knows that there is an agreed finite amount of time to discuss each item. If any item looks like it’s going over, you can suggest spending more time on it, scheduling a separate meeting or whatever is appropriate, but it means that the meeting won’t over-run or go off at a tangent.
Two Simple Lines
So, there you go, how to control a meeting with two simple lines:
“Let’s agree what the objective of this meeting is”.
“How shall we use the time in this meeting?”
David Solomon
Managing Director, Sun and Moon Training
@SunMoonDavid
Photo copyright: stockbroker / 123RF Stock Photo