The dreaded meeting

As we walk into meetings, not many can deny that it gives rise to that feeling of appearing for an exam, with scribbled notes and sweaty foreheads. Since your performance at crucial meetings dictates your upward mobility, here are some dos and don’ts …

Prepare

The one-word mantra we’ve all been bombarded with since unit test days still hold true. If you’re armed with solid research and smart preparation, you up your chances of survival.

Walking into a conference room unprepared is inexcusable. If you’re attending a periodical meeting, it is presumed that you know basics such as the minutes of the last meet, the agenda and have an informed opinion on projects on hand. To come out shining, you need to exceed these expectations.

Tip:

To be impressed by attendees who have supporting documents and visual aid. “It provides their viewpoints with an acceptance status in advance.

Meeting of minds

If you belong to a creative field, stir up ideas with original content and present the best one up front. If you make a roaring start, your subsequent ideas (even if they’re not up to the mark) might carry an edge too.

Tip:

Having an open mind while preparing for an ideation meeting matters more than anything else. Sometimes, simply flipping through magazines, instant messaging statuses or even social networking sites trigger the most brilliant lines.

Virtually There

It’s common today to go the virtual way with meetings over video-cons, Skype or software such as GoToMeeting . But just because your boss can’t see your shaking leg doesn’t mean you undermine preparation and presentation.

Virtual meetings are more dynamic than dormant. You have to try harder to make your presence felt and not say, wear or do anything that you wouldn’t in real life. Also, adapt your etiquette — don’t check e-mail during the meeting; avoiding using acronyms/ abbreviations specific to your physical workplace or unnecessarily use software to make simple points.

Tip:

A Blackberry software which keeps track of all important meetings, notes, agendas, to-do etc., and also to initiate meeting requests from your device.

Package & Prune

The manner in which you present your opinions or ideas is as important as the idea itself. You can do justice to your preparation if you express your ideas crisply. Your thoughts have to be coupled with tact and timing.

Also, a temperature check (that of the boss prior to the meet) can be handy, as you can predict what reaction your ideas are likely to garner. It is one thing to know your superior’s personality, and another to change your viewpoint according to their whims. Successful managers confidently stick to their stance.

It is the responsibility of those conducting the meeting to ensure curt debate and to steer unnecessary points to a ‘parking lot’. Also cautions against defending your viewpoint too aggressively or for too long.

Pretend

If unforeseen circumstances don’t leave you time for the ‘prepare and package’ part, technology can be your saviour.

For instance, make optimum use of commute to work by googling on your Blackberry or getting the know-how of crucial terms from Wikipedia.

Be cautions against making this a habit. Management of knowledge is more important than accessing it. The stacks of information at your fingertips may be useless unless you utilise the right bits to your advantage.

5 Things you to pep up your Monday meetings

• Spend five minutes pepping yourself up before the meeting begins. Look in a mirror and repeat: ‘I am a confident person.’
• Take deep breaths before walking into the conference room. Avoid drinking too much water or caffeine.
• You don’t want to have a rush while your talking, much less have a pressing need to visit the loo.
• Rate your ideas. Which are the ones you would stick up for? Which ones would you let go of? This will help you measure your arguments.
• Relieve the pressure from a staid presentation by slipping in a few humorous slide to keep people awake Vote for ‘Rockstar of the Meeting’ who gets a pickup to office the next day.