11 Tips to be Better at Meetings

8/12/2019 11 Tips to be Better at Meetings

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11 ps to be beer at

meengs

www.ezymeetz.com


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The Obvious

1. Dont be lateBeing anything less than early to a meeng is a sure-fire way to tell the other person you

simply dont care. Sure, things come up: you get into a car accident, your dentures just

wont sck, youre dog has IBS whatever it is, you have email use it. And, no, the

quick, Hey Im running late! Sorry! text three minutes before your meeng starts just

doesnt cut it.

2. Do your background researchKnow who youre meeng. Were fortunate enough to live in an uber connected world

where LinkedIn, Facebook, Twier, blogs, and even personal websites can all inform what

we know about an individual. Generally speaking, a 10-minute search can fill in all of the

blanks from professional to personal. You dont want to be the guy who gets back from a

meeng only to find out Person X sits on the board of the same Company X youve been

courng as a customer for months. There are definitely some specific points you should

touch on for everyone you meet with, but for the sake of brevity, well save that for later.

3. Understand their movaonsUnless you know what someone cares about, how are you supposed to, A) Control the

conversaon, and B) Add value for them. What do they do for fun? What organisaons do

they volunteer for? What makes this person ck?

4. Leader or LearnerIn the grand scheme of things, whos helping who? Who was more excited to get the

meeng. Generally this is obvious, but make sure you know going into things.


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The Less Obvious

5. Have an agenda, seriously.If you write out an agenda, even if it just has three bullet point topics that you want to

hit, youll have more control over the meengs outcome. Simply pung yourself through

the 30-second mental exercise of wring out your goals/topics to cover for the meeng

will greatly inform its outcome.

6. Be PoliteWhether youre the leader or the learner, everyone loves it when you respect their me.

Its amazing how much me people waste at the beginning of meengs with the usual

BS. The worst part is that both pares know its just fluffto get comfortable. Lead the

meeng. Get to the point. Save the flufffor aer youve hit your agenda points, it feels

more genuine that way. Pro-p: if youre the leader, starng the meeng with a bunch

of fluffcan put a nervous learner at ease, but it can also be a subtle way to imply your

control over the proceedings. If youre the learner, any earlyfl

uff

beyond simply beingpolite makes you look nervous (unless youre really good at it).

7. Take notes or Record the meengYour brain cant keep it all in. If you felt it was worth spending 30 minutes of prep & 30

minutes of your me, you beer be wring things down or recording. Lessons arent

always applicable at the me that you hear them. Why wouldnt you want to be able to

reference that same meeng two months from now?

8. Follow-upIt doesnt maer if it was the best meeng of your life or the worst if you dont

follow up youve just thrown away 50 per cent of the value of that meeng. If it went

well, re-affirm the acon points/next steps. If it didnt go well, re-affirm that you were

grateful for the meeng, and maybe take the me to recover from the mishap. Same day

standard, it helps to write the followup immediately aer (if you have the me), and then

send it a few hours later.


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South Australia 5069

USA Number: (702) 560-8781

AUS Number: +(61) 8 8362 8970

www.ezymeetz.com

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11 Tips to be Better at Meetings