Productive Participant
Participation
It's quite a tongue twister! Let me put it in another way: Having a productive meeting entails all participants to actively be
involved in a productive manner. And as I mentioned in my first blog post,
doing so also allows employees to demonstrate their skills and boost their
career.
Most of the techniques listed here are common sense and should be
practiced as common courtesy, however most of them are taken for granted and
overlooked more often than not.
- Arrive Early – Shows respect and you look well organized
- Come prepared – Bring the agenda and related materials. Have your questions, comments and good ideas ready
- Bring a positive attitude – Use positive body language and speak energetically
- Contribute respectfully – Wait your turn to speak and raise your hand to be recognized
- Wait for others to finish – Shows respect and good manners
- Use a calm and pleasant yet energetic voice – Avoid anger that will focus attention on your behavior rather than on your ideas
- Give credit to others – You will gain allies and credibility by recognizing others in public
- Put the cell phone and laptop away – Give your full attention to the meeting
- Help summarize – Help the meeting leader by reviewing points you have noted
- Express your views IN the meeting – Build trust by not expressing criticism and judgements after the meeting
- Follow up – Completing assigned actions shows efficiency and care
(Guffey, Rhodes, & Rogin, 2011, p. 55)
Click here for an interesting read on ten dysfunctional characters you may meet at a business meeting. While you’re reading it, be honest with yourself…would you classify yourself as any of the 10 listed?
References:
Guffey, M. E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P.
(2011). Business communication: process and product (6th Canadian ed.).
Toronto, ON: Nelson Education Ltd.
While I was reading the posts I realized how it’s important to consider even the small details about any topic.. I said that as most of us will think that they know everything about meeting, agenda and discussion’s etiquettes. Unfortunately, this is not the case, for example during my previous work I had attended lots of meetings only because the managers want to express their power without having any real discussion. As you said the most important fact is to have an effective meeting rather than calling for meeting without any necessity..
ReplyDeleteVery interested posts....
Yes Hadil, it is sometimes a power trip for them. It is unfortunate though that these managers do not realize the negative impacts that calling these types of meetings have on their employees and the company morale. Thanks for your comment.
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