Business Etiquette Series – The Business Meeting

Business Etiquette Series – The Business Meeting

Practicing good meeting manners not only makes meetings more civilized, but also increases productivity. Let us look at the Etiquette to practice by both meeting leaders and participants.

 

Meeting Leader Etiquette

  • Before the meeting even begins, prepare a list of participants and give them sufficient notice to adjust schedules.
  • Communicate the time and place of the meeting, its objective, and its duration.
  • Be sure to start the meeting on time, and once it begins, thank everyone for attending.
  • Make necessary introductions among participants, especially new faces.
  • Take care to enforce the agenda and encourage everyone’s participation.
  • At the end of the meeting, thank the participants for their input.
  • A good meeting ends with a call to specific action, to ensure that the next steps are clear.

 

Participant Etiquette

  • Arrive on time.
  • Stay awake and listen.
  • Ask questions to help develop ideas.
  • Avoid sarcasm, personal attacks, and knee-jerk nay saying.
  • Do not engage in side conversations, side comments, or the writing and passing of notes.
  • Stick to the agenda, resist digressions.
  • At the end of the meeting, thank the leader, and perhaps others. ‘’Oga Seyi/ Madam, etc., this was a very productive meeting. Thank you’’.

 

Note that conflict is not impolite

A meeting objective is to arrive at decisions and get work done. Nevertheless, conflict – differences of opinion and interpretation – is an important part of most meaningful Business meetings.

The object of good meeting Etiquette therefore, is not to eliminate conflict, but to create a climate in which participants can disagree without being disagreeable. Focus your criticisms on issues, not on personalities. ‘’Idea X will not work because of A, B and C’’ is a far more useful statement than ‘’Helen, once again, you’ve had a bad idea’’.

The object of arguing is not to ‘’win’’ the argument, but to coax the best idea or plan to the surface. Abandon the winner-and-loser model of conflict and try instead to hammer out a third, and better viewpoint from two opposing positions.

 

Key learning point: Good Business Etiquette makes meetings more productive and allows people to disagree without being disagreeable.

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