Meetings are an unavoidable part of life for many professionals. These serve many purposes: from updating the team regarding the status of a particular project or business as a whole, to helping to improve the team dynamic. Knowing how to conduct yourself in a business meeting is crucial to a successful career – while knowing how to hold a business meeting is crucial for your company’s success.
Types of Business Meeting and How to Run Them Successfully
Business meetings will normally take place in conference rooms. These are rooms specifically designated for business meetings, presentations and similar. Most organizations will have regular meetings held once a week, once a month or once a quarter. These serve as a way to update the team on any important points and to allow all those in attendance to bring their points to the table.
However, more and more companies now work in a decentralized manner with people all around the world. Thus telepresence can be used to join to conferences that are not local, or tools such as UberConference or Slack can be used to hold conferences entirely online. Someday VR might replace the conventional notion of a meeting.
Creating an agenda prior to these meetings is always a good idea as it will help to keep everyone on point and minimize communication overhead. If there is nothing to be said, then weigh up the ‘time cost’ versus the benefit from a team building perspective. It is always a good idea to have someone present take minutes. This will ensure that everything that is said gets acted upon. Creating ‘action points’ is an even better idea, as is physically recording the meeting itself.
Meanwhile, meetings may be ‘called’ in order to address a particular point or at the start of a new project. A meeting can help to discuss terms of a new contract or merger. Finally, conferences such as prebriefs and launches hold much in common with meetings but are typically between an organization and members of the press.
One Tip to Make a Better Impression in meetings: Use Large Body Language
Charisma is a rather abstract concept and something that is hard to define or to cultivate. However studies have been carried out to examine exactly what it is that makes someone charismatic and it has been found that it helps if you move around a lot in space and use large gesticulations. This makes you seem more enthusiastic and more confident in what you're saying than if you stay still and use closed, small body language. If you're saying yes to someone then back it up by nodding, and by nodding enthusiastically. That way you'll seem energized and as though you really mean it.
