Meeting Time!

Welcome back and hopefully you are enjoying the free content we put on here to better you and your business :)

This time around I think a great focus area is one that often goes one of two ways.... Enjoyable or beat your head against a wall... of course I am talking about meetings!

Think about the last meeting you attended and not just any meeting, I want you to think about the best meeting you were involved with. What made it great? What made it so investable? Was it the speaker? Was it the interaction with the audience that had everyone willing to not doze off? Was it because there was free food? No joke, free food is the best food.

Meetings often serve many purposes, and the main point of a meeting is like a great story with a catching beginning, a climax middle and ending that brings the first two keys together. The point of any meeting should be to solve a problem which can go in many different directions... brainstorm sessions, think tanks, throwing darts at sticky notes and see if the suggestion can lead anywhere, so fourth and so on...

Let's drill down on the top 3 successful meeting key ideas, these are 3 key ideas I have personally used in my career.

Number 1: Know your voice

Before you even start to think of ideas or put together thoughts on subjects, I always looked in the mirror and ask myself if I could deliver this presentation with 100% passion and to best of my ability. Did I believe enough in what I was going to say to deliver a meeting worthy enough of people's time. The reason I write this is because you need to understand that holding a meeting in any fashion is requiring people to give up their time. The biggest take away for me personally was I always thought about the "time" people would be investing by ME asking them to attend. I needed to know and in fact was my responsibility to ensure I delivered a worthy enough meeting where those who attended felt valued. So, I say again... If you are not passion enough to deliver a respectful time thought meeting, don't worry. Let someone else be the hero! In fact, many times I would share the spotlight with others who had more knowledge and could provide more than just "fancy" words but actually had depth to the meeting.

Number 2: Know your part

Nothing can put a room full of people to sleep faster than someone who is reading off que cards line by line. I want you to think about that picture for a moment, imagine in your mind someone standing in front of you reading word by word, line by line looking down and never at the crowd. Do I need to continue? Nope...

So, what does this have to do with knowing your part?

Understanding how you will support the meeting or seminar is key role in ensuring that it will be successful and worth the investment. A great number of seminars are often hosted by someone who with a stronger background in speaking but the research and story line was conducted behind the scenes. I try and describe it in the "movie" business that sometimes the not good actor can write one of the best scripts, how often how we seen these types of actors break away to behind scenes work where they can really put their full skills to the test. This too can be a great tool to help you feel comfortable on upcoming projects. Your role could be the silent mastermind! Gathering all the data, making all the calls to find locations on where to host the seminar/meeting. Leading the marketing campaign behind driving foot traffic and digital views to the event... the list is endless.

Number 3: Know the audience

Fingernails on a black board is the chilling sound that sends goosebumps all over arms and the back of necks everywhere. This also is what it feels like when a speaker has not done their part to read the room (as they say). Imagine telling jokes to a massive captive audience but no one is laughing... get off stage!

This often happens when delivering a meeting and sadly I have sat through my fair share over the years of these types of meetings. If you ever really want to know the temperature, then just look at all of your peers and study the face.

When I was delivering a message or was speaking at an event, I always did my homework to get a feel on who would be attending and the level of their background knowledge on the subject. If the group had a basic level understanding of what I was speaking on, then I knew I had to ensure there was more depth than just basic level explanation. How deep in the conversation you go will either lose and gain attention from an audience or a meeting with your peers/direct reports. Know what type of meeting you need to conduct; this means if you need to get information out then be sure to understand how much they can retain and how useful it will be. Decide whether you need hand-outs or encourage them to take notes but if so, ensure you give the time for the team to write down what is important.

If it is an inspirational meeting then make sure you capture their attention and focus your story on what you want to accomplish then once done, let the team speak open on how they felt.

Do and ask all the questions you can pre-hand or know who you are inviting.

There are many approaches out there to holding successful meetings and these 3 are 3 principles that I can personally speak on and say I've used to help me get over the hurdle of putting on a bad/boring meeting. The approach that works best for you is the one I will always suggest you take but there is basic homework that comes will meetings and seminars. Hopefully you can use these 3 examples above to know have a base level understanding and take off.

I wish you all the best in your endeavors and get out there, have some fun!