Back in the day, the advice given regarding meeting etiquette included things such as: make sure you have clean nails, dress appropriately, don’t have spinach in your teeth, shake hands firmly, make eye contact, speak distinctly and don’t interrupt. But in this day and age, meetings are less formal affairs. People have several meetings a day, in many instances just with colleagues, and there is no need for hand shaking or dressing in a particular way.
It may be a meeting in jeans at a local café, or it may be a meeting with the CEO of your most important client. Whatever the meeting, there are indeed unwritten rules you may or may not already know. Below are 15 new-era rules that focus on results and efficiency more than appearances and formality. How many do you follow?
1. Make sure you really need a meeting before scheduling it. Could things be resolved in 10 minutes on the phone or via email instead? A good office phone system will have 3 way or more conferencing.
2. Every meeting should have a purpose: You either need to make a decision or complete an action together. Giving an update can almost always happen by email.
3. Schedule just the time you need. Most meetings are scheduled for a full hour, when they should be 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or 45 minutes.
4. Start on time. Don’t wait for stragglers—it only encourages them.
5. End on time, and explain at the outset that you plan on ending on time as you know everyone is busy. This will remind people that you want an efficient meeting just as much as they do.
6. Only invite the people who absolutely need to be there. The more people in a meeting, the less that gets done.
7. Every meeting should have someone clearly assigned ahead of time to running it. If it’s not you, name someone else (and make sure that person knows he or she’s in charge).
8. Plan in a few minutes for chit-chat at the beginning of the meeting. We are people, not robots after all, and building rapport with colleagues is important – and hopefully enjoyable.
9. If you want people to read something ahead of time, send it at least three hours prior to the meeting, or ideally the day before. Don’t bother sending it 20 minutes ahead of time.
10. Agenda, agenda, agenda. Every meeting benefits from an agenda. Review it at the beginning of the meeting to keep everyone on track, and stick to it.
11. Don’t pass handouts around at the beginning of the meeting. People will start flipping through them, and stop paying attention
12. If it is a long meeting, or an all-day conference, change the voicemail message on your office phone to tell callers you are in a meeting until later.
13. Avoid the temptation to check your phone or email during the meeting. Everyone can tell what you’re doing (even if you pulling the ‘I’m just looking at my feet’ look), and they’ll start doing the same.
14. Keep track of next steps as the meeting goes on. This helps avoid having to meet again to go over old ground because things weren’t actioned.
15. If someone is speaking too much, cut him or her off (nicely). Likewise, if someone is speaking too little, try to engage him or her.
16. If the conversation goes off topic, it is both acceptable and necessary for you to rein it in. A simple, “Let’s schedule time to discuss that later if it’s helpful, since we only have 10 minutes left,” works perfectly.
17. If the meeting is over an hour long, schedule time for breaks, and let attendees know about them ahead of time. Knowing they can check their email in 45 minutes will help keep them focus.
18. If it is a meeting at your desk, put your office phone on ‘Do Not Disturb’. A good office phone system will let you do this with one push of a button.
Speaking of which, perhaps you know someone looking for a good office phone system? Maybe it is a business that is moving to a a new building soon, or one that needs things like international numbers or flexible working for its employees.
Email info@vtsl.net or give us a call 020 078 3200 and we will get a meeting set-up with them ASAP (and pay you 15% of first year revenue!).
