Preparing meetings for your boss is part of your everyday work as a team assistant. But for many, these meetings are pure torture. Instead of being purposeful, they are perceived as unnecessarily long and uninteresting. With good preparation and precise moderation, however, you can change that!

Just as a person looking for work has to prepare the job interview thoroughly so as not to leave that meeting open to improvisation, any entrepreneur has to prepare a business meeting to take advantage of that opportunity to the fullest according to the objective set. You can personalize it more by offering your business cards by the end of the business meeting. Order your business cards online and keep a stack with you at all times. We will give you the keys to make your meeting a success.

How to prepare the content

First of all, to really take advantage of the meeting time, you have to narrow down the topic very well to focus your speech effectively avoiding dispersion. To achieve this coherence, you can prepare a scheme that will guide you and study it in depth. The fundamental criterion for preparing this scheme is to prepare the guide based on an order of opening, ending and closing. You can also prepare material to document your speech since the information adds value to your words. For example, you can have the support of audiovisual media.

Like a good speaker, you also have to take advantage of your time in a business meeting to contribute your personal knowledge through your views, your reflections, and your practical experience.

Closing a meeting is very important, so you have to prepare that moment in a special way. For example, you can summarize by way of closing the main points of the meeting to remember the conclusions. But there are also other options, for example, closing the meeting with an open phrase or asking a question that is left in the air and inviting reflection. You can also specify the approximate date of an upcoming meeting in case you have to address an issue that cannot be addressed in a single meeting. Use your interlocutor's name with some frequency because it is a gesture that adds self-esteem, confidence, and credibility.

Take your interlocutor into account

The mind tends to disperse with relative ease so that in order to capture the attention of your interlocutor and keep it throughout your speech you have to look for feedback through questions or even introduce a wink of humor that helps to relativize the moment. For example, you can share some anecdotes.

Effective tips for good oral exposure

First of all, you have to prepare your speech according to clear objectives. If the purpose of the meeting is not clear then the speech will be uncertain. Just at the end of the meeting is essential, the beginning is vital to mark interest. To avoid the risk of the speech being monotonous, you have to modulate the voice, make the corresponding pauses in the conversation and have a rhythm.

On the other hand, to make it clearer what you want to say, do not hesitate to use concrete examples and anecdotes that give value to what you want to express and be a graphic and visual example of your words. To maintain the interest of the interlocutor, with relative frequency, throughout the presentation, you have to remember the purpose of the meeting.

Naturalness and closeness

It is very important to be a natural and close person even in professional meetings. Naturalness is not incompatible with keeping a certain distance. Look into the eyes of the interlocutor but not in a fixed way, otherwise, you may feel uncomfortable or intimidated. Have a bottle of water on the table so you can drink some water at any time. This simple gesture helps you calm down and also take a small break in the meeting.

Listen assertively to other people and you can make notes on ideas that you find interesting so that they are not forgotten. You can personalize it more by offering your business cards by the end of the business meeting.

Meetings: the annoying block on the leg?

Businessman makes a presentation at the meeting, while the attendees quickly read the emails or the latest tweets during a meeting or even send private WhatsApp messages. According to a survey, many of us do this during long meetings. Because these are often not useful, we often even ask ourselves why we are sitting in this meeting and what is the meaning and purpose behind what has been said.

According to a Bain study, we spend 15 percent of our working time in meetings. Managers even manage an average of 7,000 hours a year. Another study even shows that $37 billion a year is wasted on bad reviews.

Meetings have major advantages though such as; information is communicated for everyone at the same time, misunderstandings can be eliminated immediately and decisions can be made simultaneously with all those involved. The problem is not the meetings themselves, but their implementation.

Is a meeting the right way?

A classic meeting has advantages, but it is not always useful. Before you send out a request for a meeting, ask yourself whether it is the right way to communicate. Make a mental game and just imagine that a meeting - for whatever reason - is currently not possible. Then how would you proceed?

You should only invite them to a meeting if your digital channels, a face-to-face conversation or a casual work lunch are not an option. And even if you have decided that a meeting is the right way, it does not mean that this will still have to be the case for the next few weeks and months. So, from time to time, question whether a meeting is still effective or if everyone just sees it as a chore.

The right guests: sometimes less is more

The meeting should not be too large, as this can lead to long and unsuccessful discussions. Basically, only those who can contribute something essential to the meeting should sit at the table and of course the decision-makers.

Agenda: Good preparation is half the battle

So that all participants can prepare for the meeting, you should make the agenda of a meeting available at least 48 hours in advance. So, everyone involved knows what to expect and what you still have to do.

The right structure

If you are already worried about the agenda, you can also plan to set up your meeting right away. It is best to start with a point that has high priority but does not take too much time to discuss. A quick result motivates your colleagues and also sets a fast pace. It is suggested that topics that provide a lot of discussion material should not be overused in a single meeting. At most two controversial points should be discussed per meeting.

Time management is the most important thing

Good time management is essential for a targeted meeting. So, make sure that the meetings start on time and don't run out of time. To avoid the latter, you can continue to hold your meetings standing up; because this "inconvenience" will ensure that everyone involved is kept short and brief. Forget chairs at meetings. Instead, stand up!

A good moderation

If the discussion is going to be longer than planned, you should take decisive action. Because the most important key for an efficient meeting is, besides the good preparation, a successful moderation! So put frequent speakers in their place and ask silent people a direct question to motivate them to contribute.

A good moderation also includes the announcement of the focus of the meeting and the goal of the meeting as well as the planned duration. So, there are no nasty surprises!

Conclusion

In order to prevent different versions of responsibilities and agreements, you should record the results of the meeting in a results log and make them accessible to everyone. Ideally, your protocol contains a task list in which all important to-dos and the deadline for the tasks are listed. The above-mentioned points can be used as a starting point in the next meeting, for example, to record a task and project status.

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