People complain about business meetings, but they are part of nearly every white-collar job. It's hard enough to remember all the meetings your job requires and to find time for the pre-meeting preparation you have to do.
It's worse when your colleagues forget their business manners and make the staff-meeting mistakes listed here!
Watch out for these ten staff meeting "Don'ts!" and your team members will appreciate you even more than they already do.
Multi-task
Don't bring a pile of papers to go through or a document-assembly project with you into a meeting. Don't read your mail on your phone while you're in a meeting. It's rude to give your attention to something else apart from the topics and participants in your current meeting. Save the rest of your work for another time!
Bring Your Lunch To A Non-Lunch Meeting
Don't bring food into a meeting unless your team has a well-established norm of doing that or the meeting is billed as a brown-bag occasion.
Hold A Side Conversation
It's impolite to conduct a side conversation while your teammates are trying to conduct a meeting. Save your funny asides to share with your friend after the meeting -- not while it's going on.
Get Up And Leave
If you are planning to leave a meeting before it's over, let everyone else know that in advance. Let them know why you're leaving and when. It's not polite to say, "Let's handle agenda items one, three and five first, because I need to leave in a few minutes." That can make your teammates feel like they are chopped liver in your eyes. Schedule your day so that you can attend the meetings you need to attend without ducking out in mid-conversation.
Bicker
No matter how irritating your co-workers may be, don't get into a verbal shoving match in a staff meeting. It's unprofessional and highly awkward for your teammates when people start arguing at the conference room table. You can make your points with passion without putting anybody else's opinions down or arguing about the facts. You can always get the relevant data later and re-open the conversation. Your Team Mojo is the only fuel available to power your great results. Don't squander it on petty squabbles!
Hijack The Agenda
If you disagree with the published or verbally shared agenda and want to amend it, say so at the start of a meeting and not in the middle! Whoever called the meeting and set the agenda is in charge of the meeting's progress. If you feel strongly that a topic was overlooked and deserves more airtime, make the suggestion that a separate conversation (not necessarily including all of the meeting attendees now present) take place.
Dominate The Meeting
Sometimes collaborative staff meetings can be hard for people who feel that their subject matter expertise in a particular area dwarfs the subject matter expertise of their colleagues. You may see your co-worker squirm and show his or her discomfort in this situation.
The very-experienced employee may feel this way: "I'm the only person in this room who understands the ramifications of the pricing strategy we are devising. I don't want to have to justify every one of my views, which are based on years of experience and a huge track record in this arena, to people who have no experience with this topic."
These folks get defensive. They don't see that they have a golden teaching opportunity if only they can soften and take their teammates' point of view. They don't have to ram their opinions down anybody else's throats. They can walk through a simple, non-condescending explanation of the topic from their point of view and then welcome questions.
A person who is insecure about getting his or her opinions on the table may dominate a staff meeting discussion. It's appropriate for the meeting leader or anyone else to say, "That is great information, Xiao. Let's make sure we hear from everyone who has views on this topic."
Launch A Bio Battle
One of the lowest and tackiest things a business person can do is to pull rank on a co-worker by comparing resumes. This skeevy move is called a Bio Battle and it looks like this:
Combatant One: So, I think we should repackage the zircon-encrusted tweezers and bundle them into our organic dental floss assortments.
Combatant Two: You mentioned that idea last week and I told you it was a stupid idea. Maybe you forgot that I have 21 years of experience in zircon-encrusted tweezer marketing.
Combatant One: Twenty-one years? I happen to have 23 years of experience in zircon-encrusted tweezer marketing.
Everyone Else In the Room: Will you two please pipe down and give it a rest? You're embarrassing yourselves!
Tune Out And Force People To Repeat Themselves
Anyone can space out momentarily at a meeting, but don't tune out and then make matters worse by asking people to repeat what they said. You should not have been looking at your phone.
Call Your Teammate Out (Ask A Question, Instead)
If you violently disagree with something one of your teammates says at a staff meeting, ask a question about it. Here are 10 things not say when you have a difference of opinion, as these statements can only hurt the Team Mojo on your team:
1. I totally disagree with you.
3. You're so wrong.
3. That's insanity.
4. Why would you say that?
5. That isn't the latest information.
6. Actually I heard differently from our VP.
7. You don't know what you're talking about.
8. That's not accurate.
9. Your solution won't work.
10. I hate that idea.
Here are questions you can ask, instead:
1. How do you see that working, Jane?
2. I'm trying to picture your idea Carl and I'm not sure I get it. Can you please say more?
3. Susan, how do you see that plan increasing sales? I'd love to hear more.
4. Do you think we could run into pushback from our employees if we implement that policy?
5. My first reaction when I hear your idea is concern about our customers' reactions, Paul. What are your thoughts about that?
There is always a question you can ask instead of making a negative statement that is likely to make your teammate feel defensive. Try asking a question instead of of criticizing or contradicting your co-worker.
Keep these simple "Don'ts" in mind and share them with your co-workers before your next staff meeting, and watch your Team Mojo level rise!
