Many public speaking and presenting fundamentals can by applied to participation in meetings.
Here’s one scenario that I experienced many years ago when I was in middle management.
I was invited to a meeting that I hadn’t been to before and there was a mixture of people including some very senior leaders – Some of whom are very smart, insightful and expect that the other attendees contribute meaningfully.
What I observed:
Meeting dynamics: who speaks up, who does not, who is willing to challenge others and who shouldn’t be challenged, is there a lot of data, who wants data and who does not, what kind updates and answers do different senior leaders prefer, who speaks up and who does not even though they should.
If your role has NOT been provided to you prior to a meeting, how can you take advantage of the opportunity. Which leads to the rhetorical question of: why would you not leverage this opportunity????
You can consolidate the answer to how to take advantage of this opportunity into 2 questions.
- What insight can you gain by just by listening that will help you going forward?.
- For the next time you’re invited, what insight/information can you bring that will benefit those that attend this meeting and then get you consistently invited back because you bring value.
This is where you employ the same techniques that you would use to prepare for a presentation. “Preparation” is the key word.
Note 1 There are still people and hope it’s not you, that don’t bring a note pad to meetings. Some may take notes on a laptop. Write/type take aways, ideas, reminders, insights, prep ideas for next time, notes to remind you of something you want to add later in the meeting……. That’s a lesson I only needed to learn once and consistently made adjustments to bring more and more value.
Note 2: : Each company has it’s own culture when it comes to meetings and that culture can change based upon who is the most senior person in attendance. You’ll have to decide how/when you participate based on this. Either way, the abbreviated list below is always appropriate.
- How can you help your boss be better prepared? They most likely have more topics to be familiar with then you do. Can you help them out by providing key info and insights prior to the meeting that they may need.
For example: can you provide data in a different format that provides new insight or inform them of recent conversations and outcomes so they can share or bring latest updates on projects.
- Make sure you are the absolute SME (subject matter expert) within your role. Why? When questions come up that involve your daily job, you can provide the most valuable response and then the team begins to count on you going forward – this applies to all levels of the company.. I always like to say “tell them something they don’t know” (as long as it’s helpful)
- Understand if there is a pattern as to who is asking what kinds of questions and anticipate/prepare responses for the next meeting – as long as it’s within your role.
For example: Some want charts and detail, others may just want a high level overview.
- Ask yourself if there are opportunities to advance ideas that you can contribute to and note them for the next meeting – tell them what they want to know before they ask..
What’s the key word??? Prepare. It’s a career building technique that we can steal from presentation prep coaching.
I’ve posted about preparation a lot. Here’s another example where it worked very well.
Article on Steve Jobs
Bill Gates Says Steve Jobs Made Presentations Look Natural Because He Rehearsed (msn.com)