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7 Myths That Make Meetings Miserable
Myth 1: Executives belong in meetings. Although the demands of business cause executives to attend more meetings than other professionals, executives need to avoid meetings. Top management is responsible for vision, strategy, plans, and communication. That means executives should spend most of their time thinking, learning, planning, and communicating. Inefficient, ineffective meetings waste the time of the company's most valuable employees. Better: Ask probing questions when invited to make sure that your presence will add value. For example, "What are your goals for the meeting?" "How will I contribute to achieving those goals?" and "How can I prepare for the meeting?" After all, you want to contribute to an effective meeting if you decide to attend. Myth 2: Holding a large meeting is impressive. Actually, holding a large meeting is expensive. It can also be impressive if it is conducted properly, which means that it will be as small a possible. Better: Invite only those who can make meaningful contributions. The likelihood of holding an effective meeting diminishes with groups larger than ten or twelve. Myth 3: Structure inhibits spontaneity. This is true if your goal is to obtain random outcomes over infinite time. While this may occasionally produce spectacular results, such as winning a lottery, you can achieve predictable results faster by applying structured activities. These help people make methodical progress toward results. Otherwise, the group is attending a party, instead of working in a meeting. Better: Use structured activities to keep you in control of your meeting and make progress toward results. Myth 4: People are too busy to prepare agendas. Since there is always time to repeat a task, fix a problem, or make an apology, there must be time to take the steps that avoid such dilemmas. Overall, preparing an agenda saves time and money. Better: Prepare an agenda or, if you are too busy, ask someone to do it for you. Then send the agenda to the participants so that they can prepare for the meeting. Myth 5: Minutes are unnecessary. This is true for any meeting where people wasted time producing nothing. Effective meetings produce results that are worth documenting. Minutes serve to track action items, record decisions, and inform others. If you are planning a meeting with no results worth documenting, ask yourself why that meeting is necessary. Better: Record key ideas, agreements, and action items during the meeting. Then convert these notes into minutes. Myth 6: Meetings should last a long time. While this may be true for some meetings, most meetings can be conducted in less than an hour. Long, casual meetings lull people into lethargy. In general, people are able to focus on a task for 30 to 60 minutes. Then their attention fades and they take mental holidays to think about other things. Better: Plan meetings where you spend time and resources in proportion to the value of the results. That is, an effective meeting should be designed to earn a profit. Also, plan short breaks every 50 minutes. Myth 7: The effectiveness of meetings is a low priority. This is true if you seldom hold meetings. Of course, if you have more than two employees, you need meetings to make decisions, reach agreements, and develop solutions. Effective meetings are a critically essential activity in running a business. They harness the combined wisdom of your staff to invent products, increase sales, improve productivity, plan strategies, and create success. Better: Learn how to plan and conduct meetings that make your business a success. Certified professional facilitator and author Steve Kaye helps groups of people hold effective meetings. His innovative workshops have informed and inspired people nationwide. His facilitation produces results that people will support. And his books "The Manager's Pocket Guide to Effective Meetings," "Meetings in an Hour or Less," and "117 Tips for Effective Meetings" show how to hold effective meetings. Call 714-528-1300 or visit www.stevekaye.com">http://www.stevekaye.com for dozens of articles, tips, and ideas.
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Presentation Skill Mistakes Last week my husband and I attended an awesome 4 day work conference! I decided to sit in on both days of business presentations hoping there would be a nugget or two I could share with you.Presenting to an audience of 100 to 300 top producers were executives of a large company. PowerPoint Presentations: How to Use This Tool More Effectively Many of us use PowerPoint to convey a message to both small and large groups. Too often we see "death by powerpoint" in the corporate environment where people don't use it effectively. Trade Show Victory! So you're going to have a booth at a trade show. How exciting - or how terrifying - depending on your state of mind!First of all - remain calm - you're not the first person to do this. Ten Tips on Using Flip Charts and Whiteboards Flip charts are so common that we all think we can use them. But how often have you sat in presentations wondering what all the scribble was really about? Like many people you have probably seen flip charts that make no sense, that you can't read from the back of the room and that look like a spider has crawled over them. Presentation Power Does Not Come From PowerPoint You speak before a group. You present your message. Rise Above Cattiness Cattiness is something no one ever wants to be accused of doing. But the reality is, at one time or another you've probably engaged in it, and most likely, you'll do it again. Presentation Pitfalls Series: Top 10 Content Mangement Mistakes Here, David Letterman style, are what I consider to be the Top 10 most common mistakes presenters make when organizing and preparing their content:10) Not setting the stage.An introduction should be more than just "Hello. Business Presentations - Use Power Pitching - Get the Personal Edge Whenever and whatever you're pitching, dozens of factors will figure in the final decision of your prospects. All else being equal, you have the edge if you can establish a personal connection. Planning a Group Meeting CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE FACILITATOR: As chairperson, focus on the meeting's goals and objectives throughout the meeting. Most everything you say should serve that purpose. Dump Your Speeches For Leadership Talks The CEO of a worldwide business asked me to help him develop a talk he planned to give to several hundred of his top executives. He said, "I feel as if I'm Daniel going into the lion's den. Secrets of Successful Presentations Does the thought of speaking in front of others send you running in the opposite direction? You??re not alone. Many people avoid public speaking at all costs ?" and there is a cost. Chairing A Meeting The Most Effective Way How many times have you attended a meeting where the only thing that gets decided is the date of the next meeting? Or where one person dominates the meeting? Or the meeting is swamped with trivia or unrelated information?It is a commonly held assumption that chairing a meeting is simply a matter of reading out the agenda - that is assuming there is an agenda and that the addenda actually covers the topics which are most pertinent to the matter in hand.Chairing an effective meeting is a skill. Writing The Query Letter The query letter is simply a business letter that serves a dual purpose. It is an introduction of you to an agent, and an inquiry as to whether the agent would be interested in seeing a particular piece of your work. The Right Speaker Makes a BIG DIFFERENCE MORE and more corporations in Malaysia have awoken to the necessity of training and developing their people these days. Hence, many local speakers have emerged in recent years just as many foreign ones have already been flocking to Malaysia as far back as two decades ago. Building a Trade Show Display If you are taking your newest products to a trade show then you will need to come up with some ideas on how to build a trade show display in order to adequately market your products. You might seem at a loss and cannot think of anything, however building a trade show display is not so difficult if you sit down and think about it. How to Prevent Presentation and Speaking Disasters I just got back from my whirlwind speaking engagements and it occurred to me that you might be interested in these recent experiences (especially since speaking in the number one way to increase to raise your visibility and credibility in the industry). In a matter of two weeks, I spoke at two different conferences. Grand Opening: The Key To Great Presentations Whether you are speaking in front of a civic group or making a sales presentation, your opening can make or break the deal. Unless you grab the audience at the beginning, they'll be sleeping through your most important information. If You Want Business - Throw a Seminar! Why is throwing a seminar good for business?If you want to clean your house, you should throw a garage sale, and if you want to increase business, throw a seminar. A seminar is a way for you to contact many people all at once. 35 Surefire Ways to Kill a Meeting 1. Play "find the meeting" by changing the location and time of your meeting at the last minute. How Storytelling Can Grow Your Business People love stories. We love to hear about other people, and stories help us to learn, remember and put to use new concepts.
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