I’m a manager. Therefore, it’s an unfortunate given that I attend a lot of meetings. In my years of attending multiple meetings a day, I have observed behaviors that if corrected, would lead to much more effective meetings.
Some thoughts on how to be a good meeting attendee:
- Be on time. Common courtesy. Enough said.
- Be prepared. If there are things to read before the meeting, come to the meeting having read them and prepared to comment and have a discussion on them. The meeting will be pointless if half the attendees haven’t prepared in advance, because you can’t have an informed discussion when several people aren’t informed.
- Sit at the table. If there is an available seat at the table, take it. Don’t sit against the wall like you can’t be bothered to join the group. It’s alienating, and when you have a comment or someone asks you a question, it’s a (literal) pain for everyone at the table to crane their necks out of joint to see you give your response.
- Speak loudly and clearly into the microphone. There are very few meetings happening today that don’t have at least one person calling into them from home, another time zone, or from halfway around the world. If you’re mumbling, or not sitting at the table (see above), the people on the phone can’t hear you.
- Eliminate side conversations. These get out of hand really quickly. If you have a comment to make, make it to the group, or save it for an individual outside of the meeting. It’s difficult to hear one person talking if two others next to you are whispering to each other. And those on the phone can’t hear at all when multiple people are talking at once.
- Stay off the laptop. I’ve been plagued by the annoyance of seeing people on laptops in meetings for years. There are so many things wrong with this picture. The person on the laptop is usually not paying attention to the meeting. I can’t tell you how many times people have had to repeat comments or entire discussions because the person on the laptop didn’t hear it. This repetition is money and time down the drain. Not only is the person using the laptop distracted, the people around the laptop user are distracted by any of the following things: the web site the laptop user is perusing, the email the laptop user is answering, the really loud keyboard keys the laptop user is banging. Then there’s the issue of IM and email sounds pervading the meeting conversation because the laptop user failed to mute their laptop audio.
- Mute your phone if you’re not speaking when calling in. If you’re calling in from home, or Starbucks, or the McDonald’s drive-thru, make sure your phone is muted. I’ve heard babies cry, dogs bark, side conversations, fast food orders, and ambulances during conference calls. I don’t fault anyone for having kids or dogs (I have both), but when you’re on a work call, professionalism is important. Since you’re not in the room to show you are giving the meeting your full attention, you must do what you can on the phone to show that.
- If you’re eating, don’t talk with your mouth full. I’m sure it’s somewhat controversial whether it’s ever appropriate to eat in meetings, but I believe it’s not an issue in some meetings. Sure, if you’re meeting with customers or upper management, it’s probably not a good idea to be chowing down on your pizza and Snickers bar, but if it’s a lunchtime meeting with internal people only, I don’t have a problem with having lunch while you’re discussing things informally. The key points here are that if you are eating, keep your wrapping rustling to a minimum (especially if you’re next to a microphone for those on the phone), wait until you swallow your bite before making a comment, and chew with your mouth closed.
What other ideas do you have for helping meeting attendees to be courteous and productive?
The guy with the laptop (and I confess, sometimes that’s me) is the same guy who, 20 years ago, was doodling in his notebook. He’s saying that he doesn’t think the meeting will be worth his time.
If I’m the meeting organizer, I have to ask myself whether he’s right. If he is, I should either excuse him or cancel the meeting — thus giving everyone a break.
Great points, all. Especially the laptop
I’d like to add – keep the Minutes and send them across to everybody within 30 minutes of the close of the meeting. If that’s not possible (back-to-back conference calls that last 2 or 3 hours), then at least within 24 hours? The Minutes is a great way to map the action points to the exact person responsible.
Thanks for the comment, Anindita. I agree about minutes and think they’re a valuable tool. Generally, the meeting facilitator takes minutes or ensures they’re taken, and soon I’ll do a post on etiquette for a meeting facilitator. Watch for it soon!
I had this just happen–if you are dialing in, sometimes it is better to just get the meeting notes later if you’re not able to see the meeting because of some technical problem. Interrupting several times to “fix” your problem wastes others time. (I asked once, then emailed for the notes after.)
Don’t forget meeting requester etiquette too such as having an agenda, starting on time, having the right people in the meeting, giving enough advance notice, and facilitating properly and having action items. Hm, this sounds like another post for you.
All good points, Paul. And you’re right, all aimed at the meeting facilitator. I do plan to do a post on that soon. And now I’m going to change the title of the post to make it more clear this one’s for attendees. Thanks for the comments!
It’s imrpetaive that more people make this exact point.
Similar to the laptop issue, do *not* be constantly checking your smart phone for emails/whatever during the meeting. Fair enough if there’s some big issue with a customer or something happening. I’ve been in meetings with SVPs and EVPs who can manage to not touch their phones for an hour or more. And other meetings where some managers seem to spend the vast majority of the meeting reading stuff on their phone. I can only presume that “stuff” is more important than being in the meeting.
True, Kirsty. As someone once told me, your phone is a little computer. All the comments I made about the laptop apply here too.
A bit late to the party here, but a couple of comments.
I agree wholeheartedly with #1. Common courtesy that’s not so common anymore.
A plea to the person running the meeting, related to #1: End your meeting on time. I’ve noticed a chronic problem where I work of meetings running over time. This has at least two negative effects: (1)If another meeting is scheduled in that room right afterward, it starts late; (2) if participants have other meetings to go to right after, they’re late to those. The meeting leader should run the meeting efficiently so as to finish on time, or cut it off and schedule a follow-up if needed.
Nice post, Alyssa.
The point about the laptop is a pet peeve of mine. I hate it when people bring a laptop to a meeting and pretend to be efficient at two things.
Much of this, however, derives from the behavior of bosses. The boss brings a laptop to meetings and so it becomes accepted and often a sign of status to be able to be on a laptop during a meeting. The whole situation propagates from there.
I found it was far better to be a good role model than to mandate “no laptops.” I never brought my laptop so those reporting to me learned not to bring theirs and then people reporting to them learned the same. It became unacceptable culturally.