Tag: Bad Meetings

The Top Meeting Pet Peeves that Plague Organizations – Tip #5

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The following is the fifth and final tip on meeting pet peeves.  For more information on what the Jean Kelley Leadership Alliance can do for you and your company, visit www.jeankelley.com/our-solutions.

Pet Peeve #5: Listening to Unprepared or Ineffective Speakers

Nothing is worse than listening to a monotone speaker who says “um” or “ah” every other word…or having someone start their portion of the meeting by saying, “I really didn’t prepare anything for this, so let’s just wing it.”

While everyone should speak and offer ideas at these meetings, some people may have to give more thoughtful, polished information. These people should be identified beforehand so they have time to prepare. This is crucial, because in most organizations, to be promoted you must have solid public speaking skills.

Additionally, if someone simply isn’t good at giving presentations, no matter how much preparation he or she does, that person needs to get support and training to become more effective. Granted, no one wants to tell a colleague, “You need to work on your public speaking skills,” but offering support to others will not only make meetings more effective, it will also make the company stronger.

Do Your Part

Business meetings are a mainstay in our work-world, so no matter what you think of them, they’ll never go away. Knowing this, isn’t it time we all work to avoid the top meeting pet peeves? If we all do our part, we can make meetings more enjoyable, more productive, and more meaningful for everyone involved. And that’s one kind of meeting everyone will love to attend.

The Top Meeting Pet Peeves that Plague Organizations – Tip #4

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The following is the fourth meeting pet peeve in a weekly series of 5.

Pet Peeve #4 – Using PowerPoint When It’s Not Needed

PowerPoint is an essential business tool, but it’s not effective for all meeting types. Unfortunately, many people believe that ALL meetings require the use of PowerPoint. Not true! Typical information sharing meetings require a facilitator asking questions and everyone contributing in round-robin style. Watching someone read PowerPoint slides is not how these meetings should run. After all, if people simply needed to read pages of text, you could just send them the file and skip the meeting completely.

Of course, if your informational meeting needs more of people’s senses involved, then use PowerPoint to add that visual component. Likewise, if you’re combining everyone’s data and showing it in chart or graph form, PowerPoint is great. But don’t use PowerPoint just for the sake of it. Know why you’re using it, and then do it right.

The Top Meeting Pet Peeves that Plague Organizations – Tip #3

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Pet Peeve #3: People Arriving Late to the Meeting

The following is the third meeting pet peeve in a weekly series of 5.

How many meetings have you arrived to on time, only to have the meeting start late as everyone waits for others to show up? Even worse, if the meeting does start on time, it restarts 10 minutes later when a few people straggle in. Rather than continue with the meeting, the facilitator attempts to bring the late comers up to speed by rehashing everything that was just covered.

But why penalize the people who arrived on time? A better approach is to close the door when the meeting starts and put a note on the door that says, “Meeting in Progress.” Those who arrive late will know to sneak in as inconspicuously as possible…and, hopefully, they won’t make the same mistake next time. Additionally, unless the late person is the boss, don’t restart the meeting later. When meeting start times are enforced and honored, people will make the effort to be on time.