Meetings can sometimes feel like a chaotic fish market, with everyone talking over each other! Have you ever experienced this? Meetings are essential in every organization, from businesses to schools and government. But to make a meeting truly effective and valuable, specific skills are required.
Secrets to Effective Meetings
Necessity is the mother of invention, and while organizing an effective meeting might seem simple, it’s full of challenges. According to training expert Nguyen Minh Duc, author of “The Art of Meetings,” the success of a meeting depends on many factors:
- Thorough preparation: Clearly defining objectives, content, participants, time, and location is crucial.
- Facilitation skills: The meeting leader needs to know how to capture attention, manage time, control the flow, and create an open and respectful atmosphere for everyone.
- Active participation: Everyone in the meeting should proactively share ideas, provide constructive feedback, listen to others’ opinions, and show respect and consensus.
- Clear outcomes: Each meeting should conclude with clear conclusions, decisions, concrete action plans, and assigned responsibilities.
Meeting Skills: A Roadmap to Success
Effective meetings not only deliver good results for work but also contribute to strengthening relationships among team members, fostering motivation and trust to achieve common goals together.
Effective Questioning Skills
“Ask clearly to understand, and you won’t be ashamed”, asking questions is how you proactively seek information, clarify issues, stimulate thinking, and create opportunities to express opinions.
Learn to ask open-ended, thought-provoking questions that help everyone think together and come up with common solutions.
Persuasive Presentation Skills
“Words cost nothing, choose them wisely to please others”, clear, coherent, and logical presentation skills, accompanied by supporting evidence, will help you persuade listeners and create a positive impact.
Use easy-to-understand language, confident body language, a sincere attitude, and focus on common benefits.
Effective Listening Skills
“Listening is an art,” listening is not just receiving information, but also understanding, empathizing, and respecting others’ opinions.
Focus on the speaker’s words, body language, and emotions, ask questions to clarify what you don’t understand, and show respect with nods, smiles, eye contact, etc.
A Story of a “Miraculous” Meeting
“A straight tree fears no crooked shadow”, I once witnessed a “miraculous” meeting at my former company. The goal of the meeting was to find solutions for a project facing difficulties.
By sharing, listening, and providing constructive feedback, members came up with many innovative ideas, helping the project overcome difficulties and achieve unexpected success. That meeting became a testament to the power of unity and the importance of meeting skills.
In Summary
Meetings are necessary, but to achieve optimal effectiveness, everyone needs to equip themselves with essential skills such as questioning skills, presentation skills, listening skills, etc. Remember that the success of a meeting is the result of the collective effort of everyone involved.
You can learn more about meeting organization and management skills to improve the effectiveness of your meetings.
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