Appearing Professional In Meetings
What does being prepared for a meeting have to do with etiquette?
Being prepared for a meeting has a lot to do with etiquette because if the agenda of the meeting is to talk about the Jones account, and you know nothing about the Jones account, it would be good etiquette to do some heavy lifting and read the file so that you go in there prepared without feeling vulnerable to not having that information.
What's appropriate behavior during a meeting?
Appropriate behaviour in a business meeting is to put your information on the floor. If you've got a briefcase, or whatever you've got, put it on the floor and don't put it on the table or the seat next to you. Also keep your feet flat during meetings with no sprawling as that's the sign of a young inexperienced employee. Instead, sit up and pay attention, the reason you're invited to a meeting is to participate, so if you don't participate or you participate too much you won't be invited back. But you've got to be there and you've got to add to the meeting without being the centre of attention. That is appropriate behaviour and etiquette for a business meeting.
What is the protocol for exchanging business cards at a meeting?
If you're going to the client's office, you may exchange business cards in the lobby if you've never met him before. If they're the one that comes to collect you from the waiting room, then this is the time to exchange business cards. Or it could be after you'd followed them back to their office when banalities are exchanged, for example, “Did you have any trouble parking?” or “You've got a great building.” Make some banality and just exchange to deepen rapport. Then when you get back to their office, they may have a little card file on their desk and they may use that as an opportunity to exchange cards. Either one is appropriate but it's how meetings are done. In fact, women have a lot to learn from men about exchanging business cards. It's a good idea to exchange business cards like men do which is usually the beginning of a meeting.
How can etiquette help me make a good impression at a meeting?
I think that when someone is gracious enough to accept you for a meeting, the real truth is they want you to get there, deliver, and get out, because they want to get back to their task at hand. They've given you the benefit of an appointment for one reason, and that's because of your company. So they're granting the appointment to your company, not really to you. They may need widgets and you're a great widget salesman, but they may have four other widget salesmen that they want to talk to, too. They want to see your product and they want to see if they trust you, so remember, people do business with people they like and trust. And if they like you and trust you, you have a better chance of selling your widget. And so your personality is important, as is your professionalism, your promptness, your willingness to move through your information quickly. When you walk in a client's office, it's OK to make a personal comment about the tennis trophy or the sailboat on the wall, or the view from the window. It's all right to deepen rapport without sounding false. So do whatever you can to create rapport with this person. Your colour brochures should come out on the table when you first arrive into an office for a meeting. If you're there to sell something in a client meeting, it's all right to pull your spiral-bound notes that you're going to give to them about your proposal that you're offering. Go on and pull it out. And then you can refer to that during your meeting instead of fumbling after the meeting begins. These are all good etiquette tips that will help you make a good impression at a meeting.
What behavior can make me seem unprofessional at a meeting?
There is some behaviour that can make you seem unprofessional at a meeting. Using a laptop at a meeting, surfing, and sending and receiving instant messages is really below the bar of professionalism. I'm very careful not to judge people because I think we're all just doing the best we can. But an interesting thing happens which is the more stress that one is under, the more they lapse back into what I call 'at home' manners. And it's the real professional, who performs under stress. And a meeting is stressful, it was meant to be stressful, there's an agenda, there's a time frame, there's Robert's rule of orders. Indeed there's a number of things that go on in meeting that are meant to create a higher decibel of professionalism, and if you're nervous or if you're stressful, you'll do whatever you can to break that stress. People do amazing things to break stress, women rattle around in their purses. It's amazing if you sit around and watch a nervous person, they keep digging around looking for their lipstick, or whatever it is they're looking for. Men will play in their briefcase, they'll jingle change in their pocket. We all have our stress breakers, but to really look professional is to be calm and still, and almost reverent in a business meeting. The best behaviour to make you look professional in a meeting it to smile, look comfortable, ask good questions, respond with brief answers, keep the focus off of yourself, and look for solutions.
What can I learn from top executives about seeming professional?
To learn from top business executives about seeming professional, think about a top executive, how they treat themselves, how they handle themselves in business. And when you think about it, you can see that they're calm. And I'll tell you why they're calm. It's because the head of a company makes fewer decisions than anyone in the company. They make fewer decisions than the lady or gentleman in the mail room. But those five decisions that they make a month are pivotal to the direction of the company. They do have more time, they play more golf, they take more vacations and they have more privileges than we mortals, who make thousands of decisions a day in order to get his objectives accomplished. So frame yourself and think about if you were the CEO of your company, what would that look like? Would you move slower? Would you have more rapport? Would you ask more questions? Would you give more compliments? How would you be different if you were the leader in your company? Because in a perfect world, you're going to climb up that corporate ladder, so learn from a top executive about seeming professional in that way.
