Business meetings are essential in our day-to-day professional life, but they do not always go as we expect them to. Attitude is key to getting the most out of a business meeting. If you don't want to waste your time and frustrate your team, avoid saying these 5 forbidden phrases in a work meeting.
The working meetings are necessary to make decisions, to update our team or to set new working guidelines. However, experience tells us that meetings can also waste our time, frustrate us or generate conflicts within the team.
Getting the most out of business meetings is an art that is learned over time. To do so, we must avoid saying these 5 forbidden phrases in a business meeting.
Regardless of whether they take place in the office or, in the case of employees working remotely, in video conference meetings, they must not be said under any circumstances.
This phrase is one of the most damaging to any team. If your opinion doesn't count, what are you doing in the meeting? Obviously, as a member of the team, your opinion is as valuable as anyone else's and by “throwing” that phrase around, what you are doing is damaging the morale of the team.
When you say this, what your colleagues really hear is “you're stupid”. This happens when there is a clear lack of communication, certainly on both sides. The right quality and frequency of communication within the team will prevent misinterpretation, and thus avoid phrases like these that will put the other person on the defensive.
«That's not my problem» is another of the forbidden phrases in a work meeting. If something discussed in a meeting with your team is not your problem, then what is? Teamwork cannot be complete if each and every member of the team, starting with the team leader, is not fully involved with the group. Don't “wash your hands” and offer your full support to the team in order to improving employee performance.
No idea is ridiculous. If you think about it carefully, they can all lead to other ideas that really work. Dismissing a proposal from a member of your team so categorically will have side effects: on the one hand, it will reduce their enthusiasm and commitment to the work, and on the other hand, it will create a bad general atmosphere in the whole meeting. Don't be coercive to the team.
The word “no” is the poison of creativity and business innovation. And given the speed at which the world moves today, if a company is unable to adopt these qualities, its days are numbered. Transform that “no way” into a “let's do it” or at least a “let's consider it”. Don't close yourself to anything without first giving it a chance.
If you are able to avoid uttering these 5 forbidden phrases in a work meeting, you will be able to make it a profitable one. Apart from these 5, can you think of others that we should not utter?