Many corporate employees feel that departments hold meetings to hold meetings. They appear to be a waste of time, and it seems as if there is very little being accomplished in the confines of a one-hour face to face meeting that couldn't be as easily accomplished via email.
However, there are unwritten, unrecognized benefits of meetings, that most supervisors understand. Even if they cannot express those benefits in words, they intuit the benefit of gathering a departmental group or a cross-functional team together on a regular basis.
Benefits of Meetings for Supervisors
Most supervisors do not have a "spy" within their departments, and no matter how much they keep their ears to the ground, it's nearly impossible to follow the rumors, the tensions and the problems that are happening among personnel.
Meetings give supervisors a chance to observe team members interacting with one another. And unlike email or conference calls, meetings include nuances of body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions. The eye roll that the accountant may have been able to hide on the telephone is loud and clear in a conference room.
The other way that meetings help supervisors is to highlight and spotlight the natural leaders of their group. When the supervisor asks a tough question, do all of the heads in the room swivel in one direction? If so, then that individual may be picked out for special projects or eventually a promotion.
Benefits of Meetings for Employees
One of the most overlooked benefits of meetings is that it gives employees and team members a chance to show off in front of the boss. Meetings are the everyman's chance to shine on a regular basis. The simple weekly meeting is an opportunity to stand out among peers. If an employee is feeling like he or she is being underestimated or under-appreciated, meetings are a prime opportunity to actively change that situation.
Most offices have a certain amount of hierarchy, and a certain amount of politics. Often, decisions like promotions and special projects are not made by one supervisor alone, but rather by a group of leaders who each have their own champion they would like to see promoted. In order to "win" those debates that the mid-level employee is not privy to, that person has to have a presence in the minds of several members of that group - not just his or her immediate supervisor. To win the committee over, that employee has to shine in group settings and set himself or herself apart.
How to Use Meetings to Get a Promotion
While many other factors play into promotions and career advancement, including the economy, the industry, and so on, it is possible to use meetings to set oneself apart within a business or work group.
Here are a few practical tips on how absolutely anyone can do just that:
- Show up on time, with a pen and paper to take notes. Be ready to be present and aware during the meeting. Whether this includes bathroom breaks, coffee or a morning jog, prepare to be 100% in the room.
- If possible, leave the cell phone in a desk drawer. If that's against corporate culture, mute it and turn off vibrate. Resist the temptation to check it unless absolutely necessary.
- If the agenda is available, or the topic of the meeting is known, try to prepare a few questions on the topic that would help with specific projects.
- Listen. It doesn't matter that the PowerPoint presentation is the same one everyone's been working on all week. Listen to it. Be sure to listen to what is not being said as well. Watch body language around the room. Notice the faces the supervisors tend to concentrate attention upon.
- Try to think of intelligent and cogent questions while people are speaking. Then listen carefully for the answers, so a question is not raised that has already been answered.
- Do not speak just to fill a void. Do not speak out of nervousness. Wait until the time is right for a pointed question, observation or insight.
- Use the notepad and pen diligently. This is not for doodling. This is a parking lot for those brilliant questions, thoughts and insights that will appear to be spur-of-the-moment when the time is right to share them.
- If someone steals an idea (this always seems to happen) it's easiest to turn around by mentioning the original discussion as it occurred (e.g. "That's right, Karen! We spoke about this very thing at lunch! And like I said then, I think we should consider...."). This puts the credit where it is due, without harming the coworker who originally spoke up.
These techniques will not work overnight. One meeting will not earn a promotion. But the combined force of the visibility to supervisors, the focused ability to be a useful member of the team in meetings, and to eventually become that recognized "natural" leader will inevitably yield results.
Alicia King - Alicia King has been writing for Suite 101 since June of 2007. For over a year, she was the Featured Writer for the Suite section about ...
