Politics of Meetings - part 1

There are aspects to every meeting which go beyond the typical literature on conducting effective meetings.  It is important to make sure you have an agenda, have invited the right people to the meeting and be sure to define the take aways along with the responsible parties.   

      But there is more to a meeting than that.  So, this series of posts will deal with what I call the Politics of Meetings.  Some have an intuitive grasp of these principles, but most never quite understand there is much more going on, some of which can have serious implications for your ability to rise within the organization. These will not appear in any specific order.     

1.   Where you sit can make a difference. 

a.       Are you leading the meeting?  Do you want to establish a clear sense of who is in charge?  Then sit at the head of the table in the seat most obviously associated with the leader.  If you want to establish an atmosphere of collaboration, choose a central seat along the side of the table where you can get good eye contact.  Keep this in mind, if you are the leader of the organization, where ever you sit is the “head” chair so don’t feel bound to sit in the same place, allow the focus of the meeting to guide your selection.

b.      If you are not the leader you need to ask yourself what your personal contribution to the meeting is likely to be AND your personal goals within the organization, i.e. how ambitious are you?  If you are ambitious but have nothing relevant to contribute, sitting close to the leader makes you look like a “suck-up,” instead sit about half-way from the leader and the end of the table.  If you aren’t all that ambitious but you do have relevant information, sit closer, if not sit farther.  In other words position yourself so that you can be seen as putting the good of the organization ahead of your personal preferences.