It’s Monday morning, which means millions of staff meetings are coming to order across Corporate America.
The majority of presentations we make take place in internal meetings. When I work with clients on meetings, one of the biggest frustrations I hear about is the lack of clarity around decisions. Despite an agreed upon course of action during a meeting, oftentimes there’s a person (or two) who behaves quite differently when it comes to implementation. The person shows agreement during the meeting – which can range from silence to nodding to verbally supporting – only to undermine the decision in the hours, days or weeks following the meeting.
In her Harvard Business Review post, Muriel Maignan Wilkins asks whether we’re guilty of these kinds of behaviors. She raises a compelling recommendation in Point #4 “Embrace Conflict.”
How comfortable are we discussing and resolving differing opinions in our company meetings? If we aren’t, what’s the point of having different points of views. . .or meetings?
On a related note, Muriel Maignan Wilkins is also co-author of a great book on executive presence and communication style, Own the Room.
