Page 16 - Leadership Basics 10

Conducting Meetings

1. Purpose
Right at the beginning of the meeting, ensure that no one can be in any doubt as to why they are
there. State the purpose. It should already appear on the agenda, but reinforce the message.

2. Interaction
The meeting is a time for interaction and exchange, not a monologue from the leader (or anyone
else for that matter). Similarly, it is not for closed discussions between the chair and individual
members. The active meeting is about discussion and debate, with the chair occasionally guiding,
mediating, probing, stimulating and summarising, but mostly letting the others share ideas. From
this, it is clear that skilled meeting leadership is essential.

3. Meeting Leadership
The chair has to exercise her skills even in the most informal settings. To start with you should
recognise the need to use strategies to get people involved. You should refer to them by name and
ask for their comments and opinions.
Being in charge is not easy. You often have to bite your tongue, knowing you have strong views and
wanting others to be aware of them too!
So apart from promoting participation, you should exercise control, ensuring that one person at a
time speaks (not to be interrupted by others), that discussion stays on line and that personal
disputes do not emerge. You have to deal tactfully but firmly with vociferous individuals, those who
try to hide away, those who pretend to know it all, those who live in the past and those who can
only identify the faults of others and never their own.
Seven types of people can often be found in meetings. Without skilful chairing they are unlikely to
do much to improve the quality of meetings. The types are: the compulsive talker, the silent listener,
the reminiscent member, the team bigot, the timid member, the overbearing member and the
blamer. As chair you have to focus their contributions and bring them into the discussion at the
appropriate moment. The reminiscer, for example, can be very negative‐dwelling on the 'good old
days'. At the same time, they have experience which you can draw on, and so long as you point
them in the direction of the future, they can make a useful contribution.
The one who seems to do all the talking (if the chair lets them) is a particular problem and we will
look at this briefly below. But one more type we would add to the list, and which we consider the
second‐biggest potential problem in meetings, is what we call the digressor, the one who always
meanders away from the subject. In this situation you must be determined in your efforts to 'stay
on line'.

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