You can’t please all your employees who are with you during a meeting. They will stop listening to you at some point. They will feel bored and hope that the session will be over soon. Having this attitude towards meetings is okay. There could also be some disagreement about various issues, and it could quickly escalate into a personal fight.
Since you are facilitating the discussion, you need to avoid these mistakes to have a meaningful and stress-free conversation.
Expressing your frustration
You can’t call a meeting to tell everyone how disappointed you are with people’s performance and show your emotion by screaming and throwing things. It is okay to express anger, but not during a meeting. If you feel bad about someone’s attitude, you can talk to that person directly. If you think that a specific employee needs to take the blame for something that happened, you also need to let that person know. The meeting needs to be professional, and you need to keep your emotions in check.
Speaking all the time
Everyone already hates the idea of having a meeting. You will only exacerbate their feelings if you decide to take all the talking time. They will listen to what you say, but it could be frustrating for them. Therefore, you need to have a session where you introduce some topics but let everyone share their thoughts. You can facilitate the discussion to help focus on the primary issues.
Interrupting people
Respect is crucial when holding a meeting. You need to make sure that people listen when someone is speaking and the other way around. If you want them to respect someone talking, you also need to do the same. If you keep interrupting, it will only infuriate people, and discourage them from expressing their thoughts.
Telling people they are wrong
When you ask people to say something, you need to be careful with your feedback. Avoid telling people they are wrong or telling them their ideas are irrelevant. It discourages them from opening up for fear that they will say the wrong thing.
Including topics not on the agenda
If you told people about the coverage of the discussion, you need to stick to it. Avoid other issues that you did not previously include as it could delay the conversation. It also makes people feel stressed if you begin talking about another matter when you are yet to resolve the current problem.
You don’t use visual aids
Listening to someone speaking for several hours is not only boring but stressful. Some people want to leave the room, but they can’t because you are the boss. You need to use visual aids so that even if you talk for a long time, everyone will remain engaged. You can invest in a TV wall mount so that everyone can see the slides you prepared.
You know what your employees hate during a meeting. You need to consider how they feel and make the discussion lively, and not stressful.