Do You Go Into Meetings to Win?
Whether you define ‘win’ as ‘win/win’ or ‘I win’ every meeting you attend ought to be a successful use of your time and the time of the other participants. Here are some ideas to consider.
1. Go into every meeting with an objective. At the very least, at the end of the meeting you should know whether it was successful or not.
2. Plan. What will you say in the meeting? What do you expect from others? Do a potential ‘problem’ analysis and how you will handle those problems.
3. Think about your negotiating stances. What is the minimum you will settle for? What is your Plan B in case you don’t get what you want? Who will your allies be as you negotiate?
4. Prepare your personal thoughts on something like 3×5 cards or in a reporter’s notebook. Do this so you don’t have to multitask in the meeting. By multitasking I mean thinking on the fly.
5. After the meeting make note of what you did well and what you would do differently next time.
