Oh dear, they want me to chair a meeting, now what?

Most professionals regard meetings as a waste of time. Meetings are sometimes necessary and one thing is certain: they will never go away. In this blog, I will make you understand why you in particular can, perhaps should, become a good chair of the meeting. You will benefit yourself and it is also good for your organization.

Research shows (2016, Journal of Leadership Studies) that leadership behavior is a crucial factor in a good meeting. It also leads to greater satisfaction among your colleagues. This outcome, I guess, comes as no surprise. Yet most chairmen forget how important their own role is during the meeting. Running a good meeting is difficult, and when it doesn’t go well, everyone suffers.

Here are the 6 reasons you can grow as a professional as a meeting chair.

1. You show yourself more

The skill of running good meetings is a skill that transcends your content knowledge. Being an expert (like marketing, for example) is important, but if you’re just an expert you won’t get there. If you are able to facilitate conversations in addition to your content expertise, then those meetings will be that much better and you will show yourself as a professional much better

2. You improve your professionalism

Your colleagues will appreciate your ability to spend their time productively during the meeting. Especially if you do this without paying much attention to yourself or your skills. You are simply known as someone who can run a meeting well.

3. You create good relationships

Since you are the chair, you prepare. You set the agenda in consultation with your colleagues. It gives you your insight into what your colleagues really care about. In addition, the relationship with your colleagues is strengthened because they feel heard. If you manage to do this, you will build a collegial network that will benefit you beyond the meeting.

4. Staying out of the discussion

Leading a meeting requires knowledge and expertise of group dynamics. For example, when someone wants to contribute to the conversation, when an action needs to be assigned to someone, or when the conversation takes a different direction.

Therefore, when leading a meeting, it is helpful to keep your own ideas and questions to yourself at first and focus on the input and thoughts of the others.

TIP for the chairman of the meeting

So it is better to: interrupt less often, to listen actively and deeply, and to keep your own ideas or experiences to yourself for a while. These are important leadership qualities both before, during and outside the meeting.

4 tactics for an interesting meeting.

5. You expand your network

If you are seen within the organization as someone who can lead meetings effectively, you will probably be asked to help with other meetings as well. Of course, you don’t want to make it your profession, but leading one or two meetings a month for other parts of the organizations expands your network and your knowledge of other functions.

6. You help your manager

Offering to lead the next meeting probably pleases your manager. Many managers simply do not have enough time to determine what items should be put on the agenda and how to create broader support for the policies that need to be implemented.

There is another advantage when you facilitate the discussion: your supervisor can then be present without being distracted to keep the conversations on track. If your supervisor can fully focus on the content, it gives the opportunity for him/her to pick up the nuances (both verbal and nonverbal) of those present. He/she can therefore provide additional information from the organizational perspective as needed.

Growing as a professional

By becoming proficient in leading effective meetings, you can grow as a professional. Your colleagues will appreciate you because they will realize they are no longer plagued by time-wasting meetings. They may even be inspired by you!