CHAIRING A

MEETING
By: Afdhalina, S.Pd.I.,M.Hum.
§ A meeting is a gathering of two or more people where
positive discourse occurs.

§ A productive meeting is where the result of the meeting is

achieved by the creation of something tangible that will
help the overall success of the company.

Definition of Meeting
§ To solve a problem.
§ To make a decision.
§ To develop a plan.
§ To gather or convey information.
§ To get a response to information.
§ To obtain approval/reach consensus.
§ To establish understanding/rapport.
§ To clarify responsibilities.
§ To create a sense of teamwork.

Why have a Meeting?

Organizing a meeting can be a monumental task in the
workplace.
The following are the key steps in attaining the first
ingredient to a successful meeting: preparing, or to assemble,
arrange, or produce a meeting effectively.
1. Create an Appropriate Agenda
2. Define the Meeting Objectives
3. Invite the Right People to the Meeting
4. Choose the Right Time
5. Prepare Information

Preparing for Meeting

1. Create an Appropriate Agenda

This agenda should be distributed to meeting participants

ahead of time.
It should have any past review material and the new
issues detailed on the agenda.
The time and length of the meeting should be mentioned
in the agenda.
• 2. Define the Meeting Objectives

In order for any meeting to be successful, it has to

accomplish something.
The meeting objectives detail exactly the point of why the
meeting is being held and what will be accomplished.
3. Invite the Right People to the Meeting

Once the objectives are created, the meeting should have

the correct players in order to achieve the needed goals.
If someone is missing whose expertise is needed, the
entire meeting is a waste of time.
4. Choose the Right Time

The meeting time should be short and the time used efficiently.
If the meeting runs long, it is important to ask for everyone's
consent to extend the time frame.
5. Prepare Information
It is important to come to the meeting with all information
needed.
Questions and concerns should be able to be addressed.
• Inform – Let the participants know the purpose of the
meeting.
• Excite – Explain the benefits of the meeting and why
this meeting should be important to them.
• Empower – Describe the role they will play or the
authority that has been given to them.
• Involve – Get them involved immediately through an
engagement question that furthers the meeting purpose.

Opening a Meeting
Inform
Use words like the following at the beginning of
meetings: “The purpose of this meeting is…When we are
done, we will walk away with…”
These words inform everyone of why we are here
(purpose) and what we will have when we are done
(product).
These words help get everyone on the same page.
• Excite
The goal of the excite segment is to answer the question, “Why
should I care?”
Without the excite, you may have people in the room, but are
they really at the table? How do you excite?
You excite by making statements that answer the question for
them, “What’s in it for me?”
 Involve
After delivering the opening, consider getting the participants
immediately involved.
The involvement step engages everyone quickly and prepares
them for the rest of the meeting.
How do you involve participants early in a meeting?
For some teams, it is best to start with a question that is focused
on the task at hand.
For other teams, it may be more appropriate to start with a
question that takes more of a people-focus.
Empower
The goal in empowering participants is to ensure that they are
clear on the power they have while in the meeting.
When people feel empowered, they tend to be less hesitant to
participate in discussion and more willing to offer their thoughts
and ideas. Often a single, focused, empowering statement is
adequate.
Other times you may find that multiple statements are needed
to empower a group that is used to being told what to do.
The next part of a productive meeting is related to how it
is conducted.
Conducting is administrating or orchestrating a meeting
in the workplace by following basic guidelines: 1. Be an
Effective Leader 2. Assign a Note Taker

Conducting a Meeting
1. Be an Effective Leader

The leader of the meeting should not take over the meeting and
talk the entire time.
A good leader will listen and ask questions in order to be
productive.
Everyone at the meeting should have an opportunity to talk.
• 2. Assign a Note Taker

A note taker should be assigned to take detailed notes and then

summarize key points at the end of the meeting.
It is good to rotate the assignment of the note taker for each
meeting.
1. Provide a high-level summary of the meeting, avoiding
details of discussions but addressing key points and
plans, and making sure everything that needed to be
covered, was covered.
2. Key decisions. Recap the agreed position for each
agenda item to make sure everyone know what has
been decided.

 Closing a Meeting
3. Action assignments.
Make sure that action owners know what’s expected from them,
and are in agreement with the desired outcome and next steps to
be taken.
4. Focus on achievement. If your goal has been achieved, or the
immediate course of action is sufficient to reach the goal, call the
meeting a total success and thank everyone for their time. If the
goal is further away, make sure you summarize the progress
made, set a time for the next meeting and tell the action owners
you’ll be following-up with them before hand about these actions
5. Don’t forget to thank your participants for their attendance and
contribution to the meeting.
Causes of Unproductive Meeting
Purpose of the meeting is unclear.
There is no agenda/organization.
The leader tries to accomplish too much.
The meeting starts late.
Too many people are at the meeting.
The leader loses control.
One person dominates the meeting.
Individuals wander from the topic.
Individuals go back over old items.
No clear direction/no clear conclusions are reached.
• I- Chairing a meeting
Agreeing on the ground rules for the
• Opening 
meeting 
• • Good morning/afternoon everyone.
• • We will first hear a short report on each
• • If we are all here, let's get started / start
the meeting / start. point first.
  • • I suggest we go round the table first. 
• Stating the principal objectives • • Let's make sure we finish by...
• • We're here today to...  • • I'd suggest we...
• • Our main aim today is to... • • There will be five minutes for each item.
• • I've called this meeting in order to...  
  • Introducing the first item on the
• Introducing the agenda agenda
• • Have you all received a copy of the • • So, let's start with...
agenda? • • I'd suggest we begin with...
• • There are X items on the agenda. First, ...
• • Why don't we start with...? 
second, ... third, ... lastly, ...
• • Shall we take the points in this order? • • So, the first item on the agenda is
• • skip item 1 and move on to item 3  • • Shall we start with...?
• • I suggest we take item 2 last.  
 
 •  
• II- Participating in a meeting • Commenting
• Getting the chairperson's attention • • That's interesting.
• • Good point!
• • (Mister/Madam) chairman. • • I get your point.
• • May I have a word? • • I see what you mean.
• • If I may, I think... •  
• Agreeing
• • Excuse me for interrupting
• • I totally agree with you.
•   • • Exactly! 
• Giving opinions • • That's (exactly) the way I feel.
• • I (really) feel that... •  
• Disagreeing
• • In my opinion... • • Unfortunately, I see it differently. 
• • The way I see things... • • Up to a point I agree with you, but...
• • If you ask me,... I tend to think that... • • (I'm afraid) I can't agree. 
•  
•  
• Advising and suggesting
• Asking for opinions • • Let's...
• • Are you positive that... • • We should...
• • Do you (really) think that... • • Why don't you....
• • How/What about...
• • How do you feel about...?  • • I suggest/recommend that..
•  
• Clarifying • Asking for repetition
• • Have I made that clear? • • I'm afraid I didn't understand that.
Could you repeat what you just said?
• • Do you see what I'm getting • • I didn't catch that. Could you
at? repeat that, please?
• • Let me put this another • • I missed that. Could you say it
way... again, please?
•  
• • I'd just like to repeat that...
• Asking for clarification
•   • • I don't quite follow you. What
• Requesting information exactly do you mean?
• • Please, could you... • • I'm afraid I don't quite understand
what your are getting at.
• • I'd like you to... • • Could you explain to me how that is
• • Would you mind... going to work?
• • I wonder if you could... • • I don't see what you mean. Could
we have some more details, please?
•  
III. Concluding and closing • Finishing up
Closing an item
• • Right, it looks as though we've
• • I think that takes care of the first item.
• • Shall we leave that item?
covered the main items.
• • Why don't we move on to...? • • If there are no other comments,
• • If nobody has anything else to add, let’s... I'd like to wrap this meeting up.
  • • Let's bring this to a close for
• Next item
• • Let's move on to the next item
today.
• • Now that we've discussed X, let's now... • • Is there Any Other Business?
• • The next item on today's agenda is...
• • Now we come to the question of…
• Thanking participants for
 
• Summarizing attending
• • Before we close today's meeting, let me just • • I'd like to thank Sara and Riad
summarize the main points. for coming over from Morocco.
• • Let me quickly go over today's main points.
• • To sum up,…
• • Thank you all for attending.
• • In brief,... • • Thanks for your participation.
• • Shall I go over the main points?
 
Watch and Listen to the
videos
 Example
“Good Morning everyone, could I Ok. Let’s move to the next
have your attention, please? I would item: marketing budget for
like to welcome you all to the this strategy. Now we come to
meeting today. Let’s begin. My name
is Malkit Kaur, I am a Marketing the main challenge; how to get
manager. 100.000 new contacts in the
The aim of this meeting is to talk next few months.
about marketing strategies for the The final item on this agenda
next few months. We also will cover
our budget, goals and welcome the is; to welcome our new hires:
new hires. Salohot Harahap in IT and
So, let’s start with some new business: Willian Putra in Finance.
marketing strategies. The first item on Would you like to share your
agenda is how can we make online
advertising more effective. thoughts on this meeting?
It think that’s cover the first item. If
no body has anything else to add, we
can continue on the next item.
 Cont....
To sum up, we dicussed using the new internal marketing
strategies and cutting the budget by Rp10.000.000 next month.
We also talked about our new sales goals and increasing our
traffic. Finally, we welcomed Salohot and William to the
company.
Ok, it looks like we have covered the main items for meeting
today.
Are there any question before we finish?
No? Great, I would like to thank to Mr. Kelvin Arya, our CEO, for
coming to this meeting.
And thank you all the attending. That’s all for today. Thank
you.”
Go to the exercise,
Practice your chairing a
meeting!