According to the Guinness Book, 54% of people find public speaking to be more stressful than death. And something that everyone finds to be the most fearful is speaking in meetings while addressing their colleagues. Most of the time people are so shy and scared that they prefer to be quiet and get unnoticed all throughout the meeting. Sitting quiet isn’t going to take you anywhere but talking in that room definitely would. So it’s time for us to be more confident and put forward your ideas and leave all the people stunned with your presence.
Here are 6 ways to impress your boss during meetings
1. Do what you fear
“Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain.”
Mark Twain
The only way that you could overcome any kind of fear is to stand rock solid in front of it and do what scares you. Most likely your greatest achievement lies on the other side of your biggest fears. If you can gather the courage to push through it, only then you could savor the sweet success.
2. Make a visual contribution
Listening for hours and hours can become boring. Instead people would be more interested if you showed them some things like vision boards, PPT, sample products, whiteboard, etc. Having a visual element in your meeting will keep your colleagues focused and also help them retain the information for a longer period of time. Study states that 70% of the people are visual and only 30% are verbal in terms of comprehending some information. This is why it’s a fabulous idea in order to make the meeting more effective. Only when people understand your concepts, they will be able to offer some valuable feedback and insights to it.
3. Inverse Relationship
If you notice, our fear and confidence has an inverse relationship. Which means the moment your self-confidence increases it results in reducing your fear and vice versa. For increasing that parameter of confidence, you need to keep on putting yourself in the spotlight where you have to speak in front of the audience. Soon it will be asserted that you are completely unafraid to pour your mind out with any group on almost any subject.
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4. Stay on track
While you are addressing the dignitaries make sure you stick to the agenda and don’t let the conversation go off track. They might come up with tricky questions or doubts in the middle but don’t panic, in that moment, you need to keep yourself calm and answer them correctly. If you don’t have the right response, ask them to lend you some time and later provide them the information on it. Conclude your meeting on the right note.
5. Speak up in meetings
It’s not always necessary to add information or insights on the topic at hand, sometimes you could just ask questions too. Doing so will make you look highly intellectual, thoughtful, and fully engaged in the meeting. This way you will create an image of you being an important person in the room and a positive influence to everyone around. These small incidents would add up to you being more confident and help you contemplate on the given points in order to add something fruitful.
6. End Strongly
The end should be the most impactful part of your entire presentation. Every meeting that you conduct should close with a clear agreement about the upcoming plan of action. Who will do what? By what time? And to what standard?
Try to be the kind of person who is famous for conducting excellent meetings which people enjoy attending and find beneficial for their personal and professional growth.
The Bottom Line
You have the power to turn ordinary meetings into marvelous opportunities for yourself to be a confident public speaker. You can impress your seniors by contributing effectively in the meeting. Being confident will make you look spectacular at one of the most important activities in any profession.
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