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Home » Business And Finance Articles » Business Meeting Etiquette

Business Meeting Etiquette

Business etiquette is essentially about building relationships with colleagues, clients or customers. In the business world, it is these people that can influence your success or failure. Etiquette, and in particular business etiquette, is simply a means of maximising your business potential by presenting yourself favourably.

Business meetings are one arena in which poor etiquette can have negative effects. By improving your business meeting etiquette you automatically improve your chances of success. Comfort, trust, attentiveness and clear communication are examples of the positive results of demonstrating good etiquette.

The article will focus on a few key examples of business meeting etiquette for both formal and informal business meetings. Although these are meant as guides to etiquette in the UK they are very much applicable to other nations too.

Informal Meetings

Informal meetings are generally more relaxed affairs and may not necessarily take place in the office or meeting room. Even so a sense of professionalism and good business etiquette are still required.

There are 7 points to consider with informal meetings:

• Business etiquette demands that the person calling the meeting (henceforth 'the chair') should be the most senior or the one with the most direct or urgent interest in the topic at hand.
• The chair should decide the time, place and agenda. These details should be confirmed with everyone to make sure all are in agreement and no inconvenience is caused.
• The chair must make the purpose of the meeting clear to the attendees, how long it will last and what is expected of them, i.e. particular information or preparation of documents. Failing to relay the proper information is bad business etiquette as it could cause embarrassment.
• Punctuality is a must. Keeping people waiting is considered the height of poor etiquette as it abuses their time.
• The chair should strive to ensure the meeting stays within a set framework or agenda so that it is kept as short and effective as possible. He/she must keep circular disagreements and the like to a minimum.
• The chair should (pre-)appoint someone to record the proceedings; documenting major decisions or action points. This can later be distributed to the attendees for reference.
• If the results of the meeting have an effect on others who were not present it is considered proper business etiquette to inform them.

Formal Meetings

The business etiquette of formal meetings such as departmental meetings, management meetings, board meetings, negotiations and the like can be puzzling. Such meetings usually have a set format. For example, the chair may always be the same person, minutes, agendas or reports may be pre-distributed or voting may take place.

Here are 10 business etiquette guidelines that are applicable to any formal meeting:

• Prepare well for the meeting as your contribution may be integral to the proceedings. If you are using statistics, reports or any other information make sure it has been handed out at least three days prior to the meeting.
• Dress well and arrive in good time. Your professionalism is linked to both.
• Always remember to switch of a mobile phone.
• If there is an established seating pattern, accept it. If you are unsure, ask.
• Acknowledge any introductions or opening remarks with a brief recognition of the chair and other participants.
• When discussions are under way it is good business etiquette to allow more senior figures to contribute first.
• Never interrupt anyone - even if you disagree strongly. Note what has been said and return to it later with the chair's permission.
• When speaking, be brief and ensure what you say is relevant.
• Always address the chair unless it is clear that others are not doing so.
• It is a serious breach of business etiquette to divulge information to others about a meeting. What has been discussed should be considered as confidential.

The underlying principles of the all the above business meeting etiquette pointers are good manners, courtesy and consideration. If these principles are adhered to the chances of offense and misunderstandings are greatly reduced.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Good Financial Practices: Making Your Money Work For You

Practicing money management with caution in our daily lives can be rewarding.

Just as we have good living habits enriching our health, good financial habits can enrich us with wealth. When it comes to good living, most of us are aware of the habits we need to follow, but when it comes to creating wealth, we aren’t quite sure about what good wealth creating habits are about. In this article, we will be telling you about some very simple and easy to follow habits that can make all the difference to your wealth and finance.

Hard working employees and small businessmen often wish strike a windfall. These ordinary men and women may be earning good money or generating a decent business return, but still they find it hard to call themselves wealthy. The problem here is not lack of income but the inability to convert income into wealth.

To understand how we can do that, we have to take a look at the money we have at our disposal, from a very different perspective. Most people earn money in order to spend it. Money once used is gone forever. In order to make ourselves wealthy, we need to make money come back to us.

Let's put a simple and easy to understand analogy. Think of a businessman who makes his employees work for him so that they generate good returns for him. Now imagine yourself as a businessman and the money you own as your ‘employee’. Applying the same principle, you employ your money to work hard and generate more wealth for you! You can invest this ‘employee’ to work in different investment plans so that it gives you returns just as an employee would if you were in business without all the added headaches. In fact, money can be a very good ‘employee’ with no demands for a salary, a raise or even leaves.

So the first step to cultivating good finance related habits is to understand that money can work as hard for your returns as you do yourself. And more the money you ‘employ’ or invest in good productive ventures, the more returns you get. And every dollar you use to finance a new project or add to you investment plans goes on to building your wealth. We often spend money on things we do not even need simply because we like it, or because it’s what our neighbors have or because the marketing glitz has got us. Each buying impulse should be weighed against the momentary pleasure it gives against what that money could return to you in the long term.

An easy way to start practicing this habit is to visualize how life would be if you had the option to chose between wealth and consumption. Whenever faced with a buying decision, remember the words ‘spent’ and ‘invest’ can make all the difference.

At the end of the day write down the number of times you gave in to your buying impulses. The day your diary shows only a good investment portfolio and no unnecessary expenditures, you know you have got into the good habit of creating wealth.