Lead a Meeting in English | 10 Must-Have Strategies Plus Example Phrases
Summary
TLDRThis video script offers 10 strategies for leading effective English business meetings and decision-making conversations. Key points include setting and sharing an agenda, preparing key points, communicating the meeting's purpose, opening positively, modeling active listening, asking targeted questions, minimizing off-topic discussions, being concise, expressing gratitude, and summarizing action steps. The script aims to ensure meetings are productive, satisfying, and clear for all participants.
Takeaways
- 🗓️ Set and share your agenda in advance to ensure everyone is prepared and values team input.
- 📝 Prepare your key points in advance to express your ideas confidently during the meeting.
- 🎯 Determine and communicate the purpose of the meeting to achieve a specific outcome.
- 🌟 Open the meeting with a positive tone and provide initial updates to set the right atmosphere.
- 👂 Model active listening skills to show you value others' contributions and encourage participation.
- 🤔 Be ready to ask targeted questions to guide the conversation and elicit valuable information.
- 🛑 Minimize off-track conversations to stay focused on the meeting's purpose and achieve the desired outcome.
- 💬 Say your point and stop talking to avoid rambling and allow space for others to contribute.
- 🙌 Give thanks where thanks is due to recognize the contributions of others and foster a positive environment.
- 🔖 Summarize key points and close with action steps to ensure clarity on next steps and decisions made.
Q & A
What are the 10 essential strategies for successful meetings and business conversations in English discussed in the script?
-The script outlines 10 strategies: 1) Set and share your agenda, 2) Prepare your key points, 3) Determine and communicate the purpose, 4) Open the meeting and provide initial updates, 5) Model active listening skills, 6) Be ready to ask targeted questions, 7) Minimize off-track conversations, 8) Say your point and stop talking, 9) Give thanks where thanks is due, and 10) Close with your action steps.
Why is sharing the agenda in advance considered a good practice?
-Sharing the agenda in advance is beneficial because it ensures everyone comes to the meeting prepared, values team input, and provides time for introverted or shy team members to think before they may need to speak.
How can preparing key points in advance help during a meeting?
-Preparing key points in advance helps in having the confidence needed to express ideas clearly when the time comes to speak, ensuring that the speaker is ready to contribute effectively to the meeting.
What is the importance of determining and communicating the purpose of a meeting?
-Determining and communicating the purpose of a meeting helps ensure that the primary goal is achieved, as it sets a clear expectation for what the outcome of the meeting should be.
How can setting a positive tone at the start of a meeting enhance productivity?
-Setting a positive tone at the start of a meeting helps others feel comfortable contributing their ideas, which can lead to a more productive and successful discussion.
What does it mean to model active listening skills during a meeting?
-Modeling active listening skills involves carefully listening to others, maintaining eye contact, using body language to show engagement, and nodding to indicate agreement or understanding, which demonstrates that you value their contributions.
Why is it important to ask targeted questions during a meeting?
-Asking targeted questions helps guide the conversation, elicit information, recognize others' contributions, and offer help when needed, which can lead to a more vibrant and productive discussion.
How can you minimize off-track conversations during a meeting?
-To minimize off-track conversations, you can acknowledge the importance of the topic but suggest continuing the discussion at another time or in another meeting, thus refocusing the group on the agenda and the meeting's goal.
What does it mean to 'say your point and stop talking' during a meeting?
-This means to keep comments brief, say what you need to say once, and then stop speaking to allow for others to contribute, ask questions, or for the discussion to move on to the next point.
Why is it important to give thanks where thanks is due during a meeting?
-Giving thanks acknowledges the contributions of others, which is a key aspect of good leadership and can motivate team members by recognizing their efforts and the impact of their work.
How should you summarize and close a meeting effectively?
-To summarize and close a meeting effectively, highlight the key points, decisions, or tasks assigned without repeating everything said, ensuring that everyone is clear on the next steps.
Outlines
🗣️ Effective Communication in English Meetings
This paragraph introduces the topic of managing business meetings and decision-making conversations in English. It addresses the challenges of leading such discussions, especially for those who may lack confidence or find themselves unexpectedly tasked with leading a meeting. The focus is on 10 essential strategies for successful meetings and business conversations in English, which include setting and sharing an agenda, preparing key points, determining and communicating the purpose of the meeting, and more. The speaker, Anarie, emphasizes the importance of these strategies and encourages subscribing to her channel for more English lessons.
📝 Preparing for a Successful Meeting
Paragraph 2 delves into the importance of preparation before a meeting. It discusses the value of having a clear agenda and key points prepared in advance. The paragraph suggests questions to consider when preparing, such as what updates to provide, ideas to share, and issues to resolve. It also advises writing down keywords to refer to during the meeting. The speaker emphasizes the importance of determining and communicating the purpose of the meeting to ensure a clear outcome. Additionally, it provides examples of how to open a meeting on a positive note and set the stage for productive discussions.
👂 Active Listening and Guiding Conversations
This paragraph discusses the importance of active listening in meetings and how it contributes to effective communication and problem-solving. It highlights strategies for demonstrating active listening, such as maintaining eye contact and using body language. The paragraph also covers the importance of asking targeted questions to guide the conversation and elicit information, as well as recognizing and acknowledging others' contributions. Additionally, it addresses how to minimize off-topic conversations and keep discussions focused on the agenda.
🔚 Wrapping Up Meetings with Impact
The final paragraph focuses on how to effectively conclude a meeting. It advises speaking concisely, allowing for pauses to observe reactions and invite feedback, and moving on to the next point if necessary. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of recognizing and thanking team members for their contributions, suggesting a brief acknowledgment is more impactful. Lastly, it covers the strategy of summarizing key points and action steps at the end of the meeting to ensure clarity and set the stage for future actions.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Agenda
💡Key Points
💡Purpose
💡Active Listening
💡Targeted Questions
💡Off-Track Conversations
💡Rambling
💡Recognition
💡Action Steps
💡Confidence
Highlights
10 essential strategies for successful meetings and business conversations in English
Confidence-building strategies for leading discussions in English
Importance of starting and ending meetings on time
Creating an agenda as a roadmap for discussion
Sharing the agenda in advance to prepare the team
Preparing key points to express ideas confidently
Determining and communicating the purpose of the meeting
Opening the meeting with a positive tone
Modeling active listening skills during meetings
Asking targeted questions to guide the conversation
Minimizing off-track conversations to stay focused
The importance of being concise and stopping when you've made your point
Giving thanks and recognizing contributions
Summarizing key points and closing with action steps
Practicing by speaking out loud to gain confidence
Using transition words to guide the audience through the meeting
The power of pauses in allowing for feedback and moving on
How to effectively summarize and close a meeting
Transcripts
how do you start manage and end a
business meeting or a decision-making
conversation effectively in English
ensuring that by the end everyone is
satisfied it's not an easy task whether
you regularly host meetings but struggle
with the confidence of doing them in
English or you're unexpectedly tasked to
lead a discussion in English at the very
last minute this lesson today is going
to help you do all of that we're going
to focus on 10 essential strategies for
successful meetings and business
conversations in English along the way
you'll also learn essential
[Music]
phrases if you don't already know I'm
anarie with speak confident English
everything I do is designed to to help
you get the confidence you want for your
life and work in English one way I do
that is with these weekly confident
English lessons where I share with you
confidence and fluency building
strategies advanced level
vocabulary and targeted lessons on
communication skills like in this lesson
today if you find this lesson helpful be
sure that you subscribe to my speak
confident English Channel so that you
never miss one of these weekly confident
in English
lessons now if you've ever done a quick
Google search on how to lead a
successful meeting in English I'm
certain that you found articles
highlighting the importance of starting
and ending on time creating an agenda
and so on all of that is true and we
will highlight some key phrases for all
of those steps today in this lesson but
we're going to go much further you'll
also gain lesser known strategies for
overall preparedness and smooth
communication ultimately everyone will
walk away from the meeting or discussion
knowing that it was worth their time and
with Clarity on what's going to happen
next here's a quick snapshot of the 10
strategies we're going to walk through
step by step set and share your agenda
prepare your key points determine and
communicate the purpose open the meeting
and provide initial updates model active
listening skills be ready to ask
targeted questions and minimize off trck
conversations say your point and stop
talking give thanks where thanks is due
and finally close with your action steps
before we jump into strategy number one
let's talk a moment about
preparation if you've been tasked with
leading a meeting or a discussion in
English and you're struggling with
confidence if you're feeling nervous and
staying awake at night never
underestimate the power of practicing by
speaking out loud this is a strategy I
talk about indepth in my how to say what
you want training which is a free
training available at my speak confident
English website after we go through
these strategies today I recommend that
you download that training and use what
you learn there to help you be prepared
and gain the confidence you need and now
strategy number one set and share the
agenda preparing an agenda helps create
a road map for the discussion or meeting
you're about to have but many leaders
unfortunately stop there sharing the
agenda with your team in advance ensures
that everyone has time to come to the
meeting prepared not only that it shows
that you value your team's input and
you're taking care of some of your more
introverted and shy team members as well
you're giving them time to think before
they may need to speak an easy way to
share and set expectations for the
meeting in advance is to send it by
email or post it on a communication
platform you have with your team I
recommend doing it at least 24 hours in
advance when you do that that here's a
great phrase you can use to let everyone
know why you're sharing the agenda
please find the agenda for Tuesdays
10:00 meeting attached in sharing it now
I expect everyone to come to the meeting
prepared and I anticipate a more
successful outcome our second strategy
for successful meetings and discussions
in English is prepare your key points
having an agenda is a great start but it
doesn't mean that you're prepared to
share your ideas how many times have you
wanted to express something to share an
idea or a solution you had but then in
the moment you got stuck preparing in
advance will help you have the
confidence you need in the moment you're
ready to speak whether you are the one
creating the agenda or if you're
reviewing an agenda that your boss has
shared with you here are some questions
that can help you think about your key
points in advance
what updates do I need to provide and
what details do I need to include what
ideas or questions do I want to bring up
what issues do I want to discuss and
resolve and why are these important what
challenges am I facing or what do I need
a decision on and who do I need to thank
or
acknowledge of course you may not have
answers to all of those questions and
you may not need to address all of them
but but going through each one will help
you be more prepared and have time to
think about the language you need to
express what you want in the moment also
I recommend that while you go through
those questions write down any keywords
that come to your mind it's common for
all of us to have a notebook or a piece
of paper with us in a meeting and if
you've written down those keywords in
advance you can reference them quickly
and make sure that everything you want
to say
is ready and you're prepared to do it
successfully in the meeting strategy
number three for successful meetings and
English is determine and communicate the
purpose of your meeting this is one
final preparation step you can take
before you have your meeting and what
this really means is what is the one
specific thing or the one specific
outcome you want from this meeting do
you need everyone to agree on a way
forward on a specific project do you
expect to divide up numerous tasks among
team members and have everyone walk away
with Clarity on what they're supposed to
do next is the goal to get a thorough
progress update communicating this
Purpose with your team along with the
agenda will ensure that that primary
goal is
achieved strategy number four open the
meeting with a positive tone and provide
initial
updates setting a positive productive
tone right from the start helps others
feel comfortable when it's time for them
to contribute their ideas this means
thinking carefully about how to open the
meeting including how to welcome
everyone create space for introductions
if necessary and provide any immediate
updates right at the start I'll share a
few examples here in this video lesson
but you can get several more by visiting
this lesson at speak confident English
website and you'll find a link to that
just below this video a few common ways
to positively open the meeting include
starting with a greeting good morning
everyone or good afternoon everyone and
then now that everyone's here let's get
started or I'd like to get started and
welcome all of you to the meeting today
if introductions are necessary here are
a few ways you can get that started
before we dive into the agenda let's go
around the room and have everyone
quickly introduce themselves please be
sure to include your name and your
position or I know most of you here but
I do see a few unfamiliar faces so let's
do a quick round of
introductions and then when you're ready
to introduce the agenda and provide any
initial updates here are a few ways to
do that as a quick reminder our goal for
this meeting today is and then let
everyone know the purpose of the meeting
or that one specific outcome you want to
achieve another way to say that might be
by the end of this meeting today we
should have a decision on and then the
expected outcome if there are multiple
topics that you need to discuss you
could introduce them quickly by saying
we have a few items on the agenda to
discuss today the first is the second
the third and so on
as you review those sentences I just
shared you might notice some transition
words or phrases things like the first
one the second one and finally or by the
end of our discussion today these
transition words and phrases help to
guide your audience so they know where
you're going and what to expect at every
step and now strategy number five model
active listening skills recently my
confident women community spent 2 weeks
exploring the world of soft skills soft
skills include a mix of attitudes
character traits and interpersonal
skills that lead to productive
communication and successful problem
solving active listening is certainly an
essential component of interpersonal
skills in a meeting or discussion
listening carefully and demonstrating
that you're listening carefully lets
others know that you value their
contributions now I have a full lesson
on this topic of how to demonstrate
active listening or powerful listening
skills in English so I won't go over all
of that here I'm going to highlight just
a few key examples but if you want to
learn more about how you demonstrate how
you show that you're actively listening
I'll share a link to that lesson just
below this video in English-speaking
culture one way that we demonstrate the
we're listening carefully is by
maintaining eye contact looking at the
person speaking even if you're on a
video call you can still do this by
looking directly into the camera a
second key component for demonstrating
active listening skills in
English-speaking culture is to use body
language not only might you maintain eye
contact but we also tend to lean forward
or lean in when we're listening to
someone and might nod our head to show
agreement or understanding once again if
you want to get more examples of how you
can demonstrate active listening in
English be sure to check out my lesson
on that topic strategy number six on our
list is be ready to ask targeted
questions if you are leading the
discussion or if you've called the
meeting everyone else is looking to you
to guide the conversation along the best
best way to do that and the best way to
encourage vibrant
conversation is to ask a variety of
questions that are strategic that elicit
information or details questions that
help recognize others and their
contributions and questions that offer
help if needed let's take a look at a
few examples of each and again I provide
several more examples of targeted
questions you can ask in the online
lesson which you can find at my website
and there's a link below this video your
strategic questions might include based
on the opportunities we have what is the
best way forward or given these
challenges how should we proceed
elicitation questions include I'd like
to hand it over to Cindy who can share
her thoughts on or simply what does
everyone think about this a couple of
recognition questions
are how did your team accomplish this or
who helped you with this project and
questions that offer help might be what
would help you the most right now or
what resources do you need to achieve
your ultimate
outcome once you get the conversation
going with targeted questions you might
find that on occasion the conversation
goes off track or gets off topic so
strategy number seven minimize off trck
conversations and help others stay on
point if a discussion gets too far off
track it might result in not achieving
the outcome or the purpose of your
meeting so to help everyone stay focused
on the task at hand here are a few
things you can say this is certainly an
important topic that we need to continue
discussing but we'll have to save it for
another time for now we need to get back
to the agenda so that we can achieve our
goal for our meeting today or that's a
great point but we'll need to follow up
on that in another meeting or after the
meeting today I really appreciate your
idea on that can we explore it further
in another meeting so that we can get
back to the agenda for
today once again if you want more
examples of how you can successfully get
the conversation back on track be sure
to visit this lesson at my website and
now strategy number eight for successful
meetings and discussions in English say
your point and stop talking when we're
nervous when we're unprepared or we're
not getting the feedback from others
that we expect we have a tendency to
ramble to ramble means to speak without
Clarity or direction we just go on and
on and on WE repeat ourselves again and
again and ultimately we speak without
impact whether you're in introducing a
meeting topic or sharing your idea or
solution it's important to keep your
comments brief what that means is you
say what you need to say one time and
then stop speaking allow for a pause
some
silence that can be a little
uncomfortable or awkward the first time
but those pauses allow for a few things
to happen they allow you to observe the
reaction of everyone else and maybe get
some visual feedback as to whether they
understood or not it also shows that
you've finished speaking and so if
someone else has something to contribute
or a question they want to ask for
clarification that's the perfect time to
do so if no one says anything at all it
may be an opportunity for you to move on
to the next point it's important to
trust that when you have those moments
of Silence others will ask questions
questions if they have one and if they
don't it's perfectly appropriate to move
on to the next Point strategy number
nine in a meeting give thanks where
thanks is due a good leader will
recognize the contributions of others so
when it's applicable make sure to take
time to recognize and praise what others
have done and the good news is this
doesn't have to be a lengthy speech in
fact it's more powerful
when we keep our thanks limited to just
one or two
sentences I like to include three key
things when giving thanks or recognizing
others include the name of the team or
the individual identify what they did or
accomplished and Describe the impact
here's an example I'd like to take a
moment to thank Anna for urging us to
update our entire community on changes
we're made to the
platform in doing so not only did our
community feel more engaged in this
process but they also shared with us
their thoughts which allowed us to make
better decisions for our
platform and finally strategy 10 on our
list for how to lead a successful
discussion or meeting in English
summarize your key points and close with
your action steps this doesn't mean that
you have to repeat everything that was
said but rather highlighting the key
points and any significant decisions or
tasks that have been assigned here are a
few example phrases to help you do that
effectively we're getting close to our
time so let's wrap up with and then
summarize the key points the key
decisions or the key tasks that have
been assigned a second option if there
are no further issues to discuss I want
to finish with a quick summary and
highlight
and then once again highlight those key
points if you want a few more examples
of how to effectively summarize and
close the meeting definitely visit this
lesson at the speak confident English
website and if you've had an aha moment
while listening to this lesson today a
moment of insight I'd love to hear about
it as always you can share your
questions and comments with me in the
comment section below this video and
while you're here don't don't forget to
subscribe to the speak confident English
Channel thank you so much for joining me
and I look forward to seeing you next
time
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