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Friday, April 26, 2013

What are the communication norms in your meetings?

I was speaking to a fellow coworker about Toastmasters and why she wants to improve her communication skills. One of the things she mentioned that I have found is prevalent in the workplace is how meeting norms and communication can change depending upon the social culture that is prevalent in a company or organization.

All meetings should follow a set of norms and when a meeting doesn't follow this, it can be confusing for new meeting participants and can affect productivity.

Some guidelines to follow are:

1) Start on Time

2) Give enough time when scheduling a meeting - nothing bugs people than inviting them to a meeting the day of or just a few minutes before it starts.

3) Know your audience - who are you inviting? Are they the appropriate people or do they know who should attend?

4) Have an agenda - an agenda helps people prepare their thoughts and ideas for the meeting. Invite people to add to agenda if need be. An agenda also helps individuals determine if they need to be there, if they can send a replacement in their place and or if they can answer questions if they cannot attend

5) Stay on topic

6) Take Notes and send out follow up notes after the meeting

These seem like very simple guidelines but I have been in so many meetings that don't follow some or all of these. The person I spoke with discussed her experience at a different company where meetings were more formal and the person that presented had the podium (the floor) and everyone waited for the presentation to be over before they had questions. The company that I am presently at has a different set of norms. Meetings can be very impromptu or they can be very formal depending upon the audience in the room.

Getting to know the audience your speaking to can make meetings very effective and productive.

1 comment:

Qualifications

You have reached Heather's Portfolio and Resume. For her portfolio, please visit the links to the left for her writing style and samples. You will also see testimonials as well as her current resume posted. She is available for paid content writing, website writing, blog posts and articles as well as social media engagement for your business. To get in touch with her, please contact her via her contact button.

Qualifications for Marketing Management and Operations/Project Management/Content Development professional


Results-driven leader with over ten years of progressive experience related to communications and marketing operations that include directing sales growth for consumer energy offerings, driving the development, launch, and growth of technology offerings in the telecommunications industry and growing a contracting business associated with online content development, working with consumer brands and social media consulting. Consistently has achieved a track record of exceeding sales goals by as much as 200%. Exceptional communicator recognized for effectively presenting, educating and communicating to different audience levels ranging from executive to individual contributors in sales and marketing channels, credit and collections functions as well as in social media. Skilled in SAP/CRM technologies, Microsoft Office Programs, Windows Vista, MS Project, Visio and FrontPage; Adobe Photoshop. Areas of expertise include:


Project Planning / Management

Vendor Management

Promotions/Presentations

Product Launch / Marketing

Project Management

Training / Development

Market Research Analysis / Implementation

Content Development and Distribution

Quality Analysis/Quality Auditing

Sales/Marketing Campaign Analysis

Internet/Intranet Technologies

Internet/Intranet Publishing


Key Contributions


Created the website Dallas Single Mom as an affiliate marketing website in 2011 that targets parents and families in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through events information, product reviews, deals and giveaways. Achieved monumental success by averaging anywhere from 25,000 to 30,000 pageviews a month via Google Analytics, achieving 5,262 Facebook Likes and 5,352 Twitter followers. Part of a list of preferred parenting bloggers and social media consultants with article writing experience with Examiner.com, Care.com and CBS Local.


Effectively managed all dunning communications activities to TXU Energy customers in 2011 contributing to reducing bad debt expenses by 50% and continuing in 2012 on trend to be at least $21 million dollars under plan. Presented findings to executive leadership and continually fine tunes all communication processes for active and inactive collections.


Effectively collaborated with consumer survey software to measure consumer reaction to sales activities and marketing activities at TXU Energy. Implemented survey tools into internal communication and information databases in order to provide better research and insight to the consumer product development and campaign management teams to determine pricing, campaign launch strategies and sales targets.


In the first 6 months of 2009 at TXU Energy, operated in a dual role as acting Call Center Vendor Manager and Marketing Associate, taking on additional responsibility and exceeding sales results and sale per hour targets. Results - Outbound Acquisition sales were averaging 206% over goal for the 1Q2009


Effectively able to utilize a variety of systems databases, online content management systems, coding for intranet and internet sites, developing training and delivering training via Livemeeting and WebEx.


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