Toastmasters National magazine quotes Boring Meetings Suck
“Master the Teleconference, 10 Toastmaster tips for better long-distance meetings” feature cover story by Jason Kent, ACB from Portland, OR highlights Boring Meetings Suck in his opening paragraph.
It’s a direct quote from “Conference Calls Suck” as it relates to squeezing meetings into a conference call to keep people at their desks due to overpopulated schedules. Jason then goes onto explain how effective Toastmaster communication and leadership skills can you help you with your leadership, productivity and efficiency of the conference call. And I must say – Jason, nice work!
Many of us despise conference calls because most leaders do NOT have the skills to effectively run one. I think Jason’s approach is right on the money especially his point #7 about vocal variety which no one seems to think about it. Yeah…we get the agenda, time of the meeting etc. but how many of you think about how your pitch, volume and rate of speech effect the meeting? Ummm….I’m going to guess about two of us (that would be Jason and me). This element is so important as it’s the only thing to keep these folks engaged. If not, I dare you sit back and see how many people are typing 100+ plus words a minute on another topic.
I’m also a big fan of Jason’s #9 (of ten) tips: “Know when to quit”. Enough said. It is OK to end early – really. Then, people won’t be afraid to join your next call. If you need to run long, you better get the buy-in of those who are of true value to the call or also risk their dis-engagement from the topic and your overall effectiveness.
In short – I highly recommend the article in Toastmaster April 2010 by Jason Kent. Maybe I will schedule a call with him now. I guarantee it would be an effective one.
To learn more about Toastmasters: www.Toastmasters.org to find a chapter near you.
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