Meeting Mastery

The other day I watched a senior LinkedIn executive run a virtual meeting with a client. The experience reminded me that meeting mastery is an undervalued dimension of executive competence. This was essentially a "discovery call," but it had all kinds of transferable lessons for anyone in a client-facing role. Here's an attempt to break down the most notable elements.

(1) BEGINNING

Making it real.?

Meeting icebreakers often feel lame and instrumental. That's especially true when someone tries to move on shortly after getting a response to "Where are you based?" or "Happy Thursday!"? But this was not the case here. The executive went well beyond such formulaic gambits by sharing a personal story and asking follow-up questions that made the first few moments feel genuine and sincere.?

Setting an intention.

Even a clean and well-articulated set of objectives can be a wasteful start to a call these days. Clients tend to be decompressing from their previous meeting, still parallel processing their learnings. They are not yet grounded in the new context, so it's unlikely they're paying full attention to the details of your agenda. The LinkedIn executive made it easier for the client by simplifying the frame. He said, "My central responsibility is [X], and what I'm hoping to learn from this call is [Y]." It's a much more digestible way to summarize who you are and what you hope to accomplish in the discussion.

(2) MIDDLE

Demonstrating engagement.

Especially in a virtual setting, many people try to stay on top of other variables "behind the screen."? They check their email. They sneakily message colleagues on the call. They retrieve just-in-time insights. In short, they multi-task. There was none of that here. The executive was fully engaged and making it visually apparent to the client by enthusiastically nodding his head and writing down key points throughout the meeting.

Personalizing intake.

Think of active listening on three levels. Level 1 is to affirm you've registered what the other person said.? Level 2 is to put what they've said into your own words. Level 3 is to relate what they've shared to your own experience. Level 3 was what I observed here. The executive found ways to connect the client's reality to his own. In doing so, he seemed to make them feel deeply understood.

Balancing interests.

People's actions often diverge from their stated objectives. At the outset of client-facing discussions, salespeople will often say they aspire to help. But then they'll spend most of the call describing the current or future benefits of their offering.? There's an obvious say-do gap there. In this call, more than half the time was devoted to understanding the client's perspective before any talk of potential solutions began.

Co-creating insight.

Many service professionals believe they prove their value in being assertive. They want to show the extent of their research, or the degree of their analytical prowess. But especially for a virtual call, you want to avoid a monologue. You want to avoid losing people's attention when the risks of distraction are so high. It was fascinating to watch the executive describe "the idea of our product," and then to invite the client to see connections with their business priorities. He made the client feel part of the problem-solving process, and this in turn made our solution more bespoke to their needs.

(3) END

Building a buffer.

Particularly in a sales context, the last few moments of a call are critical. Yet in many instances they feel rushed, leading to a superficial wrap-up. The end is a time to elicit clear thinking and commitments. The end is what sets the stage for your next beginning. I was struck by the calm and intentional manner in which the executive steered the final stretch, suggesting the appropriate "milestone" to have emerged from the discussion, and specifying the must-dos to reach it. Such clarity was a consequence of having built in a time buffer.

Sharing responsibility.

Meeting close-outs are often a scramble for control. You don't want to be too directive with the client, but you also don't want to give them permission to disengage. This executive invited the client to share the burden, asking "Who should we spend time with?" By asking them to nominate a partner for follow-up, he reinforced a feeling of mutual accountability.?

Narrowing focus.

While the midpoint of a call should be open and exploratory, the endpoint should be concentrated.?You should be distilling what you've learned and packaging those learnings into one or two discrete tasks. This executive gave the follow-up phase a specific objective, saying we would use the time to find the "sweet spot" for collaboration.? He gave the client-partner team a micro mission to focus their efforts until the next interaction.

Typically, we assume technical and strategic competence are what separate executive talent. And they do. But meeting mastery, both in person and virtually, is clearly an essential part of the senior leadership talent stack. It's also an area we can all learn from, and apply the lessons immediately.