Meeting tips: The dumbest the better

Feb 2, 2008 by Robert A Henru

Have you ever been in the meeting with the extroverts? Phew, they are so good with words, their ideas seems so bright, while you need to think before you speak. Easily you feel as if you’re the dumbest in the room.

Here are the tips when you feel as if the dumbest in the meeting.

When you are a leader, your job is to have all the questions. You have to be incredibly comfortable looking like the dumbest person in the room.

Jack Welch

Recently I took on responsibility of leading a project team in my office. It’s my first time, and this week was the first meeting they announced me as the one taking the lead on the technical side. Phew, the experience is overwhelming, I have extroverts in the team, and it’s quite intimidating in the beginning, they speak so fluently, come up with lots of ideas, and all goes very fast, few times I felt loss and hard to keep on track. I’m so tempted to ask them to quiet and slow down!

Fortunately, I have prepared some of the questions to be discussed for the project. And here is the trick, in the situation like that, you just need to observe and ask. What Jack Welch mentioned in his book, Winning, does surprised me, as a leader you are needed to ask, so we must be comfortable and secure enough to be the dumbest.

Questioning, however is never enough. You have to make sure your questions unleash debate and raise issues that get action.

Jack Welch     

Here is where I am so thankful for the extroverts in my team, I just raised the issue, the bomb, and they can talk about it, debate about the ideas as if it’s a never ending conversation. In this point of time, I just sit back and observe, seems nice, isn’t it? =).

If you don’t make sure your questions and actions are acted upon, it doesn’t count.

Jack Welch

For leaders with agenda on hand, it does not stop with the observation mode; they’ve got to have courage to interrupt the conversation, when the debate takes too much time, or heads towards undesirable conclusion. It’s important that all the issues raised must have a conclusion, decision and action plans to be acted upon.

What if you’re not a leader? Leadership is not about position, it’s about your decision to take on responsibility, whenever you have questions, issues or concerns on the project you’re working on, prepare a question before the meeting and raise it up during the meeting.

Introverts can easily be a better team-member in the area of observing and raising a concern, and introverts need to learn to raise their concern and their ideas and be confident about it. In any case, don’t be intimidated by the extrovert, be comfortable even if you look like the dumbest in the meeting as long as you’re still keeping your attention to the meeting and the project on hand.

For your success,
Robert