coaching call conclusions by Awa Diallo

During this coaching call, I realised that we all had positive and negative meeting experiences but it was very constructive for all of us. David and I did not conduct a “5P” analysis of our meeting experiences, but during the coaching call, it was very interesting to see how our experiences happened differently but were kind of linked in the conclusions and lessons we learned from them.

The first one that I think is very important is the need of preparation beforehand. Indeed, if you and the team participant are not aware of the meeting purpose and are not prepared well, the meeting will be a waste of time.

Secondly, it is very important to be able to listen and get yourself listened, and all that goes through respect and effective communication. For example, speak loud enough for you to be heard, but do not scream at people. Define a purpose for your meeting and do not get away from it to avoid getting out of subject.

Also, not as easy and evident as it appears, but get everyone interested in what you are saying, be clear and concise on you intervention.

Most of the meetings we discussed were informative meetings, where the team leader had information to give to the meeting attenders; or where the leader needed to be debriefed in the current situation in the different sections of his company. However, David also talked about his brainstorming meeting experience that happened at his workplace. For those to be successful, it was necessary for everyone to be able to listen and build up on ideas that were previously suggested.

This coaching call really helped me understand what we needed to do for this week’s assignment. In fact, it was interesting to see how we can all learn from each other’s experiences and different perceptions of our experiences. When I thought that my meeting experience was bad, Yuchen thought it was a positive experience as I was able to get myself respected from older people.

Finally, we all understood that in our future meetings as managers, we need to respects some fundamentals (cited before) in order to conduct really successful meetings.