How To Prepare For a Stressful Meeting

1. Ensure that your physiological functioning is optimal. Exercise is a great resource, but know when you are likely to receive the maximum benefit from a session and exercise accordingly. Do you feel mentally superior 2 hours after exercise or 3 hours?
2. Eat a low glycemic meal with a bias towards lean protein. Don’t drink your calories, try tea with peppermint, basil, rosemary, lemon or cinnamon. These tend to stimulate the brain.
3. Take the encounter or the meeting very seriously. Your reputation is on the line even if it’s just a routine meeting. This meeting can be a springboard that will catapult you to the top. “Think and grow rich”.
4. Look at the agenda and prepare your remarks carefully. Get the facts. Knowledge is power.
5. Watch your posture. Sit up with your head high, jaws loose, shoulders broad and even, back and neck long, breathing slow and even and letting the tension go every time you exhale.
6. Walk in with an outcome goal for the encounter or meeting. What would you like to happen as a result of the meeting? Also walk with some goals to govern your behavior and performance during the meeting. One performance goal could be that you are going to sit up and not slouch during the meeting, or that you will drink 3 glasses of water, two before and one during the meeting to help you focus better.
7. Avoid words that hurt, and use words that heal and inspire.
8. Speak only when you have something of substance to say.
9. If you are in a meeting, learn to resist the urge to speak just to boost your own ego. Don’t use this as a platform to show off. Self-aggrandizement smells. They will know and they will talk about you in a negative way afterwards.
10. Remember it is better to let them wonder why you did not say anything, rather than to wonder why you did. If you don’t have anything meaningful to say, don’t say anything at all. Humility is breathtaking in a strong person.
11. Remember that words convey only 7% of your meaning, tone of voice accounts for 38% and body language the remaining 55%. Communication is powerful when these 3 elements are congruent.
12. Listen more than you talk. Even if it’s not about your field of expertise, listen, and especially if it’s about your of expertise, listen. Listen ardently. Listen opportunistically and let it be apparent that you are listening. Leaning forward, reading the eyes of the speaker if possible, encouraging them and asking for clarification are techniques you can use to sharpen your listening skills.
13. If it is a one on one encounter, you may want to use a formula I learnt from Kenneth Blanchard – E.A.R.S.
    1. The E represents the advice to explore the topic by asking open-ended questions, or saying, tell me more or how do you mean or say “Really!” Get the person to unload.
    2. The A means that you should acknowledge the information given.
    3. The R stands for holding back response
    4. The S stands for silence which you should welcome as a time to process the information, and let the person look smart as if they are telling you something that is of invaluable importance. Silence also gives you the opportunity to read the message behind the message.

I hope these prescriptions will help you reduce the stress of your next encounter or meeting.