Meeting-nomics 305: The Phrase That Pays

Increasing TMT and expanding your influence are intimately tied, and like a Gordian knot, or the meaning of a mission statement, can’t be untied. So rather than fight it, embrace it. As you progress in your journey toward ever greater managerial excellence you might be faced with a situation where you start to lose control of a meeting. Even if it’s not your meeting, it’s still YOUR meeting. That’s when it is useful to have a few canned phrases in your quiver that you can draw and launch at a moment’s notice without bothering to both listen and then think. Here are a few to remember and deploy when needed.

“I think that’s a different conversation” – What do you do when another manager, or quelle horreur, a regular attendee brings up a topic that you are not prepared to discuss? Shut it down in a way that makes it seem like you understand what’s going on, acknowledge the new topic and are prepared to discuss now, but don’t want to waste anyone’s valuable time. Most likely fear, shame, and crippling depression will prevent anyone from ever broaching the subject again.

“Let’s take that offline” – What you’re really saying is you value each and every member of your team and eagerly want to speak to them individually for a frank and earnest one to one exchange of ideas. If what they hear is you are not important and I feel threatened by you, that’s entirely on them. Should you decide to actually discuss any subject at a later date you’ve just scored a bonus meeting.

“I’ll discuss that at the leadership staff then circle back to the team” – Nothing says “we won’t be discussing that, but I still want you to think it’s valuable” quite like praising an idea while simultaneously tabling it by name dropping someone more important.

“We’ve almost reached the end of the scheduled hour, but let’s just finish today.” Another manager attending YOUR meeting has to leave early? Reward that by extending it. Be sure to justify it by saying it’ll only be a few minutes and it’s more efficient to just finish now while you have everyone together. If a manager uses this one on you the managerial jiu-jitsu counter attack is to name drop the executive you are meeting with and say “they specifically said they are tired of this meeting running long”.

“Let’s pin that for now.” – Translation, your ideas are disrupting MY meeting but I think they are important enough we need to record them. Reality, let’s pin it like a dead moth in a dusty museum drawer, never to be seen again. You can always schedule another meeting to discuss it. If you wait long enough you can score a three-peet and have a getting up speed sync meeting to discuss your new idea!

“I have a conflict with executive staff and have to drop off” – That’s right. You meet with the executives, they don’t. Never hesitate to name drop, whether it’s just a single name or the entire C-suite. The people in your meeting will appreciate that their manager is in direct contact with the higher ups, so remind them whenever possible.

And never forget that the Phrase that Pays is the one that gets YOU another meeting!