How often have you found yourself dozing off in a meeting? If you say never, then you are lying. It’s okay. It happens to everyone at some point. If you are like the majority of business professionals you may be subjected to extremely boring meetings 5 – 10 times a week, or maybe much more often. We can only take so much before heavy eyelids win the struggle.
Here is another question… how often are you the one presenting in a meeting when you notice someone (or many people) struggling to stay awake? Again, if you say never then you probably just aren’t paying attention.
Having a member of your meeting fall asleep during your presentation can be frustrating and potentially awkward. It may attest to the calming affect of your voice, but apart from that, putting people to sleep in this setting is not something to be proud of. I feel strongly that when someone falls asleep during your meeting it is your fault. Are you putting people to sleep?
Here are a few ideas that i have found effective to avoid putting people to sleep during a presentation:
1 – invite the right people
2 – schedule really really short meetings
3 – ask people to read charts or interpret figures for you
4 – bring food/drinks
5 – speak in a slightly louder voice than necessary
6 – ask everyone to bring a question/goal to the meeting and share
7 – incorporate very short videos and media clips into your presentation
8 – present options for people to consider in each scenario, along with your recommendation/decision
8 should do it… the last thing i want to do in this post is lose your interest or put you to sleep.
business confab 