Conducting Meetings

5 personalities that wreck a meeting

If you're running a session, here are five kinds of people that can make things go awry fast -- and how to deal with them

The bully.  Feel free to treat this person like the second grader and say "Jeff, we're listening to Mary right now."

The non sequitur. This person sees no relation between what he is saying and the agenda. Say; "That's an interesting but let us move back to our current agenda item."

The would-be visionary. proposing ideas that sound deep the first time ("What if we doubled that?"). "I'd love if our revenue doubled too, Steve. Now back to the question of why we lost the Smith account."

The constant questioner. deflect with "We'll be getting to that, and I promise I'll make time in 5 minutes for questions."

The rambler. Occasionally makes good points, but buries each nugget in 10 minutes of fluff. "Jan, do you come out for it or against it?"