The most certain person in the room, wins.
Having worked in major projects ranging from $500K to $5.4 billion+ for the last 20+ years, I’ve seen how people fail to read a room and fail to get leadership commitment in a meeting, especially when it counts with Very Important Peoples (VIPs).
People assume just because they have a sexy job title, or maybe that they are the smartest or the most paid person in the room, they can influence others. But this is not the case. It’s usually the person who’s most certain and prepared, who will influence the course of a meeting and a whole lot more for their project.
I recall a situation where I was working for a project rolling out new technology across Australia.
We were a few months away from a federal election that was possibly going to change the course of our project rollout. I brought in a Director from our Sydney office to a Council briefing that included the CEO, CFO, the Mayor, and other council leaders. This particular Council were stalling and not providing critical information for our project designers. They also had a ‘local’ political agenda and unfortunately, our project was caught in the middle of a sh*t storm.
I did my homework. I anticipated what their objections and concerns were and had already briefed the project team and Director. I would lead and facilitate the discussion and they would interject when necessary.
Our team arrived 15 minutes early and were ready. The council’s executive team were not. By the time we were led into the boardroom by the PA, the meeting was 30 minutes behind schedule and were almost prepared to leave if they left us waiting any longer.
As I introduced the project team to the council’s executive team, I was expecting someone to apologise for the delay, but got the opposite.
‘So, how much time do we have for this meeting?’ I said politely. This is something I always ask first. This way I could meet our ‘must have’ discussion at the beginning, which meant no time for niceties and small talk.
The CEO replied with gritted teeth, ‘Well since you ran late, you have only 10 minutes’.
I bit the inside of my side lip and said calmly but clearly, so that everyone could hear me.
“Perhaps there’s been a misunderstanding. We’ve been here since 3.45 and our meeting was booked for 4.00pm – weeks in advance. I have our Director from Sydney here today, which you personally requested, who has authority to make decisions on the spot to help finalise the designs. I’m sure your business community, who’ve petitioned loud and strong would love to hear that they’re getting a technology upgrade sooner rather than later. So, if you would like us to complete this meeting and resolve your concerns today – 10 minutes it is. Or we can come back after October, because we are fully booked until then”.
You couldn’t hear a pin drop. The CEO tried to wield his power like a baton because he thought he had the cookie, when all along, we were holding the cookie jar. He sank deep into his chair. He knew what we knew – he didn’t need any negative backlash during an October election period.
I remained quiet and waited for the CEO to make the next move…
The CEO ended giving us 30 minutes of his time and post meeting, he apologised, and in future prioritised all our project enquiries in a timely manner.
I knew with absolute certainty we had the best thing since slice bread and refused to accept the CEO’s ‘lateness’ challenge. And by putting a deadline and understanding what the Council needed (less pain and less complaints from their business community) helped us influence the outcome we needed.
Tips to be the most certain person in the room:
· It’s all in the preparation – map out your targeted audience, who are the decision-makers, know what drives them and their community or customers before your ‘important’ meeting. What do your attendees MUST, SHOULD and COULD KNOW from you? Check out my video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N-JUJ6AauM&t=13s for more info.
· Have a meeting before your VIP meeting – ensure you have the right leaders and subject matter experts from your end in the meeting. You must get buy-in from them first before you can get buy-in from your targeted audience. Nut out all possible concerns and objections from your targeted audience and know clearly what your project negotiables and non-negotiables are and why. Then prepare your co-collaborators or team members to speak the same pitch and key messages so that you appear as ‘one’ team.
· Understand what your stakeholders’ pain points are and how you can minimise them. What do you think keeps them up at night and how could you move them to a better place?
· To convince anybody you must believe in what you are saying. By priming yourself mentally before the meeting will keep you ‘present’ and will give you the ability to ‘read the room’ and face the unexpected with more confidence.
· Sometimes you are not the right person to influence – harness the power, knowledge and resources of your team and wider strategic partnership base (internal and external). If they know the topic better than you, let them interject.
· Simplify complex technical information – if technical people can’t do this, be prepared to translate what needs to be said easily between the technical & non-technical people verbally, in images or story boards.
Remember - “The person who is most certain in the room, wins”.
