In the first part of this article, you learned about how to handle the Monopolizer, the Tangent Talker, the Devil's Advocate, the Cynic, and the Fence Sitter. Now, you'll discover how to deal with the Pandora's Box Opener, the Brown Noser, the Attacker, the Joker, and the Robots.
Pandora's Box Opener
These meeting monsters just have to tackle issues that are emotional, touchy or are "hot buttons" for others in the business meeting. In every business meeting there are topics that are sure to strike a nerve, to provoke an emotional reaction or enter the group into a quagmire.
The Pandora's Box Openers lead the entire meeting into areas that provoke frustration, animosities, and often resentment too. Once this box is opened, it's hard to get the issues back into the box. Discussions of salaries, promotions or personal styles often stir up issues that hijack meetings. Even worse, some culprits reopen issues from earlier in the business meeting that have already been resolved.
The best cure: a firm "let's not go there" from the meeting's facilitator. Other phrases like "let's cross that bridge when we get there" or "that's a hornets nest we don't need to disturb" labels certain subjects out of bounds for the business meeting
Brown Noser
There's likely a sycophant in many business meetings. This employee is obsequious, bending over backwards to ingratiate himself or herself to the boss, the meeting leader or another power broker. They're so busy currying favor with others, they subvert whatever true feelings they have about issues.
This employee is seen by other employees to be in the pocket of the person to whom they're cow-towing. Ultimately they are seen for who they are and become predictable and not trusted.
Try to elicit their ideas and preferences before asking others as a way of drawing them out.
Attacker
As children these people were bullies. Some still haven't grown up. The Attacker deftly mixes negativity with personal attacks, challenging others' ideas with vigor. Without regard to hurting others' feelings, the Attacker uses a confrontational style to object to others' ideas and go against the flow. Sadly, sometimes they don't even realize they're attacking.
A good facilitator can refocus the Attacker to be positive, to remove the sting from their words and avoid an adversarial approach. All meeting participants are entitled to stop the meeting when attacked personally. Ad hominem attacks are attacks against one's person. People can criticize your actions or beliefs, but you don't have to tolerate attacks against who you are as a person.
Joker
Don't let the Joker's good nature fool you, Jokers can be meeting monsters. Their constant joking has the effect of diminishing others' serious ideas or suggestions. Their infusion of humor can belittle others' motions and makes it difficult for some to be taken seriously.
There is a time and place for joking. While we all like a good laugh, constant joking disrupts a meeting and distracts attention from where it should be.
A business meeting leader can designate several minutes at the start or middle of a business meeting specifically for humor. When it crops up elsewhere and is deemed disruptive, the leader can remind people that the time for humor is passed or forthcoming, so as to control it.
Robots
Yep, these meeting monsters are actually cell phones, pagers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and laptop computers. Each distracts their owner and others, too, as they intrude upon participants' attention spans during business meetings.
A good meeting leader will create ground rules or norms for business meetings, including turning off these gadgets at their outset. It's hard to compete with human distractions, let alone electronic ones as well.
As you can see, business meetings are full of characters. Study participant behavior in meetings, including your own behavior, to better understand your style of interaction. The character of your business meetings will surely be affected by the characters in your meeting. May the force be with you.
