Diving into the deep end of meetings and how to keep your cool

That meeting. You know. The tricky one. Here's how to manage that. With some tips taken from swimming in cold water….

A few times a week I go to a local outdoor pool. They say it’s heated and I think it was probably was - shortly after the last Ice Age - and so getting in the pool as you can imagine is quite the experience.

Sometimes in my head there is internal shrieking or a very colourful arrangement of big sweary words. The first few seconds of getting in the pool is bracing to say the least.

Have you experienced something similar to this when you communicate at certain meetings?

Your confidence is low, you’re nervous and you can find things overwhelming. But it’s important for you to be seen as calm and in control, that you show value, and represent yourself as a supportive member of the team and a successful leader.

I bet there's a meeting that you have to do where the first few minutes is your equivalent of getting into a cold swimming pool.

If so, here are 3 tips to help you with that.

Make one change to improve the meeting

1) The first idea is to think about the one thing you could do to improve the outcome of this meeting. How successful is this meeting just now on a scale of one to 10? Maybe you say 6. OK. What could you do to nudge that from a six to an 8?

Why you should show curiosity at meetings

2) The second thing you can do is ask a follow-up question to a point that one of your colleagues has made. This can deepen the conversation, the connection between people and it shows that you're listening and engaged with what is being said.

How a small difference about how you breath makes a big impact on managing nerves

3) And the 3rd thing is to take a few deep breaths before you go into this meeting. So what do I mean by deep breaths? Well that is when your in breath is shorter than your out breath.

For example you breathe in for four, hold it for two, breathe out for seven. That’s breathe in for four, hold for two, and breathe out for seven.

If you do three or four cycles of this it's going to calm you down, and the “sciencey” bit is that it calms down your parasympathetic nervous system convincing your brain everything is fine.

I've used this technique when I get in the pool and it really helps.

So, when’s the next meeting where you can put these techniques into place, boost your confidence, raise your visibility and have a more successful meeting?