I don’t know how to chair a meeting.

I’ve been asked to chair a meeting about the Christmas office party. But I’m incredibly nervous as I’ve never chaired one before. Is there a secret for success?

You may never have chaired a meeting but as you’ve probably been to lots you’ll have seen it done well and badly. Think about the things that please and annoy you and build on them. Make sure everyone has the agenda well in advance, and check that you know enough about the participants and issues to be discussed. Arrange for the room to be cool rather than warm; people will be less likely to sleep.

See yourself as a referee whose job is to ensure fair play through careful watching and listening. You must ensure that the timid have a chance to say what they want; deal in a diplomatic way with the argumentative and to be kind to the person you have asked to take notes. Getting that individual on your side is essential if you want the record to reflect your desired outcomes. It’s normal to suggest what should be left out of the minutes and now any difficult bits should be phrased.

Unit 11

Make sure you stick to the time you have allowed for each point and keep things moving by not letting people wander off the subject. Get decisions made and recorded, even if it’s only to postpone matters until the next meeting. If someone is being difficult, defuse things by offering to continue the discussion personally at a more appropriate time.

If the meeting is likely to be more than a couple of hours long, try to include a break at the mid-point; it acts as a marker and stops people getting restless.

Aim is to leave everyone feeling they have had a chance to say what they wanted to say and gain lasting and well-deserved popularity by finishing when you said the meeting would finish.

Exercise 4. Read the article again. Replace the following phrases in the article with the correct expressions from parts A and B above.

Exercise 5. Match the verbs 1-7 with the nouns a)-g) that they go with.