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Meeting Etiquette!

By Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal on 13 Comments / 5220 views

I am a hard core fanatic when it comes to meetings:

 

If I am going to be 1+ minute late, I will sms and mail the party apologizing.

 

Usually I expect folks to be BEFORE time for their meets with me – and if not, at least ON TIME.

 

There is also a general rule we have at 2win:

 

– Arrive at a meeting ON TIME

– After sitting for 10 minutes, remind the party by sms/e-mail and also tell the receptionist.

– Repeat the process between 15-20 minutes

– LEAVE – Just walk out AND LEAVE on the 31st minute.

 

I have walked out of many offices in the past 12 years using this rule, including a meeting with Helion – the VC (Rahul Chandra my good friend later told me that he was seated in a restaurant in the building and no one even called him up to tell him that I was waiting – the receptionist was too petrified to call him and rather kept the visitor waiting).

 

Most of the time the party calls back or apologizes but there are folks (particularly in Delhi) who dont give a damm.

 

My view is that if they cant value your time – they will NEVER value your business.

 

Quit on them even before you start.

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13 Comments

  1. I have 1 example on this:

     

    on a major pitch with one of India’s leading pvt sector bank. this was a meet to decide 30+ crs of
    their advertising spends in ’99. the who’s who from the agency is there
    but the mktg head is summoned by the famous ceo.

    so now 8 of us including the agency head are waiting for 90+ mins.

    and when she did come, the agency head just refused to present. he is who i
    loved to call “meethi churi” – someone who had the knack of saying
    brutal things sweetly :).

    he just said, i don’t think you will be in the proper frame of mind to listen after this long break &
    neither are we. its a very important meeting so lets reschedule & we
    left.

     

  2. Great post Alok.

     

    On a related note, interview etiquette is something very important too – a few things we practiced religiously in a very successful India development center of a US product company are below.

     

    1) When people come to your office for an interview, they should not be kept waiting in the lobby for more than 1 minute. This meant that even if the scheduled interviewer was busy, the candidate was met with by any employee and spoken to in a courteous manner. And we tracked this by logging the exact time – arrival of candidate and first person to come and meet them in our interview register.

    I can’t tell you how many people valued this!

     

    2) We also gave every employee an absolute VETO – and the moment one of them felt it wasn’t going to work out, it was their responsibility to inform the candidate ‘Sorry, its not going to work out, and here’s why’ and walk them out in a polite manner, rather than wasting the time of either the candidate or other interviewers.

    3) We never did reference checks – but we always had people fill out a few basic questions (like name, education, salary history) and then I used to simply ask them the same questions and read out their answers to me. It was amazing how many people started ‘clarifying’ their answers and telling the ‘truth’ when their own answers were simply read out to them – it also helped us filter people out very quickly.

     

    Companies are built by establishing a club that’s hard to get into – and an exceptional team – not just at the executive management level but at all levels.

     

  3. Sanjay,

    I LOVE the insight of telling someone while being interviewed that its not going to work out!

    Awesome!!

    Yes – We have a ‘do not keep waiting on a sofa’ rule for visitors – if kept unattended for 30 minutes, the operator then escalates to me/kk/rak/mk (Owner level folks in 2win)

    Sanjay Swamy said:

    Great post Alok.

     

    On a related note, interview etiquette is something very important too – a few things we practiced religiously in a very successful India development center of a US product company are below.

     

    1) When people come to your office for an interview, they should not be kept waiting in the lobby for more than 1 minute. This meant that even if the scheduled interviewer was busy, the candidate was met with by any employee and spoken to in a courteous manner. And we tracked this by logging the exact time – arrival of candidate and first person to come and meet them in our interview register.

    I can’t tell you how many people valued this!

     

    2) We also gave every employee an absolute VETO – and the moment one of them felt it wasn’t going to work out, it was their responsibility to inform the candidate ‘Sorry, its not going to work out, and here’s why’ and walk them out in a polite manner, rather than wasting the time of either the candidate or other interviewers.

    3) We never did reference checks – but we always had people fill out a few basic questions (like name, education, salary history) and then I used to simply ask them the same questions and read out their answers to me. It was amazing how many people started ‘clarifying’ their answers and telling the ‘truth’ when their own answers were simply read out to them – it also helped us filter people out very quickly.

     

    Companies are built by establishing a club that’s hard to get into – and an exceptional team – not just at the executive management level but at all levels.

     

  4. Great post ! on the delhi bit , a thumb rule : when in Delhi, be offensive .

  5. ^^ An eye for an eye makes whole world blind

  6. off-course , we are not animals ! offensive in an astute way 😉

  7. Hi Alok

     

    Here the candidate might have put in his best efforts to impress you and failed…on a professional front….it sounds cold & impolite informing the candidate during the interview about his/her rejection.

    A regret email or a letter after the interview to the candidate sounds encouraging & talks culture about an organization . !!

    Cheers

    Alok ‘Rodinhood’ Kejriwal said:

    Sanjay,

    I LOVE the insight of telling someone while being interviewed that its not going to work out!

    Awesome!!

    Yes – We have a ‘do not keep waiting on a sofa’ rule for visitors – if kept unattended for 30 minutes, the operator then escalates to me/kk/rak/mk (Owner level folks in 2win)

    Sanjay Swamy said:

    Great post Alok.

     

    On a related note, interview etiquette is something very important too – a few things we practiced religiously in a very successful India development center of a US product company are below.

     

    1) When people come to your office for an interview, they should not be kept waiting in the lobby for more than 1 minute. This meant that even if the scheduled interviewer was busy, the candidate was met with by any employee and spoken to in a courteous manner. And we tracked this by logging the exact time – arrival of candidate and first person to come and meet them in our interview register.

    I can’t tell you how many people valued this!

     

    2) We also gave every employee an absolute VETO – and the moment one of them felt it wasn’t going to work out, it was their responsibility to inform the candidate ‘Sorry, its not going to work out, and here’s why’ and walk them out in a polite manner, rather than wasting the time of either the candidate or other interviewers.

    3) We never did reference checks – but we always had people fill out a few basic questions (like name, education, salary history) and then I used to simply ask them the same questions and read out their answers to me. It was amazing how many people started ‘clarifying’ their answers and telling the ‘truth’ when their own answers were simply read out to them – it also helped us filter people out very quickly.

     

    Companies are built by establishing a club that’s hard to get into – and an exceptional team – not just at the executive management level but at all levels.

     

  8. Respect each other time.

     

    We have added few more rules to our list. We cancelled few meetings recently. Copying from the book.

     

    Cross check for the meeting:

    ·         1) Do
    we know the agenda?     What are trying to solve or answer?(No, can’t call meeting)

    2)  Who takes the final decision after the meeting?(One person should be there with this responsibility else can’t call meeting)

    3) Expected time for the meeting, how much time will it take to complete the meeting? (Will be adding some more rules after reading this post :))

    4) Are we prepared with the topic, already 2 needs to be well prepared? (If 2 are not prepared, you can’t call a meeting, you can go for a presentation mode meeting/discussion).  

     In a presentation mode, only one person prepares it and others just listens and
    ask queries. Decisions are taken by the presenter.

    (This will be updating further)

  9. I am obsessed with arriving early for meetings; helps have the upper edge during the conversation/ discussion/ negotiation. If late, I feel I loose this advantage.  One is so busy apologising and trying to cramp the conversation in the time left that the body of the discussion is often missed out; not to mention the impression you leave on the client!!

  10. Hi 

     

    I reach 15-20 mins early to the client’s site before the meetings are conducted…& .most of the client’s are MNC’s where they have an entry process to be followed..like filling in a visitor’s info in their registers…or systemetc ..while entering the info..since I am early..I have a glance at the register to find out ..which of my competitors have made an entry…:)…and this helps me to chalk a plan to delete competition from there…so arriving early for meetings has many a benefit !

    Anushka

    Vandana Parikh said:

    I am obsessed with arriving early for meetings; helps have the upper edge during the conversation/ discussion/ negotiation. If late, I feel I loose this advantage.  One is so busy apologising and trying to cramp the conversation in the time left that the body of the discussion is often missed out; not to mention the impression you leave on the client!!

  11. Very good point Alok. Also of similar belief, and believe one should have the guts to walk away. From my experience, I believe this is part of professionalism that is lesser prevalent in couple of countries (India, Italy, etc.) due to cultural reasons.


  12. “If they cant value your time – they will NEVER value your business”
    Alok…thats so on the mark

  13. Hi Alok,

    Thank you for the post..

    To keep it short: Do not compromise; if ‘you’ don’t value your time, no one else does.

    – Shreedhar Bhat

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