Business meeting preparation for non-native English speakers
Preparation for a business meeting is essential to your successful participation. A business meeting is the most important place to communicate your ideas and understand others’ ideas. However, attending a business meeting often generates fear and anxiety because you must participate in a discussion with a group of people instead of one on one. Below are strategies to make your participation in business meetings more successful.
Business meeting preparation: Observe
One of the best things you can do to make yourself comfortable in a business meeting is to observe one first. Ask your manager if you can attend a meeting just to observe how it goes. Take notes on the structure of the meeting. For instance: how does it start? how does it end? Observe the people who contribute frequently. Do they use certain body language to get into the conversation? What phrases do they begin with? Attending a meeting in advance where you simply observe will make you much more comfortable when you attend a meeting in which you will participate.
Business meeting preparation: Prepare beforehand
You were invited to the meeting for a reason, so begin by making list of important points you want to share or answers to questions that may be asked of you. If possible, get an agenda beforehand so that you can have your points in order. Better yet, write them on index cards so you can quickly reshuffle them and discard them once you’ve shared them. You can more easily jump into a conversation if you already have your main points written down. Additionally, it allows you to focus on what’s being said, instead of trying to formulate what you need to say.
Practice saying your points out loud while working on your pronunciation. Better yet, practice with a friend. Ideally choose someone who is a native speaker so that they can help you with pronunciation and phrases.
Speak up early on
Introducing yourself or contributing something early on in the meaning communicates your presence and makes people remember you are there. For instance, ask a question about the agenda or clarify who is in the meeting, perhaps even their role in the project. This will give you confidence to get into the conversation. Remember that your contribution is valuable even if your pronunciation is not perfect. In fact, that may be an opportunity for others to ask you to clarify yourself, which only engages you more in the meeting.
Business meeting preparation: Learn how to jump in
Previously, we suggested that you go to a meeting to observe how others inject themselves into the conversation. Make a list of phrases you can use to jump in like, “Can I just ask…?” or “Would you mind repeating that”. You should also practice phrases that allow you to make corrections, like, “I regret to say that…” or “I apologize, but…”
Another phrase to learn is “would like” which is more polite than “want”. In many languages, the direct translation for the verb to desire something is “I want”, but with American English, we use the less demanding, “I would like…”
Relax but be confident
Don’t stress about speaking or participating perfectly. In fact, imagine how challenging it would be for one of your colleagues to attend a meeting in your country, where English is not spoken. You would likely be kind and patient with them just as they will be with you. Again, if someone does not understand you, it is a chance for you to participate more in the meeting when you explain yourself.
You are a valuable contributor to the company and the meeting, which is why you were invited to participate. In addition, any points you make could prove valuable to the project you are working on. It will be more embarrassing to you if something goes wrong and you didn’t bring it up when you had the opportunity.
Get feedback
After the meeting, follow up with your supervisor, if they were in the meeting. If not, contact one of your colleagues who did attend. This is an opportunity to bring up something you may have forgotten or to ask them how they would have introduced a particular point. In fact, they may even be willing to help at a future meeting by directing a relevant question specifically to you.
Like anything, practice makes perfect, and the more meetings you attend, the more confident you will become. Remember that everyone in the meeting had their first time trying to participate, and someday you may be guiding someone else on how to best participate in a business meeting. Just get out there and take chances. It’s better to receive corrections than to not be heard from at all!
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Related information
The above content relates to the following topics: Accent Modification, Accent Reduction, Speaking English, Speech Skills, Learning American English. Secondarily, it relates to: Speech Pronunciation, Intonation Vowels Consonants, Talking Communication, Spelling, Presentation Skills, Interviewing, Conversation, Speech-Language Pathologist. Finally, these topics are related: Online Training Coaching, Private Classes, Seminars, SLP, and Speech Therapist.
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