From Academy Leadership Affiliate Tom Watson
As a leader you will, no doubt, be called upon to chair meetings of varying importance from time to time. No matter the subject, the cultural diversity of attendees, or the management level of participants, you, as the chair of the meeting, must ensure participation from all. It is all too easy, for example, to neglect the participation of people who are not native English speakers. Having led many business teams in Asia, I found that English was the most common language for meetings of people from various countries. In fact, I had to go out of my way to be sure that team members who did not speak English comfortably were not overwhelmed by those who did. This typically happened when American visitors from headquarters participated in regularly scheduled management meetings. The folks from HQ were in Asia to ostensibly learn the markets and how business was conducted, but, unfortunately, they could unwittingly takeover the discussions merely because of language proficiency. As the leader of the Asian team and the chair of the meeting, it was up to me to be sure that the local managers actively participated and were given ample opportunity to express their thoughts and insights. This was important on many levels. One, this helped the HQ visitors learn about business in Asia. Two, supporting my Asian colleagues gave me high credibility in their eyes. Three, allowing diversity of ideas helped the quality of decision making. Thus, as a leader you must know how to effectively run meetings and also have active listening skills to know when some participants are not contributing to their ability.
