Tips on How to lead a Business Meeting in English

1. Lead a Business Meeting in English
| 10 Must-Have Strategies for Success
• How do you start, manage, and end a business meeting or decision-making conversation effectively,
ensuring that, by the end, everyone is satisfied and that the primary goals of the meeting were
accomplished?
• It’s no easy task.
• Whether you regularly host meetings but struggle with the confidence of doing them in English or
you are unexpectedly tasked to do so, today you’ll learn 10 must-have strategies for success when
leading a meeting in English (with example phrases along the way)
• A quick Google search will highlight the importance of starting and ending your meeting on time
and creating an agenda.
• We will briefly talk about each of those with common English phrases that are used.
• That said, we’re going far and above the basic strategies. In this Confident Lesson today, you’ll
also gain lesser-known strategies that ensure preparedness and smooth communication.
• Ultimately, everyone will wa
• lk away from your meeting/discussion feeling it was worth their time and they are clear about what’s
next.

2. • Here are the 10 strategies you’ll learn:
• Set and share the agenda
• Prepare your key points
• Determine and communicate the purpose
• Open the meeting
• Model active listening skills
• Ask targeted questions
• Minimize off-track conversations
• Say your point and stop talking
• Give thanks where thanks is due
• Close with your final action steps

3. Strategy 1: Set and Share the Agenda
• Preparing an agenda in advance helps to create a roadmap but many meeting and
conversation leaders top there.
• Sharing the agenda with your team in advance ensures that everyone has the
opportunity to come to the meeting prepared and is an essential next step. Not only
that but it shows that you value input from all your team members, including those
who tend to be more shy or introverted and need that extra time to think
• You may be surprised by the well-thought ideas that come from team members who
feel less comfortable thinking in the moment.
• An easy way to share your agenda and communicate expectations is to send it out
via email or post it on a team communication platform at least 24 hours in advance
and say:
• Please find the agenda for [insert day/date] meeting attached. In sharing it now, I expect
everyone will have time to prepare in advance and I expect a more successful outcome to
the meeting.

4. Strategy 2: Prepare Your Key Points
• Having an agenda is a great start, but it doesn’t mean you’re ready to clearly share
your ideas.
• How many times have you wanted to express your ideas but, in the moment of
opportunity, you lost all the words you wanted to say?
• Preparing in advance will help you be ready to speak and share your ideas
confidently.
• Whether you’ve written the agenda or you’re reviewing an agenda your boss shared,
use these questions to help you prepare:
• What updates do I need to provide? What are the key details?
• What ideas or questions do I want to bring up?
• What issues do I want to discuss and resolve? Why are those important?
• What challenges am I facing that I need help with or need a decision on?
• Who do I need to thank or acknowledge?

5. • Of course, you may not have an answer to ALL these questions.
But they do help you clearly identify your ideas or comments in
advance so you’re better prepared.
• While you go through these questions, write down a few keywords
in a notebook so you can reference them easily if you start to
forget. Remember it’s normal to bring a notebook to a meeting or
to have notes available during an online video conference.
• Having those keywords on paper will trigger those ideas when you
need them.

6. Strategy 3: Determine & Communicate the Purpose
• One last important step you can take before the meeting is to
determine the purpose and share it with others.
• In other words, what is the one specific thing that must happen in
this meeting?
• Do you need everyone to agree on a way forward for your new
product launch?
• Do you expect everyone to leave the meeting with a list of tasks they
are responsible for?
• Is the goal of the meeting to get a thorough progress update?
• Communicating the meeting purpose, along with the agenda, will
help ensure this primary goal or purpose is met.

7. Strategy 4: Open the meeting + Initial Updates
• Setting a positive, productive tone right from the start will help others feel
comfortable when it’s time to contribute their ideas. It will also encourage
everyone to stay present with active listening skills.
• This means you’ll think carefully about how to start the meeting, including how
you welcome everyone to the meeting, create time for introductions (if
needed), and present the agenda or initial updates.
• A few common phrases to get things started include:
• Good Morning/Afternoon.
• Since everyone is here, let’s get started.
• Let’s begin.
• First, I’d like to welcome everyone.
• I’d like to thank everyone for coming today.

8. • If introductions are necessary, here are a few phrases to
use:
• Before we dive into the agenda, let’s go around the room
and introduce ourselves quickly – please share your name
and your job title.
• I know most of you but I see a few unfamiliar faces. Before
we start, let’s do a quick round of introductions?
• Let’s go around the table and introduce ourselves.
• Salina, would you like to introduce yourself?
•

9. • And once you’re ready, provide a brief review of the agenda
and purpose of the meeting:
• Our goal today is to…
• We have a few items to discuss today. The first is… The
second is…
• We’re here today to… / We’re here to discuss…
• By the end of our discussion today, we should have a
decision on…
• Let’s start with the first item on the agenda…

10. •
As you review those phrases, note the transitions that are used to help guide
the listener. Words/phrases such as
• first
• second
• let’s start with
• and now
• by the end of our discussion today
• Allow your meeting participants to know what to expect and follow you easily
as you move through the agenda.

11. Strategy 5: Model Active Listening Skills
• Recently my Confident Women Community spent 2 weeks exploring the world of soft skills
in English.
• Soft skills include a mix of attitudes, character/personality traits, and interpersonal skills
that lead to the ability to communicate effectively, lead a team, or find solutions to
problems.
• Active listening skills are certainly an essential component of interpersonal skills.
• In leading the meeting, listening carefully and demonstrating that you’re listening actively
communicates that you value what others are saying.
• I have a full lesson on how to demonstrate active listening in English, so I won’t go over all
the details here but a few key points include:
• Look at the person who is speaking. Even in a video call, you can show that you’re listening
by looking directly at the camera.
• Use body language to show you’re following along including nodding your head.
• For more, be sure to go to my lesson “Signs of Powerful Listening in English”

12. Strategy 6: Be Ready to Ask Targeted Questions
• If you’ve called a meeting or are leading the discussion,
others are looking to get to guide the conversation along.
• The best way to do that – and to encourage effective
conversation – is to ask questions that are strategic, that
elicit details and get others talking, that recognize others
and their contributions, or that offer to help if needed.
• Here are a few examples:

13. • Strategic questions:
• “Based on the opportunities we have, what is the best way
forward?”
• “Given these challenges, how shall we proceed?”
• “What do you hope to achieve?”
• “How can we apply that approach throughout the
company?”

14. • Elicitation questions:
• I’d like to hand it over to Cindy, who can share her thoughts
on ______.
• What does everyone think?
• Tom, would you like to offer any information on this?
• What are your thoughts on _____?
• I’d like to get your input on _____.

15. • Recognition questions:
• “How did your team accomplish this?
• “Who helped you with this project?”
• “What helped you complete this project?”
• “How did you come up with the idea?”

16. • Help questions:
• “What would help you the most right now?”
• “What can I do to help?”
• “What resources do you need to take your project to the
next level?”

17. Strategy 7: Minimize Off-Track Conversations (Help Others
Stay on Point)
• It’s not uncommon to get off track in a conversation.
• New ideas, challenges, and topics can be interesting and
useful but may take the conversation away from the key
topic and potentially interrupt the original goal of the
meeting.

18. • When you need to get the conversation back on the right track, here are
effective ways to do that:
• We need to move on to ensure we have enough time and meet our goal for
this meeting.
• That’s a good point but we’ll need to follow up on it after the meeting.
• That’s very valuable input but we need to finish this topic – can we follow up
after the meeting?
• That is a very valid point but we need to focus on our original topic.
• Can we add that topic to the agenda for our next meeting?
• Unfortunately, we only have ten minutes left, so we have to move on to the
next item.
• Let’s table this issue for now – we need to move on.

19. Strategy 8: Say Your Point and Stop
Talking
• When we’re nervous, unprepared, or not getting the kind of feedback we
expect, there’s a tendency to ramble. What that means is to talk and talk
and talk without direction. And, without impact.
• Whether you’re introducing the meeting topic, sharing your own
ideas/recommendations, or recognizing others for their contributions,
keep your comments brief.
• To do that, say what you need to say one time. Then stop. Pause.
• It might feel awkward the first time but this gives a clear indication that
you’re inviting others to comment or ask questions.
• Trust that if people have questions, they will ask.
• And if there are no questions, go on to the next point to keep the meeting
moving forward.

20. Strategy 9: Give Thanks Where Thanks Is Due
• A good leader will recognize the contributions of others.
• When it’s applicable, take time to praise and encourage others. This doesn’t have
to be a lengthy speech. A simple sentence or two can be a powerful motivator.
• To help, you can follow this structure:
• Name the individual/team.
• Identify what they did/accomplished.
• Describe the impact it had.
• Here’s an example:
• “I’d like to take a moment to thank Anna for her idea to update our audience on
upcoming changes to the platform. In doing so, not only did our community feel
engaged in the process but they also shared ideas that helped us to make
informed decisions that would better benefit our members.”

21. Strategy 10: Summarize the Key Points and Close with Your
Final Action Steps
• It may seem repetitive to summarize what has been discussed or decided but, in English-speaking
culture, this is not only expected but it also ensures that everyone leaves the meeting with clarity.
• Here are some sentences starters to help:
• We’re getting close to our time, so let’s wrap it up with [summarize key points/decisions/steps].
• Any final thoughts before we close the meeting?
• If there are no other issues to discuss, I’d like to finish with [summarize key
points/decisions/steps].
• I’ll follow up with you individually for the items we weren’t able to discuss here.
• If you have further questions or want to discuss, we can meet privately or you can send me an
email.
• How does [insert date] work for the next meeting?
• How about next Tuesday for a meeting to discuss our follow-up items?
• I’d like to thank everyone for sharing their time today.
• I look forward to seeing you all at our next meeting.