When Someone Derails Your Meeting

“What can I do when one of my employees keeps knocking my meeting off track?”

 This question surprised me. I was presenting on the topics of communication and team leadership when a young manager asked this question?

 

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She explained that she holds regular team meetings, and one employee consistently interrupts her agenda and simply begins talking about at least one new item.  She wanted my advice on how to handle such disruptions.

I would have preferred a longer conversation, but this occurred during a Q&A session after my presentation, and I was expected to offer some brief advice.  I’m left to wonder about their power dynamic, their mutual work history, whether someone feels they were slighted for a promotion, etc.

Two Suggestions

So, what could she do next time she was interrupted?  I offered two suggestions.

First, I suggested that, as this has been happening during her team meetings, she needs to demonstrate to her team that she is the leader, and while open to agenda input, she needs to manage the meeting and the agenda for the benefit of the full team.

Importantly her team needs to see her assert what is acceptable meeting behaviour, and guide how any team member can offer suggestions to the team agenda. This could be as simple as stating “I’m going to add that to the end of today’s agenda, and we’ll plan and get to your comments today. But it may have to wait until next meeting. We’ll continue?”

In similar situations I’ll often ask a question of the larger group such as “we’ll continue?” to see some nods and get concurrence from the group.

Second, I suggested that if the behavior doesn’t correct, she needs to meet with her employee, and have him understand how his behavior affects meeting flow and team cohesion.  This starts with her describing, or having ready, two or more specific instances when he interrupted the meeting.  One instance is perhaps excusable, but more than one is not.  

I wrote about another approach, which could be applied here,  to managing disputes in this post https://gycz.blogspot.com/2022/02/dealing-with-team-conflict-real-and.html

 

 Conclusion

It sometimes happens that a team member will challenge your authority.  The reasons why are many, but irrelevant.  To succeed in your function as a leader, you must show respect for all, but assert your position.