Meeting Management Skills | Credit Management

It is the manager’s role in the emergence of qualified and adoptable decisions from meetings and discussions. meeting Administrationbusiness skills of great importance. These skills that managers should acquire can be examined under 4 main headings:

1. Recognizing the Problem
2. Presenting the Problem
3. Conducting the Debate
4. Decision Making

Recognizing the Problem in the 1st Meeting:

Solving the problem largely depends on recognizing the problem.

The problem can be found in the individual, group, or location.

If the problem is with the individual, the solution lies in raising, developing, punishing and rewarding individuals; in the group, in the group or organizational structures; in the location, the location will be examined and changed.

In situations where managers become emotional or overwhelmed, they tend to target individuals or groups rather than the location, and they may err in diagnosing the problem. However, it is important to examine the situation as carefully as the people, so that the problem can be recognized with a realistic eye.

2. Presenting the Problem at the Meeting:

The problem should be presented to the cluster in the best possible way. In order for the discussions to be productive and successful, some of the issues that the managers should know at the presentation stage are as follows;

• The problem should be presented briefly and clearly. It is seen that some managers spend a lot of time presenting the problem and try to eliminate some solutions in advance that they may not like. Long entries limit the discussion and can be perceived as the manager trying to influence the thoughts of individuals.
• A common reason for the leader to prolong the presentation is a lack of response from the group after the problem has been presented. Faced with this situation, inexperienced leaders feel the need to re-enter. This new entry, on the other hand, confuses the members either by changing the emphasis or by raising different problems. Experienced leaders are prepared to wait longer for responses. Even if the wait is difficult, it increases participation as it gives the members the opportunity to think and transfers the responsibility of speaking to the members.
• When presenting the problem, only one goal should be stated. Although some positive or negative side goals may appear in addition to this purpose, they should not be compared with the real purpose; however, if several different solutions allow to achieve the goal with the same effectiveness, then the choice should be used sparingly.
• The problem group should be presented in an accusatory or threatening manner. Presenting the problem in a way that creates emotional reactions rather than rational ones makes the solution difficult. The group’s natural reaction is not interest but hostility.

Problems should be presented spatially (situationally), not behaviorally. Problems presented in this way are impersonal and can arouse interest and cause members to think. Because behaving like this does not show the desire to judge the group, but the desire to overcome a common difficulty together. In addition, positional presentation of the problem prevents negative reactions, as people generally adopt to change their behavior only if it is an idea that comes out of their own accord, and they reject outside behavior change suggestions.

The problem should not be presented in a very general and vague way. The admin can make a very general introduction for various reasons, but in this case it will be difficult for the group to understand the problem.

The manager may have thought about the problem beforehand and adopted some solutions and may not be able to avoid hinting at them during the presentation. However, if the problem is presented in this way, the group may react in two ways: adopting or criticizing the manager’s thoughts. First, it may cause group members to adopt a “Yes sir” personality. In the second, the discussion may turn into whether or not to accept the leader’s thoughts.

The presentation of the problem should show common interests. Group discussions can be more effective if the common interests that both the organization and the group members will derive from its solution are stated while posing the problem.

3. Conducting the Discussion in the Meeting:

The first step in conducting the discussion should be to consider the emotional states of individuals. Because people are accustomed to hiding their emotions, they try to make them seem logical. However, the basis of most of the opinions voiced by individuals is emotional. It is thought that criticisms directed at individuals during a discussion will be useless as they will suppress emotions and increase tension, while adoption and understanding will be beneficial as they will lead to vocalization of emotions and decrease in tension.

A meeting that can facilitate the process of expelling emotions from harmless channels and creating a sense of security in highly emotional individuals. Administrationi skills include:

• Showing sensitivity to expressed or implicit feelings
• Being able to be silent instead of dominating conversations, thus ensuring that members are active rather than passive.
• Using words such as “Yes” “I understand” instead of opposing or arguing the feelings voiced; listening attentively, making gestures such as nodding.
• Trying to understand the voiced feelings and thoughts instead of evaluating them. If the leader makes evaluations as if he were a judge, the members try to present themselves in a way that he likes, and they can keep their true feelings and thoughts hidden.
• To ensure the participation of all members without having a long and mutual discussion with any member.
• Delaying solution-orientedness by devoting more time to the discussion of the manager’s problem, as individuals attempt to reach a solution as soon as possible and this may prevent the emergence of new options.
• The process of collecting ideas should be separated from the process of evaluating ideas. Since many criticisms can be directed to new and different ideas, the evaluation process may prevent criticism from being raised. For this, the manager should prevent evaluations during the idea gathering stage.
• Disagreements should be used constructively. The fact that disagreement can often cause conflicts and hurt pride leads individuals to avoid disagreements. However, the disagreement among the members can be an element that increases the quality of the solution. It is necessary to ensure that disagreements are met with respect and allow new ideas to emerge.
• Summarizing is not seen as a method used at the end of the discussion, but as a tool that can be used to put the discussion on its orbit, to determine whether what has been said is understood, to determine progress, and to break the problem into certain parts when necessary.

Decision at the 4th Meeting:

When the idea gathering and evaluation process is completed, the group enters the solution selection phase. The most important point to keep in mind is that this stage should not be entered unless the members are able to contribute as much as they desire and to the extent of their abilities. Below are examples of various approaches to the decision-making process.

• In cases where each solution found is neither superior nor inferior, the method of examining the benefits and drawbacks of each solution can be used.
• New problems that solutions can create can be explored. It often happens that an option that solves one problem creates other problems. In this case, it is necessary to consider the possibilities of solving the new problems created.
• In some cases, two or more options can be combined.

On the other hand, before the end of this stage, it is necessary to reconcile continuous objections* and to ensure that some people leave the meeting without their relationship broken or damaged.

When a particular solution is selected, the administrator is responsible for summarizing that solution. This summary should cover not only the decision, but also the date of implementation, the duties that the members will undertake, the stage and conditions of the implementation of the decision, how the effectiveness of the decision can be measured and whether it will be reconvened.

Fulfilling their functions in society and maintaining their lives in a healthy way depends on the effectiveness of the decisions taken in the organization.

Although effective decision-making can be achieved with some innate abilities, it is clear that managerial effectiveness is the product of both innate and acquired qualities. Just as the influence of both heredity and environment is no longer discussed in psychology, it would be wrong to believe only one of these two views in management science. So, even if they have some inherited abilities, managers can be trained and developed to be more effective.

Research shows that the success to be achieved in development and renewal is that people or groups feel the need to change and believe in the benefits that change will bring.
Based on the fact that making effective decisions is an art as well as a scientific aspect, managers who research, think and adopt the view of development are probably the biggest gains of today’s organizations.