Case Study #29: Meetings With Different Personalities

Make your meetings productive.

Meetings are black holes. They get all of your energy.

My client Bob was wondering how to deal with different personalities in his team. Every team meeting was a challenge because each brought unique strengths and challenges to the discussions.

This is how he described their typical behavior:

1. Bob (dominant): Confident, motivated, and making decisions.

2. Lisa (analytical): Detail-oriented, cautious, and prefers data-driven decisions.

3. Mark (passive): Quiet, listens more than he speaks, and avoids conflicts.

4. Emily (creative): Innovative, chaotic, but sometimes unfocused.

5. Tom (skeptical): Critical thinker, often questions decisions, and plays devil’s advocate, always unhappy about something.

6. Sophia (harmonizer): People-oriented, focuses on collaboration and group cohesion, positive.

7. David (pragmatic): Action-oriented, focuses on getting tasks done efficiently, but sometimes dismisses lengthy discussions.

Imagine how it was during their meetings:

Bob dominates and leads the discussion. He makes it difficult for others to contribute. Lisa hesitates to agree or disagree without all the data facts. Mark is silent. Emily shares random things.

Tom challenges Bob and others and creates tension. Sophia calms discussions down without keeping the meeting on track. David just wants the meeting to be over, and a decision made.

How would you make meetings productive?

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Meetings need WHY and rules

Different meetings, different challenges. But people’s behaviors are generally the same. If they are analytical, they will probably be analytical during their meetings, too.

The meeting hygiene is:

• Clear guidelines:

  • establishing ground rules,

  • providing equal speaking opportunities,

  • respect for all opinions,

  • and most importantly you need limits for discussions.

• Structured agenda: Balance participation with a structured agenda.

  • You will keep things in rails, plus your time management will be more precise.

• Meeting facilitator

  • Someone who moves around the topics and can facilitate. It does not have to be someone with a decision-making power.

When you have your why and ground rules, your meeting will be more productive from the beginning, since everyone knows what to expect.

The worst meetings are regular ones. They are a playground for different personalities to vent their frustration and intentionally undermine the purpose of the meeting.

Their victory is:

• Meeting with loose ends.

• Meeting with no decision.

• A follow-up meeting.

• Making fun of others.

Meetings are such a waste of time. The time that no one is going to give you back. Just behave and help others do the same.

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You have an agenda and rules, and now you must manage yourself and people

The real challenge is not the agenda with time slots or presenting ground rules at the beginning (yes, it might sound silly). But it’s the actual energy and different personality management.