Taking a meeting—the right way and the wrong way

Connections are vital to your career, so don’t screw them up. Here are some essentials for success and some lethal blunders to avoid.

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I’ve been doing this for years. If you ever want to meet me, simply ask for the meeting. I’ll give you 10 minutes via Skype, Facetime, Google Hangouts, or even a Dunkin Donuts, if we’re in the same city.

Sometimes my schedule might be such that we have our meeting as I’m walking to another appointment, but I always promise to give you my undivided attention for at least 10 minutes, if you ever decide you want to meet with me. I believe it’s good karma, and hey, you never know what can come of that first meeting for all parties involved.

Now, it’s not like I’m Jed Bartlett, where 10 minutes is this huge chunk of time, but everyone’s time is important in some capacity. If someone is kind enough to give you 10 minutes out of their day, the least you can do is make sure you’re ready to go.

I can’t tell you how many meetings I take where the person I’m meeting has torpedoed their chances of any good results, simply because they botched the most basic things. So I thought it might be good to talk about what those blunders are, how to avoid them, and how to always take the perfect meeting.

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