Show respect to the person that you are meeting

This is the time of year that many executives start to put out their feelers for new opportunities.  The idea is to try and align when they get their bonuses paid to the start of a new opportunity that will be waiting for them.

Some of these people will meet with executive recruiters and some will start to work their internal network and the people that they can trust.

Whatever the case, be respectful of that person's time and avoid being one of the following:

1.  Do not present yourself as the candidate that has it all and could do almost anything.  This will not give the listener any real direction as to what you want and they will be much less likely to refer you to anyone in their network if you cannot be clear with your intentions.

2.  When discussing your background, don't provide long winded, unstructured, undefined examples of what you have been doing.  You will lose the listener and they are really not that interested anyway. Remember, they did not organize the meeting so focus on engaging them.

3.  Some people love what they do or love their industry so much, they will blab about it forever and again have no idea that they have lost the listener.  This usually happens with someone who has been in the same company or same industry for an extended period and they have adopted some of their work to become part of their personality.  It will also often be people who will get caught up in details, and that profile typically doesn't project well for someone seeking an executive leadership position.

4. Some people have no concept of time. They asked for 30 minutes but feel that that doesn’t really apply to them.  Remember, you are not that interesting and you called the meeting and that meeting is keeping the other person from doing their own work or spending time with their family.

5.  Don't think out loud.  This is never a good thing.  Be ready prior to a meeting and if you want to work things out in your head with someone, speak with your spouse or pay someone to listen to you and help you arrange your thoughts and ideas.

6.  Don't over-complicate a situation.  Not every question is a philosophical question.  Many people do not like to pontificate the meaning of life instead of finishing their work and many do not feel the need to turn a simple question into a much larger conundrum. 

Be able to summarize:

Intro

Reason for meeting

Core subject matter to be discussed

Wrap up the purpose of the meeting

Next steps discussed

Farewell,

Mike