Running large meetings can sometimes seem like an arcane art. Fortunately, there are a number of simple practices that vastly improve your ability to present and communicate effectively. Over the course of the next several months, we will have a lot more to say about running large meetings and presentations, but today, we cover the first of these techniques — the Greeting.

One of the greatest parts of being a manager is coaching your directs … even if, we’d guess, you don’t do it nearly often enough. But you know if you’re one of our thousands of regular listeners that with the coaching model, we recommend you coach every member of your team ALWAYS. The reason we recommend this is that most managers think that coaching means TRAINING, which it doesn’t. For the hundredth time: any manager, with the Manager Tools Coaching Model, can coach ALL of their directs at ALL times, for the most part DURING their weekly One on Ones. [If this intrigues you listen to the Coaching Casts, starting here.]

Okay, but what about when you really do need to be the trainer? What about when you come up with a list of resources for when one of your team has to present to senior execs, or when one needs to learn how to run a meeting, or even overcome an objection in a sales call… and you, the manager, really are the most obvious and best resource?

Easy: you become the Trainer. It’s not common - it ought to be somewhat rare, to be honest. [There’s always someone else to ask to help!] But when you ARE the Trainer, how do you do it?

Four Steps, described in detail in this Cast: How to Do Simple Training.

Can there possibly be anything more to say about business meal etiquette?

Yep! Today we conclude our 2-part series on Meal Etiquette.

Good business practice demands good relationships - with customers, suppliers, team members, and bosses. And good relationships usually means breaking bread together. So, are you up to speed on how to have a business meal? Or even worse, HOST the meal yourself?

You are? GOOD! Then you already know when to start talking business, and whether it’s different at breakfast, lunch and dinner. You know how much alcohol to drink, and how many glasses of wine there are in a bottle. And the ideal way to pay for a meal, or what to do when the check comes. If you know all THAT, then we bet you also know where to seat your guests, and yourself, whether there are 2 or three of you. And, of course, what to order, and what NOT to order. Soup, you say? NO.

And if you’re not sure… that’s why there’s a Manager Tools podcast covering all that and more.