{"id":3912,"date":"2019-07-01T11:56:57","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T11:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/?p=3912"},"modified":"2019-07-25T11:10:21","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T11:10:21","slug":"loquacious-lucy-others-the-different-meeting-personas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/2019\/07\/loquacious-lucy-others-the-different-meeting-personas","title":{"rendered":"Loquacious Lucy & Others: The Different Meeting Personas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Mobola Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meetings are a regular part of corporate life. Some of\nus have sat through more than our fair share of meetings. The counter\nproductivity of numerous long meetings is a topic for another day. This post is\nabout the different meeting personas I have come across over the years. Whether\nit is a meeting with clients, an internal team meeting, an organisation-wide meeting, an executive team meeting, a project\nmeeting, a negotiation or what have you, chances are that every meeting has at\nleast one of these personas. You may identify your meeting persona as well. I\nwill not pass judgments on any of the personas. Or at least, I will try not to.\nI will try, guys. No promises though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A quick confession<\/em>: I have been more\nthan one of these personas so don\u2019t feel too bad when you identify yourself.\nYou are not alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loquacious Lucy<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the name implies, Loquacious Lucy talks excessively\nat meetings. Whether she is the one moderating the meeting, or just one of the\nregular attendees, Lucy ensures that everyone hears her voice every couple of\nminutes. From sharing her perspective on areas she knows nothing about, to\njumping to the defence of someone else at the meeting, to making numerous\nfeeble attempts at humour, Lucy is the one\nperson that every one cannot but remember or even talk about after the meeting.\nShe regularly interrupts people when they are speaking and insists on being\nheard whether you like it or not. Oh,\nLucy.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repeating Ronald<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ronald, the \u201cRepeater\u201d<\/em> is the one\nperson who gets on my nerves sometimes. (Judgment, right? I told you, no\npromises!). Anyway, as you have probably guessed, Ronald usually repeats what\nsomeone else just said and says it like he just had an epiphany. So, he goes \u201cI was just thinking, why don\u2019t\nwe<\/em>\u2026.\u201d Then proceeds to repeat the exact thing someone else just\nsaid. To be honest, Ronalds <\/em>are\nsometimes needed at meetings to shed light on what has just been said. Some\npeople have a nice way of speaking that makes everyone agree with or understand\nwhat they say. But this Ronald basically wants to steal the day, steal the\nspotlight, without giving any credit to the original speaker. There is also\nanother angle about how Ronalds<\/em> are\nusually people of a certain gender, echoing what someone of the opposite gender\nsaid whilst getting all the credit. Well, go figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agreeable Abby<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abby is a close family of Ronald, to the extent that she\nfeeds off whatever someone else says. No original ideas or thoughts. Unlike\nRonald, however, she gives credit to the original speaker and goes ahead to say\nwhy she agrees. Abby believes she must speak at every meeting. So even if it is\nto echo what a thousand people have spoken to death, Abby does not mind. As\nlong as she gets her two minutes of fame!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mutinous Martin<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hmm, how do I explain Martin? He is the ringleader of\nthe \u201cmeeting within a meeting\u201d. Martin vehemently disagrees with what is being\nsaid but for some reason will never speak up at the actual meeting for everyone\nto hear. He will rather whisper to those around him and gesticulate loud<\/em> enough\nfor people to understand where he stands. He does this by vigorously shaking\nhis head and all that, as he tries desperately to get people in his corner. He\nusually does not quite succeed as his whispers and loud<\/em> gesticulations\ndisturb the peace of the meeting and he is called to order. \u201cOne meeting, please!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin usually then convenes a \u201cmeeting after the meeting<\/em>\u201d,\neither in the meeting room or some where close by (say in the hallway) where he\ntries to get converts by driving home his point. At least, this time, he does\nnot have to whisper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ghost<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ghost does not get a name because quite frankly,\nthis persona is just a ghost. The Ghost does not speak. The Ghost is not spoken\nto. The Ghost is not spoken about. The Ghost is not assigned any\nresponsibilities, nothing. Nada<\/em>.\nJust ghost. In extreme cases, the Ghost is also not even seen! Nobody knows\nthey are there. So, when they are talking about the meeting later, people are\nlike \u201cOh, you were at\nthe meeting<\/em>?\u201d Ouch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clueless Carrie<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carrie is similar to the ghost but still fundamentally\ndifferent. Like the Ghost, Carrie does not speak, at least deliberately. But\nunlike the Ghost, Carrie is spoken about and asked to speak from time to time.\nBut, in regular Carrie fashion, she is not following the conversation. Not because\nshe does not have the range, but because she lets her mind wander. As she is in\ndeep thoughts trying to remember if she locked her front door before rushing\noff to work this morning, someone asks her a question. \u201cCarrie, can you give us an\nupdate on Project Ivy, you are the team lead on that project, yeah? Carrie<\/em>, Carrie?\u201d<\/em> The\nperson sitting next to her finally taps her. And she blurts out \u201cI\u2019m sorry, you said what?<\/em>\u201d\nOops!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other interesting personas include Dozing Daniel<\/strong><\/em> who\nsleeps from the beginning to the end of the meeting, almost as if the meeting\nis some kind of sleeping pill. Once the meeting ends, the sleep clears from his\nface, like magic. There is also Refreshment\nRaffy<\/strong><\/em> who is there for all the nice treats. Raffy does not\nreally care if the meeting lasts a thousand hours or if people are raising\ntheir voices at each other and all what not, as long as there is sufficient\nfood to eat, Raffy is good. A bonus persona is Looking Larry<\/strong><\/em> who\nstares endlessly at all the people in the meeting (whether they are speaking or\nnot). I\u2019m not sure how common Larry is but I have noticed a few of them, a bit unsettling. Stop staring endlessly at me,\nLarry! Just stop it. Or could it be that..? ohhh, ohhh Larry!!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mobola Lawal Meetings are a regular part of corporate life. Some of us have sat through more than our fair share of meetings. The counter productivity of numerous long meetings is a topic for another day. This post is about the different meeting personas I have come across over the years. Whether it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3914,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3912\/revisions\/3914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heirsholdings.com\/hhpeople\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}