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Arriving late to a meeting happens to the best of us. Regardless of your intentions to arrive on time, or the fact that traffic was a nightmare, or your boss stopped you right before you were about to leave your office, there are certain behaviors that are common yet extremely distracting when people arrive late. Find out if you’re guilty of them, and next time think twice about your behavior when you’re the latecomer.
- Do not apologize when you arrive. Although you mean well, this is distracting from the rest of the meeting as it draws unnecessary attention to you. Now, if you want to acknowledge to the facilitator that you are sorry for your tardiness, do so at the end of the meeting. Wait for an opportunity to approach the facilitator one on one as people are leaving.
- Do not take the liberty to ask questions. Often, people join meetings late and raise their hands early on with questions that have most often been covered already. They’ll often preface their questions with a polite, “I know that this may have been covered earlier, but I was wondering…” Even with this preface, assuming that the facilitator and participants have the time to catch you up is a bit entitled, don’t you think? It basically asks for every other person in the room to put their discussion on hold so that the facilitator can repeat what she’s already said. So not only were you late, but you are further delaying the meeting by asking the entire room to go 2 steps back while you fill in the gaps in your knowledge. When you’re late, you communicate that you don’t have time for this meeting. By asking to be brought up to speed, you’re communicating that although you don’t have time for everyone else, they should all make time for you. (I didn’t realize quite how selfish this behavior was until I wrote out this post!)
- Do not become a major distraction. This means that you should come in as quietly as possible, settle into your seat and begin to focus on the facilitator. Often when people join meetings late they start waving to their colleagues in the room, or ruffling around for a piece of paper, or whispering to the person next to them about what they missed and why they’re late. All of these interruptions take away from what the facilitator is delivering and what the participants are receiving.
Sometimes you’re going to be late. When you are late there is bound to be some level of distraction upon your entrance. However, you can acknowledge that by trying to be the least distracting late comer instead of indulging in the behaviors outlined above. All of those behaviors are enticing because they help us get rid of our guilt for being late (by apologizing), and they help us satiate our need to understand what is going on (by asking questions). However, giving into those needs is a pretty selfish act as it is at the expense of everyone else in the room.
How do you show up when you’re late? Share with us in the comments below.