How to stop them hijacking your meeting

What happens when you let the client, your boss, your finance person, or anyone else in the room hijack your meeting?

You lose the confidence of the room.

Don't let them distract you, throw you off, or side-track you.

Of course, there’s a way to do this skillfully.

If someone asks you a question that's unrelated to the things you're discussing, you can say something like:

• Great question. I'm going to get to that in 10 minutes.

• Great point. We’ll be discussing that shortly.

• Yes, that’s important, but we need to stay focused on the issue at hand. I’ll put that in the parking lot so we can turn our attention to it when we have time.

It’s always a great point or great question, by the way.

Here are other phrases that can keep you in control:

• Let’s get back to our main topic.

• I see your point, but let’s return to…

• That’s a great perspective; let’s explore that further after we cover our agenda.

It’s your meeting. You’re ridiculously in charge.