Leading a meeting

Have you ever had to be the chairperson of a meeting? It is important that you sound authoritative. Therefore, you should choose the words you use, very carefully. I have listed some useful phrases for every stage of the meeting.

One good way to get everyone’s attention before the meeting starts, is to clap your hands and say, ‘let’s get down to business!’

Good morning everyone. If we’re all here, let’s get started.

Since everybody is here, let’s begin our meeting.

First, I’d like to welcome everyone here.

I’d like to thank everyone for coming today.

Let’s start by us all introducing ourselves.

I’m afraid Brian and Linda can’t be with us today.

It’s a good idea to set a few ground rules, to ensure that the meeting stays on task:

Mary has very kindly agreed to take the meeting minutes.

The meeting is due to finish at 4pm, with a 45 minute break for lunch at 1pm.

We will have to keep each item to fifteen minutes. Otherwise we will run out of time.

I will have the casting vote, if we can’t reach a unanimous decision.

You can use these phrases to introduce and outline the agenda:

Have you all received a copy of the agenda?

We have a few items to discuss today.

The aim of our meeting is to…

We’re here to reach an agreement on…

I’ve called this meeting today in order to…

By the end of this meeting, I would hope that we have found a conclusion.

And here are some general phrases to keep your meeting moving.

So, let’s start with the first item on the agenda…

I propose we go round the table first, so we can get everyone’s opinion.

What are your thoughts on…

That is a very valid point but we need to focus on our original topic.

I would like to hand over to David, who is going to lead the next point.

If no one has anything else to add, let’s move on to…

These phrases can be used for summarising and finalising what has been discussed:

Before we close, let me just summarise the main points.

In brief, all the points have been discussed and voted on.

I will just go over briefly, what we have decided on today.

It seems clear from our discussion that everyone is opposed to…

After discussing our options, it’s time for a final decision.

Let’s put it to a vote – all in favour, please raise your hands.

Finally some phrases to thank the attendees and close the meeting:

Thank you all for attending.

 I would like to thank everyone for their time today.

 Thank you all for your participation.

 Unfortunately, it is time to wrap up our meeting.

 If there are no other issues to discuss, I’d like to adjourn our meeting.

So, unless there is any other business on the agenda, that brings us to the end of my meeting video.