Some humble pie from the recruiting trail….

There’s some non-verbal cues that I call the meeting wrap up signals. If you meet with people for a living, you probably know them well, even if they’re involuntary on your part.  Non-verbal meeting wrap-up signals include the following, from least to most demonstrative (most demonstrative means you’re trying to send the strongest signal “we’re done here”):

1. Going from a slouch to an upright position in your chair when you’ve slumped like Kurt Cobain all meeting long…

2. Closing your notebook – the faster and harder you close it, the more the meeting is over…

3. Gathering your tools (laptop, notebook, pens) and ordering them like Rainman so they are easy to transport when the meeting you wish to escape is finally complete…

4. Now that you’re in an upright position and organized to bolt, you square up to your partner in the meeting and proceed to position yourself at the edge of your seat – the kind of position where a 2.5 earthquake would cause you to fall on the floor.

5. If your meeting partner still doesn’t get it, you combine it all – you’re upright, notebook closed, tools organized and on the edge of your seat, and you bring the notepad and organized junk pile to the base of your knees, showing that you’ll be fast out of the blocks if only the person on the other end would see that the meeting is done.

6. Last resort – you slowly stand.  Only 1 out of 100 don’t get this one..

I run you through that for a simple reason. When you interview for a living, you have what others want – jobs – and it’s rare that someone you’re meeting with is going to display the non-verbal “this meeting is over” cues.  That means you are insulated from the real world.  People get the non-verbal “this meeting is over” cues all the time, but you probably don’t.  You probably wouldn’t know them if you saw them.

It’s like the background music starting on a talk show to indicate to the host that a break is coming up and they need to get out of the conversation they’re in…

I share for the simple fact that I was in a meeting a couple of weeks ago – and started getting cues #1 through #3.  First time someone had done that to me in at least a year.  I’m usually in control of that and, of course, I use the wrap-up tools all the time.

I looked at my meeting partner and said, “Hey – you’re wrapping me up, aren’t you?”.  She got embarrassed and tried to change the topic.

In my mind, I was flabbergasted.  After all, I’m MISTER WRAP-UP.  That’s my role, not yours.  I’m just sayin…