Are you a Following Leader or a True Leader?

Whether you chair a board, committee or just a membership meeting, you must lead with authority. You must always listen to the membership, but how you respond is a very important factor.

When chairing do you;

• call for a vote at the first member to yell out "question"
• accept a bar break at the first member to ask
• restrict the discussion in the effort to save time
• have a rules of order chair that will speak out before being asked

All these issues seem to be listening to the membership, which should be good. But, leading the membership requires steering the membership in a direction benificial to all. There is listening to the membership then there is following blindly. As the Chair you must guide the membership, and help them move in the right direction.

How to Chair the meeting with authority;

• no one in your meeting, should be yelling out anything, and more importantly you should not be following those members. You, as the Chair, should be the only one to decide when the discussion has been exhausted.  As Chair you should know when to ask the membership if the discussion should be ended or "question be called".
• as Chair you need to be aware of the mood in the meeting. Call a break when you think it is needed, and keep it short. If a member has yelled out, it is a little late to call a break. Watch the members for tension, uncomfortable members, moving in seat, and other signs. And again, don't let members yell orders at you, we must lead and not follow.
• restricting the number of speakers or limit the time they can speak, may be good to keep the meeting short, but can destroy your leadership. Members want to have a chance to voice their opinion, and will be very frustrated if not given that chance by the Chair. We must give all members the opportunity to have their say. Even if the time runs a little over, the members will be satisfied at the end of the meeting and not angry that time was more important than they were.
• this is a very common mistake. The rules of order chair is not "the Chair of the meeting", they are the go to member when you, as Chair, need a decisive decision made. If my ROOC was to yell out advice, I would rule them out of order. You are the Chair, you ARE the rules of order chair, you make the decision. When a member questions or challenges your decision, then and only then should you ask the rules of order chair to make their ruling.

As the Leader you need to steer the meeting and not allow the members to steer you. Try to know what your membership wants and needs before they need to yell commands at you.