Meetings, especially when run ineffectively, can be big time wasters. It seems to be more of a problem for folks in the corporate world than for those with small businesses - the latter group by nature tends to be less inclined to participate in business activities that waste time. However, everyone can fall victim to poorly run meetings and benefit from learning how to make the most of your meeting time.

Making meetings more productive and effective is a lot easier than one might think. Here are some ways to get the most of out of your meetings:

Whether you’re at a job interview, attending a networking event or giving a speech, it’s important that you dress appropriately. I’ve seen fashion faux pas in business situations that have actually shocked me: from the person that I interviewed who was dressed more casually than me to person at a networking event who was dressed like he was meeting Cinderella at the grand ball.

Appropriate dress is always in the eyes of the beholder and inappropriate dress can often cause negative perceptions about you before you even open your mouth. Three’s no hard and fast rule such as all job interviews require formal dress or all networking events require business dress as I’ve seen several situations where events that traditionally require formal dress requested casual dress and vice versa.

I recently heard an ad on the radio that shocked me. It was for a divorce lawyer and it was actually encouraging people to get divorced. “Marriage not turning out the way the you like it? Call us!” was among the foolish statements the ad boomed. The ad boasted that over 50% percent of marriages in the United States end in divorce so why not see what all the buzz is about. To completely throw the ad into the gutter, it ended by asking the listener to visit a website – which had a cheesy domain name like 99divorcenow.com.

Throughout history, people have been elevated to greatness because of the way they have responded during a crisis. World leaders, business owners and other newsmakers have made the news (and the history books) because something went wrong or a great obstacle presented itself and they were able to overcome it. On a larger scale, each day people all over the world have defining moments within their career (whether they work for themselves or someone else) because a problem occured and they were able to use their leadership skills to save the day. If you want a fast path to success, step up and shine during a crisis. You’ll differentiate yourself from the pack as so many people simply get absorbed with the problem and what caused it instead of making the effort to find a solution.

So you’ve done something great at work such as finished a tough project, discovered a new way to be profitable or solved a difficult problem. You’re a star, your coworkers and peers admire you and you’re rewarded by … having to give a speech about it.

As you probably know, public speaking is the number one social fear (and some studies show people fear it even more than death). If you’re already uncomfortable speaking to groups, the added pressure of having to do it well as part of your job can cause you reason for panic. Fortunately, you can succeed – it’s not as bad you think it is.

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As if speaking in public wasn’t challenging enough, imagine having to translate your thoughts on the fly into another language while speaking in front of a group. Well this is a challenge that many speakers who emigrate from a country where English is not the primary language to an English speaking country face.

I know many people who are trying to overcome this challenge. So I’ve put together a list of tips to help (I’ll get into more detail on some of these tips and list more in future posts):

Tip 1: Record yourself.

Networking is a term that means different things to different people. To some, it has a negative connotation such as relying on others to get things or trying to get something out of everyone you interact with. To others, it strikes a chord of fear because they associate the term with having to introduce themselves to a total stranger.