Silence is Golden

Ever have a classmate or peer who wouldn't be able to last five minutes into a meeting or course session without adding a comment? What reasons do you feel this person had for incessant chattering, even if it was with the teacher or manager?

As an educator, in the school room, I had several students over the year that I actually had to say, "You have three opportunities to talk during class today. Make those comments and questions your most important because you are as important as your classmates, but not more important." It usually worked, especially when I would said, "Okay, this is your first comment. You'll have two left," and so on. 

What does an effective manager do in the board room or training room? Say that you can visit that idea later and move on? Sometimes. Yet others allow their employees to totally monopolize a meeting or training session. We can't always blame the students or employees for breaches of etiquette. Sometimes the person in charge is equally to blame for not stopping it, and peers make it worse by grumbling about it or laughing every time the offender speaks up again, and again. 

The bottom line is, don't be the offender and don't let it happen in your office or classroom. Nobody is worth 90% of the team's time and effort and repeat offenders my find their feet hitting the bricks because they're not a team player.