Bad experience in a meeting - Leninka Lazo

I had a bad negative experience in a meeting when I was a Marketing Analyst in my last company three years ago. I was with my Boss (the manager of the meeting) and with a supplier of the company. The problem before the meeting is that my boss wanted to pay less even he signed a contract for the supplier job. It passed more than eight months and he didn’t want to pay the bill to the supplier. So, the purpose of the meeting was deal with the situation.

The supplier was very mad because he had a small enterprise and he needed the money. My boss said to him, he didn’t like the job so; he didn’t deserve a total payment.  Therefore, the supplier insisted in the payment and he started to speak louder to my boss. When my boss was exhausted of the situation, he told me just solve this problem and he left the meeting. Therefore, I talked to the supplier to apologize in the name of my boss and I told him that I was going to talk to him but his payment will be in a month.  After that, I talked to my boss because it was not good for the image of the company that attitude and maybe we can make a discount for the service of the supplier but it was not a solution to be angry and just not paying. After that, my boss was calmer and he listened to me. I came back to the meeting because the supplier was waiting and I told him that we would pay 90 percent of the bill. Then, the supplier was better and he received the payment as we promised.

I think when we let our emotions entered to a conflict; we are not being objective in a meeting. Indeed, it’s important to be practical and not talking without thinking before. We need to be professionals in every moment and not let the personal feelings ruin the purpose of the meeting. I’m sure that my boss could fix this situation but, he let his feelings came in and he stopped being objective. Sometimes, It’s hard being focused and follows an agenda of the meeting, but is necessary. Indeed, I was happy that I could manage the situation for both parts and the supplier was better because he received his payment at the end. I think in every difficult situation, it’s necessary to be calm and talk. We need to follow our motivation of solving a problem and have a successful meeting. In order to do that, we need to separate our emotions for a while and discuss about the situation. I’m sure when we have a conflict, we need to being a professional all the time even if it’s hard. Indeed, after talking to my boss and the supplier, I understood the important of listening people too. At the end, solving the problem for each part was not as hard as I thought.