Tweet

Business Meals and Success

Guest post by: Bud Bilanich

Article Overview: Successful people create positive personal impact. If you want to create positive personal impact, you must know and follow the basic rules of etiquette. This is especially true at a business meal. Knowing simple things like the water glass is on your right, and the bread and butter plate is on your left, can save you a lot of embarrassment. It's also important to order something that is easy to eat and doesn't call attention to you while you eat it. Pasta that needs to be twirled, lobster or other shellfish are good things to avoid at a business dinner. Order simple food, and mind your manners as you are eating it. Business dinners are not about the food. They're about the conversation.

Business Meals and Success

Positive personal impact is one of the keys to personal and professional success that I discuss in several of my books. If you want to create positive personal impact you need to do three things. 1) Develop, nurture and constantly promote your personal brand. 2) Be impeccable in your presentation or self -- in person and on line. 3) Know and follow the basic rules of etiquette. Knowing and the basic rules of etiquette are especially helpful when you are invited to a business meal. Business meals are about business, not the food. Remember this the next time you are invited to share a meal -- whether breakfast, lunch or dinner -- with a business colleague. While it's important to know dining etiquette, it's also important to pay attention to what you order.

Here's a personal story that really makes this point.

About 30 years ago, I had just accepted a job as the Training Manager for a division of a large company. Our division was located in New Haven, CT, a city with a large Italian population and a lot of great Italian restaurants.

About a month after I began my job, the VP of Human Resources for the corporation was hosting a two-day meeting of all of the senior HR people in the company at our location. Since the meeting was at our location, junior people like me were invited to a dinner held the evening of the first day of the meeting. I was looking forward to this dinner. It was an opportunity for me to impress some senior people in other divisions.

One of my junior colleagues was a local woman. She was excited about the choice of the restaurant. Of course it was an Italian restaurant. She had been there on special occasions with her husband. She was very fond of a dish called zuppa de pesce, a medley of seafood served over spaghetti. A couple of days before the meeting she told me about this dish and that it was available for two only and asked if I would be willing to share it with her. I said, "Sure."

We arrived at the restaurant, and sure enough, zuppa de pesce was on the menu. My friend and I ordered it. What a disaster!

First the waiters brought lobster bibs for both of us. No one else had ordered this dish, so we were the only ones wearing our bibs. When the food arrived, everyone had a dish of pasta, or some grilled fish, or a steak. The zuppa de pesce was served on a silver tray so big that the waiters had to bring a side table for it. There was enough fish and pasta to feed the entire table. My friend dug in and really enjoyed her dinner. I felt like I was a character in The Godfather.

I spent my time trying to carry on an intelligent conversation with people I wanted to impress while I was wearing a lobster bib and working hard to make sure that I didn't spill any red sauce, or "gravy," as the waiter called it, on my suit.

I didn't lose any points that night -- but I didn't make any either. It was pretty apparent to most people that I was there for the food, not for the conversation.

I learned a lesson that day. Always order something that is easy to eat and won't call attention to you as you eat it. I try to be a good friend, and in social situations, I will often share an entrée that is available for two only -- but I never do that in a business situation. Business dinners are not about the food. They're about the conversation.

The common sense point here is simple. Successful people create positive personal impact. If you want to create positive personal impact, you must know and follow the basic rules of etiquette. This is especially true at a business meal. Knowing simple things like the water glass is on your right, and the bread and butter plate is on your left, can save you a lot of embarrassment. It's also important to order something that is easy to eat and doesn't call attention to you while you eat it. Pasta that needs to be twirled, lobster or other shellfish are good things to avoid at a business dinner. Order simple food, and mind your manners as you are eating it.

Related Articles
  Lesson #4: Learn to See a Problem for its Potential
  Jenny Craig Food
  Turning up the Heat: Rachael Ray Is On Fire
  Tips for Increasing Your Student Energy
  The Secret of Door to Door Street Marketing
  3 Websites That Can Help You Manage ADHD
  Six a day, six days a week
  51 Ways Your Business Can Pay You
  How to Juggle Your Work and Life Demands
  Identify Your Eating Triggers
  Jenny Craig Recipes
  Dealing with the Stresses of Balancing Professional and Familial Obligations - You can make it easier!
  Rachael Ray Quotes
  Strategies for Survival in Tough Times
  Entrepreneurs - How To Start A New Catering Business
  Find a Need and Fill It
  Watch Your Business Expenses (Self-Employed)
  Be A Model For Your Kids
  Success Is A Journey - Enjoy The Ride!
  Enjoying the Moment

Article Tags: business, etiquette, impact, improvement, meals, positive, presentation, self
Referred by: http://www.jimbouchard.org



Related Forum Posts
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: Books for the Entrepreneur - Here's one of my most recent books The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success By Brian Tracy
Landmark Forum Education - I was at an Introduction to the Landmark Forum meeting yesterday and I heard from a lot of people that own businesses there state that the Landmark Education was a key ingredient in their Business Success. Has anyone on the this Forum been to the Landmark Forum 3 day Course? If yes, how has it impacted your business? Thank you for sharing.
Re: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS IS ALL IN YOUR HEAD...RIGHT NOW!!! - Success = Thinking (Head) + Heart (Feeling / Interest) + Hand (doing/ action). Success - H3 Robert
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How to develop the best lateral thinking skills

Top 5 Qualities in an Outsourcing Company

How to Ask for a Flexible Work Arrangement

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.