When you are in a meeting, you ideally want to be in control of it and not the other way around it. You want to take the meeting as you wish to and bring up points that you want and in the order that you have set. If you are addressing your subordinates, you can confidently say that you can do it each and every time. What about meetings with customers? How sure are you? Not the same as it is with your subordinates, is it?

Leading and pacing is a technique that helps you take control over the face-to-face interaction you are in. You could sit as a mediator trying to resolve conflicts, or apprising your team of the changed goal sheet. One of the sure ways of getting their attention, getting people to take you seriously and to follow your lead, is through this technique.

The methodology works something like this. You start mirroring the person who you are interacting with. After you continue doing this for a while, the party who you are conversing will get...