Leadership-life Fit: Redefine your Meetings
Date postedApril 9, 2026
You’re in the eighth meeting of the week and you feel your energy waning. On top of that, it’s only Tuesday. Perhaps it’s time to redefine “meeting.”
Dan Rockwell, in his recent blog post, discusses the nature of lousy meetings.
- It could have been an email.
- Lots of talk, no action.
- No purpose.
- One person talks, everyone else pretends to listen.
- Unrelated to the real work of the team.
To shift the nature of your meetings, start by creating a shared definition of “meeting.” Rockwell offers 5 new definitions:
- A place where team intelligence expands and relationships grow. (Dana’s note: Meetings function to build the cohesiveness of the team. Lencioni, in The Advantage, identifies the cohesiveness of the leadership team as a key function of a healthy organization. See Lencioni resources HERE.)
- A place where leaders maximize others’ talent. (Dana’s Note: Liz Wiseman, author of Multipliers discusses ways to amplify the talent on the team while avoiding “diminisher” tendencies. See resources from the Wiseman Group).
- A place without monologues. (Dana’s Note: Try the 2 cents worth strategy--each team member gets two pennies. Each time they speak, they “pay” a penny. Once both pennies are spent, that person cannot speak again until everyone else has spent their pennies. No borrowing or loaning allowed:)!! A person can opt not to use their two cents. Once all pennies have been paid, then everyone takes two pennies back and discussion resumes.)
- A place where assumptions are tested. (Dana’s Note: To get perspective and deeper analysis regarding a proposal, situation, or issue, I recommend the 6 hats strategy. You can learn more about it HERE. I also elaborate on it in the podcast.)
- A place where conversations are multi-directional--not just between the leader and the team members.
Dana’s Final Note
The best way to capture the team’s shared definition and conception of “meeting” is through the agreements process. You can find a resource HERE to support you in creating team agreements.