5 Steps to Making Your Leadership Meetings More Productive

It’s time for your next leadership meeting. Time to tackle your organization’s biggest challenges, inspire your teams, and chart the course toward meaningful outcomes. Perhaps you’ve assembled your dream team, sent folks to leadership trainings, maybe even devoured a few great books on the subject. Everything should run smoothly, right?

Yet despite our best intentions and confidence in our abilities, these conversations can be surprisingly difficult. They can sometimes steer our organizations off course. The very leadership principles we teach or read about often fade once the real discussions begin. And in the wake of the recent government shutdown, the longest in our history, we’re reminded that even at the highest levels, leadership itself can become the barrier to achieving organizational goals. Too often, it’s not outside forces holding us back but the people in the room.

At Colton Strawser, we facilitate and observe these kinds of leadership conversations nearly every day. Over time, we’ve seen the same challenges emerge—strong leaders with great intentions who sometimes get stuck in unproductive patterns. That’s why we wanted 5 keys to approaching your leadership meetings that have helped our clients move toward better, more collaborative outcomes.

Make Expectations Clear

Few things derail a leadership meeting faster than people walking in unprepared. It wastes time and breeds unnecessary frustration. To set everyone up for success, share a detailed agenda at least one week in advance along with any action items or pre-work expected from each participant. Be explicit about the meeting’s goals and the outcomes you’re aiming for so everyone arrives ready to contribute.

Enter with the Right Mindset

Productive meetings start well before anyone enters the room. Build rapport with fellow leaders and team members in the days leading up to the conversation. It helps set a collaborative tone and signals that the discussion matters. Come in ready for open, honest dialogue. A distracted or frustrated mindset can sabotage momentum before the meeting even begins.

Establish Balance in Communication

In larger groups, it’s easy for louder voices or those with higher titles to dominate. Stay attentive to the dynamics and intentionally create space for everyone to speak. As Dan Coyle notes in The Culture Code, high-performing teams ensure that “everyone in the group talks and listens in roughly equal measure, keeping contributions short.” You don’t need to time each person, but inviting quieter members in and moderating long monologues can dramatically improve the quality of the discussion.

Be Adaptable

Preparation matters but so does flexibility. Every issue requires its own set of solutions, and the best ideas often surface when leaders stay open to new perspectives. Embracing different viewpoints not only strengthens decisions but also fuels creativity and trust within the team. Adaptability doesn’t diminish your expertise; it enhances it by integrating insights from the people closest to the work.

Think Long-Term

If you’re going to invest time in meeting, make sure the outcomes endure. As you land on solutions, consider the bigger picture: What’s the realistic timeline? What milestones will mark progress? Avoid defaulting to the easiest or most comfortable path. Future you and your team will appreciate the thoughtful planning.

Healthy tension and differing opinions shouldn’t derail your mission. At the end of the day, effective leadership keeps the focus where it belongs: on the people you serve. When that remains the anchor, these steps become not just easier to adopt, but essential to moving your organization forward.

If you need help facilitating productive meetings with your team please reach out to us at [email protected] or consider investing in one of our coaching packages you can find on our website at https://www.coltonstrawser.com/leadership.