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Tag: team meetings

  • When Executives Pontificate, Meetings Flatline

    Most executives don’t mean to hijack meetings. They’re trying to inspire, clarify, or share that one story from 1998 they swear still applies. However, somewhere between, “You know…” and minute 17 of the monologue, the meeting quietly dies. Pontification isn’t leadership. It’s just expensive noise. I’ve been guilty of it myself. Organizations don’t suffer from a lack of ideas from the top. They suffer from a lack of space for ideas from everyone else. 

    When talking becomes a distraction, not direction 

    Executives have disproportionate gravitational pull. One comment can redirect an entire meeting’s orbit. One story can retroactively redefine priorities. One “quick thought” can consume 20 minutes and derail the agenda. The meeting becomes theater rather than collaboration. Ironically, it leaves teams less informed, less aligned, and less energized than before.  

    Everyone leaves thinking the same thing, “Could that have been an email?” Pontification doesn’t merely take up airtime. It takes up oxygen, quietly suffocating diverse perspectives. Here’s what really happens in those moments: 

    • People with dissenting views self-edit. 
    • The most thoughtful contributors withdraw. 
    • Risk-taking evaporates because the “answer” already appears to be spoken. 
    • Meetings morph into agreement ceremonies instead of decision engines. 

    Leaders often insist they value candor and dialogue. However, if their monologue fills 70% of the meeting, they’ve already signaled what’s safe to say and what isn’t. Once you’re pulled in, time ceases to exist. The meeting ends without any decisions being made, no clarity, and five follow-up meetings to fix the original meeting. Congratulations! You’ve just created a full-time job for your calendar. 

    Why leaders fall into the pontification trap 

    Pontification is rarely ego-driven alone. Leaders often slip into it because: 

    • They believe storytelling equals clarity (it doesn’t).
    • There’s confusion between sharing experience and setting direction. 
    • They fear appearing disengaged if they aren’t speaking. 
    • There’s a lack of facilitation and only declaration. 
    • Their environment has rewarded commentary more than curiosity. 

    In many executive cultures, speaking more is subtly equated with influencing more. However, high-performing teams aren’t inspired by volume. They’re inspired by precision. 

    How to break the pontification cycle 

    The solution isn’t leader silence, but leader discipline. A leader who frames space instead of fills it signals trust, competence, and respect. They shape the conversation without dominating it. Instead of delivering soliloquies, they ask questions. They create a container for dialogue instead of consuming all available time. Great leaders don’t dominate meetings. They curate them. So instead, try this: 

    Andrea Olson

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  • The 3-Question Formula for Better Team Meetings

    Most leaders don’t need more meetings, they need better ones. Yet, leaders and teams tolerate the same symptoms week after week—updates no one listens to, conversations that drift, and a mysterious ability for an hour-long meeting to end with no meaningful decision made. The problem isn’t the people. It’s the prompts. 

    Meetings shape how a team thinks, behaves, and prioritizes. However, most agendas unintentionally reinforce the wrong things. Status updates over insights, activity over outcomes, and safety over candor. If you want meetings that actually improve performance, alignment, and momentum, you don’t need a new methodology. You just need three questions. These questions cut through the noise, get past politeness, and help teams think critically about where they’re heading and what’s getting in the way. 

    1. What’s something stupid that you need to stop doing? 

    Yes, stupid. Not inefficient, suboptimal, or in need of improvement. By using the blunt term, it does something powerful. It liberates honesty. 

    Organizations accumulate bad habits the way garages accumulate junk. No one remembers why something was put there. It’s just been there forever. This question gives permission to challenge legacy processes, outdated rules, pointless tasks, and the silent “we’ve always done it this way” mentality. 

    It reframes improvement from a critique to a shared pursuit. When a team identifies behaviors to stop doing, two things happen: They reclaim time and energy. They also signal that challenging the status quo is not only safe but expected. 

    Stopping something is often more productive than starting something. 

    2. What’s one thing you need to overcome your current challenge? 

    Most teams talk about challenges in vague, surface-level terms. However, rarely do they articulate one thing that would unlock progress. This question forces people to move from explanation to action. It also gives leaders valuable insight: 

    • Do people lack clarity? 
    • Do they need resources? 
    • Is there a skill gap? 
    • Is the real obstacle structural, cultural, or interpersonal? 

    Individuals get clarity on what they need, and leaders get clarity on how to support them without guessing. The question turns challenges into solvable problems and reduces the mental load that comes from carrying unspoken obstacles. 

    3. What’s one thing you need to keep doing and double down on? 

    Teams rarely take time to identify what is working. They fixate on problems, and in the process, they unintentionally abandon their strengths. This question ensures you don’t throw out the good while trying to fix the bad. It shines a light on behaviors, processes, and strategies that are delivering a return-on-investment — so you can amplify them. 

    When teams double down on their strengths, engagement increases, focus sharpens, and high-value behaviors become part of the culture instead of accidental wins. 

    Why these three questions lead to better team meetings

    Because they accomplish three things most meetings fail to do: eliminate waste, remove obstacles, and focus on what drives value. These questions are simple, but they’re not simplistic. They work because they’re designed for candor, clarity, and forward momentum. They reshape meeting culture from passive updates to meaningful dialogue. 

    How to use them  

    You can integrate these questions into: 

    • Weekly team meetings 
    • One-on-ones 
    • Project kickoffs 
    • Retrospectives 
    • Leadership roundtables 

    The key is consistency. When teams expect these questions, they start paying attention differently. Instead of hoarding frustrations, they come prepared with solutions and become more strategic by default. Perhaps most importantly, they build trust. Because when people feel empowered to speak honestly, ask for help, and celebrate wins, the team gets better—not incrementally but exponentially. 

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

    Andrea Olson

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