The secret shame of leading a terrible team meeting...

And how to lead one that people actually enjoy and get value from...including you!

Welcome back to Lead with Intention! I hope you enjoyed my “10 questions to shape your career” edition earlier this week. Which question really got you thinking?

And crucially…

What are you going to do now?

Something to ponder this week if you’re in the headspace for it!

This week, we’re talking about something that most managers and leaders have on their regular to-do list, but it can often be something that we dread.

The team meeting.

But first! A quick interruption to let you know that the waitlist for my Confident Leader group coaching programme is now open! I’m running the third cohort of this successful programme in Spring 2025 and will be announcing dates and details very soon. Described as “life changing” by more than one participant, cohort 3 is going to be exclusively focused on my Corporate Communications community - so if you read here and you’re a head of comms, strategic comms lead or a new director of comms and you’re feeling unsure or unclear about who you are as a leader (and how to beo both authentic AND effective), then get on the list to be the first to know when it opens (and a discount too..)

Ok - to today’s topic.

We’ve all been there. You set up a team meeting, hoping for engagement, ideas, and momentum. Instead, you get silence, a sea of neutral expressions, or a conversation dominated by just one or two voices.

Hands up if the thought of running a team meeting brings you out in a cold sweat?

I empathise! Team meetings aren’t the easy slam dunk we think they are. And they are so important to effective team working and high performance, so it pays to invest some time, focus and energy into improving them.

I used to run mine at two extremes of the spectrum when I was a Director of Communications. Tell me if either scenario resonates?

A) I went into military mode. Short, sharp (especially the sharp), prone to issuing instructions and calling people out who were not visibly enthused (shocker) or engaged in what we were doing and what I had asked of them.

B) I went full dreamer mode. Loose and unstructured, I’d have a good chat with the team and we’d go off on various tangents. The meetings would be long and unfocused, without any real clarity.

Does either of these scenarios sound familar to you if you run team meetings?

Too often, we go to these extremes because we’re either anxious about things “getting done”, so we overcompensate by dictating orders, or we’re too self conscious about our own leadership approach, meaning we’re not willing to lean into effective leadership behaviours.

Neither of these approaches are effective and can result in your team feeling:

• Disengaged with team priorities

• A lack of team cohesion and team spirit

• Frustrated or anxious

• Unmotivated to achieve and succeed

Not great.

So what can you do about it if you’re the team leader? Here’s the first piece of advice and it’s a surprising one…