Have you ever met to talk about things you'll one day meet about?
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Reader, One of the quickest ways to frustrate a team? Holding a purposeless meeting. Worse? A meeting where everyone has a different purpose. For years, I thought a tight agenda would fix this. Not so. When you consistently bring purpose to meetings, people notice. You gain a reputation as someone who brings intention and focus—which is a skill every leader needs to grow their career. Today, we’re diving into how to make your meetings more purposeful, even if you're not leading them. Ever been here? I once worked at an organization with a staggering number of meetings each week, yet somehow, few felt valuable. Instead, we met to talk about things we would one day meet about. Sound familiar? Meetings filled with thinking out loud, stirring around ideas, and speculating—until time runs out and you rush (late) to the next one with little to show for it. The person leading the meeting feels great about the conversation—look at all the options we explored and considerations we considered! The rest of the team is frustrated by the looming sense they just wasted their time. Why meetings feel frustrating. No matter how well-planned the agenda, if there is no shared agreement on the meeting's purpose, people will assign their own. Here’s how you know a meeting lacks a clear purpose:
The missing ingredient. Before I understood this, our weekly team meetings had an agenda like this:
A thorough agenda, yes—but something critical was missing: a clear purpose. Why are we even having this meeting? What do we hope to accomplish in the time we have? An agenda is not a purpose. An example. Imagine three people attending this meeting, each with a different purpose in mind.
Different purposes require different kinds of conversations. And unless your meetings are hours long, some conversations won't move forward the way people want them to. What purpose does for a meeting. You already know meetings can be frustrating, so let's be practical. Purpose focuses a meeting, so that the one reason you're here gets accomplished. Try this in your next meeting—just ask, "What is one the most important thing we need to accomplish in this meeting?" and see what happens. How to influence a meeting to be more purposeful. You don’t have to lead a meeting to make it more purposeful. The best tool? Questions. At the start of a meeting:
When time is running short:
To understand the context:
When the conversation is drifting:
To bring more purpose back to the conversation:
The value of purposeful meetings. Mastering this will help you:
Practice this in the many meetings you attend—whether as a leader, team member, volunteer, or participant. I promise, mastering this will help you have a bigger impact—people will look to you to bring clarity and focus, no matter your role. Enjoy! Sara |