22 Reasons Why Leadership Team Meetings Are Ineffective (or Average at Best)

Introduction

I’ve participated in, observed, and facilitated leadership team meetings for over 25 years. I am confident in saying that, for the most part, these meetings rarely exceed expectations. In fact, there are often discussions about the perceived lack of value in the time the group spends together. There is also a sense that, instead of bringing people together and fostering collaboration, these meetings demotivate and push people apart through flawed group discussions and competing individual agendas. Instead of treating these important meetings with the professional respect they deserve, most individual participants view them as a means of simply fulfilling a team obligation and/or humoring the senior person in charge of the meeting.

List of reasons why leadership team meetings are ineffective

I’ve compiled the following list of twenty-two reasons, and I hope you use this information to start making changes in your organization:

1. The CEO or person leading the meetings typically receives very little training in how to run an effective meeting and receives minimal feedback on their performance as the meeting leader.
2. No ground rules have been established regarding how the team will interact with one another.
3. There is a lack of continuity between meetings; each one feels like a standalone event.
4. Meetings often start late and run over.
5. There is subpar facilitation of group discussions.
6. Too much small talk and chit chat, and not enough substantive conversations
7. Meeting agendas are often uneven, with unclear objectives, leaving participants with a sporadic sense of accomplishment.
8. There is bad time management related to individual agenda items.
9. Technology regularly distracts participants and causes them to lose focus.
10. The leader does a poor job of capturing meeting minutes and allocating or tracking follow-up action items.
11. Too much time is spent reporting past results, and not enough time is devoted to problem-solving or implementing new initiatives.
12. Participants are unwilling to challenge or push back on the leader out of fear or disinterest, but they actively engage in conversations outside the meeting with other people, voicing their true feelings.
13. There is no formal decision-making process, and deliberations are handled in a haphazard manner.
14. Conversations are often more tactical and reactive than proactive and strategic.
15. The most vocal people in the group often dominate the conversation rather than those who possess the pertinent information or experience to steer it in a positive direction.
16. There is very little preparation by individual members in anticipation of the meeting, except for CYA.
17. The team struggles to handle conflict effectively, often resorting to making it personal, being passive-aggressive, or avoiding it altogether.
18. There is minimal or no use of employees outside of the leadership team to provide valuable insight and inform discussions.
19. There is minimal or no use of outside experts to inform discussions as needed.
20. There is very little collaboration and individual interaction outside of group meetings; people stay focused on their own silos.
21. The team rarely discusses its performance and makes little effort to develop and improve.
22. The rules of engagement are different for family members; everyone is aware of this and resents it.