How to Lead Meetings That Boost Your Team’s Energy and Creativity

Expert-backed tips to help you run meetings efficiently and mindfully.

Meetings are an important part of any team’s communication, but if we’re not mindful about how our time is spent in those meetings, we could be holding our team members back from working efficiently and unlocking their full potential. There’s even research to back this up: In one survey by researchers at Harvard Business School and Boston University, 71 percent of senior managers said most meetings are unproductive and inefficient. And for virtual meetings, fatigue sets in after about 30 minutes, according to research by Microsoft’s Human Factors Labs

“For a lot of people, spending all day in meetings can be really draining,” Liane Davey, Ph.D., organizational psychologist and author of The Good Fight, tells Thrive. “By incorporating a few exercises to humazine the people we’re meeting with, we can change that.” Davey says spending time in meetings is inevitable, but if we’re more mindful about how we’re spending that time, we can lead meetings that actually boost our teams’ energy and creativity, instead of detracting from it.

Here are a few tips to help you lead meetings that are both efficient and energy-boosting:

Start every meeting with a meaningful question

To give everyone a boost of creativity and energy, try starting your meetings with a question that allows attendees to share how they’re showing up that day. “Particularly with hybrid teams or virtual meetings, we are missing contextual information about our colleagues –– and when we don't have information about where they're at, how they're feeling, what's going on around them, we tend to become judgmental about them,” Davey explains. “To start the meeting on the right note, start with some kind of an exercise to help you kind of check in with one another.” You could go around and ask what someone’s struggling with that day, where they’re dialing in from, or even one thing they’re excited about. “These kinds of exercises just give us a way, especially when we're remote or hybrid, to just humanize people,” Davey adds. “It establishes trust, and that can set the tone for your whole team.”
 

Don’t be afraid to schedule a short meeting

Many of us have fallen into the pattern of scheduling 30-minute or hour-long meetings, but many conversations can be had in just 15 or 20 minutes. “Long, back-to-back meetings are a huge waste of human capital,” Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and author of Learning to Plan and Be Organized, tells Thrive. If you know there are only one or two agenda items that need to be discussed, schedule a shorter meeting. You’ll end up being more efficient with your time when you don’t feel the need to fill the additional space with small talk. 
 

Be mindful of who you’re inviting

Leading a meeting that feels energizing and productive often comes down to who is in the meeting – and Davey says that starts with who you’re including on the invitation. “Ask yourself who will add unique value to this particular conversation –– and if they’re at the right level for the meeting,” she suggests. “Is there a person on the invite who's too senior for where you're at in the conversation? Or is it the opposite, where you’ve invited somebody who isn't empowered to make a certain call?” In that case, it may be worth not having the meeting until the right people can attend. The idea is to include people who are adding value to the conversation you want to have, and being mindful not to include people whose time may be better served elsewhere.
 

Send out an agenda beforehand

If you’re asking for people’s time, it’s important to show them the respect of thinking through your objectives beforehand. “Meetings should have a clear and short agenda with people weighing in via email in advance,” Nadeau says. “That way, everyone has had time to think about others’ ideas and suggestions beforehand.” And if you can’t come up with any objectives beforehand, don’t be afraid to cancel! Some topics can be handled over email, and that’s okay.  
 

Toward the end of the meeting, lay out concrete next steps

Ending your meeting with what needs to happen next will make everyone feel more confident and comfortable about moving onto their next task of the day. Davey suggests asking, “What came up today that needs to go on a future agenda?” and “Is there anything we didn’t address today that we should revisit at the next meeting?” By ending the meeting with a few questions, you can help your team look forward and create productive action items.
 

Take a moment to reflect afterward. 

So many of us have gotten into the habit of jumping from meeting to meeting, but taking a moment to reflect on the value that came from a particular call can help you improve future meetings. Davey suggests asking yourself, “Were we talking about the right things, or did things come up here that didn't need to be a meeting or were important things not on the agenda?” You can also reflect on if you were prepared. “That quick evaluation can help you see where you made progress, and if the meeting was worthwhile,” she explains –– and can help you lead meetings in the future that are even more productive and energizing for your team.