We’ve all been there. Clock watching in a meeting that should have been an email. A few people are doing all the talking, no decisions are being made, and there’s more data than direction. What’s worse, it’s the first of five you have booked in that day. Surely, this can’t be what effective meetings look like. There must be a better way.

Fortunately for you, dear leader, we’ve found what could be that silver bullet that revolutionizes your business meetings for good.

Read on to discover why most meetings fail, a simple reframe to run effective meetings more often, and a 30-day challenge to help you improve team communication, drive collaboration, and get results.

Why Most Meetings Aren’t Effective

Long agendas, longer presentations, a room full of spectators. People are listening as best as they can, but really, they’re waiting for their turn to speak or wondering what to have for lunch. This is a familiar pattern in business, which means the problem is a structural one.

The root of the issue? Statements.

People are talking at others, not with them, which puts them in receive mode.

Nobody is brainstorming ideas in this state of mind; they’re simply waiting to be told the figures from the next slide. This limits collaboration and idea generation and holds businesses back.

This is demonstrated in William Kahn’s Employee Engagement Theory, which identifies that meaningfulness, safety, and mental availability are critical for participation in meetings. Without them, there’s no reason for teams to invest brainpower or energy, and there’s no safe space to challenge ideas. Worst of all, there’s no mental spark, a core ingredient for meaningful collaboration.

You’ve probably been in this situation already, as many leaders have. You’re delivering a meeting and wondering why half your team looks like they’re training for a world’s slowest blink competition. Or, from the other side of the table, in a meeting led by someone else, you’ve found yourself more invested in the sushi vs sandwich lunch debate raging inside your brain.

In both of these situations, the brain has quietly packed its bags and taken an early finish.

That’s why it’s so important for leaders to understand that the format of meetings is crucial to improving team communication and even decision-making. This is where a simple but incredibly effective shift comes into play.

How to Run Effective Meetings: The Question-Based Agenda Shift

The fix isn’t complicated at all. It’s simply a case of turning every agenda item into a forward-focused question instead of a statement.

In practice, this means replacing the likes of “Q1 Sales Results” with something along the lines of “How can we accelerate Q1 sales momentum into Q2?”, and so on.

You might think the difference here is merely grammatical, but the question activates problem-solving and forces the brain into co-creator mode instead of consumption mode. This ensures nobody can sit back and let their mind wander as a spectator, because they’re expected to engage.

The idea here is backed by behavioral psychology, like in William Kahn’s work, which shows that when people think passively, their feelings are disengaged, and their behavior follows suit. However, when their thoughts are activated, they feel energized, and their behavior switches to collaborative.

The trigger for this change? Questions. But how do you make the switch?

Learn How To Run an Effective Meeting Moving Forward: The 30-Day Challenge

Ready to transform how you lead and learn how to run an effective business or board meeting moving forward - whether you’re doing it solo or with the support of a PA who can help set you up for success?

1. Rewrite every agenda item as a forward-focused question.
2. Open the meeting by reading questions aloud, framing the conversation around collaboration and finding answers.
3. Track engagement and results, from how decisions are made to how quickly they’re made, and how widely contributions spread.

Within weeks, you’ll likely see the benefits start rolling in. Within a month, you’ll see better decisions being made faster, improved team communication, and a cultural shift where meetings are run the same way across your organization, known as the force multiplier effect.

Because when leaders build team meetings around solutions-oriented questions, they set a tone at scale. It encourages people to figure things out together rather than simply listening and trying to look interested.

Crucially, this means more time is spent on “what next?” instead of “what happened?”. And that’s how you really make progress.

A Simple Tool to Elevate Meeting Effectiveness

Leadership journaling can be a significant catalyst that sustains your improved meeting delivery approach. How? By ensuring you follow through on the 30-day challenge and holding yourself accountable.

Even better, your leadership journal can serve as a record of what is working and what is not, enabling you to develop into a recognised authority in effective meetings. Without a structured practice of reflection like leadership journaling, it is easy to slip back into old habits or lose momentum when progress feels slow.

Leadership journaling, however, provides a clear lens through which to assess your commitment and recognise results that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Final Thoughts: Effective Meetings Don’t Happen by Accident

The most effective meetings are intentional, question-led, and action-focused. By taking this 30-day challenge, you’ll learn how to improve team communication skills and create a ripple effect that transforms collaboration in your entire organization.

But all of it starts with your next meeting, where you reframe the agenda and watch the difference it makes. The real question is, are you ready to take the plunge?

Find Out More About Action-Oriented Leadership

Complete the My Daily Leadership Insights Scorecard to uncover your blind spots as a leader and identify where you can find the biggest gains in your leadership. You can also download our complimentary leadership journaling prompts to help you start on your journey to effective self-reflection.

Finally, check out our latest podcast episode where we explore everything discussed in this article in more detail, from the impact of questions in meetings to examples of good vs bad agenda items, essential questions for productive meetings, and more about William Kahn’s Employee Engagement Theory.