How to Run an Executive Team Meeting

1. Never do status updates

The #1 mistake in executive meetings is having everyone go around the table and do status updates, while everyone else zones out. This is a huge waste of time and results in the team trying to avoid future meetings. The status updates should be done in advance in writing using a tool like Weekly Update.

2. Focus on strategic discussion

Getting the top leadership in a room is best for having strategic discussion and debate. This might be the 1 hour per week where we have face time to share different perspectives and directly call out issues. We should be talking through the most important problems on the company’s plate, and how each of us is addressing them. This is a time for decision making and consensus building.

3. Make it consistent

The leadership meeting should be at the same day and time each week. I found that early morning is often best so it doesn’t bump into external commitments like customer meetings and conferences. Our team did Monday morning at 7:30am PST.

There should be an agenda every week, compiled by the CEO or COO. The meeting must stay focused on that agenda or else it quickly devolves into status updates. My team used our written weekly updates to identify the top objectives and concerns that were worthy of discussion.

5. Maintain order

The worst thing I’ve seen happen in these meetings is a team member starts going down the rabbit hole into a topic that isn’t high priority, but everyone has an opinion on it. Before we know it, 50% of our meeting time has been wasted. Stick to the schedule. Cut people off if they go off topic.

6. Document and follow up with action items

Someone in the leadership meeting should be taking diligent notes and sharing them with the group after. Additionally, there should be clear action items outlined and assigned to each person based on the results of the discussion.