Recently we had the opportunity to help a client plan and execute a global leadership meeting. We do this from time to time. I always find them interesting, and I’ve learned that how these meetings come together and unfold say a lot about those who lead them.
In this case the leader — a C-suite executive, direct report to the CEO, and head of a 3,000-person function — was relatively new to the role and a stylistic and strategic departure from their predecessor. And while senior leadership team meetings are quite common in this organization, this was the first time in memory all the leaders that function — 350 in sum, from line manager to EVP — had come together at the same time and place. Given that context you can imagine expectations for the meeting were high.
It was a great meeting, successful in every respect. But as I reflect on it, one of the ways in which it was most successful offers an important lesson in leadership communication: there is a hidden power in agendas, and exceptional leaders use the agendas they control to signal key expectations and priorities to those they lead.
Something the best leaders appreciate is that they are more often viewed symbolically than literally: regardless of what they may say in print or text, those they lead will seize upon certain things a leader does or decides and attribute a great deal of meaning to it. A leader may say they care about people development, but those they lead will see whom the leader invests in and how they invest in those people as highly symbolic of how serious they actually are about development. A leader may say they care about growth, but their priorities and projects might symbolically say otherwise. A leader may say they care about family, but their calendar — and the time they carve out to have dinner with their family every night — symbolically says that’s so.
It’s difficult to know what decisions or behaviors will become powerful symbols to people, and it’s not uncommon for leaders to be painted with unfair impressions from things they did or said that were unintentionally symbolic in an undesirable way. Regardless, when a leader’s language and their symbolism are consistent, the symbols are more powerful forms of communication than their words (or emails or videos or newsletters) could ever be. And when a leader’s language and the symbols they create are inconsistent, the symbols overwhelm the language every time.
There are a lot of things that leaders can use as intentional symbols of their priorities and values. But one of the most powerful among them is one that’s always close at hand: our topical agendas. When a leader is able to choose what a group will discuss or decide, or not discuss or decide, their choices of what to put on that agenda speak volumes about what they care about strategically and personally.
That’s one of the things that was so powerful about the senior leadership meeting I mentioned earlier: that senior leader had placed everything on the three-day agenda — every dialogue, every speaker, every video, every Q&A session — with the intention of amplifying two priorities that she had been trying to convey for 18 months: “Leadership Matters” and “We Are One Team.” While those are common messages in that organization (and yours, too, probably), this was the first time the content of their discussion had so clearly demonstrated that leadership and team unity were priorities. This was also true of the absences from the agenda — leadership and team unity were prominent not just because of what the meeting covered, but also for what it did not cover (in this case, the standard litany of business updates that usually crowd a leadership meeting’s agenda). Leadership and unity were not just themes or branding, they were the substance of the dialogue and decisions.
So the question is, what agendas do you control, and what do the conversations you place on them (or withhold from them) say about you, your priorities, and your values? Your annual planning meeting or quarterly town hall might be obvious things to think about, but what about the other agendas in your leadership life? What do you choose to talk about in subordinate performance reviews? In front of the Board of Directors? What gets on the agenda for your one-on-ones? What about parent teacher conferences? Date night? Family dinner?
Agendas surround us. With them, like most things, it pays to be intentional. Leaders shape meaning, focus, belief, and action for others, and in part they do that by shaping the conversation itself. When you have the luxury of setting an agenda, I ask that you see it not as a task to choose information, topics, and decision points, but instead see it as an opportunity to symbolize and amplify what matters most to you — be those strategic priorities, key initiatives, or perhaps most important, your values as a leader, friend, partner, or parent.
– AN