Sept. 24, 2025

🌴268. Why ‘Why Am I Here?’ Is the Best Meeting Question

🌴268. Why ‘Why Am I Here?’ Is the Best Meeting Question
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🌴268. Why ‘Why Am I Here?’ Is the Best Meeting Question

If you’ve ever thought, “This meeting could have been an email”… today’s episode is for you.

I’m sharing why agendas aren’t just nice-to-haves, they’re the thing that keeps meetings short, sharp, and actually useful. I’ll take you behind the scenes of some 25-minute listening tour calls I’ve been running, and how a 10-minute pre-email with sample questions changed the whole dynamic.

We’ll also talk about David Grady’s hilarious TED Talk on Meeting Acceptance Syndrome (yes, it’s a real thing) and why clicking Tentative instead of Accept might be the simplest culture shift you can make.

Key takeaways from this episode:

  • Why most meetings go overtime (hint: zero direction)
  • The magic of sending a short pre-agenda email
  • How to influence meeting culture from wherever you sit in the hierarchy
  • My two-stage approach to stakeholder meetings that actually saves time

🔗 I’ll pop the TED Talk link in the notes: How to Save the World (or at Least Yourself) from Bad Meetings by David Grady.

Thanks for tuning in — and remember, great meetings don’t happen by accident.

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Show notes for every episode at https://podcast.leannehughes.com


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Email me: hello@leannehughes.com

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