The Most Important Question I Ask Before a Meeting

With so much time spent in meetings and not a lot of time to sit still and work on things, I’ve had to create ways to make my meetings as productive as possible. The majority of my meetings are for the sake of clarify expectations and working on projects. I’ve learned the most important thing I can do in the meeting is to ask good questions. When it comes to working with other people, questions become the currency of productivity. Without good questions you won’t get to the bottom of expectations and rarely will ideas be birthed right then and there. However, if you invest in your questions, you can get amazing results.

Even before getting into the meeting, I’ve made it a priority to ask one main question. That question is this – “What would be most helpful to you when you leave this meeting today?”

I have found that when I ask this before a meeting, or at the very beginning of one, the results are phenomenal. Expectations are set and a path of productivity for the meeting is paved.

My assistant and I have actually got into a routine of asking this question prior to every meeting on my calendar. She will often simply send an email, or have a hallway conversation with the meeting attendee and ask them what would be the most helpful thing to walk away with from their time with me. By their answer, not only is she able to better prepare me for the meeting, but all parities are able to think through the meeting in advance and therefore not waste any time when we are together.

Yes, of course there are some cases were not able to ask this question prior to the meeting (or the person didn’t answer it), so I begin the meeting by clarifying this expectation with the people or persons present. By asking this simple question, several things happen:

1. It clarifies expectations. After they share their hopes for the meeting, I will often share what would be most helpful for me (if they haven’t already covered it), or my assistant and I will send this to them in advance. This allows for them to know what I am looking for in the meeting as well (especially if I called it). But I always give the person coming to the meeting the chance to answer first (yes, even if I called it) because often something comes out I didn’t know they desired from me.

2. It allows me to have a goal to shoot by the end of the meeting. If I know what would be most important to them, then I am going to do my best to make sure I give them that. Not only will this help us know what next steps to take to further our working relationship, the project, etc., but it will also ensure that they feel like a valued person and not just an employee.

3. It values the person or people I am meeting. This is perhaps the most important! If I deliver to them what is most important to them, they will feel like I used their time wisely and value them as a leader in our ministry organization.

4. It gives me clear directives and next steps to take away from each meeting. My assistant usually sees the main expectations for each meeting, so she is good at asking me what deliverables came out of those. If she doesn’t see the expectations in advance, I make sure she hears about them afterward. She (and OmniFocus) keep me accountable to deliver on any promises I made or follow-up on next steps.

One tip worth mentioning: Don’t allow the attendee or yourself to create a long list of things they or you would like to get from the meeting. If that happens, then condense these expectations and/or schedule another meeting to tackle them. Each meeting should only have one to two main expectations per person max!