My colleague Catherine entered our meeting annoyed and didn’t hesitate to express it.
She couched it–rightly–in terms of “real-time feedback.”
I had asked her and our other colleague to prepare for the meeting by reading a writeup I’d put together as we designed a workshop.
So purposeful of me, right? The only challenge was that my “shorthand” was unintelligible to her and seemed more like a waste of time than a helpful support.
When she shared her real-time feedback, I had a choice to make: focus on driving forward on the meeting outcomes, or shift focus to her feedback.
I welcomed the feedback. Not only that, I invited even more, “catching” and naming the emotions underneath the feedback and clarifying what I could do differently going forward.
Since we record all our internal meetings, you can watch this interaction as it played out (~2 minutes at 2x).
We’d been working together for only 2 months at this point. Both in the meeting itself and in our overall relationship and team, I saw this interaction strengthen focus, align us on our working agreements going forward, and generate deeper trust and connection—certainly much more so than if I had nodded and barreled on towards our meeting outcomes.
Communication–and relationships in general—are like a game of catch. We don’t control what’s thrown our way, but the better we get at catching it, the more choice we have in where the conversation goes next.
If you’re curious to learn more about how to build and apply this skill–and lead meetings and any conversation more skillfully–our upcoming course, ManagerGPT: The AI Tools and Human Systems to Scale Yourself and Your Team Fast, begins next week.
🗓️ Weekly cohort (for one month) starting Oct 21, 2025
🗓️ Weekend intensive Nov 8-9, 2025
Questions? Email me or book a call here.