How to Hear the People Who Never Speak Up (feat. Jess Britt)
Jess Britt is a leadership development coach, consultant, and founder of Jess Britt Consulting. She spent years trying to get "real work" done around endless meetings before realizing that meetings aren't getting in the way of work: they are the work. That shift led her to build a coaching and consulting practice helping leaders turn meetings into their most powerful leadership tool. Jess is a certified executive coach, a Coaching for Leaders Fellow, and the author of Set the Agenda, a weekly newsletter on leading through meetings.
HOST
Matt Poepsel, PhD
Vice President & Godfather of Talent Optimization
GUEST
Jess Britt
Leadership Coach, Jess Britt Consulting
Culture shows up in the small moments, and few moments are smaller, or more revealing, than a meeting. Most managers treat meetings as a scheduling problem to survive rather than a leadership opportunity to design. But for Jess Britt, leadership coach and meeting design expert, the real cost of a badly run meeting isn’t wasted time; it’s the leadership behavior you’re modeling every time you fail to use the room well.
In this episode, Matt Poepsel sits down with Jess Britt, leadership coach and author of the newsletter Set the Agenda, to dig into why every meeting is a test of leadership, why the opportunity cost of a bad meeting goes far beyond payroll, and how a simple four-part framework can turn any meeting into a chance to develop your team. Jess challenges the idea that meetings are just something to get through, making the case that how you run a meeting communicates exactly what you value: whose input counts, whether you’ve thought ahead, and what behavior gets tolerated. Together, they explore how to draw out quieter voices, run hybrid meetings without losing half the room, and use AI as a tool without letting it excuse bad meeting design.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- The Opportunity Cost of a Bad Meeting: It’s not just about the meeting itself; it’s about what your team could have been doing instead, and what value gets left on the table when you don’t make the most of the time you already have.
- The Four Building Blocks: Every effective meeting runs on housekeeping, warm-up, content, and close, and naming them makes it easier to run them with intention.
- Drawing Out Quiet Voices: Structuring engagement through pair-shares, written reflection, or simply asking who hasn’t spoken yet gets you input you’d otherwise miss.
- Leading Hybrid Without Losing the Room: Starting with remote participants first, setting clear norms, and assigning an in-room advocate keeps hybrid meetings from splitting into two experiences.
Highlights:
(00:00) Meet Jess Britt
(01:05) What drew Jess to meetings and fixing them
(02:37) Meetings as a leadership skill set
(04:42) The opportunity cost of a bad meeting
(08:14) The four building blocks of a meeting
(9:06) Why every meeting should have an agenda
(11:36) What happens during the warm-up
(14:02) What an actual intentional close looks like
(17:32) The difference between a personal meeting objective vs an agenda item
(20:45) Being a leader means developing other leaders
(23:50) Drawing out the quieter voices in the room
(26:25) Running hybrid meetings without losing half the room
(28:00) Is AI making our meetings better?
Resources:
Follow Jess on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-britt/
Subscribe to Jess’s newsletter, Set the Agenda : https://settheagenda.com/
Learn more about Jess’s work: jessbritt.com
Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/
Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex
Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com
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