The Secret To A Great Team Meeting

The meeting ends. People rise from their chairs or disappear from your Zoom grid. The agenda is Covered. The energy seemed positive. You tell yourself it went well.

But did it? You think people got the message… but did they really? Are they walking away with clarity, or just nodding out of habit? And more importantly, are they going to do anything about what just happened?

Whether you’re updating your team, presenting a proposal, or onboarding new hires, every meeting has a purpose. In the world of communication, achieving that purpose is the speaker’s responsibility.

Thousands of managers, team leads, and CEOs ask themselves the same question every day. But the answer rarely arrives in the moment. Instead, it shows up weeks later through missed deadlines, awkward silences, or a quarterly report that doesn’t match expectations. By then, it’s almost impossible to trace that outcome back to a moment in the meeting. Still, the link between communication and results is well documented. McKinsey found that better communication and collaboration can boost productivity for knowledge workers by up to 25%—a staggering return on something as intangible as a conversation.

Whether you’re updating your team, presenting a proposal, or onboarding new hires, every meeting has a purpose. In the world of communication, achieving that purpose is the speaker’s responsibility. But real communication is a two-way street. If someone gave you confusing directions to a restaurant, you’d probably ask them to clarify. In business, though, that rarely happens. Hierarchies, time pressure, and culture often silence questions. People nod along (even when they’re lost) because speaking up can feel risky or inefficient. And so, clarity is faked, not earned. How do we fix this broken loop without adding another round of soul-sucking meetings?

Closing the loop

When there’s a power dynamic between speaker and audience, the burden of clarity falls on the speaker. If someone has already given you their time, to listen, discuss, or absorb something new, it’s your job not to waste it. But closing the loop between what you say and what they take away is harder than it sounds. Asking “Do you understand?” is useless. Every teacher knows the silence that follows—and the test scores that expose the truth. Real clarity doesn’t start with the audience. It starts with you. The first step is defining the objective of the meeting—clearly, concretely, and in terms that matter.

A strong meeting objective has two defining traits. First, it’s audience-focused. Instead of framing your goal as “informing the team,” ask yourself what they should know, understand, or believe by the end. If you’re pitching an idea, don’t focus on your delivery—focus on their acceptance. Second, a good objective is concrete. If you want your audience to learn something, define what they should be able to do with that knowledge. If you want them to consider a new proposal, ask what agreement or action would reflect that. A practical test: finish the sentence, “By the end of this meeting, participants will…”—and be honest about whether the rest of the sentence reflects real-world behavior.

By the end of my weekly update, the team will understand the problems we’ve had this week and avoid them next week.

By the end of my presentation, my colleagues will recognize the need to reduce product delivery time and be ready to engage with my proposed solution.

Setting an actionable objective gives you one clear advantage: it lets you know whether you’ve succeeded. But knowing isn’t enough. You also need to create the conditions for your audience to show that they can act on what you’ve asked of them. And that part is rarely straightforward.

Your Audience

Put yourself in the shoes of someone in your audience. Passively listening is more difficult than it seems because we, as humans, cannot maintain a high level of attention for a long duration of time. That’s why its best to engage your audience in real time rather than just waiting to the end or after the meeting. Questions, examples from your experience with actual members of the audience or personal anecdotes are just some of the ways to get your audience to pay closer attention.

By the end of a meeting, there are three essential signals you want from your audience, three indicators that the time spent together had meaning :

• Clarity. Did they truly understand the key ideas? The best way to measure understanding is by gauging if someone could confidently explain an idea to someone else. Understanding is worthless if it isn’t backed with a person’s confidence.
  

• Emotional Resonance. Feelings are inseparable from how humans think, remember, and act. Decades of research link emotion to memory, attention, and motivation—yet emotional resonance remains one of the most overlooked dimensions in workplace communication. How does your team feel at the end of a meeting? Energized and ready to apply something new, or indifferent, even frustrated by the time spent? Regardless of how well they grasped your message, it’s emotional resonance (not just understanding) that determines what they’ll do next.
  

• Impact. In today’s fast-paced workplace, leaders tend to fixate on one question: did the meeting drive action? But impact doesn’t happen in isolation. It relies on two foundations—clear understanding and emotional resonance. Even when both are present, behavior doesn’t always follow. You may be speaking to someone who fully grasps the issue and genuinely wants to improve, yet still struggles to change.

Clarity, resonance, and impact can’t be measured by guesswork. Skilled speakers (especially educators) are always tuning into their audience. While it may seem like they’re just speaking, they’re actually listening with their eyes and adjusting in real time. Great speakers draw feedback from their audience in real time and adjust on the fly. If that sounds out of reach, don’t worry—it isn’t magic. No leader is born knowing how to read a room. The ability to adapt in the moment begins by studying what happens after the moment has passed.

Getting Feedback

Improving leadership and communication in meetings begins by recognizing that your audience is part of the process. For some, asking for help feels like a hurdle; for others, it comes naturally. At the close of a meeting, take a few seconds to request quick, anonymous feedback. Paper notes can work, but a purpose-built tool like Resona is far more effective. It measures clarity, resonance, and impact, then delivers an analysis afterward. Here’s how to interpret the results:

• Clarity. The audience is asked, “Do you feel clear about what the meeting was meant to achieve?” The goal is confidence, not just surface-level understanding. Ideally, most participants should show strong confidence in their grasp of the meeting’s purpose. Watch for these signs:

  • A medium or low value for clarity signals that most of your audience lacks confidence in the core message you intended to deliver. A practical way to address this is to pause during meetings and say, “I don’t think I explained that well. What’s not clear?” Acknowledging potential confusion and framing the question openly gives your audience permission to answer honestly. With repeated use of real-time feedback, your delivery will naturally improve over time.

  • A high polarization (large gaps in responses) shows that your audience is not aligned in their understanding. This is natural, as some participants may already understand the material more fully than others. When polarization is strong (as Resona’s analysis highlights), it can signal either an individual participant struggling or a broader diversity of perspectives that calls for a different approach. To balance this, make a habit of drawing input from several people, ensuring that the conversation isn’t dominated by only the fastest or loudest voices in the room.
    

• Emotional Resonance. Resona asks, “How did this meeting make you feel?” and offers four emoji choices. When participants select Interested and curious or Excited and energized, you’ll often notice it even without a tool—engaged audiences ask questions, take notes, and maintain eye contact. Watch for these cues:

  • A medium or low value for resonance—with responses like Frustrated or irritated or Indifferent—can signal issues beyond the meeting itself. These problems often undermine both team performance and meeting effectiveness, so identifying the root cause is critical. If something in the meeting triggered a strong negative reaction, make sure to follow up directly.

  • An audience polarized in emotional response suggests a strong disconnect among participants. Social support and interaction play a critical role in workplace success. Notice whether someone seemed unusually quiet, or if the group appeared divided. A good leader engages with those showing negative reactions rather than avoiding them. Though difficult in the moment, following up builds stronger connections over time.

  • To raise emotional involvement, demonstrate it yourself. Emotions are contagious; your enthusiasm can lift and energize the room. Share examples from your own experience, express how you feel about the subject, and highlight the aspects you find genuinely exciting.
    

• Impact. Most meetings are meant to drive action or change. In Resona, the audience is asked, “Are you likely to take action after this meeting?” Too often, meetings end without addressing the need for action, leaving participants without the mental step of applying new information to their own work. Simply asking this question increases the likelihood of follow-through, as it prompts each person to consider the information’s relevance to them.

  • If impact is low, address action directly at the close of the meeting. Many leaders outline “action items” and assign responsibilities, and that clarity creates accountability. But even meetings without formal tasks can spark meaningful change. Take a moment to ask an open-ended question about how the discussion applies to participants. Even if only one person responds, others will still pause to reflect.

  • If there is a gap in understanding of expected actions or a strong polarization at the end of a meeting, revisit who attends and whether everyone is clear on why they are there. Opening the meeting with a simple explanation of purpose can boost attention and engagement. The more divided your audience is on impact, the more important it becomes to dedicate time at the close for discussing next steps.

Meetings take many forms, and as the organizer you carry the responsibility to make them count. If this article highlighted areas for improvement, don’t attempt to change everything at once. Begin by defining the objective of each meeting as clearly as possible. Write it down and share it with those who need to know. That single step helps you judge whether the time was well spent. Next, seek feedback from your audience (whether through Resona or another method) and focus on addressing one recurring challenge. Over time, and faster than you might expect, your meetings will improve, and your audience will reflect that success back to you.