In this episode of The Leader's Kitbag, Ben Morton addresses the hidden costs of back‑to‑back meetings for leaders who spend most of their day in continuous conference calls. He explains three core problems: heightened stress from sustained focus, mental distraction that makes one appear rude in the next meeting, and loss of processing time that prevents learning from each conversation. Morton then reframes the issue through the lens of "circles of control and influence," arguing that while leaders can’t overhaul an entire organization’s meeting culture overnight, they can redesign the meetings they control. He proposes concrete actions—shortening meetings, setting clear agendas, and inserting a one‑minute pause at the start—to improve meeting quality and signal better leadership. By consistently modeling these practices, a leader’s influence grows as others notice and begin to emulate the approach. Finally, Morton introduces a simple transitional routine: step away from the screen for a minute, take deep breaths, and consciously decide what to let go of from the previous meeting and how to show up in the next. This brief reset not only enhances personal performance but also positively influences the mood of the next meeting’s participants. The episode concludes with a reminder to care for oneself and those one leads.
Chapters
If you're someone who spends a lot of your day in meetings, moving from one straight to the next, then today's episode of The Leader's Kitbag is for you. One of the most common patterns I see when working with leaders is back-to-back meetings, checking our phones in between, no time to pause, no time to reset. And what tends to happen is this: we leave one meeting and within seconds we're straight into the next, often still looking at our screen, still thinking about the meeting that's just happened. And that creates a few significant problems. Number 1, stress naturally follows our focus. That's useful in short bursts, but not between meetings. If we stay locked onto a screen, we stay in that narrow reactive state. And secondly, there's a delay before you fully engage in the next conversation. Yes, you might be physically present, but mentally part of you is still in the meeting that you've just left, and that can come across to the people in the next meeting as you being distracted or even a little rude. And third, you lose the processing time because without even a minute to pause, you don't get to reflect on what just happened. So over time you stay busy, but you don't necessarily improve. Now, this is the point where a lot of people say to me, yeah, but Ben Morton Morton, that's just the culture here, or my diary's not really within my control. And yes, there will always be constraints. But this is the point where we can pause and think about something I talk about in every single leadership program that I run, and it's our circles of control and influence. So yes, you can't change or even influence the entire organization overnight, but you can absolutely take control and make changes in the meetings that you set up and control. You can make your own meetings shorter. You can make sure there's a really clear agenda. You can even build in a minute's pause at the start for people to gather their thoughts before you start. And those small changes to the meetings that you control do two things. Number one, it improves the quality of your own meetings. And number 2, it starts to increase your influence because people will come to those meetings and they'll notice that they're better than the average meeting and they'll start copying what you do. They might even talk about how great your meetings are, and then other departments start replicating what you do as well. So step by step, through some small actions, your influence really starts to grow. Because people notice. They notice how your meetings feel different. Maybe more focused, more effective. And then over time, one of two things starts to happen. They either start copying what you do in your meetings, or they start asking for your input elsewhere. And that is how real change happens. So here's a simple habit to build. Instead of moving from one meeting straight to the next, create yourself a short transitional routine, even if it's just a minute or two. Take a chance to step away from your screen, lift your gaze ever so slightly, and just take a couple of deep breaths before moving on. And ask yourself, what do I need to let go of from my last meeting, and how do I need to show up in the next one? Because states or moods are highly contagious, so our mood or state when we enter that next meeting room doesn't just affect our own performance, but it affects everybody's performance who's in the room. So the difference between a good meeting and a great one in part comes down to what we do as a leader the minute before our next meeting starts. That's it for today's episode of The Leader's Kitbag. As always, I hope it's been useful. Look after yourself and those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead, and until next time. Later.
