Susan DrummCEO Advisor & Executive Coach | Leadership Change Agent

The Meeting Habit That Silences Your Team #shorts

3 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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In this short spoken anecdote, Susan Drumm recounts a weekly stand‑up she observed with a COO named Mark. Mark would begin the meeting early, speaking rapidly and filling every pause with priorities and deadlines, leaving no room for his team to contribute. Susan noticed that no one had spoken up and whispered this observation to Mark. Realising that his habit of filling silence was unintentionally steamrolling his team and suppressing ideas, Mark deliberately began to insert moments of silence into the meeting. Although the change felt awkward at first, within weeks the stand‑up shifted from a monologue to a collaborative discussion, improving idea sharing and outcomes without sacrificing his control. The story illustrates how a simple habit—filling every gap—can silence a team, and how intentional pauses can transform meeting dynamics.

Chapters

A COO I worked with, we'll call him Mark, Monday morning, 9:05 AM, weekly standup, Mark is already halfway through his meeting before half the team has even sat down. He's talking fast, rattling off priorities, stacking deadlines like pancakes. People are nodding, scribbling, no one's saying a word. And then halfway through, I lean over and whisper, "Do you notice that no one's spoken yet?" And that's when it clicked. Mark's pattern wasn't silence, it was filling every gap so no one else could. He thought he was being efficient, And frankly, he felt uncomfortable with the silence, but his team felt steamrolled. And the best ideas, they stayed locked in someone else's head. Once he saw that, he started leaving space, literally silence for other voices. And yes, it felt awkward at first, but within weeks, meetings went from monologue to collaboration. He didn't lose control, he gained better outcomes.