Leadership & Alignment Espresso · 12 min June 22, 2025

Three questions before every leadership meeting.

A 90-second pre-check that changes the whole meeting. Espresso format: read it in 12 minutes, use it today.

Most leadership meetings start on an unspoken assumption: that everyone knows why they’re in the room. They rarely do. Three questions, 30 seconds each, before the meeting — and the meeting runs differently.

Question 1: What decision do we want made by the time this is over?

Without an answer: discussion with no end. With one: discipline all the way through.

Question 2: Who needs what to back this decision?

Just information? Involvement? A vote? Those are three different events.

Question 3: What happens if we don’t make the decision?

The most honest question. If the answer is “nothing”, skip the meeting.


Setup: the lead writes each of these three questions into the calendar invite. Not into the agenda — into the invite text itself. So everyone sees them before the calendar pops up.

Effect within 14 days: noticeably fewer follow-up meetings, faster decisions, less frustration afterwards.

No tool, no framework — just Klartext, before the calendar pops up.