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Hi, I’m Jess

I help leaders turn meetings into their most powerful leadership tool.

Meetings are where leadership happens. They are where we make decisions, navigate change, build trust, develop people, and turn priorities into progress.

Subscribe to Set the Agenda, my weekly newsletter on leading through meetings.

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I help you lead through meetings, not despite them

Leading through meetings means working on two things:

• The meetings themselves. Decide which meetings to hold or attend, set clear objectives, and design the preparation, agenda, and follow-through for engagement and impact.
• How you lead in the room. Communicate with confidence, exercise judgment, listen with empathy, influence decisions, and create accountability. </aside>

Why meetings?

Meetings are easy to dismiss as interruptions of the “real work.” I see them differently. They are where people contribute their expertise, make decisions, build relationships, and turn priorities into progress.

They are also where leadership happens in real time. The meetings already on your calendar give you repeated opportunities to manage up and across, navigate organizational dynamics, develop others, communicate through change, and build trust.

Quality meetings don’t just happen.

And improving them does not necessarily require an organization-wide overhaul. It begins with one purposeful change within your control.

How I came to this work

First, meetings helped me connect and learn

Early in my career, I loved meetings. While working at an educational organization in Guatemala City and later managing international development programs, meetings helped me understand how my work fit into a larger mission.

They were also where I learned from colleagues, received mentorship, and began noticing the implicit norms that shape how different people participate.

Then I became a leader and facilitator

I joined the research and evaluation team at a national workforce development organization during a period of significant growth. I learned facilitation practices grounded in adult learning theory and led everything from executive strategy sessions and off-site retreats to workshops on data-informed decision-making with hundreds of staff.

When my relationship with meetings changed

As my responsibilities grew, my relationship with meetings changed. My days filled with back-to-back meetings where work stalled, while strategic work moved into early mornings, evenings, and weekends. I was burning out.

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Leading through meetings became the answer

I first developed the idea of leading through meetings as a personal response to that experience.

• I needed to be more selective about the meetings I agreed to and protect space between them.
• I needed to set meetings up for success with realistic objectives and agendas designed around them.
• And I needed to strengthen the leadership skills that shaped how I showed up in the room.

That idea now shapes my coaching, strategic advisory, and leadership development work, as well as everything I write in Set the Agenda.

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What guides my work?

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Agency

No matter what situation you find yourself in, you have the power to change something. We focus on what is within your control and where you have influence.

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Intention

We are always making decisions about how to prepare, how to show up, and what to say. When we bring more intention to those choices, the results can be powerful.

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Systems

You are part of larger systems: your team, organization, industry, and community.

Meetings are just one piece of a larger communication, collaboration, and decision-making system.

Even as we focus on your meetings and what is within your sphere of control, we do not ignore the rest of the system.

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Small steps

When we want to make a change, we often go big. But one small step at a time beats a big, unrealistic plan every day. I will challenge you to focus on one change at a time.

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Habits

What we do on autopilot dictates how we show up more than we like to admit. The good news is that we can systematically change our habits. I focus on practical tools, questions, and practices you can apply to real work, then refine as you learn.

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Relationships

Even as we introduce more technology and AI into our work, real-time human conversation remains important. How we show up in those moments, when we make space for them, and how we build trust and relationships matter more than ever.

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Lifelong learning and rethinking

We are never finished learning or changing our minds. Leadership is an ongoing practice of trying new approaches, paying attention to what happens, and rethinking what we do with new information.

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Curiosity

I believe in the power of thoughtfully constructed questions. I will ask you lots of them. I will also encourage you to bring thoughtful questions into your meetings to help others engage, contribute, and lead.

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Grounded in experience