I recently sat in on a client’s weekly departmental meeting. It’s a relatively new cadence for this specific group of folks and the agenda is a work in progress. The executive driving the meeting gave me a call a few minutes after it wrapped and asked for my feedback.
And just know, the reason I’m sharing this is because if this was absent from your weekly meeting I’d tell you the exact same thing.
“The one hill I’m willing to die on is making sure we make space to hear stresses and tensions at the top of the call.”
Here’s why I fought for it.
What a Weekly Meeting is Really For
This is a Monday morning call. In my eyes, we want our team leaving that call ready to tackle the week. No ambiguity around priorities or direction. As an Elevater, our job is to:
Get everyone aligned.
Steer the ship in the right direction.
Remove the obstacles that are slowing our team down.
If we’re in agreement on this, then making space for stresses and tensions isn’t a distraction or a nice-to-have, it’s essential.
Why Stress Belongs on the Agenda
It builds trust.
When you invite people to share what’s weighing on them, you’re saying: what matters to you matters to me and this team. That’s a deposit in the emotional bank account. It tells your team that you care, and you’re thinking about their needs. It also flips the meeting from one-way communication (leader talks, team listens) into something more engaging.
It creates safety.
Conflict isn’t the problem—unspoken conflict is. Stress isn’t the problem either—it’s when people feel they don’t have the support or agency to deal with it. When you name tensions, you make them normal. You make them tackle-able. And that’s where healthy conflict begins.
It gives you a pulse check.
Often, the “little stresses” people bring up are really early indicators of bigger roadblocks. Weekly meetings are the perfect time to surface them before they spiral.
It boosts engagement.
Once stress is named, it’s no longer a distraction running in the background. We all know what it feels like to be stuck or frustrated. It’s really hard to turn that off and be fully present … especially when the folks who could help are in the room.
When we start with what’s causing stress, we give our team a chance to empty their bucket. Get their cards on the table. Once they have a way forward, or as the very least they feel their concerns have been genuinely heard, they’re able to be more present for the rest of the conversation.
What Actually Happens
In practice, the stresses people bring up usually overlap with the topics you already planned to cover. But the way they frame it—the nuance, the perspective—makes the conversation richer.
In one of my team practices, someone put it perfectly:
“Your team will naturally prioritize the urgent business topics. Those are typically the things driving stress. So, the topic likely would have been on the agenda anyway, but it’s cathartic for them to name it personally first.”
That’s exactly the point. Stress doesn’t derail the meeting. It provides color and clarity.
The Takeaway
As Elevaters, one of our biggest assets is how we create space for stress. (Our Elevate participants experience this first-hand each week.) Stress ignored doesn’t disappear—it just leaks into decision-making, erodes trust, and drags down energy. But when we bring it into the open, we turn it into fuel: for alignment, clarity, and progress.
So, if you’re looking to fine tune your weekly agenda, try putting stress at the top. You might be surprised how much smoother the rest of the conversation flows.
