The modern agency workplace didn’t just change during the pandemic—it reset. And for many organizations, the aftershocks are still playing out in meeting rooms and video calls where engagement is low, decisions stall, and employees quietly check out.
Janet Kendall White, CEO of Berkshire Group, believes that’s no coincidence. In her new book, Unshakeable Leadership: A Map For Unlocking Strength, Strategy, And Success, Kendall White argues that the way leaders like agency owners run meetings has become one of the clearest indicators of how well they understand today’s workforce.
For more than three decades, Kendall White has advised leaders across industries, helping organizations improve communication, alignment, and performance. Her conclusion is blunt: leaders who continue to manage people as they did before 2020 are losing talent, trust, and momentum.
“Employees aren’t willing to return to ‘what was,’” Kendall White said. “They’ve experienced flexibility, autonomy, and a different relationship with work. That’s changed what they expect from leadership.”
Those expectations show up most clearly in meetings. As remote and hybrid work expanded, so did the number of meetings employees attend. Technology made it easier to schedule them, but not necessarily to run them well. Distractions, uneven participation, and meeting fatigue have become common complaints across industries.
According to Kendall White, many managers underestimate the role meetings play in shaping culture. Poorly run meetings signal a lack of clarity and respect for time, while effective ones create alignment, trust, and shared ownership.
“There’s an assumption that meetings should just work,” Kendall White said. “But effective meetings are designed. They’re facilitated. And they require skill.”
In Unshakeable Leadership, Kendall White outlines five core meeting leadership skills she believes are increasingly essential.
The first is awareness and objectivity. Rather than pushing their own ideas, effective leaders step back, encourage broader participation, and keep discussions focused on collective goals.
The second is process design. Clear objectives, defined roles, structured agendas, and shared materials help prevent meetings from drifting or becoming unproductive.
Kendall White also emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive environment—one where participants feel comfortable sharing ideas, even when those ideas are still forming. Open-ended questions and psychological safety, she argues, lead to better thinking and better outcomes.
Listening and paraphrasing form the fourth skill. By actively listening and restating key points, facilitators ensure understanding and help conversations move forward rather than sideways.
The final skill is visualization. Capturing ideas in real time on a whiteboard, shared screen, or document, helps teams stay engaged and see progress as it happens.
These skills, Kendall White notes, don’t always come naturally. Many leaders are promoted because of technical expertise or seniority, not because they’ve been trained to manage group dynamics.
“But facilitation is a learnable skill,” she said. “With the right tools, leaders can turn meetings from a source of frustration into a source of clarity and momentum.”
Rather than offering abstract leadership theory, Unshakeable Leadership focuses on practical behaviors leaders can apply immediately. Kendall White positions meetings not as a necessary evil of modern work, but as one of the most powerful—and overlooked—levers leaders have to build stronger teams.
As organizations continue adjusting to a post-pandemic reality, her argument is simple: leadership isn’t just demonstrated in strategy documents or performance reviews. It shows up, week after week, in how leaders run the room.