AT&T CEO John Stankey has laid out a clear cultural principle for his company that employees should never walk into a meeting unprepared. According to a report by Fortune, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, hosted by LinkedIN, Stankey emphasised that success requires discourse, data-driven perspectives, and the courage to speak up. Stankey said one of AT&T’s guiding principles is that employees must come to meetings ready to contribute. “Don’t walk in there and just be an observer,” he explained. “When you have a point of view, it shouldn’t just be some uninformed opinion. It should be a point of view that’s built on facts, information, and data. I crave that.”He added that if participants aren’t willing to share constructive insights, it may mean the wrong people are in the room. The approach is designed to avoid groupthink and ensure meetings are productive rather than ceremonial.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s perspective
Jamie Dimon echoed Stankey’s sentiment, noting that leaders must create environments where employees feel comfortable disagreeing or raising uncomfortable issues. “I am never upset when someone says I’m wrong about something,” Dimon said. “I just want to do the best I can for our clients, our country, our company.”Dimon has long stressed the importance of preparation, saying he always does pre-reads before meetings and believes in eliminating unnecessary meetings altogether.
Meeting prep in the age of AI
The conversation also touched on how both executives are adjusting their meeting preparation habits as AI tools become part of their daily workflow. Both have traditionally stressed the value of reading materials ahead of meetings, but they suggested that habit may be shifting. Stankey said he’s begun questioning whether reading is still the most effective way to absorb information, noting that engaging in a more conversational, dialogue-based format with AI now lets him process information faster when the conversation is well-directed. Dimon said he takes a similar approach, using AI tools like Gemini or Google to quickly dig into information as part of his meeting previews.Even so, the core principle hasn’t changed for either executive: showing up prepared remains essential. Dimon has said that when he arrives at a meeting having already done his pre-reading, attendees get his full attention — and when a meeting isn’t a productive use of people’s time, he believes it shouldn’t happen at all.
Jamie Dimon’s long history with meeting etiquette
Dimon’s focus on meeting discipline dates back decades. Early in his career, as a 28-year-old Harvard MBA working as an assistant to American Express president Sanford “Sandy” Weill, Dimon saw his role as primarily learning and observing, holding off on speaking until he had something valuable to contribute.That instinct to stay quiet and absorb information, however, likely wouldn’t hold up well in Stankey’s meeting culture — where a young employee following Dimon’s old playbook might instead find themselves cold-called and expected to offer a point of view on the spot.