When our leadership team members travel or have client conflicts, they often send one of their direct reports as a delegate to our Level 10 Meeting™. This is disrupting our team dynamic and slowing down our IDS® process because the delegates do not have the authority to make decisions. How do we handle this?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Allowing leadership team members to send delegates to the Level 10 Meeting™ is a mistake that dilutes accountability and stalls your operational momentum. The leadership Level 10 Meeting™ is a sacred ninety-minute block reserved exclusively for the individuals who own the seats on your leadership Accountability Chart.

If a leader cannot attend due to travel or an emergency, they should not send a delegate. A delegate does not possess the full context of the leadership team's strategic vision, nor do they have the authority to make high-level decisions during IDS®. Their presence often forces the team to postpone critical issues because they cannot get a real commitment, which creates meeting waste.

Instead, the rule must be simple: if you are absent, you are absent. Your Scorecard metrics and Rock updates must still be entered before the meeting, and any of your overdue to-dos will be flagged. The rest of the team will run the meeting as scheduled. If an issue on the list requires your direct input, the team will either solve it based on the available data or table it until the following week.

Protecting the exclusivity of the leadership team room preserves your high-trust environment. It ensures that when you are identifying, discussing, and solving issues, every person in the room has the GWC™ (Get It, Want It, Capacity) and the authority to commit their department to action.