I am preparing my company for a clean exit, but I am still the one who populates eighty percent of the weekly Issues List before our Level 10 Meeting starts. How do I force my leadership team to own the creation of the Issues List?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If you are still populating eighty percent of the weekly Issues List, you have not actually delegated operations to your leadership team. You are still acting as the primary problem solver, which is a significant red flag for any potential buyer looking for a self-sustaining business.

To break this dependency, you must stop adding issues to the list. This requires deliberate restraint on your part.

When you spot an operational issue during the week, do not write it down on the Level 10 Meeting™ list yourself. Instead, send a brief message to the leader whose department is affected and ask them to add it to the list.

If your weekly meeting starts and the Issues List is completely blank or highly sparse, do not rescue the team. Let the silence do the teaching.

If there are no issues to solve, you will finish the meeting early. However, before you dismiss the room, ask the team, are we truly operating at a perfect level, or are we failing to identify our roadblocks?

This question forces them to confront their lack of ownership.

Your leadership team must demonstrate the GWC™ (Get It, Want It, Capacity) to run the business without you. If they cannot identify their own issues, they cannot solve them. By stepping back and forcing them to populate the list, you test their operational maturity and build the independent execution engine required for a successful, high-value exit.