Our weekly To-Do list is constantly bloated because we agree to take on actions during IDS that actually belong to our direct reports. How do we stop the leadership team from taking on delegation-grade tasks during our Level 10 Meeting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The leadership team should never be the bottleneck for execution. When your Level 10 Meeting To-Do list is constantly bloated with minor, tactical tasks, it means your leaders are failing to delegate. They are acting as doers rather than directors on the Accountability Chart.

During the IDS portion, when the team agrees on a solution, the resulting To-Do must be assigned to the leader who is accountable for that area. However, that leader does not have to be the one who actually executes the work.

If the task can be handled by a direct report, the leader should write down a To-Do that says: Delegate task to a direct report and confirm completion. This keeps the accountability with the leadership team member while pushing the actual execution down the organization.

The facilitator must actively police the creation of To-Dos. If a leader agrees to a task that is clearly below their pay grade, the facilitator should ask, "Is that a leadership team To-Do, or is that something your team should be doing?"

By enforcing this discipline, you keep your leadership team focused on high-leverage activities and prevent calendar fatigue. Your Level 10 Meeting To-Do list should only contain items that require a leadership-level owner to drive them across the finish line.