Several of our functional directors are demanding seats on the leadership team because they oversee large teams and want strategic input. How do we determine who truly belongs on the leadership team versus who should lead from the tier below without causing mutiny?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A leadership team should consist of three to seven people. The moment a leadership team expands past seven seats, meetings turn into departmental update sessions, healthy ideological conflict disappears, and real accountability evaporates. A seat at the executive table is not a perk or reward for running a big team; it exists solely to run the business.

Use the Accountability Chart to draw a firm boundary. Look at the primary functions required to run the enterprise: typically Sales and Marketing, Operations, and Finance, led by an Integrator. If someone runs a sub-function like quality assurance, human resources, or field logistics, their seat belongs squarely underneath one of those major functions, not at the top table.

Communicate this structure clearly to your directors. Emphasize that keeping the leadership team lean is about organizational speed and decision quality, not personal status. Directors who do not sit on the leadership team should still own departmental Rocks, run their own departmental Level 10 Meetings, and be invited into executive sessions as guest experts when specific issues arise.

Never expand your leadership team just to appease an executive ego. Keep the table lean, focused, and capable of decisive action.