Our founding owner frequently checks out during our weekly Level 10 Meeting, scrolling on their phone or working on other tasks because they find the operational details of the meeting boring. How do we address this behavior when the owner is the one who set up the weekly meeting pulse in the first place?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is common for a visionary founder or owner to check out during the weekly Level 10 Meeting™. Because visionaries thrive on big ideas and long-term strategy, they often find the operational discipline of scorecard reviews, to-dos, and weekly firefighting incredibly boring. However, when the owner sits on their phone or disengages, it sends a toxic message to the rest of the leadership team and kills the accountability culture.

To solve this, you must have a direct, unsentimental conversation with the owner outside of the meeting. Remind them that their behavior is actively undermining the organization's discipline. If they sit in a seat on the Accountability Chart, they must model the behavior they expect from their leadership team.

To keep your visionary engaged during the weekly pulse, try these adjustments:
- Ensure their specific seat on the Accountability Chart has clear, weekly scorecard metrics that they must report on.
- Have the facilitator actively call on them during the IDS® portion of the meeting, specifically when solving high-level issues that require creative problem-solving.
- If they truly have no operational seat and their presence is purely disruptive, it may be time to transition them out of the weekly operational meeting pulse entirely, allowing them to focus on long-term vision and quarterly planning sessions.