Our leadership team has ballooned to nine people because we kept inviting department heads so they would not feel excluded. How do we downsize the leadership team back to a functional core without triggering an executive mass exodus?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A nine-person leadership team is not a leadership team; it is an unwieldy town hall. Decision-making slows to a crawl, Level 10 Meetings become status updates rather than vigorous IDS sessions, and individual accountability evaporates. Effective leadership teams running on EOS almost always consist of three to seven people maximum.

To fix this without sparking widespread resignations, de-personalize the conversation by anchoring it in the Accountability Chart. Gather the full group and explain that structure follows vision. You are not reorganizing based on egos or titles; you are simplifying the operational architecture so the company can execute faster. Clarify the fundamental business functions: Sales and Marketing, Operations, Finance, and the Integrator. The leadership team exists solely to govern those high-level functions, not to represent every single niche specialty.

Consolidate specialized seats underneath enterprise functions. For example, IT, Customer Support, and Human Resources may roll under Operations or Finance rather than having individual seats at the executive table. Explain the difference between enterprise governance and departmental management. Frame the reduction as a way to liberate those managers from administrative offsites so they can focus on operational execution.

Meet individually with the leaders who are coming off the leadership team before announcing the change broadly. Clarify that their compensation, titles, and departmental authority remain intact. Show them how cascading messages and departmental meetings will keep them fully informed. If an individual threatens to quit simply because they no longer sit in the weekly governance room, they care more about personal status than company performance, which answers your question about their cultural fit.