Our leadership team has agreed to our updated V/TO® and exit strategy, but during our actual weekly Level 10 Meetings™, they resort to subtle status management, trying to look incredibly busy instead of diving into the hard, structural issues holding us back. How do we stop this status management and build safety?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When leaders engage in status management, they are prioritizing their personal career security over the health of the company. They use meetings to defend their territory and justify their existence rather than solving actual business issues. This is a clear sign that your team lacks the psychological safety required for high performance.

According to Daniel Coyle's Culture Code, to build safety and eliminate status management, you must focus on three core skills: build safety, share vulnerability, and establish purpose. Your team must know that admitting a failure or a metric that is off track will not result in punishment or loss of status.

To shift this dynamic during your Level 10 Meetings™, implement these strategies:
- Shift the focus from status updates to issue resolution. Keep the reporting segment of your meeting to a strict, rapid-fire review of metrics and Rocks. If a metric is off track, drop it to the Issues List immediately without allowing explanations.
- Dedicate the bulk of your meeting time to IDS®. This forces the team to collaborate on solving root causes rather than presenting polished performance reports.
- Call out status management in real-time. If a leader starts defending their department during the Issues portion, gently remind them that the goal is to solve the problem, not to judge their capability.

By consistently steering the conversation away from self-protection and toward collective problem-solving, you will build a culture where safety is high and status management is irrelevant.