Team members routinely walk into our Level 10 Meeting two to four minutes late, forcing us to pause the segue or catch them up on the Scorecard. How do we eliminate this casual tardiness and protect our start time?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Casual tardiness happens because the leadership team tolerates it. When you pause the meeting, repeat the segue, or update a latecomer on the first three lines of the Scorecard, you reward their disrespect for the team calendar and penalize the people who showed up prepared.

The rule is simple: the Level 10 Meeting starts precisely on the designated minute, whether every seat is filled or not. If your meeting is scheduled for 8:30 AM, the first person begins sharing good news at exactly 8:30:00 AM. When a late leader walks into the room at 8:34 AM, nobody stops speaking. Nobody summarizes what was missed. The latecomer takes their seat quietly and catches up on their own time.

If the late arrival holds accountability for an off-track Scorecard number or Rock that was already passed, that item is immediately dropped down to the Issues List without their input. When they realize their absence caused their operational numbers to be flagged without their context, behavior changes overnight.

If a leader is chronically late, drop their punctuality onto the Issues List as an explicit culture and accountability issue. Late arrivals drain energy, delay the IDS track, and set a sloppy precedent for departmental Level 10 Meetings across the company. Starting on time is not about rigid corporate dogma. It is about establishing baseline professional respect for the finite time of your leadership team.