Our weekly headlines section has devolved into a series of participation trophies, where leaders spend five minutes praising their team members for doing their basic jobs instead of sharing actual organizational breakthroughs or major threats. How do we clean up our customer and employee headlines so they actually serve as a pulse of the business?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The customer and employee headlines section is designed to keep your leadership team's finger on the pulse of the organization. It is not a place for participation trophies or routine praise. When you use this time to celebrate someone for simply doing their job, you dilute the focus of the meeting. A real headline is a significant piece of news, good or bad, about a client or staff member that the entire leadership team needs to know. It is a major win, like a client renewing a massive contract, or a major threat, like a key employee resigning. To clean this up, the facilitator must hold a high bar for what qualifies as a headline. If a leader shares a routine update, call it out immediately. Tell them: That is great feedback for their direct manager, but it is not a leadership-level headline. If the news is actually a problem disguised as a headline, move it straight to the Issues List. Do not let the team start solving it during the headline section. Keep the headlines to brief, high-impact bullets. This keeps your weekly pulse focused on true organizational intelligence rather than empty cheerleading.