Every week our leadership team rates our Level 10 Meeting™ a nine or a ten, but I can see people checking their phones and we frequently fail to solve our top issues. How do we break this culture of polite grade inflation and get honest ratings during the wrap-up?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Rating inflation is a symptom of a team that values comfort over performance. When you rate a meeting a ten out of ten but fail to solve your top operational issues, you are accepting mediocrity. This polite behavior is toxic to execution and will drag down your company value.

To break this habit, the facilitator must immediately challenge any rating of nine or ten that does not align with the reality of the meeting. If the team ran over time, if you failed to resolve your top priority issues, or if leaders were clearly distracted by their screens, a ten is a lie.

Start by redefining what a ten actually means. A perfect score means the meeting started on time, ended on time, kept everyone fully engaged, and resolved your most critical issues permanently.

Ask each leader to explain their rating if they give a high score despite a messy meeting. Use the following simple ground rules:

- Anyone rating the meeting lower than an eight must state exactly what was missing or what derailed the pulse.
- Anyone rating the meeting a nine or a ten must be prepared to state what made the meeting exceptionally productive.
- Call out phone usage and sidebar conversations in real time, and adjust the ratings accordingly at the end of the meeting.

By holding the team accountable to an objective standard, you will force them to give honest ratings. This feedback is the only way to improve the quality of your weekly pulse and ensure you are building a highly focused, independent leadership team.