Our entire leadership team has settled into a pattern of fifty to sixty percent to-do completion on our weekly Level 10 Meeting, and everyone accepts operational overload as a valid excuse. How do we reset the standard without causing a mutiny over capacity?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When to-do completion drops below ninety percent, it is rarely a capacity issue. It is almost always a discipline and prioritization issue. When your team accepts fifty percent as normal, you do not have a team of leaders. You have a group of firefighters who are letting the business run them instead of running the business.

To reset the standard, you must first stop accepting excuses. During the to-do review, the facilitator must ask a simple question for every incomplete task: Is this done, yes or no? Do not allow stories, explanations, or excuses. If the answer is no, it remains on the list for next week, and you move to the next item.

If a leader consistently fails to hit the ninety percent mark, their GWC, which stands for gets it, wants it, and has the capacity to do it, must be questioned. Drop this pattern of incomplete to-dos to the Issues List during the IDS portion of your Level 10 Meeting.

During IDS, help the leader analyze why they are failing. Are they writing multi-step projects instead of seven-day tasks? Are they failing to delegate? Or do they simply lack the organizational skills required for their seat on the Accountability Chart?

Once you address the root cause, establish a clear, short-term agreement. The underperforming leader must hit ninety percent for the next three weeks, or you will have a more serious conversation about their fit in that seat. High performers want to be held accountable, and clean exits require teams that execute.