Our leadership team thinks the five-minute Segue is a waste of time and wants to skip it entirely to jump straight into the numbers. As the owner, how do I convince them that this transition is critical for team health, and how do we make it high-impact without it eating up our meeting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Skipping the Segue is a common mistake made by teams who mistake transactional efficiency for true leadership team health. The five-minute Segue is not filler. It is a psychological transition designed to help busy leaders shift their brains from running their individual departments to working together on the business. Without this transition, leaders enter the room cold, defensive, and mentally distracted by their daily fires.

To make the Segue high-impact and non-negotiable, you must enforce its structure. The Segue requires each leader to share one personal best and one professional best from the preceding week. This simple exercise builds trust and reminds the team of their shared humanity and successes before they dive into tough operational problems.

If your team finds the Segue dry, it is usually because they are going through the motions or sharing superficial updates. As the owner, lead by example. Share a meaningful personal win and a genuine professional win. This sets the tone and encourages others to share real substance.

Keep the pace fast and disciplined. With five to seven people on a leadership team, each person has less than one minute. There is no time for long stories or follow-up questions. If someone starts to ramble, the facilitator must politely cut them off and move to the next person. Treat the five-minute limit as a hard boundary. By maintaining this discipline, you preserve a vital tool for team alignment and start every weekly pulse with positive momentum.