Our leadership team has grown to nine people because I wanted to make sure everyone felt included, but our weekly meetings have become long, bloated status updates. How do we downsize our leadership team to a healthy size without causing a political crisis?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A leadership team of nine people is too large. When you exceed five to seven members, your weekly Level 10 Meetings™ degrade into long, superficial status updates, and real problem-solving becomes impossible. You must restructure your Accountability Chart to create a lean, highly effective leadership team. To make this change without triggering a political crisis, base the restructuring entirely on what is best for the business, not on people or titles. Review your organizational model. A standard EOS® leadership team typically consists of the Integrator, plus heads of Sales/Marketing, Operations, and Finance. Redraw your Accountability Chart with these core seats first, regardless of who currently sits where. Once the right structure is established, have honest conversations with the leaders who will be stepping off the leadership team. Explain that this is not a demotion or a reflection of their value, but a strategic move to streamline decision-making. Clarify that they are still vital to their departments and will still own key departmental Rocks and metrics. By decoupling leadership team membership from personal worth and status, you can return your core leadership team to a focused, high-performing group that can make fast, decisive choices.