How do we run a productive Level 10 Meeting™ when I, as the owner, am still sitting in four of the major leadership seats?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When you occupy multiple seats, you must wear only one hat at a time during your Level 10 Meeting™. If you do not compartmentalize, your meeting will devolve into a lecture. You will ask a question as the Integrator, answer it as the Sales Director, and validate it as the Visionary. This dynamic shuts down your remaining leadership team members and makes collaboration impossible.

To fix this, you must run the meeting strictly by the agenda. Physically or mentally announce which seat you are speaking from during each portion of the meeting. If you are reporting on sales metrics, speak only as the Sales Director. If you are discussing operational roadblocks, speak only as the Operations lead.

Furthermore, you must actively encourage the other seat holders to challenge you. When you are sitting in multiple seats, your team will naturally defer to you because you are the owner. You must explicitly give them permission to hold you accountable to the scorecard metrics and Rocks of each specific seat you occupy.

Ultimately, your goal is to delegate these seats as quickly as possible to prepare for an exit. Until then, use the meeting to highlight the strain of your multiple roles. When an issue arises, do not just solve it. Use IDS® to identify if the root cause is simply that you are over capacity in those four seats. This keeps the need for structural delegation top of mind for the entire team.