We want to roll out Level 10 Meetings™ to our middle managers, but our directors are micromanaging them by sitting in on their departmental meetings, which completely kills their autonomy. How do we draw the line?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Rolling out departmental Level 10 Meetings™ is critical for scaling your operations, but your directors must let go of the vine. When senior leaders sit in on middle management meetings, they undermine the local leaders and turn a healthy operational pulse into a policing exercise. This violates the leader-leader model where we distribute power and require people to own their own problems.

To draw a clean line, refer to your Accountability Chart. Every seat has defined roles and accountabilities. If a middle manager GWC™ (Gets, Wants, has Capacity to do) their seat, they must be allowed to run their own departmental Level 10 Meetings™ without parental supervision.

The directors' role is not to police the weekly meeting, but to monitor the outputs. They do this by reviewing the departmental Scorecard and Rock progress. If the middle manager's team is hitting their numbers and completing their Rocks, the director has no business being in the room.

If a departmental meeting is struggling, the director should coach the middle manager during their 1 on 1 meetings, not hijack the group meeting. Teach the manager how to facilitate, how to run IDS®, and how to drive a 90% To-Do completion rate.

By staying out of the room, you allow your middle managers to build trust with their teams and practice being Humbly-Confident leaders who solve their own issues. If a director cannot step back, they are failing their own accountability of developing their people.