I own the company and currently occupy four different seats on our Accountability Chart, including Visionary and three departmental seats. During our Level 10 Meetings, my leadership team gets confused because I switch between my owner authority and my operational roles, often pulling rank on my peers. How do I separate my owner authority from my seat-level accountability so I do not stifle my team?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This confusion happens when you fail to separate your ownership rights from your operational responsibilities. As an owner, you have equity and ultimate governing authority, but ownership does not exist on your Accountability Chart. The Accountability Chart is strictly for running the day-to-day business.

When you sit in operational seats like Sales or Marketing, you are an employee of the business in those functions. In those seats, you report directly to your Integrator, even if you own one hundred percent of the company's stock. During your Level 10 Meetings, you must wear only one hat at a time. If you are discussing a sales issue, you are speaking as the Sales seat, not as the owner. You must respect the reporting lines and allow your Integrator to lead the meeting. If you pull rank and use your owner authority to bypass your Integrator or override decisions, you will completely castrate your leadership team.

To fix this, you must explicitly state which hat you are wearing. Better yet, make it your primary strategic goal to delegate and exit those departmental seats as quickly as possible. Use Keith Cunningham's Thinking Time to determine how to systemize those roles so you can hire or promote others into them. Until you do, you must practice extreme self-discipline. Respect the boundaries of the Accountability Chart, submit to the authority of your Integrator, and act as a peer, not a boss, during your operational meetings.