Our leadership team has grown to ten people as we acquire smaller competitors, and our Accountability Chart is now highly cluttered with ten direct reports to the Integrator. How do we restructure the seats under the Integrator to get back to a lean, high-performing leadership team without offending the demoted executives?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

An Integrator cannot effectively manage ten direct reports. When your leadership team grows past seven people, your Level 10 Meetings™ become slow, tactical, and highly inefficient. To scale the business and prepare for a clean exit, you must restructure the seats under the Integrator. The rule of thumb for a healthy leadership team is three to seven seats. To get back to this range, you must consolidate your seats on the Accountability Chart. Look at your current ten seats and identify common functions that can be grouped under a single leader. For example, you can combine marketing, sales, and customer success under a single Chief Revenue Officer or VP of Sales and Marketing seat. You can combine IT, facilities, and production under a single Chief Operating Officer or VP of Operations seat. Yes, this means some former leadership team members will now report to a peer instead of the Integrator. To manage this transition without offending them, frame the change around the needs of the business, not their personal performance. Explain that to reach the next level and secure a successful exit, the leadership team must remain lean and strategic. Show them that their new reporting structure allows them to focus deeply on execution within their department rather than sitting through high-level leadership meetings that do not leverage their daily strengths.