Our leadership team has slowly grown to nine members as we added specialized roles, and now our Level 10 Meetings™ have turned into long, unproductive debates. How do we restructure our Accountability Chart to reduce leadership team bloat without making excluded managers feel demoted?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A leadership team with nine members is too large to make fast, effective decisions. The sweet spot for a leadership team is three to seven people. When you go beyond that, your Level 10 Meetings™ lose focus and healthy conflict turns into a series of endless debates.

To fix this, you must rebuild your Accountability Chart based on what the business needs, not around the egos of your people. Look at the core functions of your business: typically sales, marketing, operations, finance, and the Integrator. Every seat on the leadership team must represent a major, independent function.

If you have specialized roles like customer success or IT claiming seats, ask yourself if they can be grouped under a broader major function like operations. The leaders of those sub-departments will report to the operations director instead of sitting on the leadership team.

When you transition these managers off the leadership team, position it as a structural necessity for the next stage of growth. Explain that reducing the team size is about efficiency, not a reflection of their personal value. Show them how their daily metrics still drive the company's progress and how they will still have a direct line of communication to their department head.

By slimming down your leadership team, you restore the speed and clarity required to run a high-performing, exit-ready business.