We have grown rapidly and our leadership team has ballooned to nine people, making our meetings slow, unfocused, and unproductive. How do we cleanly trim the room down to a functional size?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A nine-person leadership team is not an executive team. It is a town hall. When a leadership team exceeds five to seven people, candid debate evaporates, meeting velocity collapses, and individual accountability disappears. People begin hiding behind group discussions, and your weekly Level 10 Meeting becomes a slow, painful status report.

The fix requires redesigning your Accountability Chart from first principles. Wipe the names off the board and focus strictly on structure. Most healthy organizations running on EOS only require three to five major functions reporting to the Integrator: Sales and Marketing, Operations, and Finance, occasionally supplemented by a specialized seat like Technology or People.

Look closely at who is currently in the room. You likely have specialized managers, department supervisors, or long-tenured employees who were added to the meeting as a status reward rather than because they lead a major business function. Leadership team membership is not an honorary title. It is a heavy operational responsibility.

Consolidate related sub-functions under primary seats on the Accountability Chart. Move mid-level leaders into departmental Level 10 Meetings led by their respective functional heads. Explain to those stepping off that this restructuring is about operational focus, not demotion. When you restore the leadership team to five to seven true functional heads, speed, trust, and intense debate will return immediately.