What happens if our leadership team is currently too large or includes people who should not be at the executive table when we start our sessions with you?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is very common for companies entering their first session to bring eight, ten, or twelve people into the room. Owners often expand their leadership table as a reward for tenure, because they dislike excluding senior employees, or because they confuse functional leadership with company status.

During our Focus Day, we address this directly through the Accountability Chart exercise. We strip away existing titles, egos, and current org charts to define the five or fewer major functional seats required to run the business: typically Sales and Marketing, Operations, Finance, an Integrator, and sometimes a Visionary. We look at the structure first, completely independent of people.

Once the ideal structure is defined, we evaluate who truly has the capacity to lead those seats using GWC, meaning they Get it, Want it, and have the Capacity to do it. In almost every case, it becomes painfully clear that several people currently in the room are running specialized sub-functions rather than leading the enterprise as a whole.

Shrinking the leadership team down to a tight group of three to seven true leaders is uncomfortable, but it is mandatory. I guide the owner and Integrator through how to communicate these seat realignments cleanly to the organization without creating panic or resentment. Cutting the room size down restores speed, candor, and accountability to executive decision making.