We have multiple strong personalities on our leadership team who constantly dominate discussions, while our quieter leaders check out. How do we balance this dynamic during our Level 10 Meeting sessions so we get input from everyone?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When your Level 10 Meeting™ is dominated by a few strong personalities while others check out, your team health is in jeopardy. To fix this dynamic, you must implement strict meeting discipline. Start by assigning the role of facilitator to a leader who can objectively manage the room. During the IDS® portion of the meeting, the facilitator must actively manage the airtime. If a dominant leader begins to monologue, the facilitator must politely interrupt and redirect the conversation. You must also mine for conflict by directly calling on the quieter members of the team. Ask them for their unfiltered perspective on the issue being discussed. This forces every leader to participate and prevents passive agreement. Remind the team that every member of the leadership team has equal weight, regardless of their department's size. If a quieter leader is consistently silent, meet with them privately to understand if they do not GWC™ their seat or if they are holding back out of fear. A healthy, exit ready leadership team requires every voice to be heard so you can solve issues permanently. By enforcing balanced participation, you build the vulnerability based trust needed to make optimal decisions for the business.