Our Integrator spends their entire week babysitting executive peers, chasing them for Scorecard metrics and Rock updates instead of driving strategic execution. How do we transition our leadership team from passive task-followers to proactive seat owners?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your Integrator is functioning as an exhausted adult supervisor, you do not have a leadership team. You have an operations manager babysitting departmental supervisors. An executive seat holder is paid to run their department, anticipate bottlenecks, and bring solutions, not to wait for reminders.

This dynamic exists because the Integrator has trained the team that someone else will carry their accountability for them. Stop carrying it.

First, change the ground rules of the Level 10 Meeting. Scorecard numbers and Rock statuses must be updated prior to the meeting. If a leader shows up with blank numbers or unprepared updates, do not chase them. Stop the meeting and make the failure visible. An unupdated metric or off-track Rock without a proposed issue is an immediate drop to the IDS list. Public peer visibility is the fastest cure for executive apathy.

Second, assess the leadership team through the lens of GWC. Does each leader truly Get, Want, and have the Capacity to lead their functional seat at your current revenue scale? Many managers who were promoted internally know how to do functional tasks, but they lack the executive capacity to think cross-functionally and lead autonomously. If an executive requires weekly hand-holding just to report their own department results, they do not have the capacity for an enterprise leadership seat.

Third, instruct the Integrator to stop doing their peers' thinking for them. When an executive brings an unresolved issue to the Integrator during the week, the response must be: What does your seat propose as the solution, and should this be placed on our next Level 10 agenda? Train the team that ownership belongs to the seat holder, not the Integrator.