Our leadership team has slowly grown to nine members, and our weekly Level 10 Meeting™ has become bloated, slow, and impossible to complete within ninety minutes because too many voices are competing during IDS®. How do we streamline our meeting attendance without making excluded leaders feel demoted or out of the loop?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A leadership team of nine people is too large. When you have that many voices in a Level 10 Meeting™, IDS® becomes a circular debate, accountability dilutes, and your meeting pulse slows to a crawl. The ideal size for a leadership team is three to seven people. If you have nine, you likely have departmental managers sitting in seats that do not belong on the true leadership team.

You must look at your Accountability Chart and define who truly owns the major functions of the business. Those who do not sit on the leadership team should not attend the leadership Level 10 Meeting™. This is not a demotion; it is an operational necessity to keep the business agile.

To transition them smoothly, explain that their absence from the leadership meeting allows them to focus on running their own departments. They will still receive the updates they need because you will roll out departmental Level 10 Meetings™ for their teams. This ensures they remain aligned on the corporate vision and Rocks without clogging the leadership meeting. Streamlining your team keeps your leadership meetings focused, fast, and highly effective.