Over the years our leadership team has ballooned to nine people because we did not want to alienate department managers, but our Level 10 Meetings have become sluggish committee discussions. How do we trim the leadership team back to a lean group of three to seven seats without causing a staff revolt?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A leadership team with nine people is not an executive team; it is a parliament. Large groups destroy healthy conflict, inflate meeting times, and encourage passive spectators. To run an effective business, your leadership team should consist of three to seven seats maximum.

To restructure the team without destroying morale, ground the transition entirely in the Accountability Chart, never in personal hierarchy:

- Redraw the Accountability Chart from scratch. Focus purely on the structural functions the business requires to hit its three-year picture. Typically, this includes Visionary, Integrator, Sales and Marketing, Operations, and Finance.
- Collapse specialized functions under broader operational umbrellas. IT, HR, and customer service do not automatically need standalone seats at the executive table; they report up through Operations or Finance.
- Have individual conversations with the managers who will no longer attend the weekly leadership meeting. Clarify that the change is about meeting utility and enterprise decision rights, not their value to the company.
- Establish a clear departmental Level 10 Meeting cadence for those functional areas. Managers accept being off the executive team when they still have a weekly forum to solve operational issues within their specific domains.

Explain that executive seats require broad enterprise responsibility, cross-functional accountability, and active participation in strategic Rocks. Trimming the table is not a demotion; it is an organizational correction that allows managers to focus on departmental execution rather than sitting through enterprise debates.