We currently have eight people on our leadership team and our Level 10 Meetings are turning into slow, unwieldy debates where nothing gets resolved. How do we trim the executive table down to an agile core without alienating the leaders we remove?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A leadership team with eight or more members is rarely an executive decision-making body; it is a committee. Committees move slowly, avoid hard decisions, and turn weekly Level 10 Meetings into status reporting marathons.

A healthy, functional leadership team almost always consists of three to seven seats. Typically, that means an Integrator, a Visionary if applicable, and leaders overseeing the core functions: sales and marketing, operations, and finance.

To restructure your team without destroying morale, ground the conversation in the Accountability Chart. Explain to the entire company that the leadership team exists solely to lead, manage, and hold the organization accountable to the V/TO, not to confer corporate status or prestige.

Sit down privately with the department heads who will no longer be at the leadership table, such as specialized managers in human resources, IT, or customer support. Clarify that their removal is a structural necessity for speed, not a demotion or a critique of their value. Their functional seats will now roll up under the appropriate executive seat, such as operations or finance.

Reassure them by establishing direct communication channels. Their department issues will still reach the leadership table through their executive leader, and their operational input will remain vital for departmental Rocks.

Once you reduce the room to the essential seats, your IDS sessions will regain intensity, decisions will happen faster, and peer accountability will sharpen. An exit-ready business requires crisp governance, not an inflated executive roster.