Most leadership teams do not need more meetings.
They need better ones.
I regularly meet business owners who feel as though their calendars are packed, their team is constantly talking, & yet the same issues keep resurfacing. Decisions get delayed, actions are forgotten, & meetings become long conversations that produce very little movement.
That is exactly why the Level 10 Meeting® is such an important part of the Entrepreneurial Operating System®.
When it is run properly, it gives the leadership team a consistent weekly rhythm for reviewing the business, identifying the most important issues & making clear decisions. It creates focus, accountability & momentum.
But simply putting a Level 10 Meeting in the calendar does not automatically make it effective.
A great meeting depends on how the team shows up, how closely the agenda is followed & whether the real issues are actually solved.
It Happens at the Same Time Every Week
Consistency matters.
A great Level 10 Meeting happens on the same day, at the same time, with the same leadership team every week. It is treated as one of the most important commitments in the calendar, rather than something that can be moved whenever another meeting appears.
That weekly rhythm helps the leadership team stay close to the business.
Problems are identified earlier. Priorities remain visible. Team members know they will have a regular opportunity to raise concerns, discuss performance & get decisions made.
When meetings are cancelled, delayed or constantly rescheduled, small issues have more time to become large ones.
The Team Follows the Agenda
The Level 10 Meeting follows a clear agenda for a reason.
Each section has a purpose, & the structure prevents the meeting from being hijacked by long updates, side conversations or whatever issue happens to feel most urgent that morning.
A strong leadership team moves through the reporting sections efficiently. They review the Scorecard®, Rocks, customer & employee headlines, & the previous week’s To-Dos.
They do not attempt to solve every issue as it appears.
Instead, anything requiring deeper discussion is added to the Issues List. This keeps the meeting moving & protects time for the most valuable part of the agenda: IDS®.
Without that discipline, the meeting quickly becomes another general discussion with no clear outcome.
The Scorecard Tells the Truth
A useful Scorecard gives the leadership team a quick, factual view of the business.
The numbers should help the team see what is on track, what is moving in the wrong direction & where attention may be needed before a larger problem develops.
A great Level 10 Meeting does not involve explaining away every missed number.
If a measurable is off track, it is marked accordingly. The team then decides whether it needs to be added to the Issues List.
The Scorecard is not there to make people feel good. It is there to give the team an early warning system.
If every number is green every week, either the business is performing exceptionally well or the measurables are not stretching far enough to be useful.
Rocks Are Reviewed Honestly
Rocks are the most important priorities for the quarter.
During the Level 10 Meeting, each Rock is reported as either on track or off track. There should not be a long explanation, a percentage complete or a hopeful story about why everything will probably work out.
It is either on track to be completed by the end of the quarter or it is not.
That level of honesty helps the team act early.
A Rock that is off track in week three may be recoverable. A Rock that is quietly struggling until the final week of the quarter is much harder to rescue.
The goal is not to punish people for being off track. It is to create visibility, support & accountability while there is still time to respond.
To-Dos Are Completed
Every To-Do created during a Level 10 Meeting is expected to be completed within seven days.
A healthy leadership team aims to complete at least 90 percent of its To-Dos each week.
That may sound simple, but it is one of the clearest indicators of whether the team is building real accountability.
When To-Dos are repeatedly carried forward, one of several things is usually happening. The action may be unclear, the wrong person may own it, the team may be creating too many tasks, or people may not be treating their commitments seriously.
A great meeting does not ignore poor follow-through. The team talks about it, identifies the pattern & solves the underlying issue.
The Team Solves the Real Issues
The most valuable part of the Level 10 Meeting is IDS, which stands for Identify, Discuss & Solve.
This is where the team works through its most important issues.
The quality of the meeting depends heavily on whether the team identifies the real issue or only discusses the symptoms.
For example, a missed deadline may not really be a time-management problem. It may be caused by unclear ownership, a broken process, poor communication or the wrong person being in the seat.
If the team solves the wrong problem, the issue will return.
Strong teams are willing to slow down long enough to identify what is actually going on. They discuss it openly, make a decision & agree on the actions required to move forward.
The aim is not to talk about an issue.
The aim is to solve it.
The Conversation Is Open & Honest
A Level 10 Meeting only works when people are willing to say what needs to be said.
That requires trust.
Team members need to be able to disagree, raise concerns, challenge assumptions & admit when something is not working. They also need to be able to do that without turning the meeting into a personal argument.
Healthy conflict is productive.
Artificial harmony is not.
When everyone says yes in the meeting but continues debating the decision afterwards, the issue has not really been solved. The team may have agreed publicly, but it has not committed.
A great leadership team debates openly, makes the best available decision & then moves forward together.
Decisions Create Clear Ownership
Every solved issue should result in clarity.
Sometimes the solution is a decision. Sometimes it creates one or more seven-day To-Dos. Sometimes it reveals a larger issue that needs further work.
Whatever the outcome, everyone should leave the discussion understanding what was decided, who owns the next action & when it will be completed.
Vague agreements such as “we need to improve communication” are not solutions.
A clear solution sounds more like: “Sarah will update the handover process & bring the revised version to next week’s meeting.”
Clarity creates accountability.
Ambiguity creates another conversation.
The Meeting Starts & Finishes on Time
A Level 10 Meeting is designed to run for 90 minutes.
Starting on time shows respect for the meeting & everyone in it. Finishing on time forces the team to remain focused, prioritise effectively & avoid unnecessary discussion.
The answer to poor meetings is rarely to make them longer.
It is usually to improve discipline.
When a leadership team consistently runs out of time, it is worth looking at where the meeting is getting stuck. Reporting sections may be taking too long. People may be solving issues too early in the agenda. The team may be discussing rather than identifying & solving.
The structure works when the team works the structure.
The Team Rates the Meeting
At the end of every Level 10 Meeting, each person rates the meeting from one to ten.
The goal is to achieve an average score of eight or higher.
The rating is not there to collect compliments. It gives the team immediate feedback about the quality of the meeting.
When someone gives a low score, the useful question is: “What would have made it better?”
Perhaps the team avoided an important issue. Perhaps one person dominated the discussion. Perhaps the meeting lacked focus or ended without enough clarity.
The rating creates a regular opportunity to improve the meeting itself.
What a Great Level 10 Meeting Really Creates
A great Level 10 Meeting does more than improve the weekly calendar.
It helps the leadership team build stronger habits.
The team becomes better at seeing problems early, talking honestly, making decisions, completing commitments & holding one another accountable.
Over time, those habits create a business that is more focused, more predictable & less dependent on the owner stepping in to keep everything moving.
The meeting itself is only the mechanism.
The real value is the discipline it creates.
If your Level 10 Meeting feels repetitive, slow or unproductive, the answer is not necessarily to abandon it. More often, the team needs to return to the basics, follow the agenda, tell the truth & solve the real issues.
Because when a Level 10 Meeting is run well, it becomes one of the most valuable 90 minutes in the leadership team’s week.
Need Help Improving Your Level 10 Meeting?
If your leadership meetings are running long, avoiding the real issues or failing to create meaningful follow-through, it may be time to reset the rhythm.
A Certified EOS Implementer® can help your leadership team understand the tools, strengthen accountability & run meetings that genuinely move the business forward.