Template

Leadership team meeting template

The people who run the company, once a week: the numbers, what is stuck, and the decisions only this group can make.

60 minutesFor Founders and leadership teamsAgenda room
Change the agenda first

The agenda, with a time for each part

  1. The numbers, by exception10 min
    • Which numbers are off, and who is on it?
  2. What is stuck between teams12 min
    • Where is one team waiting on another?
  3. One big topic20 min
    • What is the one question we have to answer this week?
  4. Decisions for this group12 min
    • What can only be decided here?
    • Who disagrees, and why?
  5. What we tell the company6 min
    • What do people need to hear from us, and who tells them?

How the notes read afterwards

A made-up example, so you can see the shape. In a real call each line carries the words that were said and who said them.

Numbers. Churn up for the second month. Lena brings the reasons next week.

Stuck. Sales is promising a feature that product has not planned.

Decision. No custom work under $20k a year. Jack decided; sales told today.

Running it well

Ways to change it

A team of threeThirty minutes; drop the big topic to once a month.
A monthly longer sessionTwo hours on one question, with nothing else on the agenda.

When to skip it. When half the team is away. Decisions made by half a leadership team get made again.

Questions

What should a leadership meeting cover?

The numbers that are off, what is stuck between teams, one big question, the decisions only that group can make, and what to tell everybody else.

How long should a leadership team meeting be?

An hour a week is enough, if reports are read beforehand.

What happens in the room

Everybody joins from the link, with no account. The agenda sits beside the call and each item fills in with what was said about it, under the name of the person who said it.

More templates

OKR planningThree goals for the quarter, how each one will be measured, and what stops to make room.Project status meetingWhere the project is against the plan, what changed, and the decisions needed to keep it moving.Staff meetingEverybody who works here, once a week or once a month: news, numbers, problems and who is doing what.Safety meeting (toolbox talk)Ten or fifteen minutes before work starts: one hazard, what happened lately, and what everybody does differently today.Handover meetingWhen work changes hands: what is in progress, what is promised to whom, and what only the person leaving knows.Strategy offsite (half day)Half a day away from the daily work: where the company is, the few choices that matter, and three priorities for the year.Budget review meetingSpending against the plan, line by line where it matters, and the decisions that follow.Decision meetingOne decision, the choices on the table, and a written record of what was chosen and why.

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