All of our clients follow the practice of having a weekly Level 10 Meeting. Click here to download the Level 10 agenda. I’ve seen many companies do these meetings, and one huge mistake keeps rearing its ugly head when clients get to the Customer/Employee Headlines, and again when they get to the Issues List: They launch right in and wind up missing the real stuff.

A cohesive and effective leadership team makes decisions for the greater good of the organization. Members of the team are selfless, willing to put their egos and personal agendas aside and ask themselves what is best for their company. Unfortunately, when faced with tough decisions the first inclination is to make decisions based on how the outcome will affect us personally or our department. The winner is often the person who is most persuasive but the loser is the company whose leadership team is constantly infighting to protect its turf.

You’re not an Entrepreneur if you have the time and money to do whatever you want.

After completing the Core Values exercise for your organization (learn how on pages 34-45 of Traction) you can make them come alive with a Core Values Speech (see examples on pages 39-44 of Traction) and also with your company’s Core Values Book. This book captures stories from employees, customers and vendors about how your company’s values resonate with them. Let them tell a story about how one or more of your values supported a fellow employee or how it gave a customer a reason to return.

Are you having quarterly conversations with all of your direct reports? One of the most powerful things you can do is to stay on the same page with your people and help to make little course corrections along the way. Above and beyond your regular weekly meetings, day-to-day interactions and annual performance reviews, I recommend you follow this practice.