Weekly Leadership Meeting SOP

Purpose

Define the weekly leadership meeting that keeps a service business aligned + moving. Most service-business owners run their week reactively - putting out fires + chasing tasks. A 60-minute weekly leadership meeting flips that pattern: surfaces issues before they're fires, aligns the team on priorities, + creates accountability that compounds.

Scope

Applies to:

• Businesses with 1+ manager besides the owner (Dispatcher, Service Manager, Office Manager, etc.)
• Sole-owner businesses can adapt to a solo "weekly review" with the same structure

Excludes:

• Daily huddles (separate, shorter, tactical)
• Quarterly strategic reviews (separate, longer, strategic)

Responsibilities

• Owner / GM runs the meeting + makes final calls when consensus isn't possible
• Leadership team attends, prepares ahead, owns assigned actions
• Office Manager captures notes + tracks action items

Cadence

• Same day + time each week (recommended: Monday morning OR Friday afternoon - pick + stick)
• 60 minutes, hard stop
• In-person or video (consistency > medium)
• Cancel only for emergencies; reschedule, don't skip

Procedure

Prep (15 min before, each attendee):

1. Pull their numbers (jobs, revenue, callbacks, complaints, KPIs they own)
2. Identify their top 3 wins from last week
3. Identify their top 3 issues / risks / asks
4. Review last week's action items they own

Agenda (60 minutes):

Segment 1: Wins (5 min)

• Each attendee shares ONE win from the week
• Specific, business-impact, not personal trivia
• Sets the tone - start with success

Segment 2: Numbers (10 min)

Review the same dashboard every week:

• Revenue this week vs last week vs same week last year
• Jobs completed vs target
• Quote conversion rate
• Callback rate
• Customer ratings (NPS, Google reviews)
• Open A/R
• Cash position

Look for trends, not just current snapshot. Three-week average matters more than this week alone.

Segment 3: Last week's actions (10 min)

Walk through every action item from last week's meeting:

• Done? Mark complete
• Not done? Why? Reschedule or kill
• Issue surfaced? Add to today's agenda

If someone consistently misses actions, that's a coaching conversation (not in this meeting).

Segment 4: Issues + decisions (25 min)

The heart of the meeting. Each attendee surfaces:

• Issue they're stuck on
• Decision needed (yes/no, who/what, when)
• Request (resources, support, info)

Discuss + decide. Don't get stuck for 20 minutes on one item - agree to discuss offline if needed.

Default: discuss for 5 minutes max → decide OR park for offline followup. Avoid analysis paralysis.

Segment 5: Action items (5 min)

Capture clearly:

• Owner (specific person)
• Action (specific verb + object)
• Due date (next Monday or specific date)

Read them back so everyone confirms.

Segment 6: Close (5 min)

• Anything I missed?
• Anyone need anything else?
• Same time next week

Standing items that fit the agenda

Rotate these in over months (not every week):

• Customer feedback themes (every 2 weeks)
• Tech development goals (monthly)
• Equipment / fleet status (monthly)
• Marketing performance (monthly)
• HR (hiring pipeline, retention concerns) (monthly)
• Financial deep-dive (monthly, paired with Monthly Financial Review)
• Strategic check-in (quarterly)
• Industry / competitive news (as needed)

Acceptance criteria

• Meeting starts + ends on time, every time
• Action items captured + assigned with owners + dates
• Same dashboard reviewed every week
• Previous week's actions reviewed before discussing new issues
• Notes shared within 24 hours
• Critical decisions made + documented

Common pitfalls

• Cancelling for "busy week": defeats the purpose entirely. Run it short if needed; never skip.
• One person dominating: rotate facilitation OR set a 2-min-per-person speaking max
• Discussing solutions vs surfacing issues: meeting time is for surfacing + deciding; solutions happen between meetings
• Same issue every week without resolution: signal something needs to be killed, restructured, or owned by someone else
• No follow-through: action items captured but ignored. Worst possible outcome. Track + hold accountable.
• Too many people: 3-7 max. 10+ becomes a status meeting, not a leadership meeting.

When to evolve the meeting

• First 6 months: heavy on tactics, less on strategy
• 6-18 months: balance shifts; strategic discussion grows
• 18+ months: more strategic, less tactical (unless major operational change)
• Multi-location: split into location-specific + roll-up
• Acquisition / major change: separate strategy meeting; this one stays operational

What to do when meetings feel stale

1. Rotate facilitator: gives a fresh lens
2. Add a guest (top tech, customer, peer mentor)
3. Pre-read a relevant article (industry trend, leadership topic)
4. Audit attendees: anyone here who shouldn't be? Anyone missing?
5. Cut the agenda: maybe 60 minutes is wrong; try 45

References

• Patrick Lencioni, "Death by Meeting"
• Verne Harnish, "Scaling Up" - daily/weekly rhythm tools
• Manuall internal: Monthly Financial Review Process, Annual Strategic Planning Process