Not Every Seat Needs a Suit: When Executives Over-Attend, Teams Underperform

It’s tempting as a senior leader to be in the room for every decision.
After all, you’re responsible for the outcome.
You want context. You want alignment. You want to support the team.

But here’s the truth:

When executives over-attend, teams underperform.

Your presence—especially in routine or tactical meetings—creates distortion. People defer instead of deciding. They wait for your reaction instead of following their instincts. They stop thinking like owners and start managing up.

Leadership Is Leverage, Not Proximity

Being a great operator doesn’t mean being omnipresent. It means building systems, expectations, and trust that let others execute without you in the room.

Before you accept that meeting invite, ask:

Do I need to be there to get this done?
Or do I just want to know how it’s getting done?

If it’s the latter, you don’t need to attend—you need better reporting and stronger delegation.

What the Research Shows

  • Senior leaders spend 72% of their time in meetings, often defaulting to inclusion “just in case.”
    — Harvard Business Review

  • 75% of employees say leadership presence in the wrong meetings leads to slower decisions.
    — Otter.ai Meeting Statistics

  • Only 38% of workers feel empowered to make decisions without leadership present.
    — Fellow.app

If your goal is speed, ownership, and clarity—your absence might be the key.

Delegation Is Not Abdication

You can support a team without sitting at their table.

  • Set the strategy.
  • Clarify the guardrails.
  • Build reporting that provides visibility without interference.
  • Encourage pre-reads and post-reads—not real-time explanation.

Your job is to build the container—not stir the soup.

Conclusion

Every seat you take in a meeting is one someone else didn’t. And every word you say might stop someone else from speaking. If you want empowered teams, start by stepping out of their meetings.

Not every seat needs a suit.
Reserve your voice for the moments that really matter.

Strategy, Leadership, Leadership in ActionLen Musielak#Leadership, #Meetings, #Empowerment, #ExecutivePresence, #Delegation, #OpsLeadershipComment