Explore every episode of the podcast More Than A Meeting
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who Actually Gets to Decide? | 27 Oct 2026 | 00:03:49 | |
Unclear decision rights quietly make growing businesses slow. Les looks at the difference between a decision problem and a decision-architecture problem. He explores which choices belong with individual executives, the SLT, the CEO or the board, and why authority must be real rather than delegated only on paper. When people know where decisions belong, pace improves and unnecessary escalation falls. Keywords: decision rights, decision architecture, CEO delegation, SLT decisions, business scaling, leadership systems #DecisionMaking #Leadership #CEO #SLT #ScaleUp Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| Psychological Safety Without the Fluff | 20 Oct 2026 | 00:04:20 | |
Some of the politest leadership teams are also the most political. Psychological safety doesn't mean avoiding uncomfortable conversations. It means creating the conditions where disagreement, uncertainty and challenge can happen without damaging the relationships needed to solve the problem. Les explores why strong teams use conflict to create clarity and why CEOs must pay close attention to how they respond when somebody challenges them. Safety should make an SLT braver, not softer. Keywords: psychological safety, leadership trust, constructive conflict, senior leadership teams, executive teamwork, leadership culture #PsychologicalSafety #Leadership #Trust #SLT #HighPerformance Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| The Rhythm That Makes Strategy Move | 13 Oct 2026 | 00:04:50 | |
Not every meeting should try to do everything. Les explains how annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly and operational meetings can work together as one organisational rhythm. You'll hear why every recurring meeting needs a specific purpose, how a good cadence reinforces strategy and accountability, and why meetings should be designed as part of the management system rather than treated as isolated calendar events. What job is each meeting in your diary actually there to do? Keywords: meeting cadence, leadership meetings, SLT meetings, strategy execution, operating rhythm, effective meetings #Meetings #Leadership #SLT #StrategyExecution #BusinessSystems Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| The CEO Dependency Test | 06 Oct 2026 | 00:04:28 | |
If the CEO disappeared for four weeks, what would slow down? That question reveals an enormous amount about the scalability of a business. Les explores how CEO dependency develops, why simply telling founders to delegate more doesn't solve it, and how clear authority, leadership capability and better decision architecture create genuine enterprise capacity. A scalable company isn't one where the CEO becomes less important. It's one where leadership exists beyond the CEO. Keywords: CEO dependency, founder to CEO, business scaling, delegation, senior leadership team, decision rights #CEO #Founder #ScaleUp #LeadershipSystems #SeniorLeadershipTeam Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| Why Strategy Dies in the Middle | 29 Sep 2026 | 00:04:56 | |
A strategy can be perfectly clear in the boardroom and almost unrecognisable three levels down. Les explores the missing middle between strategic intent and organisational action. He explains why communication alone doesn't create execution and why ownership, decision rights, management rhythm and consistent leadership behaviour determine whether strategy actually lands. The real test of strategy isn't whether people received the presentation. It's whether behaviour changed. Keywords: strategy execution, strategic alignment, leadership systems, SLT strategy, organisational clarity, business execution #StrategyExecution #Leadership #SLT #BusinessStrategy #ScaleUp Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| When Lions Fight Over a Goat | 22 Sep 2026 | 00:05:09 | |
When senior leaders fight over territory, somebody else takes the prize. Les explores how silos, turf wars and functional priorities quietly damage enterprise performance. Strong directors can each be doing a good job while collectively creating friction, delay and politics. This episode looks at the shift from functional leadership to enterprise leadership and why senior executives must sometimes make decisions that are harder for their own department but better for the business. Are your leaders protecting functions or leading the enterprise? Keywords: leadership silos, enterprise leadership, senior leadership team, cross-functional leadership, SLT alignment, business performance #LeadershipTeam #EnterpriseLeadership #SLT #BusinessGrowth #Teamwork Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| The Promise Culture | 15 Sep 2026 | 00:05:00 | |
How many times should a CEO have to ask for the same thing? In this episode, Les explores the idea of a promise culture, where accountability comes from clear expectations, explicit commitments and trust rather than chasing and micromanagement. You'll hear why ownership must be visible, why accountability should run between peers rather than only upwards, and why leaders have to model the standards they expect from everybody else. A promise culture makes commitments mean something. Keywords: accountability culture, promise culture, SLT accountability, leadership behaviour, management systems, high-performing teams #Accountability #Leadership #SeniorLeadershipTeam #BusinessCulture #HighPerformance Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| What Should Your SLT Actually Be Measuring? | 08 Sep 2026 | 00:04:56 | |
Your SLT measures the business. But who measures the SLT? Revenue, EBITDA and cash tell you what has happened. They don't tell you whether your leadership team is becoming more capable of producing those results repeatedly. Les explores five practical dimensions of SLT performance: decision velocity, strategic alignment, execution reliability, cohesion and dependency risk. He also explains why making leadership performance visible creates better conversations and more targeted improvement. If your leadership team had its own dashboard, what would it reveal? Keywords: senior leadership team performance, SLT metrics, leadership measurement, decision velocity, execution, CEO leadership #SeniorLeadershipTeam #Leadership #CEO #BusinessGrowth #SLTPerformance Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| The Senior Team Is Not a Meeting, It’s a System | 01 Sep 2026 | 00:06:45 | |
Your SLT is not a calendar invite. It is the leadership system of the business. In the final episode, Les pulls the series together by showing how senior teams create speed or drag, clarity or confusion, dependency or distributed leadership. A strong SLT system has purpose, decision architecture, rhythm, accountability, behaviours and measurement. When these work together, the business moves with less friction. For CEOs ready to stop asking whether the meeting works and start asking whether the system works. #LeadershipSystem #SeniorLeadershipTeam #SLTPerformance #BusinessScaling #CEOLeadership Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| Decision Velocity, The Metric Most SLTs Ignore | 25 Aug 2026 | 00:06:38 | |
The speed of your decisions often becomes the speed of your business. Les explores decision velocity as a critical measure of leadership health. It is not about rushing. It is about reducing drag by clarifying who decides, what type of decision is being made, whether the decision sticks and how quickly action begins. Slow decisions cost money, confidence and momentum. A sharp episode for leadership teams who want better pace, cleaner ownership and stronger execution. #DecisionVelocity #LeadershipMetrics #SLTPerformance #BusinessExecution #CEOLeadership Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| Why Strong Functions Don’t Create Enterprise Performance | 18 Aug 2026 | 00:06:54 | |
You can have brilliant functional leaders and still have a slow, political business. This episode challenges the assumption that strong departments automatically create strong enterprise performance. Les explains how functional gravity pulls leaders back into local optimisation and why the SLT must become their first team. Enterprise leadership means caring about the whole business, not only the function you lead. For CEOs who want their senior team to stop representing departments and start leading the enterprise. #EnterprisePerformance #FunctionalSilos #SeniorLeadershipTeam #SLTAlignment #LeadershipSystems Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| The Habits of High-Achieving SLTs | 11 Aug 2026 | 00:06:38 | |
High achievements at the top are built through habits, not speeches. Les breaks down the operating habits that separate average senior leadership teams from high-achieving ones. These include decision forums instead of reporting rituals, named ownership, useful challenge, enterprise thinking, strong cadence and honest reflection. Small repeated behaviours become the leadership system. A practical episode for SLTs who want to move from knowing what good looks like to practising it consistently. #HighPerformingTeams #SLTHabits #LeadershipPerformance #SeniorLeadershipTeam #BusinessScaling Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| From Sounding Board to Strategic Engine | 04 Aug 2026 | 00:06:15 | |
A supportive SLT is helpful, but at scale it is not enough. Les explains why growing businesses need senior leadership teams that do more than listen, react and advise. A strategic engine spots issues early, brings judgement, owns decisions and helps the MD or CEO think beyond what they could reach alone. The episode covers enterprise mindset, purposeful meetings, strategic clarity and peer accountability. For MDs and CEOs ready to build an SLT that truly drives growth. #StrategicLeadership #ScaleUpCEO #SLTPerformance #EnterpriseLeadership #BusinessGrowth Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| Why Strategy Fails Before Execution Begins | 28 Jul 2026 | 00:06:08 | |
Strategy often fails long before execution starts. In this episode, Les argues that a strategy deck is not clarity, a town hall is not ownership and agreement is not readiness. Real strategy begins when the SLT can answer where the business is going, why it matters, what must change and what will stop. Without trade-offs at the top, the organisation carries the contradictions later. For leadership teams who want strategy to become action, not just communication. #StrategicExecution #SLTAlignment #BusinessStrategy #LeadershipSystems #CEOLeadership Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| The Accountability Gap at the Top | 21 Jul 2026 | 00:05:15 | |
Your SLT may hold everyone else to account, but who holds the SLT to account? Les explores why accountability often weakens at the most senior level. Polite avoidance, blurred ownership and CEO dependency can stop a leadership team from becoming truly accountable to each other. The episode offers practical steps including clear commitments, visible promises, peer challenge and team measurement. A must-listen for CEOs who want accountability to become cultural, not just managerial. #Accountability #SLTPerformance #PromiseCulture #CEOLeadership #LeadershipTeam Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| How to Build a Senior Leadership Team That Scales | 14 Jul 2026 | 00:06:16 | |
A senior leadership team does not scale by accident. It has to be designed. In this episode, Les sets out the building blocks of a scalable SLT: purpose, roles, decision rights, rhythm, behaviour and measurement. A strong SLT is not just a group of capable people with senior titles, it is the operating system of the business. For CEOs and MDs who want less dependency, better decisions and a leadership team that makes growth feel lighter. #SeniorLeadershipTeam #ScaleUpBusiness #LeadershipDesign #SLTPerformance #BusinessSystems Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| The Hidden Cost of SLT Drift | 07 Jul 2026 | 00:05:59 | |
SLT drift rarely looks dramatic, but it quietly leaks value. Les explains how small misalignments at the top create commercial drag across the business. Decisions get reopened, priorities get interpreted differently and the CEO has to repeat the same message again and again. Over time, this affects pace, margin, confidence and valuation. This episode helps CEOs spot where their leadership team is drifting and how to treat it as a measurable performance leak. #SLTDrift #LeadershipAlignment #CEOLeadership #BusinessValuation #LeadershipPerformance Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| From Founder to Scale-Up CEO | 30 Jun 2026 | 00:05:44 | |
The habits that built the business can become the habits that hold it back. This episode explores the difficult shift from founder-led momentum to scale-up leadership. Les explains why letting go is not stepping back, it is stepping up into a different role. The founder moves from engine to architect, building decision rights, leadership rhythm and a senior team that can carry the business forward. For founders ready to grow beyond personal effort and build a business that can scale. #FounderToCEO #ScaleUpLeadership #BusinessGrowth #LeadershipSystems #SeniorLeadershipTeam Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| Why Your SLT Is Busy but Not Actually Leading | 23 Jun 2026 | 00:06:13 | |
Busyness can look impressive, but it can also hide the absence of leadership. Les unpacks the difference between activity and enterprise leadership. A senior leadership team may be working hard, attending meetings and managing functions well, yet still leave the CEO joining all the dots. This episode challenges SLTs to move beyond updates and ask what the business really needs from them now. Essential listening for scale-up CEOs who want pace, ownership and better decisions at the top. #SLTPerformance #EnterpriseLeadership #ScaleUpCEO #LeadershipTeam #BusinessScaling Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| The Leadership Meeting Illusion | 16 Jun 2026 | 00:06:23 | |
Your SLT meeting may look productive, but is it actually leading the business? In this episode, Les explores why many senior leadership team meetings become polished reporting sessions rather than true leadership forums. The real test is simple: what changed because you met? If decisions are not made, ownership is not clarified and the CEO still carries the business alone, the meeting needs a stronger purpose. A practical episode for CEOs and MDs who want their SLT meetings to create clarity, accountability and enterprise leadership. #SeniorLeadershipTeam #SLTMeetings #CEOLeadership #LeadershipSystems #BusinessGrowth Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||
| TRAILER | 15 Jun 2026 | 00:02:41 | |
Most growing businesses don’t have a people problem. They have a leadership system problem.Welcome to More Than A Meeting, the podcast for CEOs, MDs, founders and senior leaders who know the real work starts at the top. Hosted by Les Murray, this show explores how senior leadership teams make decisions, hold each other to account, translate strategy into action and scale without everything depending on one person.Expect practical insight on SLT performance, leadership systems, accountability, decision-making, founder transition, strategy execution and building enterprise leadership teams that genuinely work.For leaders of growing businesses who want clarity, pace and collective ownership. Connect with Les: YouTube Channel SLT Quiz: Scoreapp Newsletter: Sign Up | |||