The 30-Minute Leadership Review Template

Your weekly leadership review is supposed to be the heartbeat of your company. The one meeting where everyone aligns, problems surface, and decisions get made. Instead, it's probably running 90 minutes, leaving everyone exhausted, and ending with vague action items that no one follows up on.

It doesn't have to be this way. The best leadership teams we've worked with run their weekly reviews in 30 minutes or less. Not because they're rushing, but because they've designed a system that makes efficiency possible. Here's the template.

The core principle: focus on exceptions

Most review meetings fail because they try to cover everything. Everyone reports on all their work, whether it needs discussion or not. This is backwards.

A 30-minute review only works if you embrace one principle: only discuss what needs discussion. Green items don't need airtime. On-track projects don't need updates. The meeting exists for exceptions: things that are off-track, blocked, or require a decision.

Before the meeting: async preparation

The 30-minute clock only starts when you enter the room. The real work happens before. Every team member should update their OKRs and flag any blockers before the meeting starts.

• Set a deadline. Updates due by 9am on meeting day, or end of day prior. No exceptions.
• Keep updates structured. For each objective: status (on track, at risk, off track), confidence level, and any blockers or asks.
• Flag what needs discussion. If something needs the room's attention, mark it explicitly. Don't wait for the meeting to surface it.
• Time limit: 5 minutes per person. If it takes longer to update your OKRs, you have too many or they're too complex.

When everyone arrives, the facilitator should already have a list of items that need discussion. No surprises, no scrambling.

The 30-minute agenda

Here's the exact structure. Don't deviate. If you find yourself going long, you're either discussing too many items or letting discussions run without time-boxing.

Minutes 0-5: Pulse check

Open with a quick scan of the business:

• Any major news or announcements
• Quick wins worth celebrating (30 seconds max each)
• Urgent cross-team issues that need immediate attention

This is not a round-robin. The facilitator calls out 2-3 items max. If there's nothing urgent, skip to the next section.

Minutes 5-25: Exception review

This is the core of the meeting. Work through the flagged items systematically:

• State the problem clearly. "Key result X is at risk because of Y." No preamble, no context everyone already has.
• Propose a solution. The owner should come with a recommendation, not an open question. "I suggest we do Z" is faster than "what should we do?"
• Decide or defer. Can we make a call now? If yes, make it. If we need more information, assign someone to gather it and revisit next week.
• 3 minutes per item, maximum. If it needs more, schedule a separate discussion with the relevant people.

Minutes 25-30: Decisions and actions

Never end a review without this step. The facilitator recaps:

• Decisions made: What did we agree to? Write it down.
• Actions assigned: Who is doing what, by when? Specific names, specific dates.
• Items deferred: What are we explicitly not addressing this week?

If the meeting ends without clear decisions and owners, it failed. This recap is non-negotiable.

What to cut

If you're currently running 60+ minute reviews, something has to go. Here's what doesn't belong in a weekly leadership review:

• Round-robin status updates. This is what async updates are for. If someone's update doesn't need discussion, it doesn't need airtime.
• Deep-dive problem solving. The review identifies problems and assigns owners. Solving complex problems takes longer than 3 minutes and should happen separately.
• Project demos or showcases. Celebrate wins briefly, but save demos for all-hands or dedicated sessions.
• Anything that only concerns two people. If a topic only needs two people in the room, take it offline. Don't waste everyone else's time.

The facilitator's role

A 30-minute review requires a strong facilitator. This person is responsible for:

• Preparing the agenda. Review async updates before the meeting and identify what needs discussion.
• Keeping time ruthlessly. Cut people off politely but firmly when they exceed their time.
• Parking tangents. When conversation drifts, capture the topic and move on.
• Driving to decisions. Push for resolution. "So what's the decision?" should be the most-used phrase.
• Recording outcomes. Decisions and actions need to be captured in writing, in real time.

The facilitator is often, but not always, the CEO or COO. What matters is that they have authority to keep the room on track and are willing to interrupt when necessary.

Making it stick

The first few 30-minute reviews will feel rushed. That's normal. You're breaking habits that have built up over months or years.

• Protect the format for 4 weeks. Resist the urge to "just this once" extend the meeting or skip the recap.
• Celebrate early endings. If you finish in 22 minutes, that's a win. Don't fill the time.
• Hold the async line. If updates aren't submitted before the meeting, don't let people give verbal updates. This is how the system breaks down.
• Retrospect monthly. Is the format working? What's falling through the cracks? Adjust, but don't abandon the core structure.

The template at a glance

That's it. No slides, no presentations, no round-robins. Just focused discussion on what matters, followed by clear decisions.

Put it into practice

This template works for teams of 20-100 people. For smaller teams, you'll finish faster. For larger ones, you may need to be even more ruthless about what gets discussed.

If you're looking for a system that makes async updates and exception tracking effortless, that's exactly what Runsheet is designed for. We built it specifically to make 30-minute reviews possible.

For more on building effective review habits, see our Weekly Reviews Guide or read about why most reviews feel like status theatre.