Growth is happening for women-led businesses in Scotland. Last year, turnover for scaling firms rose 65% and employment rose 48%. These businesses now make up 19% of all visible scaling companies in the country. (https://www.scotsman.com/business/female-powerhouses-are-fuelling-scottish-economy-5623033)
But growth without infrastructure just means faster chaos. 80% of Scotland's female founders say they lack support, compared with 40% of male founders (https://www.digit.fyi/scotlands-female-founded-scaleups-outpacing-national-average/). Support isn't just funding or networking. Often, it's something simpler: a team that runs itself without you in every conversation.
If you're aiming past £1M turnover, the real bottleneck usually isn't strategy. It's you — still sitting in the middle of every decision your team should make without you. The LION framework fixes that. It's a 20-minute weekly meeting structure, and it works.
Why Your Team Meetings Are Costing You Growth
Doies this sound familiar? Meetings run long. AOB swallows the agenda. You leave having "discussed a lot" but decided very little.
Every week that happens, you pay for it. A founder still chairing unstructured meetings hasn't delegated the outcome — only the task.
For a business trying to cross £1M, that's not a minor inefficiency. It's the gap between a team you can trust to run without you and one you can't. That gap is also the difference between owning a business and owning a job you've built for yourself.
Before LION: Make the Meeting Non-Negotiable
One rule comes before the framework itself. Pick a slot. Put it in every diary as a recurring event. Don't let it move.
Try 10am every Tuesday. Same time, same day, every week — no exceptions for busy weeks. Busy weeks are exactly when you need it most.
Every team member needs to know two things going in: attendance isn't optional, and neither is contributing.
The LION Framework
LION is an established ActionCOACH tool, used by coaches and their clients across our global network. Four steps. One focused meeting.
LAST WEEK
ISSUES
OPPORTUNITIES
NEXT WEEK
L — Last Week: What did we actually achieve?
Each person reports on what they did last week. What were they aiming for? Did they hit it? What went well, and what didn't?
This isn't a status update for your benefit. It's the team holding itself accountable, out loud, every week.
I — Issues: What got in the way, and who's solving it?
Surface the obstacles. What came up last week? What can you already see coming?
The key move here is ownership. Name who's taking action on each issue before you move on. An issue with no owner just comes back next week.
O — Opportunities: What did we spot, and what are we doing about it?
What opportunity came up last week? Did you act on it? What's sitting in the pipeline that needs a decision now?
Once your team knows this is a standing item, they start looking for opportunities during the week — not waiting to be asked. That shift, from reactive to proactive, is a big part of what separates a business that plateaus below £1M from one that scales past it.
N — Next Week: What are we committing to?
Set the focus for the coming seven days. What are the targets? What actions need to happen?
Every person should leave knowing exactly what they're accountable for. Not a vague sense of "keep going" — a specific commitment.
Why This Matters More As You Scale
LION isn't just a communication exercise. It's a delegation tool.
It builds a weekly rhythm of accountability. You stop having to chase updates yourself. Your team gets permission to raise problems and spot opportunities without waiting on you.
That matters because ambition isn't the gap for most founders. 62% of women-led businesses in Scotland expect turnover growth this year, despite receiving just 2.8% of equity investment (https://news.stv.tv/east-central/female-entrepreneurs-face-glass-ceilings-and-locked-doors-womens-enterprise-scotland-research-finds). Infrastructure is the gap. A structured weekly meeting is one of the simplest pieces of infrastructure you can build — and one of the few that pays off immediately.
It also makes room for something that gets crowded out day to day: recognising your team's work. A LION meeting that only surfaces problems will burn people out. Use it to name what's going well, too.
Your Next Step
If your team meetings are informal, overrunning, or non-existent, LION is the fastest change you can make this month.
Do you want help building the accountability structures underneath it — the ones that get you from where you are to £1M and beyond? That's exactly what we will work on in your 2 weeks free coaching, book an intro call to find out more https://meetings.hubspot.com/brendahector/introductory-call-30-mins
