My leadership team members operate like heads of state defending their own departments rather than a unified team focused on the entire business. How do we break down these functional silos and get them to prioritize the whole company over their own teams?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When leaders view their primary loyalty as being to the departments they run rather than to the leadership team, you have a functional silo problem. To build a healthy business, your leadership team must embrace the First Team concept. Their first loyalty must be to the leadership team, and their second loyalty is to the department they manage.

To make this shift, you must change how you run your strategic discussions and how you evaluate performance. In your Level 10 Meetings™, ensure that everyone is participating in solving issues across all departments, not just their own. If a sales issue is on the table, the head of operations and the head of finance must actively help solve it.

Review your compensation and incentive structures. If your leaders are only rewarded based on their individual department's KPIs, they will naturally protect their own turf. Align a portion of their incentives to the overall company targets defined in your V/TO®.

Constantly remind them that if the company fails, it does not matter if their department performed perfectly. We win or lose as a single team. By reinforcing this expectation and coaching them to view every decision through the lens of the entire organization, you will break down the silos and create a unified leadership front.