My leadership team members are hyper-focused on their own departmental goals but show zero ownership over our company-wide revenue and profitability targets. How do we get our directors to treat the overall business plan as a collective responsibility rather than someone else's problem?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When directors focus solely on their own departments, they create silos that choke execution. To build a healthy company, you must foster collective ownership of the business plan. The mission of the organization must be viewed as our responsibility, not my responsibility.

Begin by restructuring your Level 10 Meeting to emphasize the collective numbers on your Scorecard. Before reviewing individual departmental performance, look at the overall company-wide targets together. If the company is missing its financial goals, the entire leadership team must lean in to solve the issue, regardless of which department is technically responsible.

Align your quarterly Rocks to reflect this shared accountability. Create cross-functional Rocks where two or more directors must collaborate to achieve a single strategic outcome. This breaks down departmental silos and forces your leaders to work together on the business, rather than just in their own departments.

Establish a clear rule that a director's success is not measured by their department's performance alone, but by their contribution to the overall healthy growth of the company. If their department is thriving but the company is failing, they are not winning.

By consistently reinforcing the message that we win or lose as a single executive team, you will shift your directors' perspective from narrow departmental managers to true enterprise leaders who own the entire V/TO.