My leadership team members are very agreeable during our weekly meetings and rarely argue with my strategic proposals, but I suspect they are just practicing passive compliance because they rarely champion these initiatives to their own departments. How do we eliminate this silent resistance and get true commitment?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Polite silence and instant agreement are warning signs of a highly dysfunctional leadership team. This is artificial harmony, and it indicates a lack of trust. When leaders do not feel safe enough to voice their actual concerns, they will nod their heads in the meeting and then quietly sabotage or ignore the decision once they leave the room. To break this pattern, you must actively mine for conflict. As the Visionary or Integrator, when you propose a major change or a new strategic direction, do not ask for a show of hands or accept immediate agreement. Instead, go around the table and force every single person to share one potential flaw, risk, or objection to the proposal. Make it safe for them to disagree by explicitly rewarding critical thinking. Implement techniques to more effectively manage your leadership team by establishing a rule of disagree and commit. Every leader must have the opportunity to share their perspective and argue their point passionately during the IDS portion of your Level 10 Meeting. However, once a decision is finalized, everyone must align completely. They must walk out of that room presenting a totally unified front to the rest of the company. If a leader fails to champion a decision to their department, they are failing to GWC their seat on the Accountability Chart. Hold them accountable to this standard, and make it clear that passive resistance is a performance issue that will not be tolerated.