Our newly hired Integrator has the cognitive capability and behavioral profile for the seat, but they are struggling to hold our legacy department heads accountable because those leaders keep appealing to me, the owner, for final approval. How do we fix this breakdown?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a critical transition point for any founder-led business. When you hire an Integrator, you must completely let go of the daily management of your leadership team. If you continue to answer questions, resolve disputes, or grant approvals behind your Integrator's back, you are actively undermining their authority and teaching your team that the Accountability Chart does not matter.

To fix this, you must adopt a strict policy of redirection. The next time a legacy department head bypasses the Integrator to ask you for a decision, your response must be immediate and consistent. You must say: Have you run this by our Integrator yet? If they say no, send them away. If they say yes and they want your opinion, instruct them to bring it to your next Same Page Meeting with the Integrator.

You must also build trust between the new Integrator and the legacy team using the Trusted Advisor framework. Encourage your Integrator to spend one-on-one time listening to the concerns of the department heads, building personal connections, and demonstrating that they are there to help them win.

Finally, ensure that you and your Integrator maintain absolute alignment. If you disagree with a decision your Integrator made, discuss it privately during your Same Page Meeting. In public, you must support their decisions one hundred percent. Once the team realizes they cannot bypass the Integrator, the reporting lines will solidify and the operational friction will stop.