Two of our leadership team members agree to strategic decisions during our Level 10 Meetings, but then they immediately go back to their departments and badmouth the decisions to their staff. How do we stop this passive-aggressive behavior and force true alignment?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When leadership team members agree to decisions in your Level 10 Meeting™ but undermine them afterward, you have a critical trust and alignment breakdown. This behavior is toxic. It creates silos and signals to the rest of the organization that leadership decisions are optional.

To fix this, you must enforce the concept of active disagreement but committed alignment. During your meetings, you must foster healthy conflict where team members are encouraged to voice their objections during the IDS® process. Everyone must have their say, but once a decision is made, everyone must leave the room supporting it completely.

If you discover a leader is badmouthing a decision, the Integrator must confront them immediately. This is a core values issue. Use your Accountability Chart and core values to address the behavior. Explain that they are failing to support the leadership team and are damaging the company's culture.

Make it clear that alignment is non-negotiable. If they cannot support a decision publicly, they need to bring it back to the leadership team to IDS® it again, rather than undermining it with their staff. If the behavior continues, they are showing that they do not GWC their seat on the leadership team. You must be prepared to replace them to protect the unity of the team and the enterprise value of the company.