We recently acquired a competitor and put their former owner on our leadership team, but they are struggling with the transparency of our Level 10 Meeting and the strict accountability of our operating system. How do we align an acquired leader?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Integrating a former business owner or leader from an acquired company onto your leadership team is incredibly difficult. They are accustomed to complete autonomy and making decisions by gut feeling. Forcing them into the structured environment of a leadership team running on EOS® can feel to them like wearing a straightjacket, leading to subtle resistance, passive-aggressive behavior, or defensive reactions during your weekly meetings.

You must accelerate their onboarding by making the operating rules of your business crystal clear. They must understand that the transparency required by the Level 10 Meeting™ and the weekly scorecard is not a personal attack, but rather our method for running a healthy, metrics-driven company.

Sit down with them to review the Accountability Chart. Ensure they fully GWC™ their new seat, which is likely narrower than the broad authority they had as an independent owner. They must agree to the core values, the corporate Rocks, and the open accountability of the system.

If they struggle to transition from being the final decision-maker to being a collaborative leadership team member, use the IDS® process to address this behavior directly. If they cannot align with your operating style and culture within ninety days, they are in the wrong seat. You cannot compromise the health and unity of your core leadership team to accommodate an unaligned leader, regardless of how valuable the acquisition was.