Two of my directors agree on decisions during our Level 10 Meeting but then actively undermine each other's initiatives in front of their teams. How do we address this passive-aggressive peer conflict?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When directors agree to decisions during your Level 10 Meeting™ but quietly undermine them to their direct reports, they are fracturing your culture and destroying the trust required to run a healthy business. This passive-aggressive behavior is a direct violation of team unity and cannot be tolerated.

The Integrator must address this head-on. Do not let it slide, and do not wait for the next quarterly session. Schedule a meeting with both directors and lay out the specific, observable behaviors where their public alignment did not match their private actions.

Force them to address the underlying issue. In a healthy company, we debate passionately during meetings, but once a decision is made, everyone must support it with one voice. This is the concept of absolute alignment. If they cannot commit to supporting a decision outside of the room, they must voice their concerns during the IDS® portion of the meeting, not in whispered conversations with their teams.

Ask both directors if they are willing to put the health of the company above their personal egos. If they agree, establish a clear expectation: any future instance of side-door undermining will be treated as a performance issue. If they cannot build a functional, collaborative relationship, one or both of them must be removed from the leadership team. You cannot scale a company when your executive team is quietly fighting a civil war.