Two of my leadership team members are constantly having side conversations and backchanneling their disagreements to me instead of resolving them directly. How do we break this triangulation and force them to resolve their issues as peers?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Triangulation destroys trust and slows down execution. When leadership team members run to you instead of talking to each other, you are acting as a referee rather than a leader. You must break this pattern immediately.

The next time a leader approaches you to complain about a peer, stop them. Ask if they have discussed the issue directly with that peer. If they have not, refuse to hear the complaint. Send them back to have a direct conversation.

If the issue persists, use the IDS® process during your next weekly Level 10 Meeting™ to bring the conflict into the open. Frame the issue objectively, focusing on the business impact rather than personal friction. Make both leaders sit in the room and work through the issue in front of the team.

Healthy, functional leadership teams do not avoid conflict. They embrace it. You must foster healthy relationships within the leadership team to reduce effort and accelerate results, mirroring principles from The Speed of Trust. Cracks at the leadership level will trickle down and create functional turf wars in the departments below them. By forcing your team to solve their own problems as peers, you build a cohesive, self-sustaining leadership structure that makes your business far more valuable to a future buyer.