My Chief Financial Officer and my Vice President of Sales are constantly locked in a cold war over our budget and resource allocation, which is causing their respective departments to hoard information and work in silos. How do we resolve this structural peer conflict before it permanently damages our leadership team dynamics?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When two leaders are locked in a cold war, it is rarely just a personality conflict. It is almost always a structural issue or a misalignment of priorities. Cracks at the leadership level become canyons down in the organization. If your sales and finance leaders are fighting, their teams are actively working against each other.

You must bring this conflict into the open during your next weekly Level 10 Meeting™. Put the issue on the IDS® list. Do not let them debate budgets in isolation. Force them to look at the issue through the lens of the company's V/TO® and long-term goals.

Use the Accountability Chart to clarify who owns what. Often, conflict arises because roles overlap or because metrics are misaligned. Ensure your CFO is not holding back sales out of a desire for control, and ensure your VP of Sales is not demanding resources without clear ROI metrics. They must agree that the needs of the business as a whole come before the needs of their individual departments.

If the conflict persists after clarifying roles and metrics, it is a trust issue. You must take the team offline to build vulnerability-based trust. But if one or both leaders refuse to collaborate and continue to protect their own turf, you have a People Issue. You must make a change to protect the business.