Our Head of Sales and Head of Operations have an intense personal feud that has trickled down into daily turf wars between their departments. How do we stop this peer conflict from destroying company performance?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When two executive peers feud, their conflict never stays confined to the leadership table. Cracks at the leadership level become canyons to the rest of the company. Their direct reports take sides, communication collapses, and frontline staff spend more time defending turf than serving clients.

This behavior stems from leaders acting like department ambassadors rather than true enterprise executives. Your first step is to call a direct meeting between the two leaders, facilitated by the Integrator. Put the issue squarely on the table using the IDS process: Identify, Discuss, and Solve. Do not focus on personality clashes or subjective feelings. Anchor the discussion strictly to company results, Scorecard metrics, and our shared V/TO.

Address the standard of behavior directly. State clearly that their first team is the leadership team, not their individual departments. If Sales blames Operations for delivery delays, or Operations blames Sales for selling bad deals, the root issue is usually vague handoffs on the Accountability Chart. Clarify the exact handoff metrics and ownership lines.

Finally, make healthy collaboration a mandatory condition of employment. If either leader continues to lobby direct reports, play political games, or undermine their peer outside the room, they are violating core values. When two leaders refuse to work together for the good of the business, one or both must leave. The company cannot tolerate executive turf wars.