Our leadership team members constantly fight over resource allocation and headcount during budgeting, with each leader defending their own department rather than looking at what is best for the overall business. How do we break this departmental protectionism and resolve this peer conflict?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Peer conflict arising from departmental turf wars and resource hoarding is a clear sign that your leadership team is operating as a group of individual department heads rather than a cohesive unit. To break this protectionism, you must shift their focus to the greater good of the entire organization.

In EOS, we teach that the leadership team must operate under the Five Dysfunctions framework, where the team's collective results take absolute priority over any individual department's success. Your leaders must understand that they are members of the leadership team first, and heads of their departments second.

Start by reviewing your V/TO to ensure complete alignment on your long-term and short-term goals. When budgeting or resource allocation issues arise, bring them directly to your Level 10 Meeting and use the IDS process to solve them. Force the team to look at the problem through the lens of your company's high-level Rocks and exit-readiness objectives rather than their departmental silos.

Ask the simple question: which allocation of resources will get the company closest to hitting our quarterly Rocks and maximizing our overall business value? When you force leaders to debate the issue based on shared company metrics rather than personal agendas, the politics melt away. If a leader continues to fight for resources at the expense of the company's health, they are failing to exhibit your core values and must be coached or replaced.