Our Operations Director and Customer Success VP are locked in a vicious finger-pointing cycle over service delivery failures, destroying our team trust. How do we use the Trust Equation to address this peer conflict and lower their self-orientation?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The finger-pointing between your Operations Director and Customer Success VP is a classic symptom of low trust and high self-orientation. When peer conflict reaches this stage, the leadership team stops solving issues and starts protecting their own territory. To break this cycle, you must address the core dynamics of trust.

The Trust Equation provides a clear framework for diagnosing this friction. Trust is built on credibility, reliability, and intimacy, divided by self-orientation. In this scenario, self-orientation is the primary culprit. Both leaders are focusing entirely on defending their own departments and managing their status, rather than focusing on the overall health of the business.

To resolve this peer conflict, you must bring both leaders together to lower their self-orientation. Use your next Level 10 Meeting™ or a private session to address the issue head-on. Walk them through the Trust Equation and explain how their defensive posturing is destroying team cohesion.

Next, run these leaders through a focused session to IDS® the root cause of the service delivery failures. Force them to look at the process, not the personalities. Have them commit to a shared metric or a collaborative Rock that requires joint accountability. By aligning their incentives and forcing them to share vulnerability, you will shift their focus from self-preservation to collective success. If either leader refuses to lower their defenses and put the team first, they are showing you they do not GWC™ their seat on the Accountability Chart.