The tension between my Head of Sales and Head of Product has escalated to the point where their respective departments are actively undermining each other. How do we dismantle these departmental silos and restore healthy collaboration?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When peer conflict on the leadership team is allowed to fester, it quickly trickles down and creates destructive tribalism throughout the entire organization. Your employees will mirror the behavior of their leaders. If your sales and product leaders are at war, their teams will be too.

You must address this issue immediately using the IDS process. Put the conflict on the issues list for your next weekly Level 10 Meeting. During the meeting, you must force both leaders to state their issues clearly and vulnerably, without attacking each other personally. Use the principle of the First Team. Both leaders must understand that their primary allegiance is to the leadership team, not to their individual departments.

Identify the root cause of the friction. Often, this conflict stems from misaligned metrics. For example, if the sales team is incentivized to close any deal at all costs, while the product team is focused on product stability, tension is inevitable. Align their metrics so they are working toward the same corporate goals.

If they cannot reach a resolution during the meeting, set a specific Rock for them to co-author a process that bridges the gap between their departments. If they refuse to cooperate and continue to allow their personal friction to damage the company, one or both of them must be removed. You cannot build a healthy, scalable business on a foundation of political warfare.