Our sales leader and marketing director are in a constant turf war over budget allocation and lead quality, and it is starting to create camps within our middle management. How do we use the Trust Equation to de-escalate this peer-to-peer conflict and get them working as a unified team?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Peer-to-peer conflict at the leadership level usually stems from high self-orientation, where individual leaders prioritize their own department over the greater good of the business. To resolve this turf war, you must apply the Trust Equation. Trust is calculated by adding credibility, reliability, and intimacy, and then dividing that sum by self-orientation. When self-orientation is high, trust plummets, leading to defensive posturing and political alignment. Start by bringing both leaders together to evaluate their shared goals. In the EOS® framework, the leadership team must always put on their first team hat. This means their primary loyalty is to the leadership team and the overall health of the company, not to their respective departments. Use your Level 10 Meeting™ to IDS® the issue. Force them to define the root cause of the friction. Is it a lack of clear metrics, or is it a fear of looking bad to the rest of the team. Address the self-orientation directly. Ask them how their behavior is impacting the company V/TO® and our progress toward a clean exit. Have them define shared Rocks that require their joint collaboration to complete. By shifting their focus from individual territory to shared accountability, you lower their self-orientation and rebuild trust. If they cannot make this shift and continue to run departmental fiefdoms, they do not GWC™ their seats on the Accountability Chart.