Two of my key directors have had a major personal fallout outside of work, and now the tension is making our leadership meetings incredibly uncomfortable. How do we fix this before it tears the executive team apart?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Personal drama on a leadership team is a toxic virus that will quickly infect the rest of the company if left unchecked. When two leaders are refusing to communicate or are treating each other with passive-aggressive hostility, they are putting their personal feelings ahead of the organization.

As the business owner or Integrator, you must intervene immediately. You cannot ignore this and hope it goes away. Pull both leaders into a private room and address the elephant in the room directly.

Explain that while you cannot control their personal relationship outside of work, you have absolute authority over their behavior inside the business. They do not have to be best friends, but they must maintain a professional, collaborative, and respectful working relationship.

Use the IDS® process to identify the specific operational friction points caused by their fallout. Ask them how their communication breakdown is affecting their departments and the company as a whole. Force them to agree on how they will interact, share information, and handle disagreements moving forward.

Monitor their behavior closely in your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ sessions. If the tension continues to disrupt the team, you must treat it as a core values violation. No matter how talented they are, a leader who puts their personal grudges ahead of the company is a liability. If they cannot put their differences aside and work cohesively, one or both of them will have to leave the organization.