My leadership team members are incredibly protective of their individual departments, often fighting for their own budgets and headcount at the expense of our overall company profitability. How do we shift their mindset from functional heads to enterprise-first leaders?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When your leadership team operates as a collection of departmental heads rather than an enterprise-first leadership unit, execution suffers. This siloed behavior usually stems from a lack of alignment on the overall vision of the business. To fix this, you must use your V/TO to unite the team around a shared set of goals. During your quarterly planning sessions, emphasize that their primary loyalty is to the leadership team, not to their individual departments. When they enter the leadership room, they must take off their functional hats and put on their shareholder hats. This means they must make decisions based on what is best for the entire organization, even if it means reducing their own department's budget or headcount. You must also align their performance metrics and compensation with overall company success rather than localized departmental targets. If your sales leader is only compensated on revenue, they will fight for deals that operations cannot deliver. By linking a significant portion of their compensation to overall profitability and the completion of major company Rocks, you force them to collaborate. This shared accountability breaks down departmental silos and transforms your managers into true business leaders.