One of our department heads remains completely silent during the leadership team Level 10 Meeting™, offering no input during IDS®, but then goes back to their department and loudly criticizes our decisions. How do we stop this toxic split personality?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This behavior is a direct violation of the EOS® concept of being unified on the leadership team. When a leader sits silently in a Level 10 Meeting™ and then trash-talks the team's decisions to their direct reports, they are actively undermining the health of your organization. You must address this offline immediately. In a private session, call out the disconnect. Remind them of the commitment to be open and honest. If they do not agree with a decision, the time to fight for their perspective is during the IDS® portion of the meeting, not in the hallways afterward. During the next meeting, the facilitator needs to actively draw this person in. If a decision is being made and they are silent, look them in the eye and ask for their position. They must either voice their objection or commit to supporting the decision once the meeting ends. If they cannot practice this level of trust and alignment, they do not GWC™ their seat on the leadership team. It is a core value and structural requirement. You cannot run a scalable business, let alone prepare it for a clean exit, with a leader who is actively sowing division. Force the issue. They must either speak up and engage in the conflict during the meeting, or they need to vacate the seat.