I want to step out of the daily business, but my leadership team is so protective of their own departments that they refuse to collaborate on cross-functional problems, leaving me to act as the primary bridge. How do we force these leaders to build peer-to-peer relationships and solve issues without my intervention?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Your leadership team is acting like a collection of independent silos rather than a cohesive unit. As long as you continue to act as the bridge, they will never build the peer-to-peer relationships needed to run the business without you. You are enabling their bad behavior.

To break this dynamic, you must change your behavior first. Stop solving their cross-functional problems. When a leader comes to you with an issue that involves another department, ask them if they have discussed it with their peer first. If they have not, refuse to engage and send them back to talk to each other.

Next, enforce the rule that departmental issues must be solved in the Level 10 Meeting, not in private side conversations with you. Use the IDS process to force them to collaborate. If the sales head and operations head are having a conflict, they must solve it in front of their peers during the meeting.

Finally, align their incentives. Ensure that their success is tied to the overall performance of the company, not just their individual departments. When they realize that they win or lose together, they will start looking at the business as a single cohesive asset. This shift in mindset is essential for building an independent leadership team that can deliver a clean exit.