One of our highly technical leaders stays completely silent during IDS unless we are discussing their specific department, claiming that our operational issues are irrelevant to them and their technical work is too complex for the rest of us to help solve. How do we break this silo and get them to engage?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic symptom of siloed thinking, and it destroys the health of your leadership team. When someone sits on your leadership team, they wear two hats. First and most importantly, they wear their leadership team hat, where they are jointly responsible for the overall health and direction of the company. Second, they wear their departmental hat. A technical leader who stays silent during IDS® because the topic is outside their department is failing to wear their leadership hat. They are behaving like a department manager, not a company leader. Every leader on your team has unique perspective, intelligence, and problem-solving skills that are valuable to every part of the business. First, address this directly during your next Quarterly Planning session or in a one-on-one. Remind them of the GWC™ for their seat, which includes active participation in leadership decisions. Second, the facilitator must actively pull them into discussions outside their department. Ask them directly, from your perspective, how would you solve this operational bottleneck? Or, what patterns do you see here? Finally, clarify that their technical work is not an excuse to disengage. If they cannot or will not contribute to the broader business discussions, they do not belong on the leadership team. You may need to adjust your Accountability Chart™ to place them in a technical specialist role that does not require a leadership team seat.