We have three great managers who run our sales, operations, and finance departments, but they still act like department heads rather than a true, unified leadership team. How do we transition their mindset so they start thinking about the whole business instead of just defending their own turf?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a common hurdle when scaling a business. To build a cohesive, functional leadership team, your department heads must understand that their primary allegiance is to the leadership team, not to the teams they manage. This concept is often called the First Team principle.

To transition their mindset, you must change how you run your strategic meetings. During your Level 10 Meeting™, do not let them use their reporting time to give status updates or defend their departments. Instead, focus the entire team on solving the issues that affect the whole organization.

When an issue is raised during IDS®, every member of the leadership team must participate in solving it, regardless of whether it falls under their direct department. For example, your head of operations should have a voice in solving a marketing bottleneck, and your sales director should help solve an operational capacity issue.

You should also tie their personal success to the overall health of the business. Align their Rocks with the high-level goals on your V/TO®, and ensure any performance bonuses are based on company-wide profitability rather than departmental metrics.

By constantly reinforcing that they win or lose as a single unit, you will break down departmental silos and build a strong, unified leadership team that is fully prepared to run the company without your daily intervention.