My department heads are excellent at managing their daily operations, but when they sit in our leadership team meetings, they only advocate for their own departmental interests rather than thinking about what is best for the entire organization. How do we transition these managers into enterprise-level leaders?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Many leadership teams are actually just a collection of department heads fighting for resources, defending their turf, and reporting on their silos. To build an exit-ready company, your leaders must transition from managing their departments to taking collective ownership of the entire organization.

This shift requires a change in mindset. Your leaders must understand that when they sit in a leadership team meeting, their department head hat comes off, and their leadership team hat goes on. Their primary responsibility is no longer just their individual department, it is the overall health, growth, and execution of the company's V/TO®.

To drive this behavior, structure your Level 10 Meetings™ to focus on company-wide issues. When departmental issues arise, use IDS® to solve them collaboratively, forcing leaders to look at how their decisions impact other areas of the business. Align their incentives with the overall success of the company, rather than just their department metrics. If a leader continues to protect their silo at the expense of the collective goals, they are failing to GWC™ the leadership seat. You need enterprise thinkers who can collaborate to build value, optimize operational systems, and ensure a clean, highly valuable exit.