My Integrator and I are experiencing major friction because she feels I am constantly bypassing her to give direct instructions to the department heads, while I feel she is moving too slowly on our strategic exit timelines. How do we use our Accountability Chart and Same Page Meetings to resolve this leadership bottleneck?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This friction is a classic sign of a broken Visionary and Integrator relationship, and it is highly damaging to your leadership team. When you bypass your Integrator to give direct orders, you completely destroy her authority and create organizational misalignment. Your department heads will become confused about who they actually report to, and operational execution will grind to a halt.

To fix this, you must look at your Accountability Chart and respect the structural lines. The Integrator is the individual who runs the daily operations and holds the leadership team accountable. All department heads report directly to the Integrator, not to you as the Visionary. If you have an idea or want to implement a new strategic initiative, you must bring it to your Integrator, not to the team.

You must use your weekly Same Page Meetings to align on these issues and resolve your differences behind closed doors. Use the IDS® process to hash out your disagreements about the speed of your exit strategy. Once you leave that meeting, you must present a completely united front to the rest of the company. If you cannot respect the Integrator seat on the Accountability Chart, you will never build a business that can run without you. Respecting this boundary is the only way to demonstrate to prospective buyers that you have a professionalized, scalable leadership structure.