In good times or bad you need to ensure everyone in the organization is aligned to the same purpose.

Too frequently we see silos develop over time. Departments seem to be working to a different agenda. People in one area complain that another department holds them back from completing their work on time. Sometime work is duplicated in two or more areas and no one knows.

It is always a good idea to check from time to time as an organization grows to ensure this is not happening. But how will you know?

Look at your senior team.

Does your leadership team turn up regularly for meetings with you where they take turns to provide an update from “their” department?

Are their contributions in the meetings primarily to “defend their turf”.

Do they meet regularly, without you, to discuss what they, as the team running the business, need to focus on in the coming weeks?

If you answered yes to either of the first two questions and no to the third, we need to talk.

The behaviour you see lower down the organization is a reflection of the behaviour they see above them.

Stop tolerating silo behaviour on your team

Imagine you have a marketing manager, first level, with three staff; a copywriter, a graphic designer and a layout specialist. If they each did their work in isolation without talking to each other could they deliver the marketing outcome of producing a brochure or website? No. Would the marketing manager tolerate them behaving this way? NO.

So why would you as CEO tolerate your senior leadership team behaving as a bunch of individuals?

You provide strategy, direction and connection to the market, they run the business.

Research has proven that a group of people working together on a problem will always come up with a better solution than the smartest individual in the room working alone. They are called a “team” for a reason. They should all bring their brainpower to bear the issues faced by every department.

Remind them that at the top level their department is just the resources they represent on the senior team; the team that runs the business.

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