Your Leadership Team Is Broken.
Everyone Knows It.
Nobody's Saying It.
You built a business. That took guts, vision, and relentless execution. But now? Your leadership team is the bottleneck. Decisions stall. Tensions simmer. Everyone blames someone else. And you're stuck wondering if you hired wrong, lead wrong, or if you're the only one who sees the problem.
Here's What I Hear
Both sides are right. Both sides are wrong. The dysfunction is everywhere.
The Leader's Frustration
"I can't get my team to step up and take ownership. I'm making all the decisions because nobody else will."
You feel like:
- Every decision still runs through you
- Your team waits to be told what to do
- Nobody brings solutions, just problems
- You're stuck in the weeds when you should be leading
- Maybe you hired the wrong people
The Team's Frustration
"Our leader won't make decisions, won't get out of the way, and we're all cleaning up the mess."
They feel like:
- The leader micromanages or doesn't lead at all
- Decisions get made then reversed
- Nobody trusts anyone else to do their job
- They're constantly working around the dysfunction
- They're one bad week away from quitting
The Truth?
You're Both Right.
The leader is creating bottlenecks. The team isn't taking ownership. And it's a vicious cycle where everyone's behavior reinforces everyone else's dysfunction. This doesn't get fixed with another retreat or trust fall exercise.
It gets fixed when someone puts the real problems on the table, builds actual trust through vulnerability and honest critique, and then—only then—tackles the business challenges with a team that's actually aligned.
How We Fix This
No fluff. No rope courses. Just a proven process that gets dysfunction out in the open and builds the foundation for real teamwork.
Initial Workshop: Surface the Real Problems
We bring your leadership team together in a structured workshop designed to get the unspoken issues on the table. This isn't therapy. It's not "sharing feelings." It's creating a safe space where people can finally say what's actually broken without fear of retaliation or reputation damage.
Tackle Business Problems with an Aligned Team
Once the team actually trusts each other and can communicate openly, we go after the business challenges that have been stuck. Strategy. Execution. Growth. Suddenly these conversations work because you're not fighting with one hand tied behind your back anymore.
Ongoing Support: Monthly/Quarterly Sessions
Dysfunction creeps back in if you're not vigilant. We stay engaged with regular sessions to maintain accountability, address new challenges, and keep the team operating at the level they're now capable of.
Build Trust Through Vulnerability and Critique
Real trust doesn't come from trust falls. It comes from being able to tell your CEO their idea is terrible—and having them thank you for it. We establish the foundations: clear communication, respect, and the ability to challenge each other in service of better outcomes.
The Leadership Team Were All "Yes Men"
I was called in to work with a leadership team at a company slowly bleeding out. Margins had dropped 1-2% every year. Net profit was hovering around 5%. Everyone was busy with new projects, the office buzzed, and long hours were becoming the norm. But the trajectory was still downward.
The CEO was drowning in decisions. Sales prospects kept stalling. The team kept missing targets. His solution? Work harder. Set higher goals. Maybe fire the head of finance and bring in a "ball buster" controller to reign everyone in.
Meanwhile, the staff was executing every request the CEO made. Mailers, social media campaigns, staffing cuts. But most projects sat in "Awaiting Others" status because nobody could predict what the CEO actually wanted. They'd learned their lesson. The last employees who pushed back and tried to modernize the company's approach? Asked to leave.
So the team adopted a survival mantra: "No one ever got fired for listening to the boss." They kept their heads down, followed orders, and kept their good ideas to themselves. The CEO, feeling the pressure, tightened his grip even more.
Here's what actually happened: The CEO was stuck in 15-year-old strategies and had built a culture where deviation meant termination. The team knew from customer feedback and market reality that the company was off track. But fear kept everyone silent.
We got the real problems on the table. Not in a way that humiliated anyone, but in a way that made it impossible to ignore the dysfunction. We built trust by creating space for honest feedback both up and down the hierarchy. The CEO had to hear hard truths about his stranglehold on the company. The team had to own their part in the breakdown, their fear based silence.
The result? The CEO learned to lead instead of dictate. The team learned to support with honesty instead of silent compliance. And a company on the verge of collapse turned into a functional, growing business. That's what happens when you fix the foundation instead of plastering over the cracks.
The Working Genius Framework
Not everyone on your team is built for the same type of work. Some people thrive on ideation. Others on execution. Some love invention, others activation. When you misunderstand this, you get frustrated people, wasted talent, and endless friction.
I'm certified in Patrick Lencioni's Working Genius model—a framework that identifies the six types of work and helps teams understand where each person naturally excels and where they struggle. When your team knows this about each other, you stop forcing square pegs into round holes and start operating like a high-performing unit.
This isn't just a tool. It's a revelation for teams stuck in cycles of resentment and underperformance.
Let's Stop Pretending
Everything's Fine
Your leadership team isn't going to fix itself. The longer you wait, the worse it gets. Book a discovery call and let's figure out if this is the right fit to turn your dysfunctional team into one that actually works.