One of the toughest obstacles for a leadership team of a company to overcome is “vulnerability-based trust” where it’s safe to have conflict and take risks rather than fear them. It’s human nature to avoid uncomfortable or risky situations. 

Sure, there are people who are calm, cool and collected when the heat rises in a meeting but most become quiet or at least wait till someone else breaks the ice.

A few years ago, I traveled to Green Bay, WI to see the Bears play the Packers on a Monday night.

My son and I made the trip with my wife’s brother and his son, who live in the LA area but somehow are huge Packers fans. When we arrived at the stadium on Sunday afternoon for a tour, my nephew said, “Look at the clock.” I said, “Okay, it’s 1:15.” Then he said, “Look at your watch.” I saw it was 1:00 and remembered about “Lombardi Time.”

Recently, one of our client teams found themselves facing a difficult decision. 

They realized that two functions they’d always kept separate really belonged under one leader. Keeping them separate created unnecessary complexity, causing extensive debates about overlapping resources, workflow and priorities. Combining them would eliminate confusion, increase speed and quality, and make the company more responsive to its customers. That part was easy. 

The hard part? 

Harry Beckwith says, “people don’t lead, purposes do.” 

Recently, I worked with a client who became a firm believer in this statement. He is the son who inherited a successful 20-year-old family business and is now struggling to pay the bills. He has been drifting away from the company’s core business and has become distracted.

During a conversation we were having, I asked, “Why do you do what you do?”

“I do it for the money!” he replied.

My son didn’t like what he heard from me, so he went to his mom and got the answer he wanted. We call this “the end-run,” -- it also happens in business. 

For example, have you ever experienced dissension in your organization where employees sided with one leader over the other? It’s like a reality show where alliances are created to overtake the other party.