You’re in the boardroom again.
Another meeting. Another round of discussion without decisions.
You walk out shaking your head—frustrated that everything still feels stuck. Execution is slow. Politics are creeping in. Teams are misaligned.
And deep down, you know why.
Your Core Team isn’t acting like a First Team.
This is the silent killer of execution in growing companies. It doesn’t show up on financial reports—yet. But it shows up everywhere else:
- Competing agendas.
- Passive resistance.
- Delayed decisions.
- Middle managers stuck refereeing cross-functional disputes.
The Problem: Misaligned Loyalty
Most senior leaders don’t intend to create dysfunction.
But when executives view their functional teams as their “real” team—and the executive team as an obligation—they default to advocacy over alignment. They protect turf. They hesitate to challenge peers. They prioritize their silo’s needs over the company’s mission.
This isn’t just a leadership issue. It’s a CEO-level failure of structure, trust, and clarity.
According to McKinsey, only 38% of executives believe their leadership team is focused on work that truly benefits from cross-functional collaboration. That means over half of executive teams are wasting time and diluting strategy.
What Great CEOs Know
The best CEOs build a true First Team—one where loyalty is to the enterprise first, and individual departments second.
They know this:
If your leadership team isn’t aligned, no one else in the company will be.
Here’s what they do differently:
🔹 Team Composition Matters
You can’t build a high-trust team with the wrong people.
Follow Patrick Lencioni’s advice: look for leaders who are Hungry, Humble, and People Smart. Or as Jim Collins said: get the right people on the bus—and in the right seats.
CEO Action: Audit your Core Team. Are these truly the right leaders for the next chapter of growth? Or are you protecting past decisions at the expense of the future?
Define the First Team—Out Loud
The CEO must set the tone: The Core Team comes first.
Not your department. Not your direct reports. The First Team is the company’s executive engine—and its success drives every other team.
CEO Action: Make the expectation clear in word and deed. If you tolerate silo-first behavior, you endorse it.
🔹 Invest in Understanding Each Other
One-and-done offsites don’t build alignment.
Use behavioral assessments, ongoing leadership development, and cross-functional coaching to help leaders understand and trust each other—not just work together.
CEO Action: Use assessments like Predictive Index, Working Genius, or DiSC as tools for team self-awareness. Revisit them regularly, not just at retreats.
🔹 Create a Culture of Constructive Conflict
Healthy debate leads to better decisions—if it’s safe and respected.
Silence is not a sign of unity; it’s a sign of disengagement.
CEO Action: Model it. Invite it. Demand it. Make disagreement a normal, welcomed part of strategic conversation.
🔹 Establish a Cadence of Execution
Decisions don’t happen by default.
Create an operating rhythm where strategic issues, execution bottlenecks, and directional shifts are discussed consistently and resolved with clarity.
CEO Action: Map your leadership meeting cadence. Are you solving the right issues, with the right people, at the right time? If not—fix it now.
The CEO Imperative
Your First Team sets the tone for the entire organization.
If they’re misaligned, unclear, or half-committed, the ripple effect will cost you in lost time, stalled strategy, and cultural erosion.
So ask yourself:
- Are your executives aligned around the enterprise—or around their fiefdoms?
- Are decisions being made—or endlessly debated?
- Are politics increasing while accountability is decreasing?
If the answer to any of those is yes—you don’t have a First Team. Yet.