The Leadership Secret Hidden in Plain Sight
It’s tempting to think of “your team” as the people who report to you. That’s where your expertise is. That’s where you feel most accountable. And that’s where the outcomes often show up on paper.
But here’s the shift that separates great managers from great leaders:
Your peer leadership team is your first team. Your function is your second.
This mindset isn’t just for the C-suite. It applies to every level of management. If you lead people, your peer group is your primary team. And the sooner you embrace that, the more your strategy, execution, and trust across the business will improve.
The Problem with Loyalty to the Org Chart
When leaders default to function-first thinking, they protect turf, prioritize local wins, and slow down collaboration. It feels safe, but it kills alignment.
Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team lays this out clearly: without shared commitment to a common goal, even talented leaders become obstacles.
Research supports this: McKinsey found that aligned leadership teams are 1.9x more likely to outperform financially.
Two Mindsets, Two Cultures
Functional-first = Silos. Competing priorities. Slower progress.
Enterprise-first = Shared ownership. Coordinated action. Real results.
How to Rewire Your Own Mindset
Three ways to shift from “my department” to “our leadership team”:
Redefine success. Stop measuring wins by your team’s performance alone. Ask: Did we help the company move forward this week?
Share context constantly. Help your team understand the trade-offs and priorities happening across functions. Share the “why,” not just the “what.”
Model trade-offs. Make visible decisions where you trade short-term wins in your lane for long-term progress across the company.
Leading a First-Team Culture with Your Direct Reports
If you want your team of managers to behave as a leadership team—not a loose federation of functions—incentives must match the message.
Focus on Three Types of Incentives:
Financial incentives. Tie part of their bonus or MBOs to team-based metrics. Not just “did your function succeed,” but “did the leadership team succeed?”
Social incentives. Celebrate leaders who collaborate. Publicly praise decisions made for the greater good. Make heroes out of integrators, not empire builders.
Convenience incentives. Make collaboration easier than competition. Align calendars, decision-making forums, and tools around shared goals. Don’t let structure nudge people back into silos.
Once those are in place, then you layer on behavioral tactics:
Give direct reports shared goals.
Hold them accountable for cross-functional priorities.
Regularly ask: “What’s best for the team, not just your group?”
When your managers start thinking like leaders of the business—not just their functions—everything gets easier: alignment, execution, trust, and culture.
The org moves from a collection of departments to a team of teams.
Want to Try This?
Start your next leadership meeting with this prompt: “If we were truly operating as a first team, what would we do differently today?”
You’ll be surprised how quickly the conversation changes.
