Operating Principle

2–4 min read

Your Primary Team Is Your Peers, Not Your Department

Your Primary Team Is Your Peers, Not Your Department

Your Primary Team Is Your Peers, Not Your Department

An executive’s first loyalty should be to the leadership team, not the function they personally run.

An executive’s first loyalty should be to the leadership team, not the function they personally run.

An executive’s first loyalty should be to the leadership team, not the function they personally run.

Leaders who treat their department as their primary team turn the executive group into competing advocates.

Leaders who treat their department as their primary team turn the executive group into competing advocates.

Leaders who treat their department as their primary team turn the executive group into competing advocates.

Lencioni’s first-team principle holds that an executive’s primary allegiance belongs to the peer leadership team. When leaders champion their functions first, the top team becomes a coalition of lobbyists and the enterprise optimizes locally at the expense of the whole.

Operating Question

What operating behavior would change if this pattern were addressed directly?

What operating behavior would change if this pattern were addressed directly?

What operating behavior would change if this pattern were addressed directly?

Continue Reading

Main Journal

All entries

Return to the complete Operator Journal library.

Main Journal

All entries

Return to the complete Operator Journal library.

Next Observation

Next article

Keep moving through the field notes.

Open the next observation

Next Observation

Next article

Keep moving through the field notes.

Open the next observation

Why It Matters

Leaders who treat their department as their primary team turn the executive group into competing advocates.

Supporting Evidence

Patrick Lencioni, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” and “The Advantage”.

Research Notes

Treat this as an operating heuristic and weigh the relevant context and limitations.

Practical Actions

Name company-level tradeoffs; establish peer commitments as the first team; address turf defense directly.