Two organizations at odds—for years.
Leaders doing public battle with over 5,000 people across both organizations following their lead.
I was brought in by their boss with one goal: to help unstick them.
My first step was a set of discovery conversations with the leaders and influencers on both sides. And then, on a hunch, I gave the four seniormost executives—two from each team—an exercise.
I gave them a list of 100 core values and asked them to pick their top 2.
When we met a week later, it was just the five of us—not the armies they led.
Each wrote their picks on a sticky, and we did a simultaneous reveal.
Core values are our deepest filters for how we live and lead. Each leader had 100 to pick from.
But each picked the same two: Integrity and Accountability.
I wish I’d had a camera to capture that moment.
Each side had assumed they were the only stewards of those two important values.
That they were the only ones who cared.
And that assumption had fueled years of self-righteousness, defensiveness, and conflict that cascaded through the global teams they led.
The reflection and conversations that followed led to two breakthroughs.
A new self-awareness, humility, and empathy—where they got off their high horses and, ironically, began leading with greater integrity and accountability than before.
And a transformative act of courage:
Sharing their learning with their extended leadership teams—together; committing publicly to modeling a different kind of leadership; and inviting their people to hold them accountable when (not if) they backslid.
Even though the real work was just beginning, their self-awareness—and courage—put their organizations on a powerful new path.
Where the leader goes, there goes the team.
What a leader models is everything.