Dear Leaders,
Politics don’t ruin companies. Hidden politics do.
The higher up we go, the more decisions are shaped by personalities, loyalties, and history. That’s normal. Even human. What kills momentum is pretending it’s not happening.
I worked with a company where two senior leaders had a cold war for six years. They smiled in meetings, sat on the same panels, even co-authored memos. But behind closed doors, they vetoed each other’s projects, delayed approvals, and quietly built rival coalitions inside the firm.
The CEO called it “healthy tension.” It wasn’t. It was dysfunction with a professional veneer.
Which is what happens when senior leaders compete for control instead of clarity. The organization gets confused, initiatives stall, and trust erodes.
Next step: talent starts to leave.
The solution isn’t to eliminate politics. That’s naive. It is to bring the politics into the daylight.
The CEO agreed to surface the feud and force candid alignment. She named the tension, set rules of engagement, and started enforcing them. With everything out in the open, both leaders owned their part and recommitted to shared goals. Momentum returned.
What the executive team tolerates in silence becomes the culture in action.
If you want to fix your culture, start by ending the unspoken power feuds at the top. Nothing below the C-suite will work if the top is at war with itself.
– What unspoken tensions between senior leaders are slowing my team’s progress?
– How can I enable my C-suite to address and resolve these conflicts directly?
– What one rule could I set to ensure disagreements lead to clarity, not division?
Onward, with constructive conflict,
Hamza
