It’s a situation I’ve often come across: a leadership team that’s barely on speaking terms. People are avoiding each other in the corridors, there’s eye-rolling in meetings, and the room is thick with tension.

When you dig a little deeper, you find that each person has their own incompatible vision of how the company should be run, each convinced their way is the only way.

The irony, of course, is that the company itself is often struggling, and instead of pulling together, the leadership team is pulling in opposite directions.

It’s a bad place to be. Leadership teams like this are not just stuck; they’re in danger of driving the company into the ground. So how do you turn things around? How do you take a group of leaders who are at odds with each other and fashion them into a cohesive team, fit to lead the company’s recovery?

Understanding the breakdown: why trust collapses

Before you can repair a fractured leadership team, you need to understand what’s caused the breakdown in the first place. At the heart of most leadership conflicts is a breakdown in trust. Trust is the glue that holds any team together – and once it’s gone, everything else starts to unravel.

In leadership teams, trust often breaks down for two main reasons:

1. Differing visions for the company’s future: When a company is struggling, everyone has their own idea of how to fix things. The sales leader thinks the answer is more aggressive sales tactics. The finance leader believes it’s all about cost-cutting. The marketing head is convinced that a rebrand will turn things around. When these competing visions clash – without a process to align them – mistrust starts to creep in. Each person becomes convinced that the others “just don’t get it,” and before long, they’re talking past each other rather than to each other.‍
2. Unresolved conflict: In high-pressure environments, conflicts are inevitable. But when these conflicts aren’t addressed and resolved, they fester. People start holding grudges, and what might have started as a difference of opinion turns into a personal feud. This is especially common in leadership teams where strong personalities are involved. If people feel disrespected or undermined, the walls go up, and communication shuts down.

The cost of a fractured team

A fractured leadership team doesn’t just affect the people in the room – it has a ripple effect across the entire company. When the leadership team is divided, the rest of the organisation feels it. Teams become siloed, communication breaks down, and everyone starts working at cross-purposes.

The company becomes stuck in a cycle of dysfunction, unable to move forward because its leaders can’t agree on the direction.

The knock-on effect is that morale plummets. When employees see their leaders at odds, it creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear. People start to worry about the future of the company – and whether they have one.

The road to recovery: how to rebuild trust

Rebuilding trust in a fractured leadership team is no small task, but it’s not impossible. Here’s how you can begin to repair the damage and get the team back on track.

1. Create space for honest conversations

The first step in rebuilding trust is to create a safe space for honest, open conversations. This can’t happen in the usual day-to-day meetings, where the focus is on firefighting and problem-solving. Instead, you need to carve out dedicated time – whether in an offsite or a series of facilitated workshops – where the sole purpose is to get everything out in the open.

In these sessions, it’s important to focus not just on what people are saying but also on what they’re not saying. Unspoken tensions are often the root of the problem. By giving people the space to voice their concerns, frustrations, and ideas without fear of judgment, you can begin to clear the air and start the process of rebuilding trust.

2. Align on a shared vision

One of the biggest reasons leadership teams fall apart is because they’re not aligned on the company’s vision. Each person is working from their own playbook, convinced that their approach is the right one. To move forward, the team needs to agree on a shared vision for the future of the company.

This doesn’t mean everyone has to agree on every detail – but they do need to align on the big-picture goals. What does success look like? What are the company’s core priorities? Once the team has a shared vision, they can begin to work together to achieve it, rather than pulling in different directions.

3. Resolve conflicts head-on

Unresolved conflicts are like poison to a leadership team. They might start small – a disagreement in a meeting, a perceived slight – but left unchecked, they grow and spread. To repair the team, these conflicts need to be addressed head-on.

This is where having an outside facilitator can be invaluable. A neutral third party can help the team navigate difficult conversations and keep things from getting too personal. The goal isn’t to rehash every argument or assign blame, but to find a way to move forward.

4. Focus on behaviours, not personalities

When tensions are high, it’s easy for conflicts to become personal. Leaders start to attack each other’s character or motives, rather than focusing on the real issues at hand. This is where things can get toxic, and it’s a slippery slope.

To prevent this, it’s important to keep the focus on behaviours, not personalities. Instead of saying, “You’re always negative,” try, “In the last meeting, I felt like you dismissed my ideas without considering them.” This shifts the conversation from blame to constructive feedback and opens the door to finding solutions.

5. Commit to accountability

Rebuilding trust is about more than just clearing the air – it’s about accountability. The team needs to agree on how they’ll hold each other accountable moving forward. This could be as simple as setting clear expectations for how they’ll communicate or creating a process for addressing conflicts when they arise. Whatever the specifics, the key is to create a culture where people feel safe to speak up and where disagreements are dealt with constructively.

The long game: building a winning team

Repairing a fractured leadership team takes time. It’s not something that can be fixed in a single meeting or even a weekend retreat. It requires ongoing effort, commitment, and a willingness to confront the hard stuff head-on.

But here’s the good news: once a leadership team has gone through the process of rebuilding trust, they often come out stronger on the other side. The very act of working through their differences – of finding common ground and learning to communicate openly – can make them more resilient and more effective as a team.

A leadership team that’s been through the fire and come out the other side is uniquely positioned to lead a company through its toughest challenges. They’ve learned how to listen to each other, how to collaborate, and how to move forward together. And when that happens, the company can start to recover – and even thrive.