Ambition is healthy. Executive teams should care deeply, challenge assumptions and actively seek smarter, sharper outcomes. But problems can arise when leaders start measuring their own success against one another instead of against the mission they share.
The first signs of this siloed mindset: delayed decisions, inconsistent communication and burnout among those who spend more energy defending their lane than advancing it.
The greater team may not know exactly what happens behind closed doors, but they’ll certainly notice the trickle-down effects of “alignment” that exists in title only.
The tricky part? Good culture can’t be forced. CEOs must organically build a unified C-suite, then quickly correct it if it slips off course.
Executive Culture Carries Extra Weight
Leadership sets the operating rhythm for the entire company, from revenue and profitability to recruitment and retention. A study from Bain & Company, however, found that only 20% of C-suite teams are actually high-performing.
For the 80%, a primary factor holding them back was C-suites failing to recognize that strong performance depends on equally strong culture.
Competitive or Toxic? Spotting Red Flags Early
Competition drives growth, sparks innovation, encourages healthy debate and keeps people accountable. Toxicity drives silos, sparks burnout, encourages finger-pointing and keeps leaders more focused on being right than doing right.
With growth inevitably comes silos, so it’s critical to address the warning signs right away:
- Decision Fatigue: Conflict should clarify priorities, not confuse them. In toxic environments, the same issues reappear because no one fully trusts the decision or each other. Organizations pay for that in lost morale and wasted time.
- Unbalanced Dynamics: Executive teams should balance respect for the organization’s tried and true processes while staying receptive to what it needs next — without either side becoming too dominant.
- Low Engagement: The quietest rooms carry the most unresolved issues. Fully present, engaged teams take ownership, show eagerness to learn and carry mutual respect.
If any of these signals resonate, take these steps:
Re-center the mission. Mission-oriented work isn’t limited to nonprofits. Any business can rally around a shared purpose that helps teams feel more connected and driven. If each department lives and breathes the mission, its goals will inherently reflect the broader company’s vision.
Call out misalignment. One bad apple can, unfortunately, ruin the whole bunch. Protecting culture requires calling out misalignment before it becomes contagious — not from a place of aggression, but accountability.
It’s a slippery slope to compromise cultural standards for someone who technically excels on paper but creates internal friction in practice. High performance paired with low trust only leads to great producers who aren’t willing to collaborate.
In deciding whether to coach or cut ties, leaders should prioritize what’s best long-term for the whole organization. This entails providing concrete examples, straightforward expectations and a specific timeline for change. Letting someone go should never come as a shock.
Cross-collaborate. Leaders who stay too confined to their own function miss out on the value of multiple executive perspectives. Promoting collaboration among those who don’t frequently interact gives teams well-rounded insight into where other departments struggle, succeed and intersect.
Make accountability collective. If one executive wins at the expense of another, the company still loses. The real test is whether a C-suite makes work easier or harder for everyone under it. The key to ensuring the former: clear role distinction.
Leaders should apply their individual strengths to the collective — and know how to amplify others’ strengths — to support shared ownership rather than misplaced blame.
Encourage disciplined transparency. Transparency demands enough trust to address tough issues directly, enough humility to place the organization above standalone credit, enough vulnerability to ask for help, and enough discretion to keep the right conflicts private.
It’s important to remember: The same factors that shape a winning leadership culture, especially transparency, are easier to uphold when team members genuinely enjoy each other’s presence.
Promote the founder’s mentality. C-suites won’t have time for toxicity if they’re hyper-focused on progress.
When everyone has a relentless, founder-like obsession with the mission and team, smooth collaboration will outweigh toxic competition from the top down every time.
Morgan Haynes is CEO of Tribal Health, a healthcare solutions provider that connects Indigenous and rural communities nationwide to high-quality care models. She leads strategy, operations and federal contracting to turn complex policy into lasting change for systemically underserved populations. With extensive experience in human capital management and business development, Haynes has a strong track record of building highly accountable, mission-driven teams.
Did You Know: Fifty-eight percent of employees who quit a job due to toxic culture say their managers were the main reason they ultimately left, according to a survey from the Society for Human Resource Management. The cost of this turnover in the U.S.? Around $44 billion annually.
