One of the most common examples I see is when someone is clearly not right for their seat on the leadership team.
Not a bad person. Not malicious. Simply not able to do what the role requires.
Everyone knows it. Meetings feel heavier. Decisions stall. Accountability becomes fuzzy. Other leaders quietly pick up the slack. And yet, no one wants to say the words out loud.
When I raise it, the instinctive response is often to protect the individual.
“Let’s take this offline.”
But we can’t. Because this is not a private issue. It belongs to the leadership team.
Taking it offline sends a clear message to everyone else in the room. The real conversations happen somewhere else. The rules are flexible. Not everyone needs to hear the same truth at the same time.
Alignment does not happen in corridors or side conversations. It happens when the leadership team stays in the room together & faces reality collectively.
Mark C. Winters tells a story that illustrates this perfectly.
He worked with a Visionary whose daughter joined the sales team. Over time, it became clear there were different standards at play. Exceptions were being made. Issues were protected. The Sales Leader felt undermined. The rest of the team was watching.
When Mark pushed on it, the Visionary said, “Don’t go there.”
Mark went there anyway.
What emerged was not just a performance issue, but a pattern of special exemptions. And as Mark says so clearly, every exception teaches the team what the rules really are.
The Visionary fired him a few days later. Not because Mark was wrong, but because the Visionary was not ready to have that conversation & knew Mark would not let him off the hook.
That story lands because it is true. Not just in family businesses or founder-led organisations, but everywhere power, loyalty & history are in the room.
Entering the danger is rarely about the surface issue. It is about integrity. About whether the stated standards of the organisation actually apply when it gets uncomfortable.
When we stay in the room & enter the danger, the silence can feel long. Sometimes painful. But something important happens in that space.
The truth is shared. The discomfort is collective. And the leadership team gets to make a conscious decision together. Coach up. Coach out. Change the seat. Reset the standard.
Not perfect. Not painless. But honest.
This is the part of the work no one puts in the brochure. And yet, it is the work that makes everything else possible.
So if your EOS Implementer resists taking something offline, this is why.
Because the toughest conversations belong in the room, with everyone present, where trust is built in real time.
And if it feels uncomfortable, you are probably entering the danger exactly where it matters most.
