Most executive groups meet regularly, share a leader and call themselves a team while doing almost no interdependent work. Naming that honestly is the starting point, because the fix depends on which of the two you actually have.
Interdependence is the test
A real team produces something together that none of them could produce alone. If every agenda item concerns one function and the others are listening politely, that is a staff meeting with a team’s name on it. Both are legitimate; confusing them wastes everyone’s time.
Each member has a second loyalty
Every executive leads their own function and sits on the leadership team, and those two roles pull in opposite directions when resources are scarce. This tension is structural and permanent, not a sign of bad people, and it must be managed rather than resented.
The stakes make candour harder
At this level disagreement carries career risk, so people hedge, take positions offline, and agree in the room while dissenting outside it. Executive teams are usually less candid than the teams beneath them, which is the opposite of what the organisation needs.
Action step
List your last five leadership meeting agenda items and mark which genuinely required more than one function to decide.
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