During one of our Level 10 Meeting® at my other business, we had one of those conversations.
The sort nobody particularly looks forward to. The sort that often gets delayed because everyone is busy, everyone has good intentions & nothing is obviously broken.
Until you finally realise something is not quite right.
Our business has two Visionaries & one Integrator. On paper, it should work brilliantly.
Instead, I had found myself becoming increasingly frustrated. Our Integrator was becoming frustrated too.
Neither of us was wrong, but neither of us fully understood what the other was experiencing.
As we worked through the issue, something became obvious. I was looking at the business through the eyes of a Visionary. Our Integrator was looking at it through the eyes of someone responsible for bringing that vision to life.
The problem was not trust. It was not capability.
The problem was clarity.
When Helping Starts to Feel Like Interference
I had started stepping back into areas I had already handed over.
Not because I did not trust our Integrator, but because I cared deeply about the outcome.
From my perspective, I was helping.
From their perspective, I was making it harder to do the job I had asked them to do.
At the same time, there were moments when our Integrator had begun making decisions that felt as though they were shaping the direction of the business, rather than executing the direction we had already agreed.
Again, this was not because they were trying to take over. It was because they cared deeply about the business succeeding.
Neither of us had bad intentions.
We simply had different interpretations of where one role ended & the other began.
The Visionary & Integrator Relationship Needs Clear Boundaries
The Visionary & Integrator relationship can be one of the most powerful partnerships in a growing business.
The Visionary typically sees what is possible. They bring ideas, energy, relationships & a strong sense of where the business could go.
The Integrator brings focus, alignment, accountability & execution. They help turn the vision into something the team can understand, act on & deliver.
Problems begin when those responsibilities become blurred.
Sometimes the Visionary continues to step over the Integrator, unintentionally undermining the very person they have asked to lead execution.
Sometimes the Integrator becomes so focused on running the business that the Visionary begins to feel excluded from decisions that influence the company’s direction.
Neither approach works.
An Integrator is not there to become the Visionary.
Equally, they are not there simply to carry out instructions without question.
Their role is to bring the company’s agreed vision to life by creating alignment, accountability & traction.
The Visionary, meanwhile, cannot expect the Integrator to lead while continuing to override every important decision.
You cannot hand over responsibility while holding on to all the authority.
Clarity Creates Confidence
As we talked through the issue, the tension disappeared.
Not because one of us won the argument, but because we both gained clarity.
One of the phrases I often use is:
Clarity creates confidence.
I have always believed it, but that meeting reminded me why.
Once we became clear about our respective roles, confidence returned almost immediately.
Confidence in each other.
Confidence in the decisions being made.
Confidence that we were back on the same team, pulling in the same direction.
That is the power of having the right conversation.
The issue itself may appear operational, but the real problem is often relational. People are not always disagreeing about the outcome. They are disagreeing about who owns what, who decides & where the boundaries sit.
Until those questions are answered, frustration builds quietly.
Strong Partnerships Are Not Built on Constant Agreement
The healthiest Visionary & Integrator partnerships I have worked with are not successful because they always agree.
They are successful because they know which conversations to have, when to have them & how to have them honestly.
They are willing to challenge one another without damaging trust.
They understand that disagreement is not the problem. Avoiding the disagreement is usually the problem.
When concerns are not raised, assumptions take over.
The Visionary assumes the Integrator is becoming controlling.
The Integrator assumes the Visionary does not trust them.
Both start reacting to a story in their own head rather than the reality of what the other person is trying to achieve.
That is when a straightforward role issue can turn into resentment.
Use the Level 10 Meeting® to Address the Real Issue
This is one of the reasons the Level 10 Meeting® is such an important discipline within EOS®.
It creates a regular space for leadership teams to raise issues, work through them & agree on a way forward.
But the meeting only works when people are willing to put the real issue on the Issues List.
It would have been easy for us to discuss symptoms.
We could have talked about a particular decision, a missed expectation or a frustrating interaction.
Instead, we identified the deeper issue: our roles had become blurred.
Once we identified that, the discussion changed.
It was no longer about who was right.
It became a conversation about what the business needed from each of us.
That is the point of IDS®, which stands for Identify, Discuss & Solve.
The goal is not to spend an hour circling the issue.
The goal is to identify what is really going on, discuss it openly & agree on a clear solution.
The Conversations You Avoid Usually Matter Most
Adam Harris & I describe ourselves as Carefrontational Changemakers™.
The caring part means we genuinely want people to succeed.
The confrontational part means we are prepared to have the conversations others often avoid.
Care without honesty creates artificial harmony.
Confrontation without care damages trust.
You need both.
The strongest leadership teams are not those that avoid uncomfortable conversations. They are the ones that can have them early, constructively & without making the issue personal.
That does not mean every conversation will feel comfortable.
It means the relationship is strong enough to handle the discomfort.
Even Coaches Need Coaching
The lesson I took from that meeting was simple.
Even coaches need coaching.
Even businesses that help other businesses grow have moments where responsibilities become blurred, expectations become unclear & frustration begins to creep in.
The difference is not whether it happens.
The difference is whether you are prepared to sit down, have the conversation & come out the other side with a better understanding than you had going in.
Our meeting did more than solve an issue.
It strengthened a relationship.
We now have greater clarity about where the Visionary role ends, where the Integrator role begins & where we need to work together.
I suspect we will be a much stronger partnership because of it.
Is Your Visionary & Integrator Relationship Working?
If there is tension between your Visionary & Integrator, do not assume the relationship is broken.
The issue may simply be a lack of clarity.
Start by asking:
- Are the roles clearly defined?
- Is decision-making authority understood?
- Is the Visionary stepping back into work they have already delegated?
- Is the Integrator making decisions that should sit with the Visionary?
- Are concerns being raised openly, or discussed everywhere except the meeting?
The earlier you have that conversation, the easier it is to solve.
Because clarity creates confidence.
And confidence allows both people to do the job the business actually needs them to do.