Who Is Your Real Team?
Beyond the "First Team" Paradox
If you’ve spent any time in leadership development, you’ve likely heard Patrick Lencioni talk about the "First Team".
The idea is simple but revolutionary: Your primary loyalty shouldn’t be to the department you lead (the sales team, the engineering pod, the HR division). Your "First Team" is actually your group of peers—the other heads of departments reporting to your same leader.
Why? Because when we prioritize our "division" above our "peers," we start fighting for resources instead of fighting for the company. We build silos, we escalate conflicts to the boss, and we stop our people from moving fast.
We love Lencioni’s concept. It’s the foundation of breaking siloes. But in 2025, especially in global or high-growth tech companies, we find that "One Team" isn’t always the whole story.
To lead effectively, we need to add two more layers to the map:
1. The Home Team (Your Reporting Line)
This is the team connected to the leader you and your peers all report to.
In global organizations, you might actually have two Home Teams. Imagine a US Head of HR who reports to the US President but also has a dotted line to the Global CHRO. Both are your "Home," and they often have different gravitational pulls.
2. The Work Team (Your Execution Line)
Inside a large executive group, you can’t (and shouldn’t) be in deep sync with everyone at all times. Your Work Team consists of the 2–3 peers you must collaborate with daily to achieve a shared objective. For a product launch, the heads of Product, Marketing, and Sales are a "Work Team" within the larger "Home Team."
Why This Matters for Your Strategy?
Understanding this distinction isn't just about labels; it's about how you invest your energy and resources:
Structure for Impact: When you bring in a consultant or advisor, are they working with the "Home Team" to build culture, or the "Work Team" to fix a specific execution bottleneck?
Relationship Management: Does everyone on a 15-person executive team really need a 1:1 with each other every week? Probably not. But your Work Team peers? That connection is non-negotiable.
Defining the Goal: The goal of the Home Team is alignment and vision. The goal of the Work Team is velocity and results. If you confuse the two, you get meetings that feel like a waste of time.
The Bottom Line
Lencioni is right—you have to leave your silo. But as a leader, you also have to be a strategist of your own time.
Stop trying to "team" with everyone in the same way.
Map your Home Team for stability. Build your Work Teams for speed. When those internal relationships are structured with intention, the "ripple effect" of trust doesn't just happen—it scales.
