Podcast Summary: "AUA: Why 360 Feedback Breaks Down in Leadership Teams"

Podcast: At Work with The Ready
Hosts: Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin
Date: September 29, 2025

Overview

In this mini-episode, hosts Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin answer a listener’s question about why 360 feedback often breaks down among leadership teams—specifically those reporting directly to the CEO. Drawing on their extensive experience as organizational design and change consultants, Rodney and Sam discuss the structural and cultural issues that make peer feedback difficult at the top, and offer actionable advice for OD professionals and leaders aiming to foster healthier, more collaborative dynamics.

Key Topics & Insights

The Unique Dynamics of Executive Teams

• Competition Among C-Suite Leaders
  • The level just below the CEO is often described as "a bit of a Hunger Games" (01:02), reflecting a highly competitive, zero-sum environment.
• "First Team" Concept (Patrick Lencioni)
  • Leaders should prioritize horizontal relationships (with their executive team peers) over allegiance to their functional groups.
  • “If you can’t all agree to and sign up for the first team concept, it’s really hard to do the rest of it.” — Rodney Evans (01:51)
• Mindset & Operating System (OS) Shifts
  • Embracing the first team concept requires both mindset changes and structural (operating system) moves around incentives, meeting rhythms, and feedback norms.

The Limits of Individual Feedback—It's Often Systemic

• Trace Problems to Organizational Patterns, Not Personalities
  • Sam advocates shifting the focus from individual failings to systemic issues:
    • “Most...of the interpersonal challenges that we experience in organizations can be traced back to something going on in the OS that’s not personal at all.” — Sam Spurlin (02:28)
  • Changing the conversation to patterns and systems makes problems solvable, rather than entrenched in personality clashes.

The CEO's Crucial Role in Setting Tone

• Redefining Responsibility at the Top
  • Rodney recounts a CEO who said, “Every single employee in their organization is all of their responsibility.” (03:15)
    • This reframes leadership away from silos—if anyone is struggling, it’s everyone’s collective issue.
    • Notably, Rodney describes this as a "really cool reframe" that shifts the culture from competition to shared ownership.
• Leadership Team as the "First Team"
  • When CEOs actively promote the first team concept and emphasize collective responsibility, "it really changes the conversation very quickly." — Rodney Evans (04:18)

Incentive Structures—Fueling Collaboration or Conflict

• From Individualistic to Shared Incentives
  • Sam points out: “If my bonus really depends on other parts of the organization also being high functioning, I’m probably going to spend less time fighting with them and more time trying to figure out how I can bring them along.” (04:53)
  • Rodney agrees, noting that individual metrics rarely make sense at the very top:
    • “At the very top of the house, there is very little... single person ownership over a metric. These are team sports.” (05:18)
• Zero Sum Thinking — A Pervasive Problem
  • Rodney critiques the "zero sum" mindset: believing that "for me to get more, you have to get less."
  • Instead, true high-level success is almost always shared: “If the organization is performing, all of us are going to enjoy higher dividends, better bonuses, better retention, more opportunities.” (06:06)
  • Leaders must ask, “Are we really competitors here? We’re really just not.” (06:19)

CEO Behaviors and Team Dynamics

• Danger of Strong One-on-One Dynamics
  • Focusing too much on each direct report individually (e.g., comparing, keeping score on who gets more access) undermines the team dynamic.
  • Rodney: “The work starts [with the CEO]. And so...having the conversation [about] really being like, this is a team. We play like a team. We win or lose like a team.” (07:01)
  • Most CEOs theoretically agree but don’t reinforce it in daily habits.

Memorable Quotes

• On reframing responsibility:

  “He [the CEO] considers every single employee in their organization to be all of their responsibility. If the Chief Revenue Officer is saying that their HR business partner is failing, the CEO’s POV is: that’s just as much your problem as it is the CHRO’s problem, because all of the employees are our problem.”
  — Rodney Evans (03:16 - 03:48)

• On the toxicity of individual incentives at the top:

  “Incentives at this level shouldn’t be so individualistic. They should be tied to company outcomes.”
  — Rodney Evans (05:09 - 05:15)

• On challenging zero-sum thinking:

  “Are we really competitors here? We’re really just not.”
  — Rodney Evans (06:19)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:41: Listener question introduction: Why does 360 feedback break down for senior leaders?
• 01:02 - 01:51: Rodney introduces the "first team" concept; Hunger Games analogy for executive competition.
• 02:06 - 02:44: Sam on systemic causes of interpersonal issues; reframing feedback to focus on patterns, not people.
• 03:03 - 04:31: The CEO’s role in defining collective responsibility and diffusing silo competition.
• 04:31 - 05:53: Sam and Rodney discuss incentives and how structure influences behavior at the top.
• 05:53 - 07:18: Dismantling zero-sum thinking; Rodney on how CEO actions create or undermine team cohesiveness.

Episode Tone

The conversation is candid, humorous, and practical—balancing empathy for the challenges OD professionals face ("bit of a Hunger Games...") with a call for leaders to be more courageous and systemic in their approach ("the sport is a team sport... maybe I’m the captain, but this is the move").

Summary Takeaways

• 360 feedback fails at the top when leaders see each other as rivals, not teammates.
• Adopting the "first team" mindset and shifting incentives to collective, not individual, success are critical.
• The CEO must set and consistently model team-oriented behaviors to break entrenched patterns.
• Most apparent "personal" conflicts are really symptoms of deeper structural flaws.
• Changing the dynamics at the top is as much about operating system choices and habits as about mindset.

For listeners facing dysfunctional peer feedback or entrenched silos in leadership teams, this episode provides not only a diagnosis but also clear, actionable ideas for reshaping the playing field.