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The Org Chart Is Collapsing: Future Leaders Must Be the Glue Between Systems, Work, and People

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As any seasoned leader will tell you, silos within organizations often occur. Some might call it gatekeeping, but in my experience and for my readers who are newer to leadership, it’s more often just plain self-preservation. Change makes people nervous. To stay “valuable,” or to protect themselves from being replaced when a big company swallows their small local one, individuals will hold back critical information. In short, they let others fail, so you had to call them. I’ve lived through this more than once, and trust me, the results are never pretty.
Take my early days in service. A new national account had a refrigeration line leaking—high-stakes because all eyes were on me to make this customer happy. Our lead technician, Hassan, diagnosed the problem and agreed that the line needed to be replaced. But when I asked why he hadn’t offered to fix it, his answer was, “It’ll be after hours, and I don’t work nights.” Not exactly the response you want when the customer’s freezers are melting and corporate is calling. I pulled in Trevor, a young tech eager to prove himself, and he worked tirelessly to repair the line. It was grueling but successful. Only afterward did Hassan casually mention we could’ve used flex copper and done the job in half the time.
Fast-forward to a more recent mess. Our Chemical Development Manager provided a formula for a product we hadn’t blended in a while. Seemed simple: follow the recipe, make the batch. Except this time, his “recipe” conveniently omitted one critical step, adjusting the pH to keep a key compound in solution. The result? Three hundred gallons of useless sludge, a seized pump, and a blending tank turned into a very expensive coffee table. Later (over cocktails), he admitted he’d left out the step deliberately. He felt undervalued with leadership changes and wanted to prove how essential he was.
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Both examples are extreme, but the lesson is universal: silos, gatekeepers, and self-preservation instincts lurk everywhere. Sometimes it’s sales “forgetting” to mention a promise until install day. Sometimes it’s IT pushing out a new authenticator app that adds twelve clicks to everyone’s morning login. These walls between people, systems, and work are real, and as organizations flatten because of AI and there are fewer leadership roles with more responsibility, breaking them down will no longer be optional. It will be the core of leadership itself.
 
If those sound like messy one-offs, they’re not. They’re symptoms of a bigger problem: too many organizations run like separate kingdoms instead of one company. Sales protect sales. Ops protects ops. IT launches something because “security said so,” never mind if it breaks everyone’s workflow. And leadership? Too often stuck refereeing the fights instead of fixing the system.
 
That’s why the Wall Street Journal’s reporting caught my eye: some companies are already merging the Head of HR and Head of IT into one position. Think about that. The people function and the systems function are two areas that used to sit on opposite sides of the table and are now being tied together under a single leader. Why? Because the future isn’t about more bosses with fancier titles. It’s about fewer leaders with broader responsibility, capable of connecting people, systems, and work into one cohesive whole.
 
And here’s the real kicker: that doesn’t make leadership less important. It makes it harder. Leaders who survive in the next decade won’t be the loudest or the most technical. They’ll be the ones who can see how a decision in IT ripples through HR, how a change in process lands on the front line, and how culture either absorbs or rejects the system you’re trying to put in place. In short, leadership won’t be about guarding turf; it’ll be about tying the whole map together.
I’ve seen this play out in real time. Systems and work don’t fail in isolation—they fail when leaders don’t understand how the two interact. Back when I was running a service team, we rolled out digital reporting to replace handwritten logs. The system worked fine in the office, but in the field. Spotty Wi-Fi, cracked iPads, and techs balancing ladders on their shoulders made it a nightmare. Headquarters celebrated “real-time visibility.” The guys in the field cursed me out. Both sides were right. What we needed wasn’t a better app; we needed a leader willing to listen to the people doing the work and adapt the system around reality, not the other way around.
The same goes for people and the larger organization. I once watched a high-performing salesman tear through targets while torching everything around him. Customers got over-promised. Ops got dumped on. Culture took a nosedive. On paper, he was gold. In practice, he was gasoline. Leadership wasn’t about applauding his numbers; it was about recognizing that one person’s success can still be a net loss if it poisons the system. That lesson cost me months of recovery time and a few more gray hairs, but it stuck with me; a leader’s real job is keeping the whole machine running, not just polishing one shiny gear.
AI is only accelerating this. The WSJ piece makes it clear: traditional org charts are collapsing under the weight of AI. Companies are flattening structures, cutting middle layers, and moving toward skill-based teams instead of rigid hierarchies. Moderna is a prime example: they merged HR and IT under a Chief People and Digital Technology Officer, Tracey Franklin, who framed the shift this way—“It’s all about how work gets done.” That’s the job now. Not protecting boxes on a chart, but understanding how humans and machines, culture and systems, all fit together.
Futuristic concept art of AI integration with technological enhancements
Think about what that means for the rest of us. If your leadership style depends on protecting turf, being the gatekeeper, or playing middle manager as your claim to value, you’re on borrowed time. The leaders who thrive will be system thinkers with people skills. Translators who understand the work, respect the people, and can stitch together the organization so it runs as one.
This is why the idea of flatter organizations both excites and terrifies me. Fewer leaders don’t mean fewer problems; it means fewer buffers. You can’t hide behind hierarchy when you’re the one holding both the HR playbook and the IT budget. You can’t shrug and say “that’s not my department” when your decisions ripple across every corner of the business. If you’re not willing to understand the work, respect the people, and grasp the systems that hold it all together, you’ll be exposed. And if you are willing? You’ll be one of the few leaders who add value in a world that needs less noise and more glue.
The org chart is collapsing, but leadership isn’t disappearing. It’s evolving. The question is: are you the kind of leader who holds the glue or the one who gets peeled off with the layers that no longer matter?
 

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Fulfillment: The Performance Indicator We Forget to Measure

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This weekend I found myself enjoying time with a friend, and as we were talking, I had the opportunity to ask him about something he was working on for his company. Immediately I could recognize his excitement. As he told me about the project, his tone changed, the pace at which he spoke increased, and what was a casual conversation turned into passion.

It reminded me of something that this very same person said to me often or rather questioned: What do you find fulfillment in? From that, I started thinking about his career and those of the few others I’ve had the opportunity to work with who held positions where they were highly fulfilled in the work they did.

Far too often we still hear people say, “Find work that you love and you will never work a day in your life.” And although that may sound nice, how many of us can actually find work we love? Instead, I think we should take a page out of Justin’s book and focus on finding work that is fulfilling.

Fulfillment is something you can get from writing about leadership or helping someone change a tire. Fulfillment is obtainable. And you can find it in portions of your work and not others and as long as it’s in balance, you will continue to work, put in the extra effort, and do the little things that make you a great employee by all measures.

What high Fulfillment looks like.

When I have had the pleasure of working with people that found fulfillment in their work, you could almost pick them out of a lineup. Almost always long-term employees, they move through processes and complete tasks with the grace of a ballet dancer and with what seems like no effort at all. They are a go-to resource for everyone, always willing to lend a hand, help someone, and support the team.

As a manager, high fulfillment can easily be misunderstood. This is an all-star player, so they must want to grow and develop, right? They must want to expand their role, take on new challenges, do other things, something. The truth? They likely don’t want any of those things. Your employees that find high fulfillment in their work are just that: fulfilled.

Fulfillment isn’t about promotion paths or fancy titles. It’s about the moments of alignment, when what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and who you’re doing it with all click into place. That’s why some people thrive in roles that others would label “dead-end.” They’re not chasing the ladder; they’re content where they are, because the work itself delivers meaning.

What Fulfillment Looks like

Don’t mis-step

But here’s the trap: organizations are really good at eroding fulfillment. A process gets changed, and suddenly the thing someone loved about their work is buried under bureaucracy. A manager comes in with a different agenda, and suddenly the employee who was once the go-to resource now feels sidelined. A company sets aggressive goals, and the extra weight crushes the joy that used to be in the job.

That’s why leaders have to pay attention. Don’t assume your most fulfilled people want more responsibility, a promotion, or a bigger paycheck. Sometimes what they want is simply to keep doing the thing they do best, without you “fixing” it. And don’t confuse their steadiness for complacency. They’re your cultural anchors the ones who show newer employees what good looks like, without ever saying a word.

The hardest part of managing for fulfillment is resisting the urge to meddle. You’ll be tempted to stretch these employees, “challenge” them, or move them into a new role. But more often than not, the best thing you can do is protect the environment where their fulfillment thrives. Give them recognition, respect their boundaries, and check in to make sure the processes around them aren’t chipping away at the joy they’ve built into their work.

The truth of high Fulfillment

Because here’s the truth: fulfillment drives performance more than passion ever could. Passion burns hot and fast; fulfillment endures. Passion makes you sprint; fulfillment keeps you lacing up your shoes day after day.

And if you’re serious about building a team that lasts, you don’t just measure sales, output, or retention you measure whether your people are actually fulfilled in the work they’re doing. Ignore that, and eventually the metrics you care about most will start slipping. Pay attention to it, and you’ll unlock a level of commitment and consistency you can’t buy with perks or paychecks.

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So remember: Don’t ask your team, “Do you love your job?” That’s the wrong question. Instead, channel Justin and ask, “Do you find fulfillment in your work?” And when you hear the answer, protect it like it’s your most valuable KPI, because it probably is.

Mark Cuban Says the Best Employees Share 1 Crucial Skill – but he Oversimplified It.

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Stress

Reducing Stress Isn’t the Skill. It’s the Outcome of Real Leadership

In a recent Inc. article by Jeff Haden, Mark Cuban recently said something that caught my attention: the best employees are the ones who reduce their boss’s stress. Sure, intelligence, drive, and curiosity matter but stress reduction, he says, is what sets someone apart.

He’s not wrong. But he also isn’t telling the full story.

Stress reduction is a byproduct. It’s the result of something deeper at play, a mindset, a culture, a leadership philosophy. What Cuban’s really pointing toward isn’t about stress at all. It’s about problem solving. It’s about clarity. It’s about empowered employees who understand how to assess a situation, weigh the risk, and make a decision that aligns with the direction of the business.

In other words, Cuban is talking about leadership, but from the bottom up. And we need to unpack that. Before we get started let’s look at the example in the article Robbie. Robbie demonstrated a problem-solving mindset, we knew the conveyor was an issue and that he needed an electrician to fix, he knew he would have a staffing shortage in the future and developed another employee. He noticed the shift in Doug and escalated it appropriately. This isn’t a demonstration of stress reduction this is the outcome of a leader that empowered his team member to, demonstrated and coached them on how to make decisions.

What Stress-Reducing Employees Are Really Doing

Let’s be clear about what’s actually happening when a great employee “reduces stress.” They’re not just calm under pressure or pleasant to be around, they’re absorbing complexity. They’re making good decisions on your behalf. They’re catching problems before they escalate. And, perhaps most importantly, they’re operating with just enough confidence and clarity to act independently without overstepping.

That kind of performance doesn’t happen by accident.

It’s tempting to view it as a natural personality trait this employee just “gets it.” But in most cases, what you’re seeing is the result of either deliberate coaching or, frankly, previous experience under a strong leader. These people have learned how to interpret ambiguity. They’ve learned how to break down a problem, consider implications, and act with intention. And they’ve learned when not to act, which is often just as important.

When employees like that are on your team, you feel it. Your inbox is quieter. You don’t find yourself double-checking things that were supposed to be done. Conversations stay focused on outcomes, not excuses. Meetings feel like progress, not posturing. That’s what stress reduction actually looks like not because someone’s stress-free, but because they’ve learned how to carry weight. It’s easy to feel like these employees don’t need support or even overlook them because your focused on the employees that do cause stress; don’t fall into that trap. The steady eddies should get more attention than your weakest performers. These employees don’t always lead like Robbie. Often they quietly get the job done solving problems, feeling empowered to make decisions as needed and with exceptional alignment with leadership direction and company goals. As a manger these “A” players that get high fulfillment in their current role are you most valuable. And from my experience the most overlooked or undervalued. In fact, I would argue that many managers and Senior leaders would calls these employees “B” players. Why? Because they aren’t hard drivers to grow and develop. Instead, they are adaptive and conscientious, they deliver on target consistently without excuse. The long and short of it don’t fall into the trap of ignoring your real ”A” players because someone else is creating issues, or a hard driver.

Now lets get back to Stress –

Stress Isn’t the Problem. You Are!

If you’re a leader constantly feeling overwhelmed, it’s easy to blame it on external stressors: the market, the workload, the noise. But often, the real issue is your leadership. When a team doesn’t know where the lines are what decisions they’re allowed to make, how to escalate issues, or what success looks like they default to inaction. And when they default to inaction, everything lands on your desk.

That’s not a stress problem. That’s a leadership problem.

The most powerful leaders I’ve worked with or developed weren’t the ones who could do everything themselves. They were the ones who created the conditions for other people to think and act independently. They didn’t just manage tasks they cultivated judgment. They taught people how to interpret the business environment, make contextual decisions, and speak up when something didn’t feel right.

When you lead that way, you don’t just get results. You get trust. And when you build trust, stress naturally starts to recede, not because the work gets easier, but because the burden is shared by people who are fully equipped to carry it.

How You Actually Build That Kind of Team

This is where many leaders struggle. We say we want empowered teams. We say we want people to take initiative. But the moment someone makes a mistake or veers from our preferred path, we punish the attempt.

Empowerment without permission is just a trap.

If you want people to solve problems and reduce stress, you must create a culture where they are encouraged to use judgment. That begins with giving them the opportunity and supporting them when a decision is different from what you think, or goes wrong.

I’ve always taught my teams to operate around three simple questions:

  1. Does this benefit the customer?
  2. Does this benefit me?
  3. Does this benefit the company?

This doesn’t mean you’ll get perfect answers every time. But it does mean you’ll get thoughtful ones focused on alignment with goals and company initiatives.  Over-time, your teams will learn from you. Expect early on that you will get lots of questions, don’t be afraid to push back and ask, “What do you think?”. Doing so will provide coaching opportunities on problem solving while aligning thought processes. I encourage you to look for opportunities to do something differently than you originally thought. Usually quickly you will find that your team members learn how to think through a challenge. They start becoming the person Cuban is describing. Not just smart. Not just talented. But reliably effective.

That’s how problem solvers are born.

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Stop Looking for Stress Relief. Start Building Better Thinkers.

I’ve worked with teams where stress was everywhere. I’ve also led teams where stress didn’t go away it just stopped being contagious. The difference? In the high-functioning environments, people weren’t waiting on direction. They were moving. Thinking. Deciding.

That’s what we should be talking about not the vague aspiration of “less stress,” but the tangible leadership behaviors that create clarity and confidence in the people around us.

Cuban’s right: if you’re creating stress for your boss, you’re probably not as valuable as you think. But if you’re solving problems before they reach your boss, if you’re empowering others to act, and if you’re moving the business forward with quiet consistency—then you’re not just reducing stress.

You’re leading.

And that’s the skill we should be teaching.