Four months into her first year, a new director called me.

On paper, things looked right. Her boss was supportive. Her team was coming along.

But one dynamic was quietly slowing everything down.

A counterpart in another function - someone her role depended on - had been the internal favourite for the role.

He'd been there for 8 years.

In most organizations, that isn't a detail. It's a fault line.

They were professional. Cordial in meetings. No visible tension.

But his support never showed up when it mattered.

Introductions took weeks. A joint initiative got stuck without explanation. In rooms where his signal would have moved decisions forward, he stayed just neutral enough not to block - and just absent enough not to help.

Nothing explicit. Nothing you could escalate. 

Just enough friction to slow momentum.

She hadn't done anything wrong. 

She also hadn't addressed what was actually happening.

In the first year, most executives focus up and down. Managing expectations above. Stabilizing teams below.

Peers get what's left.

When one of those peers expected to have your role, the default instinct is to keep things professional. Don't make it awkward. Let the work speak.

It's a reasonable instinct. It's also where problems start.

The passed-over peer isn't necessarily hostile. But they're not neutral either. They had a version of how their career would unfold. And your arrival disrupted that.

That doesn’t resolve itself. What fills the silence is ambiguity.

And in ambiguity, people protect themselves through selective engagement:

Support that arrives late. Alignment that never quite locks in. Decisions that move more slowly than they should.

Over time, that becomes your operating reality.

Most senior leaders give it time.

Don't acknowledge it. Don't make it bigger than it needs to be.

But the longer the dynamic stays unnamed, the more it stabilizes.

Silence gets interpreted as obliviousness. Or as avoidance.

1. Name the context early - ideally in your first 30 days

Not an apology. Not a negotiation. A simple acknowledgement of reality:

“I know we both went after this role. If the situation were reversed, I know I’d be disappointed. But I have a lot of respect for what you’ve built here, and I wanted to name that early so it doesn't get in our way.”

You're not trying to resolve everything. You're removing ambiguity. Most people, given that opening, will meet you there.

2. Map your peers before you need them

In your first 60 days, sit down with each key peer. Not to "build relationships" - to understand pressure.

What are their biggest pressures right now? Where are they under-resourced or at risk of missing their goals? What do they need from your function that they haven't been getting?

You're building a map of where alignment matters, and where friction is likely.

3. Invest before you need alignment

When you understand what a peer is responsible for, you can show up before they ask.

That's what creates reciprocity - and reciprocity determines what happens in the rooms you're not in: whether your priorities get airtime, whether decisions move, whether you're read as aligned or difficult.

The director eventually had the conversation. It was uncomfortable. It lasted ten minutes.

Within a month, the dynamic shifted - not because everything changed, but because it was no longer operating in silence.

She'd spent 4 months managing around something that could have been addressed directly.

Neutrality is rarely neutral.