Are people in your team going over heads, or across the room? 

In small businesses, relationships matter. But how those relationships form, vertically (up and down the hierarchy) or horizontally (across the team), has a huge impact on how work actually gets done.

In this episode, I talk about vertical vs horizontal relationships, why teams quietly drift into unhelpful patterns, and how small shifts in “who you go to first” can change the whole rhythm of your business.

We’ll cover: 

• What vertical and horizontal relationships look like in real life
• The warning signs of “over-vertical” and “over-horizontal” teams 
• How owner-led businesses accidentally turn leaders into bottlenecks 
• A simple rule of thumb to decide when to go up and when to go across 
• A few questions to help you spot where relationships are quietly holding your team back

If your team feels slow, stuck, or strangely “stop–start”, this one’s worth a listen.