I work in a still relatively small company (40 odd people).

We have a management team of 5, our MD has floated some ideas about his exit strategy which involve the whole management team working together – on equal footing – to drive the company forward and have a stake in the future of the company.  Some managers are clearly more ambitious than others and this has lead to egos and conflict.

Long story short, we recently started weekly informal 'have it out' meetings where we all agreed to be open and honest and bring up things that were bothering us so we could discuss them as a group.  Last week, one of the managers asked the Sales manager about what we are doing to increase business.  She (the one who asked) is a relatively new manager and quite nervous and as a result, she can come over quite loud and a bit agressive in her approach which we are all used to and trying to help her overcome.  However, the Sales manager did not like being put on the spot.  He clearly nearly lost his temper with her.  Afterwards, he came and had a whinge to me and admitted she had annoyed him.  I tried to calm him…it obviously didn't work. 

Two days later, when she was the only manager other than the Sales manager and one other in, the other manager confronted her and said he had been particularly unimpressed with how she had conducted herself and told her she was too agressive.  Whilst this is a fair point, I do wonder why it took him two days to come to this conclusion and say anything.  Why did he not say something in the meeting or the day after?  He is relatively new to the company and has quite a way about him, he is clearly passionate about his job but I have had a number of people tell me they find him condesending.  He has also had a private run-in with this female manager before at which time I was told that he told her if she didn't like certain things, she ought to leave.

I would like to discuss with him what happened last week.  I am concerned that he may have deliberately waited until she was potenitally vulnerable with no other management support.  I may be over-reacting but I feel his approach could be seen as intimidating and surely as HR, it is my job to do something about it if I suspect anything?  Should I take him to one side and have a quiet chat and see what he has to say or could this put me in a position where I could be seen as initimating him?  Should I bring it up in this week's management 'have it out' meeting for us all to discuss?  I suspect that the Sales manager having had no real 'luck' with me, may have gone to him after the event last week and that's where the sudden concern came from but as I say, these are only theories so I cannot accuse / confront directly.    I just want to see what comes out of a discussion.