Tag Archive for: communication

arrow cubes pointing in the wrong direction

The Quiet Cost of Almost-Alignment

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The most expensive misalignment usuall starts with a nod

The most expensive misalignment on an executive team rarely starts with a disagreement. It starts with a “nod” — physically or verbally — and everyone assuming it meant the same thing.

Nobody flags it. Everyone assumes they’re aligned. They’re not quite aligned. They’re almost aligned. And almost is expensive.

Almost-alignment hides behind professionalism.

Execution isn’t the problem. People go back to their teams, interpret the decision through their own lens, and move. It’s only weeks later that the gap becomes visible: when priorities conflict, resources pull in different directions, or the message sounds different depending on who delivered it.

I know I’ve experienced this time and time again. After a contentious conversation about what we should do next, only then do we realize that we aren’t all trying to achieve the same goal. Our understanding of the decision is different.

By then, the cost is already real.

It usually starts with a meeting that ended too cleanly.

Genuinely good decisions involve tradeoffs that different functions feel differently about. When a leadership team reaches consensus too quickly, it’s worth asking whether the hard part was actually worked through — or just skipped.

The most dangerous executive meetings are the ones where everyone nodded and nobody pushed.

What real alignment looks like

Everyone understands what was decided, why, what was traded off, and what they’re each responsible for next. They can walk out and tell their teams the same story — not the same words, but the same story.

That’s a higher bar than most leadership teams hold themselves to. It’s also the one that matters.

A simple test

After your next significant decision, ask each member of your leadership team independently: “What did we decide, and what does that mean for your priorities over the next 90 days?”

The gaps in those answers are your alignment gaps — and they’re worth closing before they close themselves in ways you won’t like.

What Signals Are You Sending?

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Culture doesn’t come from a slide deck

Your organization doesn’t learn culture from a slide deck. It learns it by watching what the leadership team actually does: how you disagree, how you decide, and whether your actions match your words.

The culture of the senior team is the culture of the organization, whether it intends to be or not.

When a leadership team debates openly and decides with clarity, that behavior tends to show up in the teams below. When a leadership team is siloed, territorial, or conflict-avoidant, those patterns replicate too — often without anyone consciously choosing to model them.

The behaviors of a senior team travel downward fast.

Three things that are watched closely

How you handle disagreement. When two senior leaders have a conflict, does it get worked out directly? Or does it go underground and show up as friction between their teams? People learn what to do with conflict by watching what the people above them do with it.

Whether decisions stick. When directions get quietly reversed or different parts of the organization operate as if different decisions were made, people lose confidence that anyone is actually steering.

How you talk about each other. The way leaders refer to their peers — in meetings, in passing, in how they explain decisions — sets the tone for how the whole organization talks about itself. Respect at the senior level is contagious. So is the opposite.

The question worth sitting with

If your team were to describe the leadership team’s dynamics to a new hire, what would they say? Not the official answer. The real one.

That description is your culture. And it starts at the top.

What’s one behavior you’ve seen ripple from a leadership team through an entire organization? Reply and let me know.   E.Onderick-Harvey@NextBridgeConsulting.com

Does Your Business Discourage Dissent?

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Diversity of experience and ideas, like other types of diversity, are critical to the success of your business. Even with a deep connection to your mission and strong leadership, an insular approach to strategy and decision-making can leave you vulnerable. It can hinder your ability to see early warning signals in the market or changes in customer profiles, and it becomes too easy to believe that past success will almost guarantee future success.
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In her recently published article from Harvard Business Review, Edith Onderick-Harvey provides some practical insights into how to ensure your organization stays resilient. The article was written for the family business audience, but the challenges and solutions are applicable to virtually all organizations.
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By Edith Onderick-Harvey