Alignment Is Not An Offsite Outcome, It’s A Leadership Team Practice
Most failure of execution in teams, isn’t about strategy, talent, or effort.
It’s about misalignment; of understanding, expectations, and commitments.
As CEO, do you feel a level of frustration that despite an energising off-site experience, team members quickly drift back into their functional silos? Energy diminishes. Old habits return. Momentum fades.
Off sites matter. They create space to reflect, reconnect, and reset priorities.
But they don’t sustain alignment.
Alignment isn’t lost because leaders forget the strategy or abandon the plan. It erodes because alignment requires ongoing attention and disciplined practice. Without it, the day-to-day operating cadence of the business pulls teams apart.
Teams that shift from functioning to flourishing, embed three practices of alignment.
They consistently and deliberately align their:
1. Understanding - they test their understanding of one another’s intent, assumptions, responsibilities, and decisions.
2. Expectations - they make expectations explicit, both of others and from others. They know that a ‘sloppy request’ will always get a ‘slippery commitment’.
3. Commitments - they clearly state, reaffirm, and review the commitments they make and receive. Promises are explicit and owned.
INVITATION
Make 2026 a year of alignment, not by declaration, but by practice through consistently:
Testing whether others’ understanding aligns with your intent.
“What is important we clarify so we have a common understanding?”
Clarifying what expectations are important be shared.
“What expectations do we have of one another we haven’t yet shared?”
Assuring the commitments made to and received from others.
“What may get in the way of delivering on this commitment?”
Alignment is something leadership teams do, not something they declare.
May you flourish.