Before your next executive meeting, ask every leader the same three questions, separately. If their answers do not line up, you may not have a communication problem. You may have an execution system organised around silos.
The three-question test
The most important thing should be clear and specific. The critical number makes it measurable.
Revenue, Margin, Safety, Productivity, Retention, Delivery. Whatever number carries the organisation’s biggest challenge right now.
If every executive names a different objective or number, the organisation does not have one shared definition of success.
Every executive should be able to draw a straight line from their function’s work to the enterprise result.
It is not enough to say, “We support the strategy.” What will the function deliver, change or stop doing? How will that affect the number? What evidence supports that connection?
If leaders can’t answer that clearly, the function might be busy, even performing well by its own measures, without moving the number that matters most.
Ask each executive to write down their answer without discussing it with the group first. Then compare the lists.
Same priorities across every list: a strong base for alignment. A different list from every leader: an alignment problem.
What executive misalignment costs
Behaviour at the top cascades. When executives work from different priorities:
- Capital and resources are pulled towards competing agendas.
- Cross-functional projects lose momentum.
- Important decisions are delayed or revisited.
- Risks remain unresolved between functions.
- Teams below receive mixed messages and protect their turf.
- The CEO becomes the default point of integration.
The organisation looks busy. It isn’t moving on what matters most.
2x
Likelihood of above-median performance with aligned top teams
+11%
Improved work quality
+18%
Better financial performance
83%
Less time spent fire fighting
Studies demonstrate the organisational benefits of an aligned executive team. McKinsey reports that aligned teams are 2x more likely to deliver above-median performance and achieve 18% better financial performance. Gallup reports an improvement in work quality of 11%, and Harvard Business Review notes that aligned teams reduce operating chaos, with a reduction in “fire fighting” of 83%.
Four disciplines that support alignment
Recognising misalignment is only the start. Four practical disciplines help an executive team shift from a collection of functions to one enterprise team.
Make the most important thing clear and measurable
Agree on the organisation’s most important objective and the one critical number that measures it. Make both visible across the business and discuss progress regularly. If they only appear in a strategy document or at the annual planning day, they will not guide everyday decisions.
Align every function to the critical number
Review each function’s objectives and measures. Leaders should be able to draw a credible line from their team’s activity to the critical number. This does not mean every function has the same goal. It means their different goals roll up to the same point of enterprise focus.
Build alignment into the meeting cadence
Include the critical number and the quarterly priorities in the executive team’s regular meeting rhythm. Do more than report results. Discuss interdependencies openly. Identify where one team’s decisions create pressure, delay or risk for another. Make trade-offs together, based on what is best for the enterprise.
Create space for shared problem-solving
Some challenges cannot be solved inside one department. Give the executive team time to work through issues that cross functional boundaries and affect the critical number. The aim is not to send the problem back into a silo. It is to understand the whole system, agree on ownership and solve the challenge together.
The executive team runs the system
A strong and aligned team does more than run executive meetings. It creates clarity about what matters, aligns the organisation behind it, builds the trust honest conversations need, and puts systems in place that let people act. That combination of clarity, alignment, trust and systems gets an executive team working.
If your answers don’t line up, another strategy presentation won’t solve it. The work is to create one enterprise focus, align functional measures, make the trade-offs clear and build a meeting rhythm that keeps leaders working across, not inside, their silos.
References
This article draws on established research regarding executive team effectiveness and performance outcomes:
