If your company isn’t primarily focused on alignment, you will fail.

Back in the early 2000s, my boss at the time, the CIO, had a truly terrible idea. We would expand a service that was already hemorrhaging money, to the tune of $400,000 a year in losses on $350,000 a year in revenue. This expansion would cost at least another million dollars.

This was such an obvious debacle that before the decision was made to expand, I fought hard against it. I produced data showing the current and future expectations, I produced customers who said we shouldn’t bother, and I even showed that with the expense of the new expansion, we would lose money even if we had a 100% market share.

My objections were listened to but overruled, and the expansion project was approved. I led the expansion project, and we built a great product. Despite my earlier objections, I believe strongly that once a decision is made, we must all be aligned behind the vision, even if we don’t fully agree.

And I was proved totally wrong. The results of the project were good enough that it expanded the market and in future years gave a very nice revenue surplus. Being in charge of the product, I could have made failure a self-fulfilling prophecy. Projects are often fickle, and all it would have taken to undermine it was being a little less assertive. Instead, as a good second in command does, once the decision was made, I moved forward with the vision as outlined and made it happen.

In short, we were aligned.

Alignment is up to you

A lot of managers fight for their position long after a decision has been made. This would be like everyone in a canoe rowing in different directions; if you get anywhere at all, it will be at the mercy of the tide, and everyone will be exhausted at the end.

In one all-too-common instance, a woman I know well was so intent on her vision, which the rest of the leadership team disagreed with, that she started talking behind the scenes to every director and Vice President and lobbying for her position. Even though the decision was made, she tried hard to undermine and change it. She would actively discourage staff from working on it and encourage them to “voice their objections”, which were really her objections.

I said to her that I thought the better course was for us to follow the decision and do our best to make the decision happen. I used the metaphor of us all rowing in the same direction. Her response was, “But it’s the WRONG direction. If I don’t stop us, we’ll end up at the wrong shore.”

Because of her efforts, we didn’t end up at the “wrong” shore. We ended up spinning around in circles, accomplishing nothing but chaos with millions of dollars spent in the process.

The leadership trap

Managers undermining alignment because they think they know better happens all the time. It was not a one-time occurrence, but something I saw almost every day. Here are a few simple rules to make sure you aren’t a part of this problem:

1. Once the decision is made, back it.

   – Before the decision, be clear about the direction you prefer and why.

   – Once the decision is made, back the decision that was made. Back it 100%. No caveats.

   – If new data arises to make you think the course should be reconsidered, think hard about whether the data really warrants reconsideration, or if it’s just an excuse to relitigate the issue. If there’s any doubt, stay the course.

2. As a leader:

   – Once a decision is made, stick with it. Making a decision and then changing it repeatedly shows everyone that decisions aren’t hard and fast. This invites challenges.

   – Lead by example. Showing you are aligned and believe in alignment is more powerful than speaking about it.

   – Ensure transparency in decision-making.

Making it clear why a decision was made will help align people.

Some will use your transparency as a way to attack you; the more you reveal, the more places those with ill intent can find targets of opportunity.

Implement transparency carefully.

In one instance a peer pushed and pushed me to give her the detailed strategy behind a project. As someone who dealt with high-level customers frequently, she made the case that she needed to know all the details in case she had to respond to customers about it. Instead, as soon as I gave her the detailed strategy, she started picking on small points throughout and complaining to other staff about it. My time quickly got used up in trying to give people the full context of the decision and why she was incorrect. Her entire purpose in getting the strategy was to use it as a weapon against the decision that was made.

These people are not uncommon in leadership and we’ve all encountered them. Their goal is always to get their own way and never about alignment, except that they think everyone should align behind them.

You’ll see a lot of business advice advocating transparency of decisions and more communication. Frankly, while this advice works well in most fully aligned cultures, it is naïve and potentially career-threatening in a culture that isn’t fully aligned.

As a leader, one of your main jobs is to find these people who oppose alignment, try hard to get them to understand the need for alignment and, if all else fails, get rid of them. No matter how good they are at their job, people who won’t work in alignment with the rest of the staff are a problem. In many ways, having a strong rower pushing for a different direction is even more damaging than an average rower doing the same.

Conclusion

You can have a great strategy, excellent people, and eager customers, but without alignment, your company will not succeed. As a leader, you must focus on alignment and sometimes make the difficult decisions when there are people who aren’t going to align no matter what you do. You must model alignment and show that you truly believe in it, as your actions will speak far louder than your words. Most of all, you must be prepared to put your own ego aside in the service of alignment.

Alignment isn’t about agreement—it’s about commitment. It’s about rowing together towards a common goal, even if the direction wasn’t your first choice. By fostering a culture of alignment, you pave the way for greater success and unity within your organization. Lead with integrity, communicate with clarity, and always row in the same direction.