Strong organizations invest in leadership, culture, strategy, and innovation. These are the muscles that allow a business to grow, adapt, and compete. But even the strongest organizations struggle when those muscles aren’t moving in the same direction.
That’s where alignment comes in.
Alignment is the daily discipline of helping every person understand what matters, why it matters, and how their work contributes to the greater good.
When alignment is strong, organizations gain speed, accountability, and execution. When it’s weak, doubt, inefficiency, and frustration quickly follow.
Alignment doesn’t happen by accident. It requires leaders at every level to be intentional, consistent, and engaged.
So how do great leaders create and reinforce alignment day after day?
8 Ways Great Leaders Can Directly Impact Company Alignment
1. Own It
Alignment starts with leadership ownership. Executive leaders and leadership teams must accept responsibility for existing alignment issues without deflection or finger-pointing.
When leaders own alignment challenges, something powerful happens: solutions become possible. Instead of blaming departments, individuals, or circumstances, leaders set the tone for resolving whatever is slowing the organization’s progress.
Alignment is ultimately a leadership responsibility. Own it.
2. Have a Vision
Great leaders are relentlessly clear about where the organization is going and why.
They consistently ask:
- Where are we going?
- What does success look like?
- Why does this direction matter?
- Who do we need to get there?
- How will we make it happen?
From this clarity, leaders identify a small set of non-negotiables (typically three to five) such as core values or purpose. These should be simple, visible, and easy to remember. When done well, people want to keep them close and reference them often.
“Achieving real alignment, where strategy, goals, and meaningful purpose reinforce one another, gives an organization a major advantage because it has a clearer sense of what to do at any given time, and it can trust people to move in the right direction.”– McKinsey
For more on driving company vision, read ‘Are Your Leaders Driving the Vision or Drifting from It?’
3. Clarify Expectations Around the Vision
Vision alone is not enough. Leaders must set clear expectations for how they, and their teams, will support and advance it.
In fast-moving markets, alignment becomes a competitive advantage. It allows organizations to move together, learn faster, adapt more effectively, and sustain growth without exhausting their people.
Clear expectations remove guesswork and replace it with confidence.
4. Lead by Example
Leaders reinforce alignment through their behavior every day.
When leaders consistently model the priorities, values, and behaviors required to achieve the organization’s goals, alignment becomes normal. It’s simply “how we do things around here.”
Clear purpose and priorities also empower leaders to say “no” to distractions and “yes” to what truly matters. What leaders tolerate (or ignore) often speaks louder than what they say.
5. Articulate the Vision
Alignment requires repetition.
Leaders must clearly articulate the vision and priorities at every level of the organization, using deliberate change management practices to build commitment and momentum.
People need to understand not only what the priorities are, but how they can directly contribute to advancing them. When individuals see the connection between their work and the organization’s success, engagement and ownership increase.
Watch our video on HPAs to learn more.
6. Organization-Wide Communication Strategy
Aligned organizations communicate with intention.
Great leaders establish a consistent communication cadence that reinforces the vision and priorities through multiple rhythms:
- Quarterly strategy reviews to confirm priorities, share progress, and adjust based on evidence
- Monthly outcome check-ins focused on metrics, decisions, and cross-team dependencies
- Weekly one-on-ones to surface questions, concerns, and support needs
- Daily team huddles to keep work aligned and remove blockers quickly
This steady drumbeat keeps people focused and reduces confusion.
Leaders should also expect misalignment. When it shows up, treat it as a system issue—not a personnel issue. Address it at the source and make the lesson visible. People can handle change; what they struggle with is unexplained change.
7. Help People Understand How Their Roles Contribute to the Vision
Alignment is experienced in different ways. Wanting to be aligned, believing you are aligned, and actually being aligned are not the same.
Leaders help close this gap by clarifying the handful of measurable results that define success for a role in the near term: this week, this month, or this quarter.
Performance review processes should reinforce this clarity by connecting individual responsibilities to organizational outcomes—both positive and negative. When people understand how their work truly matters, alignment strengthens.
8. Monitor and Communication Impact
Aligned organizations measure what matters.
Leaders establish KPIs at every level that connect directly to the vision and help people understand leading versus lagging indicators. People want to know whether they—and the organization—are winning or losing.
Many organizations benefit from simple “win-the-week” measures that highlight progress, momentum, and course corrections. These insights should be shared consistently through existing communication rhythms.
Communication is central to alignment. In fact, communication issues consistently rank as the top concern in employee engagement and satisfaction surveys—especially when it comes to leadership.
Gauging if We Are Aligned
Alignment is working when employees at every level can confidently answer the following questions:
- What are the organization’s current priorities?
- How does my team contribute to them?
- What does success look like?
- What should I do when priorities conflict?
If these questions create confusion or hesitation, it’s a signal to revisit one or more of the alignment practices above.
Alignment is about consistently arranging daily actions in service of a shared vision. Applying even a few of these practices creates momentum. Applying all eight accelerates results far faster than most leaders expect.
Want to learn specifically where your company may be lacking alignment?
Take our FREE Accelerate Alignment Assessment and discover:
- Strengths and Blind Spots
- Where Misalignment is Costing You
- Immediate Strategic Clarity
