When Leaders Say They Are Aligned—But Aren’t
Leaders who nod when asked if they are aligned often act differently, so unity must be built as continuous activation up, down and across the organization; transformations with unified leaders were 77% more likely to succeed.
Summary
BCG's 2021 survey of 3,000 senior leaders found transformations were 77% more likely to succeed when leaders were unified on rationale and goals, yet agreement in a meeting rarely becomes aligned action. Three causes: unifying leaders is intermittent, middle managers get stuck, and no mechanisms sustain alignment. Five practices respond: show each leader how they contribute to shared outcomes, cascade ideas upward and across, encourage bad-news sharing, widen strategic input, and use two-way board mentoring.
Editor's opinion
Solid BCG survey (3,000 leaders) on stated-vs-actual alignment, useful but a fairly familiar organizational theme.
Key concepts
Leadership activation · Vertical and horizontal alignment · Shared business outcomes (OKRs) · Shadow board · Bad-news sharing · Two-way board mentoring