Leaders Being One Team with One Plan: The Impact

The Importance of Leaders Being One Team with One Plan
High performing leadership teams act and speak as one team that is committed to one plan and one way of working.  They purposefully and consistently align a company’s strategy, culture, and talent so that everyone and everything is moving in the same direction for the same reasons.  And being on one team with one plan pays dividends.

We know from our organizational alignment research that highly aligned companies grow revenue 58% faster, are 72% more profitable and outperform unaligned companies in terms of:

• Customer Retention 2.23-to-1
• Customer Satisfaction 3.2-to-1
• Leadership Effectiveness 8.71-to-1
• Employee Engagement 16.8-to-1

When leaders operate as a unified team toward shared goals, organizations experience stronger strategy execution, greater employee engagement, and more loyal customers. High levels of leadership misalignment create organizational churn and dysfunction: teams drift, messages are mixed, priorities clash, agendas diverge, resources are misappropriated, performance declines, and employees suffer.

The ability of leaders to function as “one team with one plan” is a hallmark of high-performing leadership teams.

The Power of Leadership Team Alignment
Assuming that you have enough of the right leaders onboard with the right motivations and competencies to get you where you want to go, we know from leadership simulation assessment data that leadership team alignment starts with strategic clarity.  Strategic clarity requires strategic focus.  Strategic focus requires agreement and commitment to the one or two strategic big bets that matter most.

Leadership team alignment sets the foundation for people AND business success. When leadership teams are unified in purpose, vision, and strategy, they:

• Create a clear and consistent direction for the entire organization.
• Can purposefully shape the way work gets done to propel strategic priorities.
• Are able to better track and assess shared performance metrics tied to overall business strategies.
• Foster an environment where employees can collaborate, thrive, and grow.
• Make it easier to identify and remove obstacles that hinder performance.

The Top Benefits of Leaders Being One Team with One Plan

1. Driving Accountability and Execution Excellence
   We know from project postmortem results that when a leadership team is fully committed to a common plan, it helps each person, team, and function to move together in the same direction. When leaders operate as a cohesive unit, individuals take ownership of their roles while also holding one another accountable. Leaders being one team with one plan reinforces individual, team, and organizational accountability while reducing strategic ambiguity, preventing silos, and eliminating toxic workplace politics.

   If you are struggling with organizational accountability and execution excellence, start with assessing leadership team alignment.

2. Enhancing Organizational Agility
   We know from change management consulting experts that organizational agility is a crucial determinant of success. Organizations that lack leadership alignment struggle to anticipate and adapt to new challenges early and quickly enough because different factions may prioritize conflicting initiatives. When leaders act as one team, they can more easily identify, pivot, and respond to changes with a unified approach.

   We also know from change management simulation data that employees are more likely to support organizational shifts when they see their leaders speaking with one voice and following a clear, coordinated plan that they had a voice in creating.

   If you are struggling with organizational change, check to see if leaders are on the same page with the business case for change, the urgency for change, and the dissatisfaction with the status quo before moving forward.

3. Strengthening Employee Engagement
   Employees look to their leaders for direction and confidence. When leadership is fragmented, it creates confusion, factions, disengagement, and distrust. Conversely, when leaders present a united front, have consistent messaging, and walk the talk as one unit, our organizational culture assessment research shows that employees are more likely to trust senior leaders to lead the organization to future success — which has a 77% correlation with positive employee engagement.

   If you are struggling with employee engagement, measure if your employees feel connected enough to the company’s leaders, mission, and purpose.

4. Creating a Culture of Transparency, Trust, and Collaboration
   Trust — at the individual, team, and organizational levels — is the cornerstone of a healthy corporate culture. And it all starts with an organization’s leaders. When leaders demonstrate that they are working together under a shared strategy, they build trust not only among themselves but also across the organization. This trust fosters collaboration, as employees see that leaders are aligned in their decision-making and priorities.

   A strong culture of collaboration reduces internal competition, minimizes turf wars, and creates the psychological team safety necessary for the open exchange of ideas and the encouragement to have constructive debate.

   If you are struggling with silo-based behaviors, start by ensuring that there is enough trust and collaboration on the executive team.

The Bottom Line
Executive leadership teams that embrace the principle of “being on one team with one plan” achieve higher levels of profitable growth, engagement, and customer loyalty. Leadership alignment drives accountability, enhances agility, and strengthens organizational culture. When senior leaders operate in unison, it sets the stage for everyone to fire on all cylinders.

To learn more about leaders being one team with one plan, download Organizational Alignment for Leaders – The Key Ingredient for Higher Performance