How to Get Your Leadership Team Aligned for Transformation

As a senior leader or CEO, you’ve likely long known that the best way to get things done is to have the support and buy-in of your people. From managing your first reports, to running an entire organization, you’ll have learned that alignment is crucial when it comes to decision-making and planning.

This idea has been stressed by renowned leaders, from Tesla chief, Elon Musk, who said, “You need a team where everyone is pulling their oars in the same direction,” to tech executive Sheryl Sandberg, known for her focus on effective teamwork when she was the celebrated chief operating officer at Facebook, now Meta.

In this article, you’ll explore practical strategies for “getting your Board on board” around transformation and growth initiatives, and learn from the successes and failures of the organizations in our case studies.

The Importance of Senior Team Alignment

Board or senior leadership team alignment is essential for successful growth and transformation.

Alignment helps to establish a consistent vision. It sets a cultural tone and sense of purpose for an organization, and cascades accountability across the organization.

One way to think about the importance of boardroom alignment is to imagine what can happen without it.

A cautionary tale comes out of Japan. When an historic textiles company, Kanebo, was undergoing post-war restructuring, it appointed Itoji Muto as CEO. He took over from his highly successful father, Sanji Muto. [1] But as new technologies emerged and synthetic materials grew in popularity, Muto refused to diversify from natural fibres.

Rather than try to sway his senior leadership team to his way of thinking, or even listen to their arguments for moving with the times, Muto expelled those who opposed him and even fired the technical experts who understood the advances in chemical research. He also banned further research and development.

When he could no longer ignore the error of his decisions, he again mismanaged his senior team as he tried to pivot to synthetic materials, and the venture failed. The company was saved when new leadership ended all textile production and moved into cosmetics.

Five Key Strategies for Building Board Alignment

It’s useful to highlight the distinction between the traditional relationship between a CEO and their board, and the modern dynamic between the two.

It was common for board members to defer to CEOs, letting them run the organization but providing oversight on fiduciary duties and compliance. Today, CEOs and boards strive for closer ties and alignment.

Writing for corporate governance specialists, Governance Intelligence, Maureen Bujno and Benjamin Finzi of global consultancy firm Deloitte said, “CEOs need boards to help them maneuver through the whitewater of constant disruption. Boards must reach difficult decisions that require deep and diverse insight – decisions that only happen by dint of composition, team dynamics and well-developed relationships with their CEOs.” [2]

Here are five ways to begin building stronger alignment:

1. Cocreate a Unified Mission or Vision

Codeveloping transformation goals has the potential to improve collaboration and the effectiveness of board activities. [3] Drawing on a diversity of voices and experiences not only delivers a stronger outcome, but improves buy-in.

An example of this can be found in Austrian finance company Raiffeisenbank’s major transformation projects in Russia under chairman of the managing board, Sergey Monin. [4] It’s worth noting that the changes described here were implemented before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent restrictions and sanctions placed on international firms’ ability to operate in Russia.

In 2018, Monin wanted to implement a series of transformations, both cultural and digital. Culturally, he wanted to decentralize decision-making power, make the organization less hierarchical, and give employees a greater sense of ownership and personal responsibility. He wanted the bank to operate on a more Agile footing and, spurred on by the pandemic, he also wanted to accelerate digital transformation.

To achieve his aim, he created a special steering group of board members and second-tier leaders which spent three months agreeing a transformation plan. There were bumps in the road – for a while, teams became too autonomous and collaboration faltered – but the end results were hugely impressive in terms of customer and employee satisfaction, and the all-important financial bottom line.

What lessons in leadership skills and behaviors can we learn from Monin? Here are a few examples:

• He implemented distributed decision-making powers.
• He incentivized new behaviors and values.
• He engaged his board of directors and employees at other levels.
• He communicated transparently with the whole organization.
• He showed patience, flexibility and adaptability when things didn’t go to plan.

2. Be a Positive Role Model

The idea of being the change you want to see is highly applicable in the case of transformational leadership.

Simply put, true alignment cannot be established if the person at the top is unwilling to be reasonably flexible. Without this core trait, autocracy can take hold.

Other key skills needed to create senior alignment include self-awareness, adaptability, patience, and creativity. If you can model such traits by living and breathing them daily, your peers and direct reports will notice and respond positively. That is to say, their behavior will actually change as a result of you changing yours.

3. Communicate Clearly With Board Members

Most leaders can accept the importance of clear communication, but it is often easier said than done. This is because board activity is often confined to board meetings.

According to Deloitte’s Bunjo and Finzi, “CEOs can practice asking questions and actively listening to show they can hear the feedback, respond thoughtfully and give feedback to the board, collectively and as individuals.

“Often, board members may better understand their CEO’s ideas if presented with partially formed strategies or works in progress. This has the advantage of enabling the board to appreciate better the CEO’s thought processes as strategies become shaped, and the method allows input from the board before final versions are fully baked.” [5]

The key message here is to foster a culture of more regular, informal touchpoints, helping to keep a clear two-way channel between the CEO and each member of the leadership team.

4. Share Your Goals and Metrics

Winning buy-in from your key stakeholders – and that includes board members – is more likely if you’re clear on the details. What exactly are you working toward? It’s important to drive clarity into this question. If you are seeking growth, which specific areas are you focusing on? Team expansion? Product range?

Or, if you are transforming your market positioning, for example, give a detailed breakdown of your current place, and the expected outcomes of a reconfiguration. The more vividly you can paint a picture of the transformation, through both storytelling and predictive analysis, the stronger alignment you will create in your leadership team.

5. Encourage Accountability

The acid test for team alignment is found in the power of personal responsibility. Only when each member of the team is truly committed to their role in relation to the whole, will you begin to feel real transformation.

To create this environment effectively means drawing on all the steps outlined above, plus recognizing and developing other skills and traits. For example:

• Cocreation will build a sense of ownership.
• Stakeholder management will help you to see who needs support or how best to communicate with key individuals.
• Clear, frequent two-way communication will enable you to get your core message across and encourage feedback.

It is from this base that you can ensure that each board member thoroughly understands their responsibilities and can adequately hold themselves accountable to them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Click on the questions to reveal the answers.

A CEO should present a clear, compelling narrative that outlines the project's strategic importance, expected outcomes and alignment with the company's long-term goals. Using data and case studies can help illustrate the potential impact.

Regular, transparent communication and demonstrating a track record of successful project management are key. Involving board members early in the planning process and addressing their concerns promptly also helps build trust.

A CEO should provide a thorough risk assessment, including mitigation strategies and contingency plans. Highlighting past successes in managing similar risks can also reassure the board.

Engaging key stakeholders, including employees, customers, and investors, can demonstrate broad support for the project. This can help persuade the board by showing that the project has been well-received and is likely to succeed.