When a CEO joins a new organisation or assembles a fresh executive team, the priority is to clarify the strategy, vision, and value-creation plan – and to make sure the team is genuinely aligned behind it.
Every senior team faces the same core questions at the outset: Which direction are we heading in? What are our individual roles in making things happen? How can we ensure everyone across the organisation knows how their work contributes?
These questions seem simple, but they’re usually where things begin to unravel.
Too often, leaders assume that because a strategy was recently “refreshed”, there’s no need to revisit it. Yet even the most elegant plan fails if the team wasn’t involved in creating it. Without that sense of ownership, energy and conviction fade quickly.
It’s common to see a CEO outline a compelling vision on slides at an executive meeting. But if the team hasn’t been part of shaping that vision – debating trade-offs, tackling the hard questions, mapping interdependencies – they won’t live and breathe it in the way success demands. The shared purpose and mutual accountability essential for high performance simply won’t take root as deeply.
Co-creating strategy takes more time and patience, especially when the answers seem obvious. But the payoff is significant: a united executive team able to speak with one voice, challenge each other constructively, and drive consistent results.
The evidence backs this up. A McKinsey study found that 56% of executives cite misalignment between day-to-day decisions and strategic priorities as a major barrier. Kaplan and Norton reported that 85% of executive teams spend less than an hour a month discussing strategy – and those same organisations struggle with unclear priorities, weak decisions, and wasted resources. Bain & Company’s research shows that companies whose leaders help craft the vision are up to six times more likely to be top-tier financial performers.
The message is clear: alignment drives performance, and alignment comes from involvement. Co-creating strategy doesn’t just sharpen performance metrics – it strengthens team dynamics, builds trust, and releases energy across the organisation.
True strategic alignment isn’t declared; it’s built – together – forming the foundation for lasting performance.