How Do I Get the Leadership Team Aligned Before Scale?

Most leadership teams don’t realise they’re misaligned. They’re busy. They’re capable. They’re doing a lot of work. And yet — progress feels slower than it should.

Founders often describe it like this:

“Everyone’s trying, but it feels like we’re pulling in slightly different directions.”

That feeling is worth paying attention to — because misalignment before scale gets amplified by growth, not corrected by it.

Alignment Isn’t Agreement

When leaders talk about “alignment,” they often mean agreement.

But agreement is fragile. Alignment is structural.

You can agree in a meeting and still be misaligned the moment real decisions need to be made.

True alignment shows up when:

• decisions don’t need to be re-litigated

• trade-offs are handled consistently

• teams know where to escalate — and where not to

• progress continues even when leaders aren’t in the room together

If alignment only exists when everyone’s present, it isn’t alignment yet.

The Common Pre-Scale Trap

Before scale, leadership teams often grow organically.

Early leaders wear multiple hats. Responsibilities overlap “for speed.” Decisions stay informal because it feels efficient.

That works — until it doesn’t.

What starts to show up is:

• duplicated effort

• unclear ownership

• tension between functions

• decisions that stall or bounce between leaders

None of this feels catastrophic. But it quietly taxes execution.

And scale doesn’t forgive that.

Where Alignment Actually Breaks

In most growing companies, misalignment comes from a few predictable places:

1. Unclear decision rights

Who actually decides — and who merely contributes — is often assumed rather than defined.

2. Role design lagging reality

Titles exist, but responsibilities haven’t been recalibrated as the company evolves.

3. Different mental models of success

Leaders may agree on goals, but optimise for different things day-to-day.

4. No shared operating rhythm

Information flows inconsistently, so leaders make decisions in different contexts.

None of these are people problems. They’re system problems.

What Alignment Looks Like Before Scale

Healthy pre-scale alignment doesn’t require perfection — but it does require clarity.

It usually means:

• leaders are clear on what they own and what they don’t

• decisions move quickly without constant escalation

• disagreements surface early, not after execution falters

• strategy translates cleanly into priorities and action

Importantly, alignment doesn’t eliminate tension.

It contains it, so it doesn’t leak into execution.

The Question to Ask Your Leadership Team

Instead of asking “Are we aligned?” — which almost always gets a polite yes — try this:

“What decisions are we still unclear about — and who owns them?”

That question reveals more in five minutes than most alignment workshops do in a day.

Where answers vary, alignment hasn’t formed yet.

Why This Matters Before Scale

Growth adds pressure, not clarity.

If the leadership team is already compensating for ambiguity with extra effort, scale will turn that effort into exhaustion.

Alignment before scale isn’t about slowing down. It’s about removing the friction that growth will otherwise expose.

A Final Thought

Most leadership misalignment isn’t dramatic.

It’s quiet. It’s reasonable. And it’s costly over time.

The goal before scale isn’t to get everyone thinking the same way.

It’s to ensure the organization's leadership team alignment before scale, move decisively and coherently, even when leaders see things differently.

That’s what alignment really buys you.