My leadership team spent days refining our V/TO, but when they go back to their departments, they continue running their own pet projects that do not align with our strategic direction. How do I get them to actually operationalize our company vision?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When leadership team members nod along to the V/TO during quarterly planning but execute their own departmental agendas, your vision is nothing more than paper. This misalignment wastes resources and confuses your middle managers.

To solve this, you must tie their daily and weekly actions directly to the V/TO. Start with your quarterly Rock setting process. Every single Rock owned by an executive must directly support one of the one-year goals or three-year picture items on your V/TO. If a leader proposes a Rock that does not align, reject it.

Next, bring this alignment into your weekly Level 10 Meeting. Review your Rocks every week. If a leader is spending time on a pet project instead of their committed Rocks, call them out. Use the IDS tool to address why they are distracted from their core priorities.

You must also hold them accountable for cascading the vision. Their departmental goals must be visible to the rest of the leadership team. Ensure that their scorecards reflect the metrics that matter to the entire business, not just their silo. When their compensation or performance evaluation is tied directly to the execution of the shared vision rather than departmental vanity metrics, their focus will shift. Do not tolerate siloed execution.