My leadership team agrees to our annual goals on paper, but within weeks, each department head is executing their own siloed version of the strategy. How do we use a formalized leadership charter to force true alignment and make sure we are speaking with one voice to our staff?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When department heads execute their own siloed versions of your strategy, your business is suffering from a lack of alignment. To fix this, you must establish and enforce Our Charter, specifically the Same Page pillar. This pillar represents a foundational covenant: one vision, one voice, and one team held by love and respect.

Start by ensuring your leadership team is one hundred percent aligned on your V/TO®. Every single member must agree with the Core Focus, the 10-Year Target, and the 3-Year Picture. If there is even a single point of unspoken disagreement, leaders will return to their departments and quietly steer their teams in a different direction.

Once you have achieved alignment on the V/TO, document Our Charter as a physical agreement that every leader signs. This agreement commits them to representing the leadership team first and their individual departments second.

When a decision is made in your weekly or quarterly meetings, explicitly ask the team if they are ready to present a united front. They must agree that once they step out of the room, they will speak with one voice to their direct reports. If you catch a leader expressing doubt or presenting a different version of the plan to their staff, you must address it immediately. Hold them accountable to the charter. Alignment is not a one-time event; it requires constant vigilance and the courage to call out division.