The Elevare Edge · Issue 13 · April 1, 2026
The alignment you think you have is not the alignment you actually have
Your leadership team is not as aligned as you think.
I learned the difference the hard way.
I got approval to hire five senior client service managers. Two senior leaders. Both on board. Both in the room. Both sold the vision.
Until it started working.
The new hires began building client relationships. Sales panicked about territory. One leader backtracked on the original agreement. The new managers got pulled into internal politics they were never hired to navigate.
Three out of five quit within the next few years.
The cost was not abstract. Five senior hires. Six months of ramp time. Three client escalations during the chaos. A $500k plan that became a $500k write-off.
The hiring strategy was not the problem. The leadership alignment was.
What leaders don't say in alignment meetings becomes your P&L problem later.
What fake alignment looks like
By the end of this issue I want to give you three questions you can use before your next initiative launches. But first it helps to recognize what you are actually dealing with.
Fake alignment has a specific texture. Everyone nods in the meeting. The language is collaborative. The initiative gets approved.
Then execution starts and you discover:
→ Each leader had a different picture of what success looked like
→ The concerns that were never raised in the room show up as resistance in the field
→ Your best people get caught in the middle of a conflict that was never theirs to solve
This is not a communication failure. It is a structural one. Most alignment conversations are designed to produce agreement, not to surface the real disagreements. Leaders are busy. Conflict is uncomfortable. So the meeting ends with a plan and a room full of unspoken reservations.
Three questions to test alignment before you launch
These are not feel-good questions. They are designed to surface the friction before it surfaces in your team.
→ Are we solving for the same outcome? Not the same initiative. The same outcome. Ask each leader separately what success looks like in twelve months. If the answers are different, you do not have alignment.
→ What is each leader actually worried about? The concern that does not get raised in the meeting is the one that will derail the execution. Create space for it before you launch, not after.
→ How will we handle conflict when it shows up? Not if. When. Agreeing on a conflict resolution approach before the initiative starts is the difference between a speed bump and a full derailment.
If you cannot answer all three cleanly, you are not ready to launch. What you have is approval. That is not the same thing.
Where the Chaos Scorecard comes in
Team alignment is one of the eight dimensions the Operational Chaos Scorecard covers. It will show you exactly where the gaps are between what your leadership team says and what your org is actually set up to deliver.
If the story above felt familiar, the scorecard is a good place to start.
👉 Take the free Operational Chaos Scorecard: creatyl.com/butrflie813/products/1199/access-the-operational-chaos-scorecard-here
If your results surprise you, reply and tell me what you found. I read every response.
To your success,
Rene Madden
Elevare Dynamics LLC
https://www.elevaredynamics.com/
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