Month: December 2025

The Hidden Power of Top Team Alignment

Why Senior Team Effectiveness Is the Ultimate Performance Multiplier

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about top team alignment—specifically, how to increase the effectiveness of senior leadership teams.

Right now, I’m working with seven or eight organizations, all trying to improve performance. And one pattern shows up every single time:

The most effective organizations have senior teams that are truly firing on all cylinders.

We often talk about improving frontline execution—and that matters—but if you really want to leverage, start at the top. When the senior team is aligned, effective, and decisive, everything downstream improves faster and more sustainably.

In this article, I want to:

1. Reinforce why senior team effectiveness matters
2. Share eight key success factors of highly effective top teams (some may surprise you)
3. Touch briefly on the senior team structure
4. Introduce the idea of a simple scorecard you can use to assess your own team

Why Senior Team Effectiveness Matters

The benefits of a highly effective senior team are obvious—but they’re worth restating.

A strong top team delivers:

• Strategic clarity and focus (time is the most constrained resource we have)
• Better collaboration and communication
• Higher job satisfaction and engagement
• Greater organizational agility

In today’s business environment—tariffs, no tariffs, interest rate swings, geopolitical uncertainty—agility is everything. And agility comes from aligned, high-functioning leadership teams.

You also get:

• Higher performance and productivity
• Better retention (people love being part of effective teams)
• Stronger innovation

Many organizations have high-performing departments. Far fewer have a truly coordinated, aligned, and decisive top team. That’s the gap we’re addressing.

Eight Key Success Factors of Highly Effective Senior Teams

1. Keep the Senior Team Small (Six or Seven People Max)

This one often surprises people.

“I’m an effective CEO—I can handle 10, 12, even 13 direct reports.”

Maybe. But not for high-quality decision-making.

Less is more. Smaller teams:

• Make better decisions
• Have more meaningful dialogue
• Move faster

Yes, it’s hard to exclude people. But effectiveness sometimes requires tough structural choices. As we walk through the remaining success factors, it becomes obvious why smaller senior teams work better.

2. Clear Annual and Quarterly Priorities

Most organizations get this part mostly right.

They have:

• An annual plan (sometimes even a 3-year plan)
• Quarterly priorities or “rocks”

That’s good. This is table stakes for senior team effectiveness.

3. Strong Camaraderie and Positive Energy

Think about great sports teams.

They have:

• Trust
• Recognition
• Humor
• Genuine care for one another

The tone and vibe of your senior team matters. People should enjoy coming to leadership meetings—not dread them.

Culture isn’t created by slogans. It’s created in rooms like these.

4. People Feel Heard—Even When Decisions Are Hard

Before a difficult decision is made, everyone gets input.

And once the decision is made, leaders can honestly say to their teams:

“This wasn’t exactly my first choice—but I’m all in.”

That is powerful.

What destroys organizations is when leaders go back to their departments and say:

“Well, it wasn’t my idea. I think it’s stupid.”

That behavior creates dysfunction faster than almost anything else I see.

5. Healthy, Respectful Conflict

Highly effective senior teams expect debate.

They don’t rely on:

• One functional leader making the call alone
• Private conversations outside the room

They debate in the room.

Let me underline this:

Respectful, healthy challenge leads to better decisions and stronger commitment.

This is not about disrespect, name-calling, or ego. It’s about leaders being comfortable being challenged—because that’s how the best ideas surface.

Go into meetings wanting healthy conflict. You’ll get better outcomes every time.

6. Vulnerability Is Required

High-performing teams allow vulnerability.

If a leader has an aggressive goal or a major initiative, they must be able to say:

“I need help.”

Most work today is interdependent. Sales needs service. Service needs parts. Parts needs operations. No major priority belongs to just one department anymore.

Ask yourself:

• Are other departments actively helping each other hit their quarterly priorities?
• Or is everyone operating in silos?

The answer tells you a lot about your senior team’s effectiveness.

7. Shared Ownership of Outcomes

Yes, a department leader owns their priorities—but success should never be isolated.

Effective top teams behave like this:

“This is our priority—not just yours.”

That mindset changes everything.

8. Alignment After the Decision—Every Time

This one is critical.

Once a decision is made:

• You align
• You support it
• You make it work

If you go back to your department and complain, you’ve just nuked alignment, clarity, and execution.

Even worse, you might sabotage the outcome—then blame the decision itself.

If a decision fails, it should fail because:

• The idea was wrong
• The assumptions were wrong

Not because leaders quietly worked against it.

True senior team effectiveness looks like this:

1. Everyone is heard
2. A decision is made
3. The team aligns
4. Everyone commits fully to execution

That combination is incredibly powerful.

Final Thought

If you want better results, don’t start by fixing tactics at the edges.

Start at the top.

When senior teams:

• Are small and focused
• Debate respectfully
• Show vulnerability
• Align after decisions

Everything else gets easier.

That’s what real top team effectiveness looks like—and it’s one of the biggest performance multipliers available to any organization.

From Urgent to Strategic: The Power of Weekly and Daily Planning Done Right

Most leaders don’t struggle because they lack discipline or work ethic. They struggle because they’re trapped in the urgent—emails, meetings, requests, and fires—while their most important, strategic goals quietly sit on the back burner.

If you’re already successful but feel like you’re capable of more—more impact, more clarity, more efficiency—then this shift is for you.

Over the past year, I’ve interviewed and taught this principle to roughly 70 leaders, and what follows are the best practices that consistently separate tactical operators from truly strategic leaders.

This is about moving to the next level.

Why Weekly and Daily Planning Matters

We all have habits that got us where we are today. But the habits that created your current success may not be the ones that unlock your next level of effectiveness.

Weekly and daily planning—done correctly—is not about control or rigidity. It’s about intention, focus, and creating space for the work that actually moves the needle.

If you’re open to adjusting how you plan, even slightly, the payoff can be enormous.

Best Practice #1: Plan Weekly—At the Same Time, Every Week

Your brain loves consistency.

High-performing leaders don’t “squeeze in” weekly planning when they can. They protect it. Choose a time and stick to it:

• Sunday night (most common)
• Saturday morning (my preference)
• Friday afternoon (least effective, due to interruptions)

Your weekly planning session should take no more than one hour.
If it’s taking three or four hours, something is off.

This is about clarity, not perfection.

Best Practice #2: Plan From Goals—Not From Your Calendar or Email

This is where most people go wrong.

They open their calendar or inbox and plan reactively. Those are inputs—but they should not be the primary driver of your week.

Your annual or 90-day strategic goals should be front and center when you weekly plan.

Ask yourself:

• What are the next steps on my most important goals?
• What progress can I make this week?

Big goals stall people out. The fix?
Don’t solve the whole thing—just identify the next bite:

• Research
• One phone call
• One outline
• One decision

Momentum beats perfection every time.

Best Practice #3: Decide Who Is Doing the Work

This one is especially important for leaders.

As you build your weekly plan, ask:

• Who is actually responsible for this?
• Is this something I should delegate?

If everything on your plan has your name on it, you’re not leveraging your time—or your team.

Your weekly plan should include:

• What you’re doing
• What you’re delegating
• What you’re waiting on

Leadership is multiplication, not accumulation.

Best Practice #4: Time-Block or Lose Control of Your Week

If you’re not time-blocking, you’re not being effective. Period.

Time-blocking means putting the work directly on your calendar—before others do.

Example:
If you have a major meeting on Thursday:

• Block 30 minutes on Monday or Tuesday to prepare
• Send yourself the calendar invite
• Protect that time

Otherwise, preparation becomes an afterthought—and urgency wins again.

Without time-blocking, your calendar will be filled for you by other people’s priorities.

Best Practice #5: Email Is Your Servant, Not Your Master

Email is a tool—not a planning system.

If your inbox dictates your day, you’re leaving massive effectiveness on the table.

Strong leaders:

• Check email intentionally (not constantly)
• Answer quick items
• Schedule time for deeper responses
• Limit touches (1–3 per message, not 20)

Email should support your plan—not replace it.

When you control email, you:

• Reduce anxiety
• Increase focus
• Accomplish more in less time

Best Practice #6: Evaluate Before You Plan

Before you jump into next week, pause and reflect:

• What were my wins?
• What progress did I make?
• What did I learn?
• What percentage of my plan did I complete?

Focus on learning—not guilt.

If you’re consistently pushing items forward, that’s feedback. Adjust the plan, not your self-worth.

Best Practice #7: Turn Planning Into a Ritual

This isn’t about willpower. Willpower fades.

The best leaders build rituals:

• Weekly planning (1 hour or less)
• Daily planning (5–10 minutes)
• Same time, same place, minimal interruptions

Have:

• Your annual goals in front of you when weekly planning
• Your weekly plan in front of you when daily planning

Rituals create momentum. Momentum creates strategy. Strategy creates results.

Final Thought: This Is How You Get Ahead

Leaders who win long-term:

• Learn faster
• Plan more strategically
• Protect their focus
• Act with intention

Weekly and daily planning—done right—doesn’t require more motivation.
It simply becomes who you are.

And once that’s locked in, everything else gets easier.