In 2017, Uber’s executive team reached a critical turning point. The world saw headlines about leadership changes, valuation drops, and cultural upheavals. Beneath the noise, however, lay a deeper issue.
It wasn’t rogue culture or aggressive expansion. It was misalignment at the very top.
An all-too-familiar scenario had taken root: Executives were operating in silos. They weren’t facing challenges to key decisions, and they overlooked red flags. The result? A $20 billion valuation adjustment and a leadership overhaul that forced Uber to rethink how alignment works at the highest levels.
And that’s where the real story begins. Instead of crumbling, Uber recalibrated. The company realigned its leadership, rebuilt trust, and restructured cultural processes. The company turned misalignment into an opportunity for transformation. Today, it stands as a case study in how great organizations use misalignment as a catalyst for growth.
These challenges aren’t unique to Uber. Misalignment is present in companies of all stages and sizes. Unfortunately, many teams don’t realize it until it’s too late.
What leads to misalignment
Most executive teams think they’re aligned. But the data says otherwise. Only 18% strongly agree their teams consistently demonstrate the behaviors that define true alignment—like communication, integrity, accountability, and follow-through.
This gap between perception and reality is where organizations lose their edge. You can’t build alignment out of assumptions or beliefs. It requires discipline. If leaders aren’t actively testing for alignment, they simply hope it exists.
Misalignment doesn’t happen loudly. It doesn’t announce itself from the center stage. Instead, it creeps in during everyday interactions. A CFO notices a financial red flag but assumes someone else will address it. A CMO defends their budget so fiercely it hinders collaboration. Or a CEO shares a vision for the future, unaware their team is nodding in agreement while quietly disengaging.
These moments don’t feel like failures. But that’s what makes them dangerous.
The cost of misalignment
Misalignment is more than an internal struggle, it’s an existential threat. In our work with executives across industries like healthcare, technology, government, and finance, the following patterns typically lead to misalignment:
- Conflict avoidance: Leaders sidestep difficult conversations, allowing minor issues to grow into major problems.
- Transactional meetings: Discussions lack depth and critical debate, reducing meetings to routine updates instead of platforms for innovation.
- Superficial trust: Leaders hesitate to ask for help, fearing it signals weakness, while their teams avoid raising strategic concerns out of distrust or fear.
- Team disengagement: When trust diminishes, team members stop challenging one another and wait for top-down directives, turning from proactive problem-solvers into task-oriented executors.
These issues are not failures of leadership competency. They are symptoms of false alignment, which is the consequence of overlooking the need for deliberate cohesion.
Signs your executive team is out of sync
Think your team is aligned? Consider the following questions:
- Does alignment depend entirely on your CEO? If your team waits for top-down answers, it isn’t aligned.
- Are your meetings mostly informational updates? If real collaboration happens only in smaller groups, trust is lacking.
- Are silos the norm? If asking for help feels risky, your leaders are functioning as individuals, not as a team.
- Is constructive conflict avoided or punished? If problem-solving debates feel unsafe, innovation is stalling.
If any of these scenarios resonate, your team isn’t just underperforming—it’s likely holding itself back, forfeiting innovation and strategic agility.
What great executive teams do differently
You can’t build alignment in the boardrooms. It’s built-in moments—the way leaders interact, debate, and trust each other. Aligned teams outperform their peers, not because alignment is easy but because it is deliberate.
In our experience, companies need to take a two-step approach to fix misalignment:
Step 1: Work on internal issues
- Elevate trust. Companies need to treat trust as a mission-critical value. Facilitate open discussions where executives can address challenges without fear of retaliation.
- Establish feedback loops and accountability. Integrate structured feedback mechanisms to foster a culture of continuous improvement.
- Embed professional development. Prioritize coaching and mentorship to make learning and growth central to your team’s strategy.
Path 2: Bring in outside experts
Executive coaches act as mirrors, revealing blind spots, building trust, and uniting teams before fractures lead to failure. They provide the safe space needed for honest discussions and alignment.
A CEO’s Final Test: Are You Aligned?
Finally, great leaders don’t assume alignment, they test it. If you want to know whether your team is truly aligned, ask your executives—privately and anonymously—to rate your team’s trust, collaboration, engagement, and alignment on a scale from 1 to 10. Compare the results. If the scores vary wildly or skew low, your team isn’t aligned, it’s merely coexisting.
Start to think about how you can fix it. Remember, misalignment isn’t just an operational challenge, it’s a threat to your organization’s survival.