The Surface Story

Every failed transformation has a post-mortem that blames process, delivery, or tooling. Rarely do teams admit the real issue: the leadership team wasn’t aligned.

And by aligned, we don’t mean “they all agreed on the strategy.” We mean they didn’t:

• Share a definition of success

• Back the same priorities

• Remove the same blockers

• Show up with a unified voice

Without that foundation, transformation becomes theatre. It looks like motion – but it doesn’t move.

The Cost of Misalignment

We’ve encountered transformation efforts where leadership alignment was inconsistent – different priorities, unclear decision rights, and silence where challenge was needed. When execs aren’t genuinely aligned, progress stalls.

In practice, this can show up in:

• Conflicting communications to teams

• Parallel priorities that compete for the same delivery capacity

• Unclear ownership of trade-offs

Transformation requires collective ownership, not parallel ambition.

What Alignment Looks Like

Real alignment isn’t cosmetic. It’s visible in:

• Shared KPIs across exec functions

• A single definition of transformation success

• Cross-signed decisions and escalations

• Honest debate before meetings, united fronts in them

• Consistent messaging to teams and partners

At Relentica, we prioritise a leadership alignment sprint at the start of any major engagement:

1. Goals audit: What’s being said vs. what’s being done

2. Decision map: Who owns what, where are the overlaps?

3. Challenge session: Surface the tension, resolve it up front

4. Alignment contract: Shared language, shared metrics, shared risks

This isn’t a workshop for show – it’s a foundation for delivery. When alignment is done well, delivery friction reduces, pace increases, and teams trust what they’re hearing.

Why It Gets Missed

Alignment is hard. It’s emotional, political, and requires time. It doesn’t live on a Gantt chart. That’s why it gets rushed or assumed.

Some consultancies focus on tools and transformation frameworks. That has its place – but in our experience, frameworks don’t drive change unless the people using them are genuinely aligned. That’s why we treat leadership alignment as a core part of transformation planning, not an optional extra.

When It Works

We’ve supported leadership teams through this process and seen measurable differences in clarity, accountability, and execution. When leaders have resolved their tension early and committed to a shared goal, transformation picks up pace. Backlogs move. Decisions stick. Teams feel less whiplash.

We’ve also seen what happens when this isn’t in place – misaligned goals, resistance disguised as ambiguity, and effort without traction.

The Takeaway

Transformation fails when leadership hides in polite agreement or passive resistance. It succeeds when leaders:

• Commit visibly

• Decide together

• Back outcomes over silos

At Relentica, we don’t deliver transformation for leadership – we do it with them. Because alignment isn’t soft. It’s structural.

And when it’s missing, nothing else sticks.

Where Else It’s Done Well

We’re not the only ones doing this work – consultancies like Slalom, PA Consulting, and Newton Europe also help executive teams align on transformation. But at Relentica, we’ve made it the foundation, not a phase. We start with it, stay with it, and believe we do it better – because when leadership is aligned, everything else moves faster.