How Leadership Alignment Is Essential For Team Alignment
Updated: Jul 23, 2022
Written by: Suzette West, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
What does leadership alignment mean?
It means that a leader is attuned and clear about their innermost values. They connect and allow their inner wisdom to guide them accordingly. With self-alignment, leaders become resonant in their energy. They can start to attract people with similar values into their orbit. From there, it is about creating an environment where everyone feels safe to be themselves, share their ideas, and challenge the status quo when changes are needed. This environment fosters trust, creativity, and collaboration all essential ingredients for an A-Player team.
Alignment creates a ripple effect of positive energy, possibility, and purpose that extends to the entire team. As a result, the team can operate with greater clarity, focus, and intention, creating a collaborative culture that is an essential foundation for building a high-performing team.
A-Player teams do not just happen. It takes inner work on the leader's part to develop the capacity to hold and create the space for them to grow. Of course, it is not always easy to maintain this level of alignment, but it is worth the effort; because when all is said and done, an A-Player team has the power to change the world.
Why Aligned Leadership Matters
When building a high-performing team, alignment and trust are critical. With alignment, progress flows almost effortlessly. When there is no alignment, the opposite is true. Progress stagnates, frustrations flare, communication breakdown happens, and people shut down because they no longer feel safe or valued. When people shut down, they can be resentful, complacent, or disengaged. An aligned leader plays a vital role in co-creating a culture that preserves the dignity of each individual in the group or team. Unless a leader has done their inner work, their capacity to hold space to such a degree diminishes greatly.
Aligned leaders bring out the best in themselves and their people. They are not only skilled at what they do, but they can also value and appreciate differences without making them wrong or bad. Truly aligned leadership can build bridges through shared values, a sense of humanity, and the extension of compassionate latitude. They can honor the human being in another without requiring them to be of a particular social group or status; in this environment, top-performing A-Players can grow and thrive on a team.
Suzette West, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Suzette West is a leader in alignment coaching. She has created strategies that help leaders attract, grow, and retain a team of diverse and inclusive A-players that achieve more together, are on the same page and are aligned with the overall vision and mission of the team. Suzette began her professional journey in real estate, but after a spiritual awakening in 2015, an internal re-orientation awoke a new passion for heart-centered alignment and the unleashing of human potential. She is the Founder and CEO of Wild Hearts Rising and has helped many individuals and teams over the years to build resilience, strengthen emotional self-regulation, and to activate many breakthroughs and transformations.
