Why Leadership Alignment Matters More Than Ever – Interview with Kate Zappitelli
- 13 hours ago
- 6 min read
Kate Zappitelli is Chair of the Alignment Institute® and a Principal and HOW Activator at Karrikins Group. She partners with executives and leadership teams around the world to build alignment grounded in clarity, connection, commitment, and courage.
In this interview, Kate offers practical insights on building shared language, fostering productive tension, and creating the conditions for sustained alignment and better collective outcomes.
Kate Zappitelli, Alignment Institute Chair and Principal Consultant
You often talk about the gap between agreement and alignment. What usually reveals that a leadership team is aligned on paper but not in practice?
When I'm doing interviews with executives about their experiences on their leadership team, I listen closely to the language they use. I often hear cues that reveal misalignment, references to working in silos, frequent side conversations, the presence of an "in-group" and "out-group," or a tendency to say "I" or "they" instead of "we." These patterns signal that leaders are operating as individuals rather than as a cohesive team. Another clear indicator is difficulty with decision-making and prioritization. Teams that agree in principle but are not aligned in practice often end up avoiding or revisiting decisions. They often struggle to make timely decisions together or lack clarity over decision rights on the team. This results in decisions defaulting to the person with the most positional power. That's usually a sign that the team hasn't established a collective approach to how decisions are made and owned.
What tends to shift inside a leadership team when the "how" of working together finally becomes explicit?
When leadership teams make the "HOW" of leading together explicit, execution improves. Decisions are made more effectively and, just as importantly, they stick. Priorities are clear, and teams are far more likely to deliver on them.
There is also a visible shift in how the team shows up to the rest of the organization. Enterprise leaders operate as a unified group, and their teams can see that decisions are made in service of the whole enterprise, not just individual functions or business lines. At a more human level, these peer leaders become more connected and better able to hold one another accountable in ways that are productive and grounded in shared outcomes. They also develop a common language, using the same words to mean the same things, which reduces confusion and accelerates progress toward their goals.
Where are you seeing leadership teams struggle most right now when it comes to translating strategy into everyday behavior?
There is a significant amount of change in the world right now, and speed and complexity put pressure on everyday behaviors that are deeply habituated. As a result, leaders often default to familiar ways of working instead of stepping back to think and act more strategically. This shows up in predictable ways. Teams rely on existing relationships rather than building new connections that could create stronger alignment. They avoid addressing what is not working because the conversations feel uncomfortable or time-consuming. Decisions are deferred to the person with the most positional authority, reinforcing top-down behavior instead of shared ownership. An often overlooked issue is that many leadership teams do not run effective meetings. It is not that they need fewer meetings, they need better ones. Poorly facilitated meetings drain energy, limit real dialogue, and prevent teams from turning strategy into action. In today's environment, the ability to facilitate focused, productive conversations is a critical leadership skill.
Without making time for hard conversations, strategy starts to feel like a luxury and never translates into day-to-day behavior.
How is transformation fatigue changing the way executive teams need to align and make decisions?
Transformation fatigue is real. It's becoming even more critical that leadership teams get aligned around the transformation they are undertaking. Alignment is not a final destination. It takes ongoing attention and intention.
Leaders need to stay connected to each other because it is easy to get discouraged or overwhelmed when change feels constant. Those human connections are what help teams stay focused, grounded, and optimistic about what they are working toward together. It is also about visibility and trust. When leaders are not connected, it is easy to assume others are not as committed or are not following through. That perception, whether true or not, can quickly erode alignment. The teams that navigate transformation fatigue best are the ones that keep doing the work to stay aligned. They invest in their relationships, reinforce shared accountability, and continue to support each other so they can sustain momentum over time.
What's one simple way leadership teams can create shared language without turning it into another framework exercise?
One of the things we do at Karrikins Group is use tools that are informed by social science, which help us get leaders into the right headspace about creating shared meaning around tough topics. One of the tools is an exercise called "Give Up and Gain." We ask leaders to name what they believe they will need to give up and what they stand to gain by working as an aligned team. It is a simple prompt, but it uncovers the mindsets, group dynamics, and tradeoffs that often sit just below the surface. As leaders work through that together, they start to build a shared understanding of what alignment really looks like for them. From there, the language comes more naturally. It is grounded in their experience, not in a list of terms or a framework they are trying to adopt.
When conversations stay polite but decisions stall, what's a practical way leaders can introduce productive tension?
When conversations stay polite but decisions stall, it usually means something important is not being said. A practical way to introduce productive tension is to make the invisible visible by naming what the group is avoiding. We will often ask the question, "What conversations are being avoided right now that are holding us back?" It is amazing how that shifts the energy in the room. Leaders also need to check their own mindsets and beliefs and be aware of what they are bringing into the conversation. That awareness helps keep the discussion grounded and focused. Just as important is getting clear on shared outcomes.
When a team is aligned on what they are trying to achieve together, it becomes easier to work through moments of defensiveness or disagreement. The conversation can shift from individual positions to what it will take, collectively, to move forward. In practice, this often means coming back to those shared outcomes multiple times in the same conversation. That repetition helps the team stay focused, work through tension productively, and ultimately make decisions that move things forward.
You emphasize the importance of articulating what is not being said yet, and that means pulling hard topics out of people who might rather stay silent. How do leaders do that without creating defensiveness?
If a team has not agreed on how they want to lead together, tough moments will likely cause people to withdraw rather than lean into the discussion. Helping people feel confident in expressing and working through their concerns is crucial. It can also make people feel defensive or vulnerable about their perspectives. It starts with creating the right foundation. Leaders need to spend time defining their ways of working and the behavioral commitments they expect from each other. That includes, for example, making it explicit that productive dissent is part of how the team operates and that disagreement is how better decisions get made. It also requires spending time creating shared meaning. If leaders use words like collaboration or innovation but define them differently, it becomes much harder to align around a common goal. When that foundation is in place, it becomes easier to name what is unsaid in a way that serves the team. The intent shifts from calling someone out to helping the group move forward.
What belief about leadership alignment has most shaped the way you work with executive teams?
Our CEO, Julie Williamson, likes to say this work is a worthy ask. I genuinely believe it is a worthy ask to ask people to talk about how they're going to lead together and not just default to old ways of doing things. It's hard. It takes time. It takes commitment. And at the end of the day, you will have better outcomes as a team if you do this work. I also think it's just more fun to be on a well-aligned team because you see business results that you couldn't achieve on your own, and you feel a different level of connection and engagement with your colleagues who are going through similar experiences. Businesses today are simply too interconnected and need to respond too quickly to fast-moving market demands to be able to afford to work in silos.
If a leadership team wants to move from agreement to true alignment, what's the first shift you recommend making?
The first shift is to recognize that agreement is insufficient. If heads are nodding and you know in your gut that no one is going to do anything differently after the meeting, you are stuck. Have the courage to shift your own behavior in that moment. Step into that situation and name it out loud in the meeting, and see what happens next.
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