Playing as a Team: How Great CEOs Align, Inspire, and Drive Results
Why alignment isn’t about agreement—it’s about shared direction, ownership, and culture.
Imagine this scenario. Two fast-growing software companies are preparing for their annual strategic meetings. Both have strong executive teams, clear product-market fit, and ambitious growth plans.
But by the end of Q1, their results—and team morale—couldn’t look more different.
At Software Company A, department heads are finger-pointing over missed milestones. Marketing blames Sales, Sales blames Product, and so forth. Team leads are overworked and burnt out, and employees feel directionless and unmotivated.
Company B tells a different story. Teams are working together to meet goals and punching above their weight. Deadlines are met—and even exceeded—and employee engagement is at its highest in years.
Same scenario. Same resources. Vastly different outcomes.
Why?
The difference lies in how they operate as a team. Company B played as a team, while Company A played as individuals. It sounds simple, but playing as a team is the foundation of success—and the key to avoiding costly mistakes that can derail your organization.
Here are three key ways the best CEOs build alignment, foster collaboration, and create a culture that drives results.
1. They Don’t Just Share a Mission—They Operationalize It
Everyone talks about alignment, but in many organizations, the mission lives in a slide deck or on a poster in the hallway. It’s rarely seen in day-to-day work.
Ask Yourself Today:
Am I clearly communicating company goals across multiple channels and on a regular basis?
Or do I assume the mission is “understood” and move on?
Take Action:
Have department heads map their Q1 goals back to three core strategic outcomes.
Ask each manager to create a short “alignment pitch” showing how their team’s work advances the company mission and supports other departments.
What Success Looks Like:
Clarity is contagious. When department heads understand and actively communicate each other’s goals, alignment becomes a natural part of the culture.
2. They Replace Silos with Shared Scoreboards
Silos kill the team mentality. You can’t collaborate if you don’t know what other teams are working toward.
Ask Yourself Today:
Do your departments have visibility into each other’s work?
Could department heads sit in on another team’s weekly meeting and actively contribute?
Take Action:
Identify one KPI that at least two departments should co-own.
Create a shared dashboard to track progress and review it weekly in leadership meetings.
Publicly recognize cross-team collaboration and creativity to encourage more of it.
What Success Looks Like:
Teams actively use the shared dashboard as a tool and communicate in real-time to solve challenges and meet goals.
Example:
At a fast-growing SaaS company, Marketing and Sales co-owned a KPI for lead-to-customer conversion rates. By collaborating on a shared dashboard, they identified gaps in the lead qualification process and improved conversion rates by 15% in one quarter.
3. They Prioritize a Culture of Listening—and Hustle
Playing as a team means trusting that your voice will be heard, but also knowing your team will push you to be better.
Ask Yourself Today:
Does every employee feel empowered to speak up in meetings, make big decisions, and share creative ideas?
Are department heads recognizing and pushing their teams to grow in constructive ways?
Take Action:
Ask managers: “What is one project I can hand off to someone else to own?”
Encourage managers to reflect: “When was the last time I implemented a team member’s out-of-the-box idea?”
What Success Looks Like:
Removing one approval checkpoint for an employee who consistently shows good judgment.
Watching managers listen to and empower their teams, creating a culture of trust and accountability.
Example:
A CEO at a fintech startup removed layers of approval for a product manager who consistently delivered high-quality work. This small change sped up product launches by two weeks and boosted the manager’s confidence and ownership.
The Bottom Line
Teams don’t “click” because of luck or similar personalities. They succeed because their leaders create alignment, foster collaboration, and build a culture that rewards trust, creativity, and accountability.
Alignment isn’t about universal agreement—it’s about shared direction, ownership, and culture. The best CEOs operationalize these principles, transforming their teams from disconnected silos into high-performing, collaborative units.
And that shared direction will be the difference between success and failure.
