THE NAVIGATION INDEX™

At SHIFTPOINTS, we believe that alignment is the ultimate competitive advantage.

But a misaligned executive team will never create an aligned company.

Therefore, we developed The Navigation Index^TM, a proprietary survey designed to assess Executive Team Alignment (ETA).

The Navigation Index is comprised of twelve concise questions, which are aligned with the SHIFTPOINTS Drive One Direction^® model.

Although the assessment is very comprehensive, it takes less than two minutes to complete!

Generally, we survey the Board of Directors (if the company has one), the CEO, the rest of the executive team, and the next layer of management.

SHIFTPOINTS analyzes the results first by looking at the scores for each question. This provides insight into the best and worst performing areas of the organization.

Next, we look for dispersion among the responses. As a result, we are able to identify areas where the organization’s executives disagree about a particular dimension of performance.

For example, we have worked with clients where the CEO "strongly agreed" that the organization’s vision was crystal-clear, but the executives reporting to him did not share that opinion.

SHIFTPOINTS will conduct a quantitative analysis of The Navigation Index results, prepare a detailed report, and present our recommendations to the executive team. The Navigation Index provides insights that are essential to unleashing the accelerating power of alignment.

THE NAVIGATION INDEX FACILITATES STRATEGIC CONVERSATIONS

"Implementing The Navigation Index revealed alignment gaps within our leadership team that we hadn't previously recognized. This insight allowed us to address these issues directly, leading to more cohesive and effective team."

"The Navigation Index enabled us to engage in focused, structured conversations that have significantly enhanced our alignment."

"The Navigation Index uncovered underlying misalignments in our leadership team. The structured framework it provided was instrumental in guiding our discussions to resolve these misalignments."

"The insights from The Navigation Index were eye-opening, highlighting discrepancies in our team's alignment that we were unaware of. It equipped us with a structured methodology to tackle these issues head-on."

"Applying The Navigation Index allowed us to pinpoint specific areas where our executive team lacked alignment. The structured conversations that followed were pivotal in addressing these gaps."

THE ACCELERATING POWER OF ALIGNMENT

Executive Team Alignment (ETA) is a critical driver of organizational alignment.

And both are essential for achieving superior business performance.

Research consistently shows that organizations with well-aligned leadership teams outperform their competitors across key business metrics.

According to a study by McKinsey & Company, organizations with aligned executive teams are more than 2.4 times more likely to achieve their strategic goals. Furthermore, these teams drive more effective decision-making, which correlates with improved financial outcomes, such as higher revenue growth and increased profitability.

A Harvard Business Review report also highlights that companies with strong organizational alignment experience up to 30% greater shareholder returns than misaligned organizations.

Organizational alignment, in turn, directly impacts overall business performance. A study by the Katzenbach Center found that aligned organizations achieve faster revenue growth (by 58%) and significantly improve operational efficiency. This is because alignment reduces friction, increases clarity, and ensures that all teams are working toward common objectives.

By ensuring that the executive team is aligned—sharing a common vision, strategy, and priorities—companies can create a ripple effect that drives alignment across the entire organization. This alignment helps ensure that resources, initiatives, and teams are all focused on what matters most, leading to enhanced execution and better financial outcomes.

Executive Team Alignment is a leading indicator of organizational alignment, and this, in turn, serves as a leading indicator of overall business performance.

The data proves that when leadership is aligned, success follows at every level.

THE EXECUTIVE TEAM "SETS THE BAR"

We believe that your corporate executive team is ultimately responsible for creating alignment.

Therefore, they must operate as One Team!

This starts with your CEO. Your CEO must be the role model and operate as the company’s Chief Alignment Officer.

Second, the entire corporate executive team must embrace alignment as a critical corporate initiative. There are several reasons for this:

• The corporate executive team is ultimately responsible for aligning the company’s multiple divisions, departments, functions, and geographies. Often, these groups operate very independently from one another on a day-to-day basis and only come together at executive team meetings.
• The corporate executive team is ultimately responsible for aligning the interests of the company’s multiple stakeholders. These stakeholders include investors, creditors, employees, boards, vendors, customers, governments, the communities where you operate, and more. These stakeholders often have competing interests which must be aligned.
• The corporate executive team is ultimately responsible for aligning the company’s multiple strategies, tactics, goals, priorities, and initiatives into a coherent corporate strategic plan.
• The corporate executive team is ultimately responsible for aligning the company’s resources—both human and financial—with the corporate strategy. Budgets must be allocated. Headcounts must be approved.
• Each corporate executive has the responsibility to align their functional area. The Chief Financial Officer must consolidate the budgets. The Chief Marketing Officer must integrate the marketing plans. The Chief Sales Officer must roll up the sales forecasts.

Finally, the corporate team “sets the bar” for alignment. If they are not aligned as One Team, the rest of the organization will be dysfunctional. They must be role models for alignment. A misaligned executive team will never create an aligned company.

That is worth repeating: A misaligned executive team will never create an aligned company.

ALIGNMENT LEAKS

Every organization, regardless of size or industry or operating model, must create strategic alignment.

That is why we say, “Alignment is Job One.”

Unfortunately, The Navigation Index research proves that “alignment leaks.” 

Generally, the CEO's score is the highest in the company.

The rest of the Executive Team's scores are generally 10-20% lower.

Then, for each layer of the organization you move "down," the scores get lower and lower.

Having both a quantitative way to measure alignment and a systematic way to improve it is critical. 

THE COST OF A MISALIGNED EXECUTIVE TEAM

The classic illustration of alignment is the rowing crew.

But imagine an eight-person boat with only seven rowers.

Or worse yet, imagine that one of the rowers is rowing in the opposite direction.

Misaligned crews lose the race. Misaligned executive teams lose everything and everyone.

But how much does misalignment cost your company?

This starts with quantifying your Executive Team Alignment (ETA) using The Navigation Index.

THE TOP TEN SYMPTOMS OF EXECUTIVE TEAM MISALIGNMENT

Every CEO wants their executive team to be aligned.

But most executive teams struggle with at least one of these issues.

Here are the top ten symptoms of an executive team that is out of alignment:

1. Conflicting Priorities - Each executive focuses on their department's goals without alignment on overarching company objectives, leading to disjointed strategies and efforts that don’t support the broader vision.

2. Ineffective Decision-Making - Decisions are delayed, contentious, or repeatedly revisited. This is often because team members lack agreement on key business priorities or are working from different sets of assumptions.

3. Lack of Trust and Open Communication - Team members withhold information or feel uncomfortable sharing their true opinions. This can lead to unresolved conflicts, siloed thinking, and poor collaboration across departments.

4. Silos and Poor Cross-Functional Collaboration - Teams become siloed, with executives focusing narrowly on their own departments. Cross-functional collaboration suffers, leading to inefficiencies and friction between teams.

5. Inconsistent Messaging to the Organization - The executive team sends mixed or contradictory messages to employees, causing confusion and disengagement at all levels of the organization.

6. Frequent Escalation of Issues - Problems that should be solved at lower levels are often escalated to the executive team, consuming time and attention that should be focused on strategic initiatives. This often happens because teams don’t feel empowered or clear on decision-making authority.

7. Inefficient Use of Meetings - Meetings become unfocused or excessively long, with no clear action items or decisions being made. This is a sign that the team lacks clarity on objectives or struggles with alignment on key issues.

8. Low Morale Among Senior Leaders - When alignment is lacking, senior leaders can become disengaged, frustrated, or cynical. They may feel their voices aren’t heard, or that the team isn’t working cohesively toward a shared vision.

9. Inconsistent Accountability - Some executives or teams are held accountable for results while others are not, leading to unequal performance expectations. This inconsistency can erode trust and commitment within the team.

10. Failure to Execute on Strategic Initiatives - Despite having a clear strategy, execution falters due to lack of alignment around priorities, roles, and responsibilities. Strategic goals are missed, and initiatives stall because the team isn’t pulling in the same direction.

These symptoms often indicate a need for tools like The Navigation Index to assess and address gaps in executive team alignment, ensuring the leadership team operates as a cohesive unit.