Jan 21, 2025
Misaligned leadership doesn't announce itself. It creeps in. Slowly. Quietly. Then it wrecks your team.
Leaders think the damage is minor. Temporary. Invisible. But it's not. It's heavy. It's real. It shows up in whisper networks, in backchannel Slacks, in passive standups where nobody commits because no one knows where things are going.
You see it when smart people play it safe. When the loudest voice wins. When meetings drag on because no one wants to be the first to say what everyone's thinking. You feel it in the hesitation. That's the real killer.
Disagreement isn't the problem. Lack of alignment isn't even the real issue. Teams can live with that. What they can't survive is hesitation. Leaders who won't commit. Who won't decide. Who stay neutral until it's too late and now the team's solving the wrong problem. Again.
Indecision isn't neutral. It's destructive. Especially when disguised as “consensus-building” or “being thoughtful.” Teams need a decision. Even the wrong one. Because wrong moves can be corrected. Hesitation can't.
Leaders, pick a path. Say it out loud. Frameworks like DACI exist to make sure the right person is the one doing the saying. Then stand behind it until you know it needs to change.
Make the fucking decision. Your team's already waiting.
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I'm a father of 3 from Sydney, a product and technology leader. I write about leadership, product management, technology and the messy reality of making work work.
I'm currently building and experimenting with a mildly alarming number of things. I also work as a fractional product leader, stepping in where the founder or CEO is still carrying product decisions on their own, and offer 1:1 product leadership coaching for senior PMs and emerging product leaders. I founded SoundingBoard, practical peer exchange for product people. Connect via LinkedIn, or follow me on X.
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