Aligning Individual Roles with Team Goals

When a misaligned project team succeeds, it’s an accident. Without alignment — that is, a shared understanding and commitment — team members work at cross-purposes and doom projects to failure. Unfortunately, it’s an easy trap to fall into. When project managers simply assume their team is aligned, or when they accept head-nodding and verbal confirmations as proxies for actual alignment, the risk of failure increases dramatically. When I served as a manufacturing plant manager, I put a project team together to figure out how to increase throughput on a production line. Not long after, throughput had increased by nearly 9%, but yield had decreased by nearly 4%, increasing our costs and canceling out all the gains. The words “I thought that’s what you wanted” still ring in my ears. The fact that the team had decreased overall performance was my fault. I didn’t clarify objectives to ensure a thorough understanding of acceptable trade-offs. I learned that ambiguity was always my fault and could quickly compound into further misalignment. In a world in which projects have become more emergent, project managers need to ensure alignment — not wait for a lagging indicator to reveal that the team doesn’t actually have a shared commitment and understanding. Here are five questions every project manager should periodically ask their teams to create and maintain alignment: 1. What is your understanding of the project? When you achieve shared understanding, or cognitive alignment, you reduce the unit costs of making decisions, accelerate execution, and remove unforced human error. 2. What concerns do you have? To keep the team aligned, you need to pay close attention to every form of data. Never assume that concerns will find you. Go find them. 3. How do you see your role? When team members don’t have a clear understanding of how their role contributes to the project, they get off track or disengage. Don’t assume role clarity — verify it. 4. What do you need? This question requires the individual to think through the personal, tactical, cultural, and strategic implications of any change in project requirements. 5. How would you describe your current commitment to the project? This last question gives the individual an opportunity to share their commitment as a snapshot in time, including caveats, contingencies, dependencies, concerns, and limitations.

FY25 planning is upon us. And I’m reminded of a universal truth in business … There will never be enough headcount. Even in the best economies, teams have to prioritize and strategize. But budgets today are tighter than ever, and that means no one is coming to save your team. As leaders, we have to find a way to do more with less. The best way I know? Stop looking at team members as the sum of their job descriptions and, instead, as individuals with their own skill sets, backgrounds, and experiences. Here’s an example: We have five product marketers on our team. Initially, we were going to give each PM the same scope of work. They would oversee every area of a product from start to finish. But they each have their own talents. One PM is a fantastic communicator — both for speaking events and written assets. Another is obsessed with data. They chase insights no one else would bother with — or think to look for. Another’s market knowledge is unmatched. And another understands the ins and outs of a successful product launch, including what makes for crystal clear messaging. Giving each of them the same scope of work meant we weren’t maximizing their unique skill sets — we were actually hurting our productivity. So, we broke their scope of work into projects where each PM could do the work that aligned with their expertise. As soon as we removed old constructs around job descriptions and roles and started organizing work around talent, we started to do WAY more with less. And now we’re looking at how we can do something similar across other teams. But there are things you’ll need if you want to start optimizing around your talent. Your team needs to be fully onboarded and integrated. Your team members need to have been in their roles long enough so that you understand their unique skill sets. The team needs to work well together so that each one can contribute to overall projects and initiatives without friction (this means hiring team players and people who mesh with your culture) If you’re like me and battling the FY25 scaries, take a deep breath. Step back and rethink the roles on your team and how you’ve been approaching work and talent. What’s your best advice for doing more with less? #CMO #marketing #womenintech #leadership

When roles aren’t clear, progress stalls. A fast-growing startup I worked with had everything - talent, vision, and funding. Yet, execution dragged. Why? No one was clear on ownership. 🔹 50% of employees don’t fully understand their role (Gallup). 🔹 Unclear roles slow decisions by 25% (HBR). 🔹 Teams with defined accountability are 31% more productive (McKinsey). Work fell through the cracks. People hesitated. The leader assumed things were moving - until deadlines slipped. Some employees were overwhelmed, others were disengaged, and cross-functional collaboration felt chaotic. How We Fixed It ✅ Shift from tasks to outcomes → Instead of “handles reporting,” it became “ensures accurate, timely insights for decisions.” Employees started seeing their work as contributing to a larger goal, not just ticking off tasks. ✅ Clear accountability → Clearly define who’s responsible, for what, by when, for every key process. This eliminated bottlenecks and ensured that decisions weren’t delayed because "no one knew whose call it was." ✅ Make clarity a habit → Quarterly check-ins with two simple questions: → Do you know what success looks like in your role? → Where do you feel stuck? This helped leaders spot gaps before they became problems. Once roles were clear, execution sped up. Meetings became more efficient. Accountability improved. People weren’t just busy - they were moving in the right direction. Productivity increased. If your team is stuck, start here: What role ambiguity is slowing them down? #team #leadership #highperformance

Confusion is expensive. Ambiguity kills execution. And when everyone is kind of responsible, no one is. At DISQO, one of our values is "Win as One Team." That does not mean everyone owns everything. It means we put company outcomes above personal outcomes. We do not hoard credit. We do not point fingers. We win together. But to actually win, we need more than good intentions and good will. We need clear roles, defined success measures, and accountability for outcomes. Winning requires keeping score. It requires naming owners. That is why we built the DSF, the "DISQO Strategic Framework." It helps every team align on vision, priorities, outcomes, and metrics so we know where we are going and who owns what. So when something slips, like a missed renewal, a broken experience, a dropped ball, we can ask the real question: Who owned it? And if the answer starts with “Well, it was kind of shared between…” the issue is not just the result. It is the structure. Shared goals matter. But execution demands clear lanes and single threaded accountability. Ownership creates speed. Speed creates clarity. Clarity creates results. So what are steps everyone can take to create this kind of future? ✅ If you are a leader: make sure every priority has a named owner. Not a team, a person. ✅ If you are on a team: get clear on what you own, how success is measured, and how others rely on you. ✅ If you are building a company: build a system like the DSF that makes ownership visible, durable, and aligned across functions. Name the owner. Create the future. #CreateTheFuture #LeadershipInAction #AccountabilityMatters #CustomerSuccess #TeamExecution