When the “Perfect Fit” Isn’t Enough
On paper, Jim looked like a dream hire. A young, energetic executive with a proven track record in complex sales. The founder, ready to step back, handed over the reins and hoped for a seamless transition.
Spoiler alert: that didn’t happen.
Here’s what went wrong:
- Jim believed strategy should come from the top—and only the top.
- The original team, loyal to the founder (who was now on the board), thought they could just skip over Jim when things got tricky.
- No shared purpose. No interdependence. Just a cultural cold war.
One Team, Two Realities
Things escalated quickly. Jim fired a senior exec and brought in “his people,” turning the quiet rift into an outright schism:
Jim and his team vs. The Old Guard (plus a founder still lurking in the background).
The result?
- No real strategy.
- No sales momentum.
- Zero progress.
Despite Jim working around the clock, they were spinning their wheels. It was the classic case of “activity without alignment.”
Time for a Reset
When I joined, the toxicity in the air was… palpable. But there was also hope. The founder wanted this to work. The team knew something had to change.
So, we went back to the basics.
What is our purpose?
Not just as a company—but as an executive team.
And let me tell you, that conversation didn’t happen overnight. I started with one-on-one meetings—Jim in one corner, the old team in another. I acted as a translator, a bridge.
Eventually, they started to hear echoes of their own goals in each other’s words.
And something shifted.
They landed on a shared short-term goal:
👉 Create the best sales strategy to serve the mission of improving citizen access to services.
It wasn’t lofty. It wasn’t forever. But it was enough to align them around something tangible.
From there, we redefined roles—not based on titles or tenure, but on skills. That subtle pivot was huge. It turned siloed efforts into true interdependence.
And within weeks?
✅ Strategy approved by the board.
✅ Execution underway.
✅ Trust building in real time.
“
This is one of the many stories I will share in my upcoming book CLICKing: A Guide for Overloaded Leaders to Building Self-Sufficient Teams.