I study alignment the way a seasoned meteorologist studies weather patterns. I pay attention to shifts in direction before anyone else feels them. I notice how small disturbances gather into larger systems.

Most leaders only respond when the storm is already overhead. I am more interested in the invisible currents that were forming long before.

When there is true alignment in a business,
you can feel it.

The organization stops burning energy on internal drag and starts moving with a kind of mechanical ease.

Marketing is not fighting operations. IT is not compensating for strategic ambiguity. Teams are not duplicating work because they cannot see what the other is doing. There is a shared clarity about what matters and why, and that clarity translates into momentum.

Profitability improves, sometimes dramatically, because resources are no longer leaking into miscommunication or correction. Execution speeds up because people are not waiting for permission or untangling overlapping responsibilities. Engagement rises because employees understand how their contribution connects to something larger than their task list. Decisions become cleaner at every level, not because there is more control, but because there is more coherence.

Customers feel it too.

The experience becomes seamless instead of fragmented. The handoffs between departments are smoother. The messaging matches the delivery. Time, money, and talent are concentrated on the highest priorities instead of scattered across competing initiatives.

When market conditions shift, aligned organizations pivot faster because everyone already understands the underlying strategy. Culture strengthens because purpose is not decorative, it is operational. Internal politics quiet down. Growth becomes less chaotic because systems and people are synchronized rather than scrambling.

That is what alignment looks like when it is working.

What most leaders miss is not the importance of alignment; they miss the layer beneath it.

They focus on aligning departments, goals, quarterly targets, communication rhythms. They invest in strategy offsites and dashboards and cross functional clarity. They work hard to eliminate silos and speed up decision making.

All of that is necessary, but very few pause long enough to ask whether the model itself is aligned with how they naturally create value.

It is possible to build a beautifully synchronized organization around a structure that the leader has quietly outgrown. The business runs and the numbers may even look healthy, but the leader feels slightly displaced inside their own creation. There is effort where there should be ease. There is persuasion where there should be recognition. There is maintenance where there should be leverage.

That layer rarely gets examined because it is uncomfortable.

It asks a different question: not “Are my teams aligned?” but “Am I aligned with what I am asking this organization to execute?”

This is why Jason Leister’s daily journal message today struck me as more than an update — it felt like a live example of the very layer of alignment we so often overlook.

If you follow him, you know he writes daily reflections: short, observational entries about business and identity. This morning he shared that he is closing his product business: the courses, his lower ticket offers and the scalable frameworks. After Monday, they are gone.

What struck me was not the decision itself. It was the reason.

He said it is easier for him to attract a six figure private engagement than to sell a $497 product.

On the surface, that sounds counterintuitive. Lower price points should convert more easily. Products should scale more smoothly. That is the conventional logic.

But what he has discovered over twenty years is that the audience who invests deeply at a high level is not the same audience who buys entry level products. They perceive value differently. They respond to a different altitude of conversation. They move differently.

And he converts more naturally in that room.

This is not a pricing strategy revelation. It is an alignment realization.

He stopped trying to optimize a model that does not match his strongest operating mode. He noticed where recognition happens faster than persuasion…where value exchange feels proportional…and where the energy required is generative rather than draining.

That has everything to do with alignment. Not the departmental kind we measure on dashboards, but the deeper layer where identity and model either fit… or quietly fight.

What Jason discovered is not that high ticket is better.

He simply stopped asking his business to operate in a room that required a different version of him to succeed.

If the leader is building around a model that requires them to constantly adjust their natural posture, the entire organization compensates. Marketing works harder, sales stretches and systems grow more complex. The friction gets distributed across departments.

When the model fits the leader’s wiring, the organization syncs more cleanly. Messaging tightens because it is speaking to the right altitude. Decisions simplify because there is less internal negotiation. Growth feels less like forcing and more like following a current that was already there.

Alignment isn’t just departments moving
in the same direction.

It’s whether the direction itself makes sense for how value is most naturally created — by you and by the people around you.

When that kind of sync happens, the work does not suddenly become effortless or light. It simply becomes cleaner. Conversations shorten because you are no longer explaining yourself into relevance. Decisions tighten because they are not layered with internal doubt. The team spends less time translating, reframing, compensating, and more time building. The drag that once felt normal starts to disappear, not because the work changed, but because the fit did.

Strategic Reflection Prompt:

Where in your current business are you and your team optimizing execution instead of questioning whether the model itself truly fits how you and your team are wired to create value?

About Giselle

I’m Giselle Hudson — Organization & People Development Sensemaker™, MCODE® Legacy Coach, writer and musician. I help leaders and independent professionals close the gap between strategy and execution by making invisible friction visible, so direction can finally translate into results.

If execution isn’t matching intent and you can’t quite see why, message me on WhatsApp. We’ll start with a brief Clarity Conversation to understand what you’re facing and decide together whether a focused Sensemaking Session is the right next step.