When your team believes in the work but not the strategy
I once worked with a team that was producing remarkable results - deadlines met, customers satisfied, and quality well above the industry average. And yet, behind the scenes, a quiet skepticism was growing. They believed deeply in what they were building, but not in why leadership had asked them to build it that way. I’ve come to believe that one of the most overlooked challenges in strategy execution is not disengagement - it’s misalignment between belief in the work and belief in the direction. That gap is easy to ignore, especially when output looks strong. But if left unaddressed, it eventually drags everything down.
I first encountered this tension on a project that looked, on paper, like a success story. A mid-sized B2B tech company had launched a bold new strategy: pivoting from high-touch consulting services to a scalable SaaS model. The numbers told a promising story. Conversion rates were improving, operational costs were falling, and the product roadmap was packed with innovation.
But when I sat down with one of the product teams, something didn’t add up.
They were energized by their work - designing new features, solving real user problems, iterating fast. They just didn’t buy into the why. As one team lead put it, “We love what we’re building. We’re just not sure it’s what the company should be betting everything on.”
That sentence stuck with me.
Because strategy isn’t just what gets approved by the board. It’s what people believe enough to carry forward, especially when it gets hard. And this team, while committed to their craft, wasn’t aligned with the company’s new strategic bet. Not emotionally, not intellectually, and certainly not in terms of what they were telling new hires around the coffee machine.
So the question became: what happens when people believe in the work, but not the strategy?
The hidden cost of silent misalignment
In consulting, we’re often trained to spot resistance - the loud kind. Missed deadlines, visible conflict, or outright pushback. But what I’ve found more dangerous is the quiet kind: when teams continue to perform well, but mentally check out of the strategy. They won’t sabotage it, but they won’t stretch for it either.
In this case, the product team wasn’t rejecting the SaaS model. They just didn’t think the company had done the hard thinking. “We were a trusted partner. Now we’re just a dashboard,” one designer said. They missed the relationship-building, the depth, the nuance. They felt the strategy had oversimplified what customers actually valued.
And they weren’t wrong.
Strategy as narrative, not just logic
What I’ve learned is that strategy can’t live in PowerPoint. It has to be a narrative people can see themselves in. That doesn’t mean everyone needs to agree with every line of reasoning. But they do need to believe the direction reflects real insight - not just ambition or market pressure.
On that project, the turning point came when the CEO sat in on a two-hour team session, not to defend the strategy, but to listen. Really listen. And in that meeting, something shifted. The team wasn’t asking for a reversal - they were asking to be heard. Once they were, the leadership team was able to revise some messaging, slow down the rollout, and bring a few team leads into the strategic refinement process.
It wasn’t perfect. But it was enough to rebuild trust.
How to spot the gap
Over the years, I’ve developed a simple habit that helps me catch this early: I ask mid-level managers one question -
“If someone on your team challenged our strategy in private, how would you respond?”
Their answer tells me almost everything. If they say “I’d explain the logic,” I know we’ve got a one-way communication problem. If they say “I’d explore what they’re seeing,” we might be okay. The goal is not total agreement - it's shared ownership.
Here are a few other signs your team might believe in the work, but not the strategy:
- You hear people say “I trust my team, but I don’t really get what leadership wants.”
- There’s energy in execution, but little curiosity about strategic outcomes.
- Senior leaders are excited, but front-line employees keep asking, “Why now?”
Rebuilding alignment, not just buy-in
In my experience, the solution isn't to push harder on vision decks or run more town halls. It’s to slow down, go local, and do three things:
- Listen without defending. Create space where people can raise doubts without being labeled difficult.
- Translate the strategy into the language of real work. Show how the direction connects to what they already care about.
- Adapt where needed. Sometimes the resistance reveals flaws, not just fear.
Strategy is not just a decision - it’s a relationship. If people don’t trust the thinking behind it, they won’t carry it forward when things get messy.
A closing reflection
One of the biggest myths in business is that alignment is a one-time event. In reality, it’s a moving target - especially when you’re asking people to shift how they work or who they serve. Teams don’t need perfection, but they do need clarity, honesty, and a seat at the table when things don’t feel quite right.
The next time your team seems fully engaged but strangely disconnected, don’t just look at the output. Ask what they believe about the direction. You might find that what’s missing isn’t effort - it’s belief. And belief, I’ve learned, is where real execution begins.