In senior roles, you are expected to have a point of view.
You are promoted for judgment and decisiveness.
But there is a structural risk that emerges at VP and SVP levels: the instinct to defend your position can reduce your ability to move work forward.
In this episode of Grounded and Aligned™, Karen Gombault examines what happens when relational alignment at the top is not deliberately built.
If you are operating with a broad scope and cross-functional accountability, execution depends less on being correct and more on whether your boss, peers, and team are positioned to support your decisions.
The episode looks at:
- How the need to be right can narrow influence with your boss and affect when and how you are consulted
- What misalignment with peers does to cooperation, information flow, and execution speed
- Why teams comply but disengage when leaders over-index on certainty
- How political capital is built or reduced through everyday interactions
- The difference between individual correctness and coordinated progress
At senior levels, momentum is built on relationships. You are accountable for outcomes that require other people’s cooperation. The question is not whether you are right. It is whether you can move forward decisions and initiatives - THAT is your job.
Next steps
If your scope has recently expanded and you are operating with greater visibility and stakeholder complexity, a short, structured reset can materially improve how you deploy your time and authority.
Book a Focus-15 with former C-Suite executive Karen Gombault.
In 15 minutes, you will clarify what requires your attention now, what no longer does, where to focus to reinforce authority, and one concrete adjustment to implement immediately. You will leave with a clear direction for the next 30 days.
🧭 Book a Focus-15
https://www.karengombault.com/schedule
You can also follow Karen’s writing on Substack, where she examines the structural importance of relationships and alignment at senior level.
https://karengombault.substack.com
🤝 Connect on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karengombault/
