Introduction
Leadership today extends across cultures, time zones, and organizational layers. While this opens opportunities for global collaboration, it also creates risks. When leaders are distant—both geographically and culturally—their decisions may not reflect the needs of their teams. The result is often misalignment, which weakens morale, increases turnover, and damages organizational trust.
This issue came to life in a Mexican fintech company, where the Chief Data Officer (CDO) made critical hiring decisions without meaningful engagement with the Analytics Engineering team. Despite the organization’s mission to serve Mexico, leadership operated from afar, prioritizing senior hires over the cultivation of local talent.
The Cost of Distance in Leadership
Research shows that leaders with positional power often speak more and listen less (Tost, Gino, & Larrick, 2013). In this case, the CDO rarely engaged directly with the team, averaging only 20 minutes of contact per quarter. This created a disconnect between decision-making and operational realities. Team members’ voices, suggestions, and concerns often went unheard, eroding trust and discouraging collaboration.
The consequences were clear: senior hires quickly left, cohesion faltered, and frustration grew. Leadership misalignment, in this context, became more than an abstract problem—it was an operational risk.
Vertical vs. Shared Leadership
Two leadership approaches illustrate the gap:
- Authority ranking (top-down, hierarchical).
- Communal sharing (collaborative, shared responsibility) (Wellman, 2017).
In this team, authority ranking dominated. Decisions about hiring, role definition, and strategy came exclusively from the top. Yet research shows that integrating shared leadership—allowing team members to contribute to decisions—creates stronger climates of trust and innovation (Orekoya, 2023).
Moving Toward Alignment
Misalignment is not inevitable. Leaders can reconnect with their teams by:
- Hosting regular Q&A sessions and listening sessions.
- Involving teams in hiring decisions.
- Spending time onsite to understand cultural and operational nuances.
- Recognizing that leadership is not just technical oversight—it is relational work.
Conclusion
Leadership misalignment is often invisible until its consequences emerge: high turnover, disconnection, and declining performance. Leaders must remember that proximity—whether cultural, geographic, or relational—matters as much as expertise. Without it, leadership risks becoming a performance of authority rather than a practice of trust.
