Books That Work for Leaders Webinar: True Alignment

Handouts Highlighted in the Webinar

True Alignment^™ Leadership Snapshot

About the Webinar

Part of the “Books That Work for Leaders” series, this session explores True Alignment by Edgar Papke. Presenter John Zeigenfuse translates the book’s core concepts into practical leadership strategies that help organizations reduce friction, strengthen culture, and improve performance.

The discussion focuses on a simple but powerful idea: organizations often struggle not because they lack talented people or strong strategies, but because departments, teams, and leaders are not fully aligned around a shared purpose, creating inefficiencies, confusion, and missed opportunities.

Through real-world examples, leadership insights, and practical reflection questions, participants learn how leadership, culture, employee behavior, and customer experience are connected, and why alignment is one of the strongest predictors of organizational success.

The Alignment Framework

This session examines the ways alignment flows throughout an organization:

• Leadership
  Leadership establishes priorities, behaviors, and expectations that shape the organization.
• Culture
  Employees experience the culture leaders create through communication, accountability, and daily interactions.
• Employee Behavior
  Employees reflect that culture in how they collaborate, solve problems, and serve customers.
• Customer Experience
  Customers experience the organization through every interaction, creating perceptions of trust, value, and consistency.
• Organizational Success
  When leadership, culture, and behavior are aligned, organizations build stronger customer relationships, greater loyalty, and long-term success.

Key Takeaways

• Alignment is one of the strongest predictors of organizational success, helping teams move in the same direction toward a shared purpose.
• Leadership shapes culture, and culture directly influences employee behavior, customer experience, and organizational results.
• Customers often experience what employees experience internally, making employee engagement and organizational culture critical to long-term success.
• Misalignment creates hidden costs through silos, confusion, rework, inconsistent experiences, and lost productivity, while alignment creates momentum and trust.
• Organizations build loyalty when leadership, culture, employee behavior, and customer expectations consistently reinforce the same brand promise.