Leadership Buy-In & Alignment: The Precondition to Agility—What It Really Means & How to Get It

The Bullsh*t of “Buy-In” and Why We Get It Wrong

We throw around buy-in and alignment like they’re magic dust we sprinkle over leadership to make them stop resisting change. But let’s be real—most so-called buy-in is nothing more than reluctant head-nodding in a meeting, and most alignment is just a vague slide deck that means nothing when it’s time to execute.

So what do we actually mean when we say leadership needs to be bought in and aligned to an agility transformation? And more importantly—how do we get it?

What Buy-In & Alignment Actually Mean in Agility

Buy-In = Commitment, Not Compliance

• It’s not “I agree because the consultant said so.”

• It’s “I understand the strategic and operational shift, and I’m willing to change my own leadership behaviors to make it happen.”

Alignment = A Shared Definition of Success & The Will to Execute

• Not just “Yes, agility sounds nice.”

• But “We agree on what agility means in our context, what outcomes we expect, and what decisions we need to make to get there.”

Here’s the Reality Check:

If leadership isn’t fully committed—if they’re just tolerating agility or seeing it as a bottom-up movement—it will fail. Every. Single. Time.

Now let’s talk about how to get real buy-in and alignment instead of the fake kind.

How to Get Leadership Buy-In & Alignment—For Real

Stop wasting time trying to convince leadership with theoretical arguments. You need to hit them where it matters: business outcomes, risk, and competitive advantage.

1. Speak Their Language: Business, Not Agile Buzzwords

Wrong Approach:

• “Agile is about collaboration, responding to change, and continuous improvement.”

Right Approach:

• “Agile helps us reduce time to market by 25%, improve predictability in delivery, and increase customer retention through faster iteration cycles.”

Tactic: Frame agility as a business enabler, not a process change. Show how agility solves their biggest headaches: market responsiveness, operational efficiency, and revenue impact.

2. Expose the Cost of NOT Changing

Most leaders won’t commit to transformation until they clearly see the pain of staying the same.

Make it real:

• Show how competitors are outpacing them using modern, iterative delivery models.

• Quantify the opportunity cost of slow decision cycles and bloated governance.

• Highlight case studies of companies that failed due to lack of adaptability (Blockbuster vs. Netflix, Kodak vs. digital photography).

Tactic: Use data-driven fear to create urgency. Leaders are more likely to move when they see a tangible risk to their bottom line.

3. Define Success Together—Before Execution Starts

Misalignment happens when agility is a vague concept instead of a defined business goal.

How to fix it:

• Co-create OKRs for agility transformation.

• Agree on leading indicators of success (e.g., time-to-market, customer satisfaction, defect rates).

• Set clear decision-making guardrails (e.g., where teams get autonomy vs. where leadership needs to be involved).

Tactic: Get executives into a Transformation Alignment Workshop before launching anything. Define agility in their terms, tie it to their goals, and make them accountable for their role in success.

4. Shift Leadership from Command to Enablement

If leadership is still operating under command-and-control, agility will die on impact.

What leaders need to do:

• Move from approving work to clearing obstacles.

• Shift from managing people to measuring outcomes.

• Stop micromanaging delivery and start trusting teams to execute.

Tactic: Provide leaders with an Agility Playbook for Executives. Show them what leadership behaviors need to change and give them a coaching model to evolve.

Final Thought: Buy-In Isn’t a One-Time Event—It’s a Continuous Investment

One meeting, one workshop, or one consultant slide deck won’t create real buy-in. You need to continuously reinforce alignment through:

• Quarterly business reviews tied to agility metrics.

• Regular executive retrospectives to inspect and adapt leadership behavior.

• Embedding agility into strategic planning, not just IT and delivery teams.

No Buy-In, No Agility. Period.

Before you start any transformation, make sure leadership isn’t just on board but actively leading the change. Otherwise, all you’re doing is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

What’s been your biggest struggle with leadership buy-in? Let’s talk.

(Excerpts from the book: Unfck Your Agile by Mike Fisher)