Every senior leader has seen it. Some pretend they have not. If your CEO is running a quiet little “after meeting” once everyone leaves the room, the team has already failed. And the performance hit is bigger than executives like to admit.
In this episode, Jackson breaks down one of the most uncomfortable leadership truths: when decisions migrate out of the room, power does too. That is the silent audit. And most leadership teams fail it long before they notice the consequences.
We dig into why CEOs hold side meetings in the first place, and spoiler alert: it is rarely efficiency. It is a trust gap. It is a courage gap. It is a political gap. And once those cracks form, execution starts to drift. Cycle times slow. Teams hedge their work. Leaders downstream start interpreting strategy ten different ways. You know the symptoms, even if no one names the cause.
Jackson lays out the traps that create shadow alignment: false harmony, conflict avoidance, and executives who protect their image instead of the business. Then he reframes alignment as a contact sport where commitment matters more than agreement. This is where senior HR leaders, especially CHROs, play the pivotal role: bringing the real conversation back into the room and building a system where decisions are clarified in the open, not translated in private.
You will walk away with a tough but practical playbook: use the rule of one room, force visible debate, demand decision clarity before anyone leaves, translate together, and normalize real tension. If you want real trust, real speed, and real alignment, you cannot allow decisions to happen in the shadows.
This is a bold one. But if you care about CHRO strategy, HR leadership, and the future of work where clarity beats charisma, this episode is your reset button.
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