Why Your Team’s Energy Feels Scattered — And How to Reclaim It

Every leadership team hits this moment:

The vision is clear.
The ambition is high.

But somewhere between strategy and execution, the energy splinters.

Suddenly, everything feels urgent — but nothing feels aligned.

You’re in meetings all day, moving fast, solving problems… but the real progress isn’t matching the effort.

The truth is, momentum doesn't always equal movement.
And when energy scatters, leadership stamina starts to leak.

When legacy meets transition

I worked recently with a leadership team (we’ll call the company Heritage Publishing) navigating this exact challenge.

Their longtime owner, Alan, had stepped back as CEO but remained an influential presence in the business.

His love for the company was palpable — and his institutional wisdom invaluable.

But his continued involvement blurred the lines of authority.

The new CEO, John, and his C-suite respected Alan deeply but struggled to fully claim their own independence.

They were trying to translate their founder-led legacy into a sustainable, team-led model, push strategic growth, and lead with confidence — while still managing a powerful founder voice that often reinserted itself midstream, requiring a shift in course.

The company wasn’t divided in purpose. Everyone wanted the same thing: sustainable growth and legacy continuity.

But the balance of influence was unclear.

Decisions were revisited.
Priorities shifted without warning.
Teams hesitated — unsure whose direction to follow.

The energy was high but scattered, slowing execution.
And despite everyone’s best intentions, progress lagged.

When urgency fragments focus

As if the leadership change wasn’t enough, there was another dynamic adding pressure to getting the Heritage team on the same page.

After years of steady growth, their market had shifted dramatically along with rising expectations from the board.

Competitors were innovating faster.
Client needs were evolving.

The executive team knew they had to move quickly — to both strengthen their collaboration and bring discipline to how decisions were made.

But urgency had fractured the organization.

Marketing was experimenting with new messaging.
Product was retooling offerings.
Sales — the linchpin to execution — was still operating from an old playbook.

Everyone was running hard, just not together.

As one executive put it, “We had momentum, but not progress.”

The leadership team realized they needed to stop pushing harder and start pulling together.

So they hit pause — not to slow down, but to realign.

The reset

Through coaching and facilitation, the leadership team came to a key realization:

They couldn’t control their founder’s behavior or the market shifts — but they could control their own alignment.

They began a deliberate reset focused on three things:

• Clarity — identifying the “vital few” priorities that truly moved the business forward.

• Cadence — tightening how they met, made decisions, and communicated as a leadership team.

• Connection — realigning around a shared purpose, not just shared pressure.

They also set clear boundaries around founder involvement— when to seek Alan’s perspective and when to close the door and lead.

The shift was immediate and powerful.

Meetings became shorter and sharper.
The tone, more collaborative.
Decisions stuck.

And with alignment came energy — the kind that fuels real progress, not just activity.

By strengthening their collective alignment, they not only regained control of the business rhythm but also earned Alan’s respect in a new way.

And the team began showing up to the organization as a united front — one voice, not five.

When legacy meets transition, clarity and collective leadership are what sustain momentum.

The real issue underneath

The team wasn’t short on capability or commitment.

What had slipped was energy — scattered, diluted, and unfocused.

When a leadership team’s energy gets scattered — across legacy dynamics, strategic pivots, or sheer pace — the cost isn’t just confusion. It’s erosion.

Of focus.
Of trust.
Of momentum.

Reigniting team energy doesn’t require more drive.

It requires a reset.

One grounded in the framework of Clarity, Cadence, and Connection that the Heritage team employed.

Get clear on these three simple — not easy — questions:

• What truly matters now?

• How do we work together to stay aligned?

• Why does this work matter to us — and to those we lead?

Because when you get those right, everything else accelerates.

You don’t need more motion. You need shared movement.

If your team’s energy feels scattered, it may be time to pause and recalibrate — not to lose speed, but to regain direction.