Justin Nassiri, founder and CEO of Executive Presence, joined Julie Williamson to explore what it really takes to move from agreement to alignment, especially when leaders know they should be more visible but struggle to act. Justin traced his leadership journey from drum major to the Naval Academy, nuclear submarines, Stanford, and multiple startups, landing on a key insight Julie reinforced throughout the conversation: leadership is never finished; it keeps evolving as you do. A powerful moment came when Justin shared, realizing, at 45, that he was experiencing true partnership with his leadership team for the first time. Julie named it clearly: that moment shows what leadership can feel like when alignment is real.

Together, they unpacked why leaders often agree they should work on self-awareness, emotional regulation, or presence, yet don’t align to do the work. Justin explained that personal growth doesn’t come with clean metrics or fast wins, unlike most business skills. Julie connected this directly to the Failure Gap, where good intentions stall without commitment, patience, and the willingness to sit with discomfort.

Episode Takeaways

• Leadership is not a destination. It’s more like a subscription you have to renew with humility
• Personal growth fuels leadership growth: emotional regulation and self-awareness create space for more honest, productive team dialogue
• For entrepreneurs: don’t confuse “co-creating everything” with alignment. Sometimes the visionary’s job is to sketch the destination so the team can build the route
• “Simple is better” plus repetition wins: if you can’t rattle off your values, your team definitely can’t. Turn the volume up 10x
• LinkedIn success comes down to three things: a compelling why (usually service to the business), clear measurement (what does “good” look like?), and a system (motivation is a flimsy employee)

Justin’s closing “align on this” is deceptively hard: listen better. Reflect back on what you heard, slow down the hot takes, and watch the temperature drop. In a noisy world, the most executive thing you can do might be to stop talking for a second.

Connect with Justin on LinkedIn here or learn more about Executive Presence here.
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Is misalignment holding your organization back?
Aligned teams deliver better results more consistently, and they have deeper connections to each other and their organizations.

Download our free Leadership Alignment Evaluation Tool and take the first step toward transforming how your team works together.

Learn more about Julie and Karrikins Group:

• Connect with Julie on LinkedIn
• Follow Karrikins Group on LinkedIn
• Check out Julie's book, 'Make HOW Matter: Key Conversations for Leaders to Build Alignment and Accelerate Growth'
• Learn more about how Karrikins Group helps enterprise teams drive better results

Chris Baird is the President and CEO of OptConnect, and his leadership story starts far from the corner office. He joined the company in 2009 as an ATM repair specialist, kept volunteering for the “extra mile” work (where, as he put it, there’s no traffic), and stepped into a bigger responsibility when ownership transitioned and a leadership gap opened. Along the way, he learned his path is hard to copy, but the behaviors behind it are simple: say yes, stay curious, and be humble enough to take feedback without treating it like a personal attack.

Julie and Chris dig into the Failure Gap, that familiar space where everyone agrees something is a good idea, but nothing changes. Chris shares a real example from his leadership team: “false alignment,” when people nod in the meeting and then operate their own plan afterward. Naming it helped them stop “going along to get along” and start getting honest about how they would actually execute together. They also explore how misalignment shows up with customers, like teams optimizing for the lowest price instead of the true cost, then being surprised when “cheap” comes with a side of missing features.

Chris also connects leadership to endurance events, sharing lessons from training for (and surviving) a 70.3 race: grit matters, but systems matter more. Preparation, structure, and team support beat willpower alone, especially when conditions get hot, and your assumptions start melting.

Episode Takeaways

• Curiosity and saying yes create leadership momentum, even when the path is unplanned
• “False alignment” is agreement with unchanged behavior, and it quietly wrecks execution
• If teams optimize for the wrong problem (price vs. total cost), misalignment multiplies
• Grit helps, but disciplined systems, feedback, and preparation carry you farther
• Humility and vulnerability make alignment easier because teams solve problems together

Alignment to big goals often starts with a small moment: raising a hand and asking, “Are we actually aligned, or just being polite?” Bonus: it’s cheaper than another reorg.

Episode Resources

• Ken Thompson, AlignOrg: “Death by a Thousand Good Ideas: The Power of Strategic Clarity”

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Is misalignment holding your organization back?
Aligned teams deliver better results more consistently, and they have deeper connections to each other and their organizations.

Download our free Leadership Alignment Evaluation Tool and take the first step toward transforming how your team works together.

Learn more about Julie and Karrikins Group:

• Connect with Julie on LinkedIn
• Follow Karrikins Group on LinkedIn
• Check out Julie's book, 'Make HOW Matter: Key Conversations for Leaders to Build Alignment and Accelerate Growth'
• Learn more about how Karrikins Group helps enterprise teams drive better results

Jeremy Sharpe grew up riding around the desert with his dad, thinking he was on grand childhood adventures while secretly getting groomed as a real estate developer. Now president of Sharpe Development Group and managing partner of Rancho Sahuarita, he carries forward a multigenerational commitment to “creating a better life for people” through the built environment. His path was not linear, with early dreams of being a vet and launching his own company before returning to the family business in Tucson, stepping fully into leadership after his father’s illness and passing. That experience, and the vulnerability it required, continues to shape how he leads his team, his partners, and his community.

Episode Takeaways

• Values before vision: People may disagree with a decision, yet still trust it if they believe in the leader’s values and integrity. That trust becomes the real foundation of long-term alignment.
• Alignment includes time, not just ideas: Large-scale communities play out over decades, not quarters, so Jeremy works to get partners, employees, and residents aligned to both the vision and the timeline.
• Know when to walk away: Deals and hires can drift from alignment over time. Letting go, even late in the process, can be an act of integrity rather than failure.
• Leaders are humans, not certainty machines: Jeremy normalizes imposter syndrome, makes hard calls through a values lens, and is willing to say “I got that wrong,” whether with executives or six-year-olds who are very committed to their own positions.
• Translate the speedboat and the wake: His development team moves fast on vision and innovation while community management and utilities keep life calm and reliable for residents, with key leaders playing translator between urgency and stability.

Jeremy leaves us with a clear challenge: look within, reflect honestly on how you are really showing up, and align your daily decisions with your why. Agreement sounds nice in the meeting, but alignment is what shows up in the neighborhood, on the balance sheet, and around your own kitchen table. Connect with him on LinkedIn here.

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Is misalignment holding your organization back?
Aligned teams deliver better results more consistently, and they have deeper connections to each other and their organizations.

Download our free Leadership Alignment Evaluation Tool and take the first step toward transforming how your team works together.

Learn more about Julie and Karrikins Group:

• Connect with Julie on LinkedIn
• Follow Karrikins Group on LinkedIn
• Check out Julie's book, 'Make HOW Matter: Key Conversations for Leaders to Build Alignment and Accelerate Growth'
• Learn more about how Karrikins Group helps enterprise teams drive better results