Is Your Team Out of Sync? Here’s How To Fix Your Rhythm

This expert opinion by Daniel Marcos, co-founder and CEO of Growth Institute, was originally published on Inc.com.

Most CEOs think execution falls apart because of a flawed strategy. In reality, execution fails because of misalignment. You might be tempted to jump straight into strategy: entering a new market, redesigning your org chart, or launching a big initiative. But if you only fix one thing in your business to prepare for growth, let it be this: Fix your meeting rhythm.

If your business feels chaotic, disjointed, or slow to execute, don’t immediately look to strategy, marketing, or even your team. Look at your meeting rhythm. It may sound simple, too simple even, but it’s the hidden driver behind high-performing, scalable organizations.

Your team may be working hard and moving fast, but are they moving together?

Misalignment Is The Silent Killer Of Growth

Without a consistent meeting cadence, priorities drift, decisions stall, and problems prevail. Communication becomes reactive, execution is slow, and people work at cross purposes. And you, the CEO, start fielding every question, putting out every fire, and becoming the bottleneck in your own business. Does this situation sound familiar?

It’s not that your people aren’t talented. It’s that the system isn’t supporting them. No strategy, no matter how good, can survive in an environment where teams lack visibility, clarity, and coordination. Every company has experienced this at some point. No matter the stage or whether the company is successful or not, it happens.  

The Solution: A Scalable Meeting Rhythm

The answer is not more meetings; it’s the right meetings, run at the right time, with the right focus. Here’s the rhythm that I use with my consulting companies that scale with speed and discipline:

Daily Huddle (15 minutes)

Short and sharp. Each team answers three questions:

1. What’s The Top Priority Today?
2. What Do Others Need To Know?
3. Where Are You Stuck?

This isn’t a status report, it’s a momentum booster. Daily huddles keep teams aligned in real-time and help surface problems early, before they derail progress. It can be done first thing in the morning.

Weekly Meeting (60–90 minutes)

This is where issues get solved. The team reviews KPIs, tackles blockers, and ensures everyone is executing on the week’s priorities. It creates a rhythm of accountability and forward motion, and it keeps key goals top-of-mind. This meeting can be done on Mondays, for an efficient kick-off of the week.

Monthly Leadership Review (2–3 hours)

This should be a strategic touchpoint to look at performance trends, make high-stakes decisions, and share knowledge across departments. It’s a space to lift your head out of the day-to-day and ask: Are we on the right path? I recommend you have this session the first week of the month.

Quarterly Offsite (1–2 days)

This meeting is the heartbeat of long-term growth. Here, leadership zooms out to review past performance, set priorities for the next 90 days, and align on vision.
This event is where culture gets reinforced and teams reconnect around purpose, so it should have a fun, inspiring vibe. It should take place at the end of each quarter or the very beginning of the next.

This rhythm isn’t just a scheduling tool; it’s a system for execution. It helps teams adjust course quickly, focus on what matters, and stay aligned through constant change.

Stop Being The System, Build The System

One of the biggest traps founders and CEOs fall into is trying to personally drive alignment. But that only works when you just started the company with a few people. The more you grow, the less scalable that approach becomes.

Your role as CEO is not to make every decision or solve every issue. Your job is to build the system that allows others to do that, with speed, clarity, and confidence.

A well-structured meeting cadence gives your organization a backbone. It shifts the business from reactive to proactive, driven by automated processes so the team can move forward with fewer obstacles. 

It also creates space for what really matters: strategic thinking, innovation, and the kind of leadership that lifts the whole organization.

Rhythm Drives Results

When execution is breaking down, it’s not usually a talent issue or a vision issue, it’s a rhythm issue. You can always go back to fix it and return your company to scalable efficiency. 

And once you fix that? Growth becomes predictable. Alignment becomes natural. And scaling becomes sustainable.