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Key Takeaways
- Teams can look like they are aligned on paper, while harboring liability leaks caused by ambiguous ownership, assumptions, and differing interpretations across geographies.
- Accountability leaks occur in the gray areas of ownership. When responsibilities are implied but never confirmed, the work falls through the cracks.
- When routing across time zones, it’s unlikely you can completely eliminate ambiguity. But you can limit its spread by creating shared meaning before making shared plans.
When you’re leading teams across geographies, it’s so easy to believe that “alignment means understanding.” That is not the case.
During meetings, everyone nods in agreement as PowerPoint decks are approved and milestones are documented. But what seems like apparent alignment on paper can still hide silent friction that slows implementation.
I learned that lesson the hard way when I led a global transformation project for a client. Each region was at the table and the roles and responsibilities were clear. We assigned owners so people knew what their roles were, but the deadlines kept slipping.
On paper progress looked good, but in reality the work felt hard and slow, like we were wading through mud no matter how hard we tried.
At first I blamed capacity and later complexity as the two main causes. What I ultimately discovered, however, were liability leaks. They were not clear or loud, but were “silent holes‘where ownership disappeared across regions, time zones and different roles and job titles.
Related: I Took My Business Global This Year. Here are 3 things I wish I did differently
If everyone owns it, no one drives it
During a meeting I asked what I thought was a simple question: “Who is driving this part of the rollout?”
We were given four names, and that in itself was interesting. Everyone “thought” someone else was in charge of the next step. The job had somehow become a shared space without a single driver.
Then I realized how liability leaks happen.
They appear in the gray areas of ownership. Those spaces where responsibilities are implied, but never confirmed. And the bigger the team, the faster these leaks multiply. Especially across cultures, where silence can mean agreement in one country and hesitation in another.
When I went back to previous decisions, I saw a clear pattern. Words like “we will arrange it” or “let’s tune in next weekIt may have sounded good at the time, but they left way too much room for individual interpretation.
Fact: “Global” does not mean we are on the same page
Working globally means working through different layers of meaning and interpretation, and it is not unusual for the same word to have as many different interpretations as the number of regions involved in the global initiative or project.
In the case I’m talking about here, “launch” meant:
- Send an announcement in region A.
In region B this meant full delivery.
In region C this meant final sign-off of the legal people.
Everyone did their part, but they didn’t do the same.
We were all on the same page in intent, but not in definition. That’s an example of how liability leaks arise – not with poor performance, but with mixed understanding.
Over the years, I have found that leaders often assume that alignment is a matter of agreement. But agreement is only half the story. True alignment is when everyone shares the same meaning of success. Without it, execution slows down even if the effort doesn’t.
What I learned about solving the challenge
When I finally stopped checking accountability through extra meetings, things changed almost immediately. The answer was not structure, but clarity.
Here’s what worked.
First, I learned to affirm rather than assume: I started ending meetings with one question: “What exactly happens next and who controls it?“I wrote it down in simple and clear language. Every region confirmed the same insight. That one habit reduced delays by weeks.
Second, I slowed down before I sped up: When an initiative or project involves countries, the pressure from above and the rush to ‘act quickly’ can easily cause you to lose precision. This experience taught me to pause and take the time to predefine success. In the spirit of transparency, I have to admit that it felt slower at first, but later created real speed as there were fewer corrections.
Third, I treated responsibility as a relationship, not as a rule: Let’s talk about graphs and a common misconception. People don’t take ownership because of charts. They take ownership when they feel trusted, when they feel supported and when they are clear about expectations. When I started asking: “What could make it difficult to own this?I heard the truth early enough to fix it.
Fourth, I have made clarity visible: We created a simple, straightforward global tracker that listed every decision, owner, and next action. Did I mention it wasn’t luxurious? But although it was simple, it made invisible work visible. The moment something had no owner, it stood out.
These were not complicated steps, but common sense was applied consistently.
Related: 3 elements at the forefront of global team success
The actual costs of leaks
At the time, I thought missed deadlines were the biggest problem. But once I discovered those leaks, I quickly realized that those weren’t the deadlines at all. It was the energy they drained.
- Teams spent hours clarifying what they thought was already clear.
Meetings turned into repetitive loops.
Leaders began to question competency when the real problem was context.
The truth about accountability leaks is that every leak erodes trust, not just between people, but between regions.
And when trust breaks down… collaboration follows.
Once we fixed the leaks, the execution became much lighter, the conversations became shorter, and the decisions stuck. I noticed that people started taking initiative again because they weren’t spending (read: wasting) time clearing up confusion.
A pattern I see everywhere
I’ve seen the same thing happen in almost every management, leadership, or global team I’ve had to strategically support since then. The truth is that liability leakage doesn’t start with failure. They start with good intentions.
- People wants to be respectful.
She don’t want to exceed.
She assume others understand what they mean.
The liability leak starts there. Out of politeness. Don’t neglect.
That’s why it’s critical that leaders model clarity – not perfection, but transparency.
It’s okay for a leader to say, “I thought we were clear, but maybe we’re not.Because that one sentence alone often sets the tone of an entire meeting.
What do great leaders do differently?
The best leaders I have worked with and strategically supported consistently do one thing. They turn responsibility into clarity, not control.
They don’t rely on fancy and often complicated “dashboards” that tell them where the work is. They listen to the language people use when describing progress, and if they sense hesitation, they dig in.
They ask simple questions that ensure precision. Questions such as:
- “What does finished look like in your region?”
“What could prevent this from happening?”
“When will we know it’s completed?”
In other words, they don’t just assign tasks; they confirm the meaning. That’s the kind of silent discipline that keeps global teams moving in sync.
The change that changed everything
The moment I started focusing less on tracking and more on translating, everything changed.
Ultimately, successful and effective global execution is not about managing complexity, but about simplifying understanding across the board.
A fact of global initiatives and projects is that when you lead across time zones, it’s unlikely you can completely eliminate ambiguity. But what you can do is limit its spread, and you do that by creating shared meaning before you make shared plans.
That’s what stops liability leakage. Not more control, but more intentional connection.
Related: 5 Ways to Build a Thriving Global Culture in Your Company
If you or your team ever feel busy but slow, or on the same page but still inconsistent, that’s usually a sign of classic liability leaks. These leaks will not resolve themselves. Instead, they remain hidden in a polite agreement until a deadline drags them out.
How do you know you’ve fixed these leaks?
- When work starts to feel lighter
When regions anticipate each other’s needs without another “alignment meeting”
When people speak with the same clarity wherever they sit.
That is the true sign of global alignment.
It’s not in the slide decks or timelines, but in the way accountability travels neatly across borders without losing its meaning.
When that happens, the performance is no longer heavy, but begins to flow.