How to Get Buy-In From Your Team

Imagine sitting front and center at the Indy 500. Engines roar, the crowd buzzes, and out in front is the pace car. Its job is simple: set the speed, guide the race, and keep everything moving smoothly. It’s a role that makes the entire race possible. And it probably sounds a lot like how you roll as a business leader.

Every day you’re the pace car—guiding your team and driving toward your goals.

That’s exhilarating when you're starting a business. But when you’re the sole pacesetter, over time it’s exhausting. If you slow down, so does everyone else. And that kind of pressure takes a toll.

In racing, eventually the pace car gets out of the way and lets other cars zoom ahead. What if the same could happen in your business? What if you could step back and let your team drive your company’s progress? What if they operated with the same clarity, determination and energy as you?

That’s where leadership buy-in and employee buy-in come in. When you know how to get buy-in from your team, you no longer have to carry the full weight of every decision and push forward alone. Instead, you build a group of people just as fired up as you are—ready to move in sync and reach your goals.

So let’s look at everything you need to know about buy-in and how to build it step by step with your team.

 

What is Leadership Buy-In?

Leadership buy-in is the first step in getting your whole team aligned. It’s about specifically ensuring your key leaders support the company’s direction and are committed to the plan. When your leaders are bought in, they become your greatest allies in rallying the rest of the team, driving alignment, and creating a unified push toward your goals.

What Is Employee Buy-In?

Employee buy-in refers more generally to your whole team. Getting buy-in at every level means that everyone understands your strategic direction, believes in the plan, and is fully committed to doing what’s next to get there.

Buy-in is way more than just head nods. Those nods might show enthusiasm—or at least that your team’s paying attention—but they don’t guarantee everyone is truly on board and ready to move ahead with you.

Real buy-in happens when your team understands your plan so well they could confidently teach it back to you. That’s when they’re ready to own the vision and make it happen.

Why Is Getting Buy-In Important?

When you get real buy-in:

• Everyone moves in a unified direction and is focused on the right things
• You don’t have to micromanage every step
• Accountability becomes a natural part of your company culture, not a nightmare of endless check-ins

And without it?

You probably thought running a business sounded fun—until you realized it would actually run you. Discover the EntreLeadership System—the small-business road map that takes the guesswork out of growth.

You pay what we call a speed tax. Shoddy work, wrong priorities and endless backtracking are just a few examples.

Ever had this happen? You lead a meeting to set direction and would bet the nose on your face everyone got it . . . only to find out just a few weeks later everybody didn’t get it. Now half the team is working on the wrong things, and another chunk is spinning in circles. (Sorry, nose.)

Talk about frustrating. What went wrong?

Here’s the deal: It’s not that your team is lazy or uninterested in your goals—we promise. Nine times out of 10, they simply weren’t crystal clear on your plan.

Even the tiniest misalignments snowball quickly when multiplied across the whole team. Without clarity—on everything from individual roles to big-picture organizational change—you can’t expect true buy-in. And without buy-in, your team will struggle to move forward in sync.

Pro Tip: If you’re a leader who makes decisions based on intuition, you might assume others will just get it the same way you do. But most won’t. The majority of people don’t work well with fuzzy pictures. Provide context, clarity and details so your team feels equipped to take the next steps confidently.

Building the Foundation for Employee Buy-In

It’s a no-brainer that employee buy-in is great for your business. But actually getting buy-in? That’s freaking tough. Here are four essential steps to set the stage:

Evaluate your leadership.

Ask yourself, Would I follow the leader I am today? Great leaders are humble, open to feedback and willing to grow. They lead by serving. Your team will follow your example, so lead with transparency, confidence and focus.

Define your mission, vision and values.

- Your mission describes what you do and why it matters.
- Your vision paints a picture of what the future will look like when your mission is lived out.
- Your values declare what your company stands for and guide how you make decisions.

Be clear about these and share them often. Without these guiding principles, you’re asking your team to navigate without a map.

Communicate clearly and consistently.

Your team can’t read your mind. Share your goals, expectations and the why behind your plans often. Build in time for Q&A too. Your ability to communicate well determines the level of trust you earn, the quality of your relationships, and even team satisfaction and retention.

Have a solid strategic plan.

Don’t just outline your company’s destination—map out a clear path to get there with your leaders. A strategic plan with actionable steps shows your team what success looks like and how they’ll contribute. When the plan is specific and achievable, your team will rally around it.

With these steps in place, you’ve set the foundation for leadership buy-in and overall team buy-in. Now it’s time to align your team and get to work achieving your strategic plan.

The ABCs of Alignment

Emotional buy-in always comes before intellectual commitment—that’s why alignment starts in the heart and moves to the head. It’s also why we’ve created the ABCs of Alignment, a step-by-step process to move toward your goals.

A = Agree with the direction.

You can’t expect your team members to commit to a plan they’re just learning about (even if it’s perfectly clear to you). So your first job is to help them understand where you’re headed and agree on that path forward. Here’s what that looks like:

Leader Responsibilities:                                                           

• Share a hard copy of your strategic plan with your team members.
• Give context for why this plan matters.
• Meet one-on-one with each direct report to uncover disagreements or concerns.
• Address hesitations and ask directly for agreement in each one-on-one.
• Communicate shared agreement to the entire team.

Team Member Responsibilities:

• Read the plan carefully and think it through.     
• Ask questions to clarify uncertainties.
• Speak openly about concerns (no holding back the last 10% of truth).
• Teach the plan back to you to confirm understanding.

B = Buy in to the plan.

Once there’s agreement, it’s time to move past surface-level understanding to genuine belief and trust. Buy-in happens when your team feels heard and sees their input reflected in the plan. To get buy-in, build on the steps from the agreement stage and add the following:

Leader Responsibilities:

• Share the vision for your future and ask each direct report if they have what they need to buy in.
• Clear any blockers they identify.
• Use your one-on-ones to listen and drive toward buy-in.

Team Member Responsibilities:

• Think critically about what’s needed to fully support the plan.
• Provide honest feedback.

C = Commit to what’s next.

By now, the team understands the plan and believes in it. At the commitment stage, the focus shifts to execution. Your team takes ownership of their roles and drives progress. You’re no longer the pace car—they’re running with the plan, which is why the order flips here.

Team Member Responsibilities:

• Prioritize tasks ruthlessly.
• Simplify complex challenges.
• Set clear deadlines for the work.
• Identify and communicate blockers.
• Share next steps with you.

Leader Responsibilities:

• Challenge the team to ensure their next steps are clear and actionable.
• Directly ask, “Do you commit?”

Commitment isn’t a one-and-done event. It’s an ongoing process of tackling small batches of work every 5–15 days, driving steady progress toward your goals.

When Your Team Is Aligned, You’re Set to Scale

Alignment creates a culture of collaboration and accountability. It empowers your team to work together and focus on what matters most so you can do all it takes to scale your business. You’re no longer the sole pacesetter—you’re leading a high-performing team that’s ready to win.