Your Sales Team Knows the Target. Do They Agree on What Comes First?

A growth target can be perfectly clear while the work needed to reach it remains open to interpretation.

For a woman leading a growing business, that gap can be frustrating. You have explained the direction. You have capable people. Yet the same questions still return to your desk: Which customer takes priority? Should we pursue this opportunity? What should wait until next week?

Before treating those questions as evidence that the team needs more motivation, consider whether people are working from the same priorities.

What the research tells us is that in Employee Engagement Strategies for 2026, Gallup reported that only 49% of U.S. employees strongly agreed they knew what was expected of them at work in February 2026.

That finding describes U.S. employees broadly. It is not a study specifically of women-owned businesses or sales teams, and it does not diagnose your organization. It does give leaders a reason to check whether expectations are as clear to the team as they feel to the person setting them.

Knowing the revenue goal and knowing what to do when demands compete are different things.

Consider an illustrative sales team. One representative is focused on bringing in new accounts. Another spends most of her time protecting existing relationships. A third responds quickly to every incoming request because responsiveness has always been valued.

Each person can explain why her work matters. The problem is not necessarily effort. The team may lack an agreed way to choose between worthwhile activities when time is limited.

This is where a founder can become the interpreter of every competing demand. She has not necessarily failed to communicate. The business may simply need a more explicit way to turn direction into everyday choices.

So, start with one week.  

Instead of introducing a new system immediately, begin with a short conversation about the week ahead.

Ask each person to name the most important outcome for the week. Listen before correcting. If the answers differ, explore what each person has heard, what pressures they face and what they believe success looks like.

Then choose one shared priority and make it concrete. A broad instruction such as “focus on growth” leaves considerable room for interpretation. A specific outcome gives the team something they can discuss, plan around and review.

Next, ask what work directly supports that outcome. Identify the owner of each next step and any support needed from others. An owner should know what they can decide independently and when a decision needs wider input.

Finally, name what can wait. This step matters because adding a priority without adjusting existing demands can leave people with a longer list and no clearer direction.

A reasonable concern is that giving people more room will create inconsistency. The answer is not to remove standards. It is to make them usable.

Agree on what a good result looks like, what boundaries apply and when progress will be reviewed. Where someone lacks a skill, provide coaching. Where authority is unclear, clarify the decision. Those are different needs and deserve different responses.

Another concern is time: “It would be faster to handle this myself.” For an isolated task, that may be true. For a recurring decision, it is worth considering whether a brief investment in clarity could reduce the need to repeat the same conversation.

Do not promise yourself an instant transformation. Use the exercise to learn where the real obstacles sit.

At OAK & TIMBER Strategic Consulting, I help women-led businesses align sales strategy, team structure and accountability to support scalable growth. My Rise & Thrive Momentum Method begins with Gather: understanding what is getting in the way before prescribing a solution.

That perspective respects the leader's knowledge of her own business. You do not need someone to assume that your people lack commitment or that another generic framework will solve everything. You need a clearer view of what your team needs to execute consistently.

A useful first step is to examine the organization supporting your growth ambitions. Visit the OAK & TIMBER Strategic Consulting website and select Growth Assessment. The complimentary three-minute assessment offers a starting point for reflection and a conversation about what comes next.

Source note
Gallup, Employee Engagement Strategies for 2026, 2026. Expectations finding refers to February 2026 U.S. employees. The practical sales-team exercise above is an editorial application, not a tested outcome from that research.

About the author
Michele Pytlinski is the founder of OAK & TIMBER Strategic Consulting. She draws on more than 30 years of sales leadership to help women-led businesses strengthen sales-team alignment, accountability and execution.