Things I used to believe: I used to think alignment problems were people problems.

Most alignment problems aren’t about people. They’re about incentives.

I met a mid-career salesperson recently and we ended up swapping career stories. At one point, she mentioned that she had led her company in new-logo sales for two straight years.

President’s Club. Top performer. Big recognition.

Naturally, I asked what she credited her success to.

She was genuinely excited to explain her “system.”

The company sold both directly and through VAR partners. Roughly 70% of revenue flowed through those partners, so the channel was strategically important.

Here’s what she described, very matter-of-factly:

She would search the CRM for proposals other reps had issued to VARs where the project title included the end customer’s name, something like “Victoria’s Secret Project.”

Using that information, she’d bypass the VAR and contact the end customer (Victoria's Secret) directly with a new proposal.

And she made sure her direct quote was 20–30% cheaper than the partner’s.

The result?

She won a lot of these deals directly.

She blew out her number.

She got celebrated.

From her perspective, the system worked exactly as intended.

But stepping back, the behavior that was being rewarded included:

• Using internal CRM data in ways it was never intended to be used

• Undermining the company’s own partner ecosystem including theft of their confidential work-product

• Cannibalizing deals from teammates

• Reducing company margin to guarantee personal wins

And yet, none of that showed up on a leaderboard.

Revenue did.

This wasn’t a “bad actor” story.
She didn’t describe it as sneaky or unethical.
She described it as how you win.

That’s what stuck with me.

Because this is the uncomfortable truth:

People optimize for what you reward, not for what you say you value.

If the only visible scorecard is closed revenue, then closed revenue is what you’ll get, regardless of the downstream consequences:

• Partner distrust

• Margin erosion

• Internal resentment

• Cultural decay

Revenue covers a lot of sins.

And it made me reflect on something I’ve seen repeatedly:

You don’t get the culture you talk about. You don't get the culture you say is important. You get the culture you incentivize and hold people accountable to.

Which raises a harder question:

How often do we celebrate outcomes that are not actually aligned with the goals, vision, and identity of our business? How often do the wrong people get celebrated?