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A leadership team plays a pivotal role in steering a company’s financial success, strategy execution, and organizational culture. To be able to navigate with success, especially in today’s fast-changing business environment, seamless collaboration within the leadership team is essential for consistent and unified organizational guidance. A clearly defined and well-articulated direction, along with strategic decisions, must be at the core of the leadership team’s work. Coherent leadership communication, where the key messages are conveyed similarly by all team members requires open, direct, and trusting discussions, as well as collective commitment. The members of the leadership team must be willing and able to lead the entire organization in the same direction, beyond managing their own areas of responsibility. Moreover, they need to excel in leading people through change, not just managing tasks. Ultimately, they serve as the organization’s most visible examples of either good or poor leadership.
One common challenge in many executive teams is the lack of shared systemic understanding. Even when the strategy and vision are clear on paper, team members may interpret them differently in practice or how different elements in internal or external environment are interconnected. This might be because time hasn’t been prioritized for deeper discussions, or trust is lacking, resulting in conversations about the wrong topics and a reluctance to address genuinely pressing issues. At its worst, leadership team meetings are viewed as a necessary evil or simply a decision-making machine, missing the opportunity to effectively lead the organization. Without a shared direction or meaningful discussions, members tend to focus solely on their own areas of responsibility, neglecting the bigger picture.
A lack of shared understanding and trust also creates challenges in internal interactions amongst the team members. Cliques may form, and issues might not be openly or collectively addressed, further eroding trust. Critical feedback may be avoided, as team members are hesitant to receive similar feedback about their own work. Sometimes, leaders take feedback about their areas of responsibility personally, fostering a culture where genuine improvement discussions are replaced by superficial back-patting.
According to Amy Edmondson, a Harvard professor and pioneer of psychological safety, learning occurs in teams where high psychological safety is combined with expectations of high performance. In other words, team members in a learning zone feel a strong sense of responsibility for their own performance and expect high performance from others. They are prepared to have challenging discussions, give feedback, and receive constructive criticism. Simultaneously, they feel secure in engaging in even the most difficult conversations.
Improving the effectiveness of a leadership team begins with the ambition of the CEO. Is a mediocre leadership team good enough? Is superficial openness acceptable, where real problems remain unaddressed? Does the CEO prefer to avoid receiving critical feedback him/herself? If the ambition level is low, the leadership team cannot reach its full potential. However, if the CEO aspires to lead a team that takes broad responsibility, drives the organization forward as one united front, and consistently improves its performance, here are a few tips on how to move forward.
1. Clarify the vision, strategy and systemic undestanding in depth
Even if the strategy work has been completed, the ways to make it actionable within the organization might be unclear. This can lead to vague communication and a failure to implement the strategy. It’s worth investing time in building a shared, in-depth understanding of the organization’s desired direction and concretizing the strategy in daily operations. Visual and storytelling methods often prove to be the most effective tools for focusing discussions on what matters and strengthening the leadership team’s unified systemic understanding.
2. Critically assess leadership team meetings
Leadership team meetings consume a significant amount of time annually, which of course comes at a cost. Meeting practices can become routine unless critically assessed. At their best, leadership team meetings evolve in terms of both content and interaction over time. Consider these questions:
3. Build trust intentionally
An open and constructive conversation culture is fundamental for successful collaboration. In a well-functioning team, especially in a leadership team, the members should feel safe challenging one another in a respectful and productive manner. This requires not only strong facilitation skills but also active efforts to build trust.
Practical tips for fostering trust and improving interaction:
4. Equip leadership team members with top-notch people leadership skills
Leadership team members are leaders themselves, and often managers of other managers. While the leadership team’s broader responsibility for the organization’s strategy doesn’t negate the need for excellent people leadership skills, being promoted to the leadership team doesn’t automatically make someone a skilled people leader. Continuous development of these skills is essential. Improving leadership skills strengthens the leadership culture that reflects to the whole organization, fostering a shared mindset, common language, and consistent ways of working. Developing coaching skills is particularly important for leaders who are supervisors of other managers.
A leadership team that excels in content and continuously develops its practices doesn’t just guide the organization’s strategy; it creates the foundation for the company’s overall success. When leadership team members are committed to shared goals and understand their role in the bigger picture, they can communicate these goals clearly across the organization.
The work of the leadership team directly impacts the company’s culture, employee well-being, and business outcomes in a rapidly changing environment. That’s why investing in improving leadership team’s collaboration is critically important. The courage to challenge, understand deeply, listen and continuously improve can be the decisive factor that sets a successful company apart from others.
Is it time to elevate your organization’s management team’s collaboration to a new level? Xpedio offers various high-quality services for leadership development. Get in touch!