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This article describes a pragmatic and fluid approach for working with leadership teams to strengthen the capacity of the team along with each individual to build a great leadership team.

In his HBR article entitled “The Best Teams Hold Themselves Accountable,” Joseph Grenny suggests that the worst teams have no accountability, mediocre teams rely on the boss for accountability, and the best teams hold themselves accountable.

Productive dialogue is the ability for leadership teams to challenge, debate and discuss their most important issues in a manner that progresses the issues and leaves minimal relational scars. Fostering productive dialogue is a rare practice in most organizations because it requires hard work and commitment on the part of each leadership team member and quite frankly it is natural for adults to avoid tough discussions.

Great leadership teams don’t assume that trust will just happen; they take important steps that help to build a foundation of trust and recognize that given the challenges of running a business there will be times when trust needs to be repaired.

Leadership team cadence is like the drumbeat that helps a leadership team march in rhythm and alignment. More specifically, leadership team cadence is the necessary pattern of interactions (meetings, one-on-ones, written communications) that enable a leadership team to shape, monitor and adapt an organization’s strategic intent.

Mission and strategy are important components of a leadership team’s purpose but as we illustrate below, they are not sufficient.

Today’s uncertain and complex environment requires leadership teams to be much more than a collection of talented senior executives. To be successful, leadership teams have no other option than to leverage each other’s talent so they can navigate the uncertainty in a manner that fuels innovation, enables operational agility and inspires confidence.

Given the research indicating that 40% of new leaders fail in the first 18 months on the job and that the estimated cost of exiting a new executive in this time frame is roughly three times the executive’s first year salary (Forbes: New Job? Get a Head Start Now, February 17, 2012), promoting a talented performer or hiring an experienced outsider are not trivial issues.

A good bit of data and many years of observation suggest that CEO one-on-one discussions with direct reports can have a surprisingly large impact on a leadership team’s performance.

Being CEO of any organization big or small is a challenging job that requires leadership. Sometimes leadership demands effective use of authority such as making tough decisions on competing strategic alternatives. 

Functional track record, work ethic and relationship skills are important for any senior executive but are insufficient when an executive is asked to be part of a senior leadership team.

Every day we are in constant contact with business leaders across a host of industries and from these interactions we have seen four important leadership skills emerge – positive accountability, foresight, people first, and decisive adaptability. 

Lessons on leading in a crisis - how to embrace uncertainty.

CEO perspectives on how to lead their organizations through the coronavirus crisis.

A recent LinkedIn Learning survey of 3,000 professionals concluded that the inability to set clear and consistent expectations is hands down the most frustrating quality they have experienced in their managers. In our work with leadership teams of growing companies we witness first-hand the problems that ensue when expectations are unclear. 

The goal of competition is to win, that is true. But winning is not the purpose of competing. The purpose of competing, the true reason why we compete is because competition brings out the very best in each other. Competing brings innovation, new levels of insight, and moments of great individual and collective accomplishment. 

As their organization’s grow leadership teams that manage from crisis to crisis put their organizations at risk. While challenging, leadership teams can learn from the characteristics that make them successful in a crisis. Building these characteristics into their normal operations will help them avoid many crises and better prepare their organizations for the few that remain.

Fear on leadership teams comes in many shapes and sizes but most times it has the same negative impact.