Creating a Strong Leadership Team

Do “Real Work” together

When a Leadership team meets largely to report on and coordinate the actions of others, there is little potential for realizing any synergy. The team begins to more fully develop only when the team members, as a group, take on some challenging tasks to complete.

To accomplish “real work” together, be sure to:

• Identify important tasks on which to collaborate

• Plan sufficient time for working together

Identify important tasks on which to collaborate

A Leadership team can take on different types of work. It is up to each team to define the appropriate work.

Some possibilities include:

What is the “Work” of a Leadership Team?

An  important question is “What does the full  team do  together?” If everyone is working individually and independently, there is really no point in having a team. Yet, the team cannot afford to have everyone do everything together.

For a team to benefit from the diversity of experiences and viewpoints of its members it should:

• Develop a plan and schedule for achieving the team results
• Identify and discuss issues that may impact the work of others in the team
• Make decisions  that  integrate  all  appropriate  perspectives  and optimize the end product
• Set organizational goals
• Develop organizational plans
• Define strategies

Solving  an  issue  with  which  sub-teams  are  struggling.  The sub-teams probably lack the overall perspective, resources, or authority to pursue the  issue. Making decisions that   affect the overall direction of the project or organization. The decisions and alternatives likely need to be discussed and explored (rather than simply “ratifying” the decision made by a sub-team).

Plan sufficient time for working together

Leaders have many demands placed on their time. Yet they need to set aside blocks of time as the team begins work so they can complete the  leadership team alignment tasks they have agreed to do together.

The solution to this dilemma is for the team to declare it a priority to complete these “team alignment” discussions, so other tasks don’t take precedence.