Client challenges
Do you wish your team was really a team?
Have you ever thought the following?
"We’re so focused on the urgent stuff; we never look at the future.
It’s a vicious cycle and we need to break it."
"Our team is less than the sum of its parts!
Let’s fight our competitors, not each other."
"Our team never really makes decisions. We go round in circles
and then the CEO decides. Is that really the best way?"
"We never have the real conversation. No one wants to raise
the issue. How can we make progress without talking about it?"
"Long agendas...boring presentations...not enough time to
discuss. How can we prepare and focus to have a more useful discussion?"
We’ve all been in teams that don’t add very much. You usually know you’re in one of those teams when you don’t look forward to team meetings. Perhaps other things seem more important or you find your mind wandering.
Getting a team to feel great and contribute can be hard, because there are so many potential barriers. At senior levels in executive teams or on boards, it’s particularly difficult because teams are full of successful individuals who have their own patterns, expectations and aspirations.
Some CEOs decide that it’s enough to have a group of individuals who can lead their divisions independently and occasionally come together to give input on shared issues. But good CEOs know this is not enough. Competition gets in the way of learning from each other. Every prioritisation or promotion round is a painful process where the CEO ends up arbitrating and no one thinks the final answer is right. And when difficult times hit, these teams are at great risk of moving further apart, rather than putting their heads together to deal with the problems.
The very best CEOs make the effort to develop cohesive teams that have a shared view of what they are trying to achieve and can work together and independently to make it happen. They build teams that can have any necessary discussion, however difficult. Their teams can make prioritisation decisions that might go against some of their individual needs, but are the right decisions for the business as a whole. Their teams look forward to spending time together in productive discussions and act on their agreements.
The Cognitas Group helps clients build the leadership teams they need to step up and stay ahead. Find out more about how we do it.