The days of the autocratic ‘John Wayne’ leader are on the wane. The business environment has become too complex, uncertain, ambiguous and dynamic for ‘One Great Man’ – however great – to navigate alone. In the post-2008 era, the Chief Executive needs to build and lead an Executive Leadership Team (ELT) with a mix of capabilities and personality types. The team needs ‘sensing’ and ‘intuiting’ skills to steer the organisation through the volatility and lack of visibility of current conditions.
While building a high-powered ELT is an appealing concept, the real challenge (as always) is in the implementation. The CEO must choose ELT members carefully and create a high-performing, emotionally intelligent and integrated team that can self-correct when drifting from True North.
Building an ELT from an existing senior management group is difficult, if not impossible. Incumbent managers have their own turf and silos to protect; they often come with rigid attitudes, behaviours and ‘history’. Thus CEOs in the post-2008 era may need to start from scratch, choosing ELT members (in conjunction with their Chair and Board), who have appropriate knowledge, skills, depth and breadth of experience, along with the emotional intelligence needed to be great role models.
Leadership skills – being able to effectively communicate the way forward (strategic vision), act as a ‘values champion’ and lead change – are much more important than skills as a competent operational performer.
The CEO, in the post-2008 paradigm, is more the ‘First Amongst Equals’ than the ‘One Great Man’ characteristic of the past. According to Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great (2001), companies that achieved superior financial returns (4 – 18 times greater than the general stock market over 15 years) appointed their CEOs from within. In contrast, their competitors generally head-hunted CEOs from outside the company; these CEOs chose weak successors or set their successors up for failure.
Building a high-performance ELT will mean applying the following:
1. Choosing a CEO from within the ranks of the company who has the EQ and leadership skills to develop and lead a high-performing ELT
2. Providing the CEO with opportunities to continuously learn, grow, refresh and reflect
3. Developing the talent selection and development skills of the CEO
4. Selecting five members of the ELT (in addition to the CEO), at least three of whom have the potential to become CEOs-in-Waiting
5. Using selection processes that provide a mix of personality types: big picture types with a 30,000 ft view; strategic thinkers who can work with complexity and model cause and effect; detailed types with a practical orientation; and people-oriented types who can put their feet in the shoes of staff, customers and other important stakeholders
6. Recognising that a group of emotionally intelligent executives does not necessarily make an emotionally intelligent ELT, and that a team-building process is essential to transform a group of individuals into a high-performing team (one-team, no cliques)
7. Using an experienced independent facilitator to assist the ELT to create and commit to a Team Charter. The Charter must list a clear purpose and compelling vision, inspire commitment, and outline the values, attitudes and behaviours expected of team members
8. ELT members giving permission to ‘call’ each other on behaviours and attitudes that do not align with True North (as articulated in the Charter)
9. Reviewing and refreshing the Team Charter every three months
10. Obtaining the necessary profiling of each ELT team member and the team collectively, so inter and intra personal preferences regarding needs and behaviours can be shared, and potential challenges identified and worked with (or around)
11. Providing the ELT with the time and resources required to fulfill their mission (including an appropriate budget for developing the team’s individuals and their staff)
12. Rewarding ELT members for team achievements as well as individual members’ performance 13. Understanding that “The flight lead [CEO] is in ‘command’ both on the ground and in the air. S/he has general responsibility for planning and organizing the mission, leading the flight, and delegating tasks within the flight to ensure the mission is safely accomplished. The flight lead must know the capability and limitations of the wingmen. On the ground the flight lead will plan, brief and debrief the mission. S/he may delegate tasks within the flight. Once airborne, s/ he has the final responsibility for navigating, communicating, formation airmanship and leading the flight successfully through the mission.”
“Selecting for talent is the manager’s first and most important responsibility. If he fails to find people with the talent he needs, then everything else he does to help them grow will be as wasted as sunshine on barren land” BUCKINGHAM and COFFMAN
INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
AUCKLAND | SYDNEY | SINGAPORE | LONDON
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Established 2001
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