Imagine a CEO struggling with changing her company’s core product and service offerings. Further, imagine that the CEO, while nervous about the prospect of making this decision is confident that her senior leadership team (SLT) will help her greatly in making the most informed choice possible that is best for the business as a whole. She knows that team members will advocate for their own ideas, rigorously debate the merits and drawbacks of others’ beliefs and concepts without using personal attacks, build on one the best alternatives, and use structured decision making tools along the way. In fact, on many occasions the SLT generates breakthrough solutions and has even created innovative new product lines thanks to their ability to “think with” one another. And, while there will be moments of stress and doubt, she also knows that in the end each member of the team will support the decision made and do everything they can to make the chosen decision work, including helping all departments attain their goals along the way.
The differences between an organization’s senior leadership team (SLT) and all other teams go far beyond the obvious observation that the SLT is made up of the highest level of executives. Other key differences include the…
- Sheer magnitude and impact of the decisions that SLTs are called upon to make.
- Direct impact on key organizational results that depend largely upon the degree to which an SLT is effectively functioning.
- Message sent to all the departments and people led by members of the SLT as to whether other groups are allies, foes, trustworthy, competent, etc. “Organizational Silos” exist (or don’t) within a large organization because of the relationships among SLT members.
- Fact that many members of SLTs are unclear as to the “work” or purpose of the team. With any other team the common bond is “the work of the department.”
- Impact that “generative dialogue” can have on the business. SLT dialogue can lead directly and quickly to product innovations, intradepartmental fixes to wicked problems, resource sharing, policy changes, decisions to enter new markets for products, etc.
Now let’s imagine another CEO with the same issue as the CEO portrayed in the opening paragraph, but this time the CEO’s nervousness is not only about the issue at hand. She is dreading the next senior leadership meeting, not because of the likelihood of open conflict (that would be welcomed actually) but because she is pretty sure that her team will not be of much help to her in this dilemma. She wonders how long it will take someone to say “Isn’t this R & D’s issue to solve? Or, “I don’t think I could contribute meaningfully to that dialogue being in (insert department here).” And when she is able to explain that this is an issue she wants to discuss with the whole group as a senior leadership team she further imagines the group quickly going off on a tangent by taking a more concrete “piece” of the issue and trying to solve it instead of focusing on the whole issue. This has certainly been the behavioral pattern this team regularly exhibits. And in the end the CEO is pretty sure she will indeed solve the lion’s share of the issue on her own, just as one of her senior team leaders’ suggested was appropriate earlier in the meeting, resulting in an even deeper divide between what the CEO needs her SLT to do and what it actually does.
Unfortunately, the SLT featured in the above paragraph is all too prevalent among the organizations I encounter. As a consultant I’ve heard countless senior executives, who are members of their company’s senior leadership team, tell me that they aren’t really sure of what the senior leadership team actually does or is supposed to do. In fact, when asked many senior leaders do not consider the SLT as their primary work team, or even one of their primary work teams! Indeed many don’t consider this senior most group as an intact work team.
So what can be done to improve your SLT?
Whether the SLT has been newly formed or has been together for a number of years, there are a few activities that can be facilitated as starting points to improve the functioning of your organization’s SLT.
1. Agree on a Clear “Charter.” This can take the form of a dialogue initially, asking each SLT member to share their view of the team’s purpose and responsibilities. When working with SLTs I facilitate a process where the team completes a charter template that includes purpose and role statements as well as desired results and an agreed upon code of conduct.
2. SLT Best Practices. Another activity consists of asking team members to assess the degree to which each of the characteristics of the best SLTs are present in the team. I have compiled a list below of characteristics I find to be SLT best practices.
- Bias for Action – The team’s inclination is to act by way of making decisions quickly as opposed to waiting until the “ideal” amount of data can be collected.
- Clear Purpose – More than any team, the SLT needs to be clear as to its work products and its reason for existence. Usually that purpose includes designing new product/service innovations, setting policies, overall strategic direction, and the oversight of strategic company initiatives.
- Contributory Decision Making – The degree to which all members of the SLT contribute ideas and opinions before a decision is made, and then support the decision once made to bring about the desired result.
- Innovation & Idea Generation – New products, services, and ideas are generated and “built upon” through SLT dialogues. Since all functions of the organization are represented by the SLT, results from SLT meetings have significant impact on the business’ short and long term trajectories.
- Results – Desired outcomes established by the SLT are met or exceeded.
- Rigorous Debate – The degree to which executives can put aside its functional responsibilities (and agendas) and debate the strengths and drawbacks of different decision alternatives and ideas without making personal attacks.
- Stewardship – SLT members make decisions based on their impact for the organization as a whole rather that what can be gained by particular divisions or departments.
- Strategic Initiative Sponsorship – The SLT is the responsible party (project sponsors) for launching and tracking the progress of strategic initiatives.
3. Size of the SLT. A third method of gauging the degree to which the team can function is to look at the number of people that comprise the SLT. Schwarz (2002) and others have noted that groups with more than 12 members reduce its ability to execute the “process” aspects so necessary in team decision making and problem solving. The optimal number of an SLT is dependent upon many factors, but I have found that the best SLTs usually will have somewhere between six and nine members.
I have focused a great deal of my consulting practice toward helping Senior Leadership Teams and am excited about the prospect of helping my clients SLTs become the key resource that can be counted upon to lead the organization in achieving results. Thank you for taking the time to read this submission. I would also really enjoy hearing from you regarding the usefulness of this article.
Be Your Best Self Today! Tad