For many years, research has shown that sustaining high-performance in any organisation is largely dependent upon the level of excellence at which the Executive Leadership team operates. Indeed, this foundation has often been cited as one of the key reasons that GE grew so successfully during Jack Welch’s long tenure as CEO.
Many years ago, McKinsey’s work with Executive Teams across the globe led them to conclude that Executive Teams which demonstrated excellence in 3 key areas were the most successful. These 3 key areas were:
The team’s collective alignment to the company purpose
The quality of the team’s communication/connection between themselves
The team’s ability and agility to stay ahead of change.
The reality is that without the first two elements in place, the third element of agile change is practically impossible.
Alas, McKinsey published recent data highlighting that just under half of executive teams they researched were aligned to the organisational purpose, while more than half failed to communicate effectively. In such circumstances, an organisation’s ability to stay ahead of change is obviously negatively impacted. Indeed, McKinsey’s research concluded that a third of failed organisational transformations were directly due to ineffective executive teaming.
In reality, Executive Teams frequently operate in complex and dynamic environments with many powerful and often competing forces in play. Hence, developing a high-performing Executive Team is challenging. The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) outlines 5 critical pre-requisites for Executive Team excellence:
Self, other and situation awareness
Develop a coherent insight for collective leadership at the enterprise level
Build powerful relationships with each other and key stakeholders
Be a beacon of excellence that strongly influences teaming excellence throughout the organisation and stakeholders
Nurture a growth mindset to leverage intentional learning as a competitive advantage.
However, to become their brilliant best, Executive Teams hone their experiences in the eye of the storm, through practice and experience of real-life challenges. Hence, teaming excellence is not something that can be taught, it can only be learned in situ. And this is where the guidance of team coaching comes to the fore.
Indeed, the Systemic Team Coaching 5Cs framework is a very close match to the CCL’s 5 pre-requisites of high-performing executive teams:
Commissioning encourages us to develop a deep awareness of our stakeholder’s needs and the particular value they expect us to provide
Clarifying takes these deep insights to fashion a purpose that serves these needs holistically and advances this to a vision of what it will look like when we get there, and a mission of what we intend to do and how we intend to be along the way
Co-creating enables us to fashion thriving relationships within the team that support both performance and collective wellbeing so we can sustain our excellence even through tough times
Connecting ensures our ‘connection’ with all stakeholders is a great and rewarding experience for them, and that no matter which team member they talk to, they experience consistency in our understanding, commitment and response
Core Learning nurtures a collective growth mindset that means we are intentional and effective in making the most of our learning opportunities to advance both the excellence of the team and the experiences of its stakeholders.
Systemic Team Coaching acknowledges that all teams are part of a wider ecology where what they do impacts others and what others do impacts them; whether, for example, this be clients, shareholders, suppliers, colleagues or the community. It also recognises that teams are impacted by, and impact, events through time – past, present and future.
When teams effectively consider their thoughts, choices and actions in this wider systemic context, they are able to determine a more fulfilling and meaningful purpose, enhance their wellbeing, perform more productively and ultimately, create value in a more balanced and sustainable fashion.
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