HGI News and Editorial

Notes from the conversation on senior leadership teams: 20 November 2008

The Hay/Harvard research has revealed six conditions for a highly effective senior team: three essentials or foundations, and three enablers or accelerators.

Three essentials:

• Real team – with clear criteria for membership, stable composition, and shared accountability for a tangible product
•  Compelling purpose – a unique value proposition, that describes what the team contributes and justifies its existence
• Right people – people who are able and willing to exercise leadership for the whole organisation, collaborate with peers, put meaningful issues on the table, share power and take collective responsibility.

Three enablers:

• Solid structure – a manageable size, substantial and consequential agenda, clear team norms (always do…never do…)
• Supportive context – appropriate physical environment, resources and incentives
• Team coaching – regular involvement of an independent observer to challenge and improve the team dynamic, supported by coaching from the team leader.  Important that the coaching focuses on the effort made by members, the way in which talents are offered and used and creativity in team processes.

Teams tend to have one of four primary purposes, in ascending order of significance, consequence and authority.  Vital that any team is clear about its core purpose – this determines all the other conditions:

• Information sharing
• Consultation or advisory
• Coordinating
• Decision-making /exercising authority

The two vital contributions that the team leader must make are to clarify the team’s purpose and sanction its norms.

Best way to reform a team and shift its contribution might be to relaunch the team and issue a fresh invitation to those the leader wishes to participate.

A good measure of team trust is the extent to which they are invested in each other’s success.  Equally, a way to build trust is to create opportunities for that investment to occur.