Niche In-Brief Spring 2018 - Flipbook - Page 5
Turbo-charging your executive team
Tackling the hallmarks of dysfunction – Kate Jury
There has been a huge focus in the last few years on
board development, board competency and board
performance. Well-led assessments have rightly
focussed on the ability of the whole board to effectively
steward the organisation, however, there are two key
components which comprise an effective unitary board.
The first is a functional, experienced and challenging
group of non-executive directors, the second is a
capable, effective and impactful executive team.
Often the effectiveness of the executive team as a whole
(and indeed the non-executive team) is given insufficient
focus when compared to the function of the whole board.
No amount of non-executive trust and challenge, board
development or assurance reviews will work if there are
fundamental weaknesses within the executive team.
Many organisations who have spent time focussing on
the function of the executives as a group, will, in turn,
reap significant dividends as a board. When executive
teams are fractured, failing to ‘sing from the same hymn
sheet’, or failing to gain traction with staff and services,
the net impact can be damaging and ubiquitous both
internally and externally to the organisation. Executive
teams are often surprised when they realise how visible
some of that dysfunction is to staff and to key external
stakeholders. Most executive teams have little or no idea
of their impact and effectiveness but a short, targeted
piece of improvement work could result in significant and
transformational progress.
Of course, in the rub of the real world, it is a challenge to
get a group of six or so, experienced individuals to work
together towards the same end (and that is before you
add into the mix limited resources and often competing
portfolios). Likes, dislikes, experiences, behaviours, past
bruises and different priorities all conspire to fracture the
notion of ‘team’ – but being open about these
challenges, and safely bringing them to the surface, can
help to support the development of a significantly more
cohesive team and, ultimately, a more mature and
confident executive.
What are the hallmarks of dysfunction?
1. You consistently dread executive team
meetings (instead of the odd one!).
2. There are ‘cliques’ on the team, favouritism
and partisanship.
3. The Chief Executive struggles to adopt an
even-handed, fair approach to all.
4. You feel conversations and agreements have
been made outside of the team environment.
5. There is a lack of basic process around how
the meetings work.
6. You fail to move issues on collectively, it is
just one persons problem.
7. You have no sense of ‘being in it together’
working towards the same end.
8. The team has no sense of its impact either
internally or externally.
9. Staff are confused around the consistency of
‘the message’ from the executive team.
10. Significant amounts of ‘churn’ within the team.
5