4 Steps To Building A High-Performing Leadership Team
What fuels business excellence? What separates companies that consistently grow revenue, profitability, and total shareholder returns from those that don’t? Why do some uphold employee retention, productivity, and morale while others falter?
In a recent article, Dr. Andrew Abela shares how “virtues” are vital to satisfying both shareholders and stakeholders. These are not virtues in a moralistic sense but, rather, habits of excellence inspired by definitions from ancient philosophy. Take the virtue of practical wisdom, for instance—it’s the habit of making good decisions, day in and day out.
Habits of excellence are at the heart of great leadership. For instance, the best leaders are those who are in the habit of admitting what they don’t know. Like Socrates, they practice wisdom daily by questioning assumptions and putting purpose before ego.
But leadership is not a solo sport. High-performing teams practice the same habits of excellence—together. Today, management books and the media overemphasize the individual leader, but ignoring team dynamics creates dysfunction and slows progress. Thriving top teams focus on collective habits that align their behaviors, setting the tone for the entire organization.
I recently shared the five traits of highly effective executive teams—direction, discipline, drive, dynamism, and collaboration—based on my colleagues’ study of hundreds of leading companies worldwide. These traits help teams overcome the common challenges of misaligned goals, poor communication, and lack of cohesive behavior. The key is to turn them into habits through consistent practice. It’s easier said than done, but four pragmatic steps can help executives build strong, united teams and lead their organizations to success.
1. Commit and invest
High-performing leadership teams invest time in meeting face to face to work on specific behaviors. This consistent role modeling reinforces teamwork at every level of the organization.
An annual offsite or patchy funding won’t cut it. Instead, leading teams dedicate regular time and resources to work on their habits, even if it’s just five minutes at the start of each meeting.
Understanding the need for deliberate team-building efforts in a hybrid work environment, one company’s leadership team started budgeting to meet in person for two days every quarter. During those meetings, they devote half a day to focusing on team-effectiveness.
2. Hold up the mirror
You can’t improve what you cannot see and discuss. Teams need to understand how they see themselves—and how others see them. Anonymous surveys or confidential interviews can reveal blind spots in team dynamics, culture, operations, and routines. In addition, using surveys or focus groups to gather feedback from direct reports on how well the team demonstrates the five traits mentioned above offers a valuable outside-in perspective.
For example, a fintech CEO initially attributed the team’s challenges to a conflict between two business heads. However, surveys and interviews uncovered deeper issues, including misaligned strategies and the presence of cliques within the team. With this newfound clarity, the CEO implemented changes by assigning the business-unit heads to co-lead strategy sessions and participate in training focused on managing complex dilemmas. Six months later, follow-up feedback showed significant progress, as the two leaders moved from working at cross-purposes to collaborating effectively toward shared objectives.
3. Chart the path to change
Next, teams need to align on what behaviors they need to change to meet the firm’s strategic goals. Start with a fundamental question: “How can we work better together to help our organization achieve its strategy faster?” For example, a team leading major change may need greater dynamism, while a newly formed team may need discipline and role clarity to set the stage for strong collaboration.
Importantly, when the team begins to practice new behaviors, they shouldn’t place the responsibility of planning the journey on HR. The leadership team must own the change in their collective behaviors.
4. Sustain momentum
Maintaining momentum is often the toughest part. Many teams quickly align on priorities and make plans but struggle to sustain new behaviors.
To prevent this, it’s important to revisit and reinforce changed behaviors regularly. The best teams continuously measure their progress with surveys or interviews. They also share their goals, successes, and challenges with the broader organization to model the right behaviors and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
By committing to these steps, leadership teams can collectively develop the habits that fuel success. The deliberate effort creates a ripple effect across the organization, helping other teams feel that it’s safe and productive to embrace change, too.
