4 Ways Executive Team Culture Hurts Enterprise Performance

Companies expect senior leaders to act like enterprise leaders, but they may not hold them accountable for doing so in the same way. If you’re struggling to close a gap, improve performance, or strengthen your culture of enterprise leadership, consider:

Scorecards may differ, but the test is the same

If you lead a global organization, your businesses, functions, geographies, and CoEs may each operate under different scorecards by which they are held accountable. To improve enterprise leadership, what matters is that even if the content of the scorecards differ, the expectations, level of difficulty, and consequences should be the same.

Putting leaders in the hot seat

Notice how different parts of the company are treated when it comes time for QBRs, monthly executive team meetings, or other scenarios where leaders provide updates on enterprise performance. It’s not uncommon to see certain parts of the organization get peppered with questions, second-guessed, or scrutinized, while others get to skate through their updates with nary a question or comment. If you want leaders to share equal responsibility for enterprise performance, break the pattern of routinely putting some leaders in the hot seat, while others get a pass.

Look at the sacred cows

Even the best companies may overinvest precious time, energy, and resources into the sacred cows of the CEO, board, or previous leadership. Strong enterprise leaders have the courage to raise questions and challenge their company’s investment or focus in activities that aren’t producing results or having an impact with investors, analysts, or other key stakeholders.

Data and dialogue

Some teams struggle to get on the same page about the current state and agree on what’s really happening about cost, performance, and growth. Providing everyone with the same data at the same time can quickly close gaps in understanding. That won’t matter, however, unless there is productive, candid dialogue to accompany the information. Teams that operate by spreadsheets and decks rarely get to the right level of discussion that’s needed to address enterprise performance or strategize about what’s coming around the corner.

Why team concepts don’t always apply to executive teams.

Companies expect leaders to put the first team first, but even strong teams may struggle to put the right processes and behaviors into practice to achieve this. Why is this so often the case with executive teams? First, many of the traditional best practices about team performance, collaboration, or decision-making don’t necessarily apply at this level. These groups, more than others, operate in deep silos, and are far more likely to act like a forum or council that updates the CEO and exchanges information than anything else. Compare this to a more traditional team, where leaders must engage with each other, collaborate to solve problems, and work closely together to achieve goals.

Being in the inner circle

Decision-making is another challenge on executive teams: Even if decision rights rest largely with the CEO and a small group of key leaders, executive teams can be large and often include others beyond the core group. These executives often left wondering about their role in decisions or whether they are really part of the inner circle. That’s why these types of groups may plenty of ‘A’ players, but don’t operate like an ‘A’ team. It also explains why executive teams struggle even more with elements like psychological safety, candor, and enterprise thinking, because the structure and format may prevent real dialogue, with few (if any) opportunities to clarify roles.

To shift executive team culture, start with a few simple steps:

1. Assess the degree to which the team sees itself as a first team.
2. Ask: To what degree is this team an asset for our company? Could we achieve our enterprise goals without this team?
3. Approach discussions in this order: Enterprise, team, self.
4. Create data transparency through simple dashboards.
5. Establish concrete guidelines for engaging in challenge and debate.
6. Minimize updates, one-way dialogue, and report outs.
7. Dedicate regular time for brainstorming solutions to problems as a team.
8. Create KPIs that encourage first team behaviors.

Executive teams are made up of exceptional leaders, but team structure, processes, or legacy behaviors may limit the impact of what could be a high-performing team. The good news is that may not take as much as you think to shift executive team performance in significant ways. Simple tweaks to meetings, communication, or role clarity can work wonders in helping a strong group of leaders act, lead, and operate like a first team.