Peter Klugsberger identifies the root causes of a struggling leadership team.
It is hardly a revelation that the Australian executives we encounter during our consulting assignments showcase an exceedingly high calibre. These are individuals who have ascended to the top of their organisations over the span of decades, mostly by accumulating deep industry-sector expertise, developing powerful networks, and by astutely navigating the intricate political landscape.
What is less evident, however, is that the success of these c-suite leaders has been significantly influenced, if not determined, by the quality and performance of the leadership teams they have assembled over the years. It would be even tempting to suggest that none of these executives would have been as successful without the support of their high-performing leadership teams.
Even more surprising is the fact that many of these seasoned executives are often ill-equipped or lack the bandwidth to identify and deal with performance challenges of their teams, spanning from interpersonal conflicts, deficiency in meaningful debate, groupthink, to issues of fragmentation.
Given the intrinsically symbiotic relationship between executives and their teams—a relationship in which success or failure is inevitably shared— we argue that the pivotal challenge for executives concerning the future relevance of both themselves and their teams lies in their capacity to:
- identify common warning signs that suggest their team is struggling
- determine differentiating capabilities their team’s need to develop to thrive in today’s context
- acknowledge the strategic importance of evolving leadership teams to secure their future relevance
In an increasingly volatile and intricate market landscape, many executives have yet to come to terms with the fact that to prevail in this novel competitive landscape they cannot afford to continue following a BAU strategy for much longer as the rules of the game have just changed too much.
Read the full article, Three Signs Your Leadership Team Is in Trouble, on OvionPartners.com.