“A real team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and an approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”
– Katzenbach and Smith
People in most organisations would acknowledge that its leadership team holds a unique and powerful position. They are the ultimate stewards of all the elements that make a company successful or unsuccessful. Their decisions shape direction. Their behaviour sets the tone. Their alignment – or lack of it echoes throughout the business.
Yet, despite the talent and experience that often sits around the senior table, many leadership teams struggle to operate as a real team. They may be effective as individual leaders in their own department or function, but that doesn’t always translate into a powerful collective.
Research by McKinsey revealed that over 75% of senior leaders think the teams they are part of are ineffective, as a team. This is despite members individually being technically very capable, leaders who are often judged by others to be excellent within their discipline.
Building a team takes time, intention, and on-going practice. Even high-performing groups full of talented individuals don’t become teams automatically. Their success depends on consistently applying key principles and having the right ingredients:
With the right people, purpose, and practices in place, senior teams can move from a capable group of individual leaders to a high-performing leadership collective – ready to lead with clarity and agility. It takes courage, emotional energy, and commitment to begin the journey as a team; and to recognise that untapped potential lies waiting to be galvanised.
With one simple but profound question: ‘What is the work that only this team can do together?’
No matter what sector or geography the organisation is in, we find that this question is often the catalyst for all the necessary conversations. From there, we help teams uncover what’s getting in their way – whether it’s unclear purpose, competing priorities, interpersonal tensions, or a lack of shared ownership.
An essential mechanism for getting clear on these key issues is to create space for honest conversations. This enables the team to build trust and move from passive coordination to true collaboration. These conversations allow the team space to learn how to make decisions collectively, challenge each other constructively, and lead with greater unity.
When senior teams are aligned, they become a driving force for transformation. They lead with clarity. They model the culture they want to see. They bring the heat that energises the whole organisation. We share below some real-world examples of senior leadership teams we’ve partnered with to enhance their effectiveness:
The impact of this work goes far beyond the senior team itself. It shows up in how strategy is executed, how culture is experienced, and how people across the business feel about their work. When the leadership team is thriving, the whole organisation feels it. People become more engaged. And results follow – proof that when the right ingredients come together, the whole enterprise is nourished.
If you’d like to learn more about how you could shift your leadership team from a capable group of individual leaders to a high-performing leadership collective, get in touch with Aoife Keane, Consultant.
Aoife Keane 
Deborah Gray 
Ally Salisbury