Harnessing the collective expertise of the management team to drive effective execution
The key to effective execution is to lead from the top. But, by top, we mean not just the chief executive rather the entire C-Suite team. By tapping into the combined strengths of the management team as a whole, exploiting their diversity and fully harnessing their collective expertise, a chief executive officer has, within easy grasp, the potential to achieve the company’s goals that much faster, thereby driving true competitive advantage.
Tapping into such collective strength remains however a challenge for many CEOs today. Such engagement is not automatic and needs to be nutured. With input from Dr Ulhrich Middelmann, Bob Lutz, Ellen Marram, Michael Miles, Christopher Sheridan, Roger Kenny and Hank McKinnell, we identify three fundamental building blocks to better exploit C-Suite effectiveness.
1. Instilling confidence within the executive team: driving understanding of what individual team members bring to the table fosters a collective confidence and the reassurance that executives can rely upon each other to execute established priorities.
2. Putting commitment and confidence on display: communicating clearly and consistently, from the top downwards cultivates a feeling of trust amongst the workforce, promotes stronger employee engagement and fast tracks progress. The parallel is conflicting messages, general misalignment of goals, silo-mentality and crippling corporate inertia.
3. Leading for execution: With management team alignment secured, commitment assured and confidence levels bolstered, the final ingredient is for this team to employ an implementation roadmap. The change blueprint provides one and all clear sight of the intended results and must have:
-Open lines of communication
-Feedback mechanisms
-Key performance indicators to track progress and identify if and where corrective action is required.
Driven well, C-Suite effectiveness is instrumental in driving competitive advantage. Executive team members are hired for a reason; by working together as a team, they add pace and momentum, meaning a company achieves its goals that much faster, outpacing rivals along the way.
Establishing the solid foundations of a collaborative and effective team, with a clear road map and accountability to one another for results provides for a disciplined approach to execution – the cornerstone to growth and success in today’s world.
