Teams are where the magic happens.
In the complex world we live in, we need high-performing teams to address today’s and tomorrow’s challenges simultaneously. We need the dexterity of a well-functioning team to explore dilemmas, make choices and navigate the waters of possibilities as they continuously innovate and adapt.
Is this any different for the top team?
Not really, except that it is even more important and as such even more difficult to be a high-performing team at the top of an organization.
Why do we need a high-performing top team?
The top leadership team is the driving force behind an organization’s success. The ripple effects of performance focused leadership with a “winning together” mindset are felt throughout the organization and secure that it realizes its full potential.
- Leadership Sets the Tone: The top team establishes the vision, mission, and values that guide the entire organization. They shape the performance-driven and collaborative organizational culture by modeling behaviors, setting expectations, and reinforcing values.
- Strategic Alignment: High-performing top teams ensure that the organization’s strategy is well-crafted and tightly aligned with the business performance as a collective.
- Decision-Making Quality: They deliberate on critical business issues, leading to more well-rounded and thoroughly vetted outcomes. They make decisions collectively, securing the optimum level of outreach and reducing the risk of biases.
- Innovation and Adaptability: High-performing leadership teams pay attention not only to current performance but also to the transformation of the business for future success. They pursue innovation by encouraging risk-taking, fostering creativity, and staying ahead of market trends; they adapt to changes in their ecosystem securing sustained competitive advantage.
- Crisis Management and Resilience: High-performing teams are agile and better equipped to handle crises, whether internal or external, and ensure organizational resilience through effective risk management, capability development and culture building.
- Talent Attraction and Retention: High-performing leadership teams attract and retain top talent by creating an environment where employees can thrive in meritocracy and see opportunities for performance and personal growth.
- Stakeholder Confidence: They inspire confidence among stakeholders, including investors, customers, and partners, by maintaining connection and transparency.
Up for the challenge of becoming a high-performing top team?
Here is the starters list of the golden rules for high-performing top teams:
- Define the specific purpose of the top team – spoiler alert, it is not identical to the purpose of the company – and specific goals that are enablers of the overall company’s objectives.
- Be clear about the contribution of each team member, including the leader, to the purpose and specific goals of the top team.
- Spend enough (quality) time together. Invest in building team spirit and contributing to each other’s personal growth.
- Welcome the performance challenges as a team. By the way, the most challenging situations are also the most fertile grounds for creating real teams who achieve great things together.
- Do not become masters of explaining away performance gaps or “this is not my area of responsibility” rhetoric. Raise the bar, be honest, define and drive collective accountability with a growth mindset.
- Embrace the enterprise leader mindset taking a broad eco-system perspective and reconciling long-term and short-term impact and success.
A high-performing organization cannot exist without a high-performing top team.
Let’s be that team!
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