How Successful CEOs Accelerate Their Leadership Team’s Performance – From the Desk of Dave Liddell

Your leadership team will make or break your company’s future success.

As technology and communication continue to revolutionize the business world, many CEOs are not equipped to handle today’s complex, fast-paced working environments alone. As a result, it’s never been more important for companies to have an effective senior leadership team capable of working together to drive business performance and long-term growth.

As many CEOs know, however, creating and maintaining a collaborative group of highly skilled senior leaders is a challenging process, and one that can have significant impacts on long-term growth and success.

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These are some of the ways successful CEOs accelerate their leadership team’s business performance:

They Get to Know Their Team

Effective CEOs get to know their leadership team on a professional and personal level. They gain a detailed understanding of each individual’s working style, stressors, and motivators; and by doing so, are better equipped to make informed decisions when structuring the organization or assigning responsibilities. By knowing their leaders, they’re also able to establish a sense of trust, which is critical for driving motivation and getting buy-in around a specific vision or objective.

Getting to know your team is simple and just requires good character. Be approachable and compassionate. Small talk has value, so use it to learn about your employees. Learn about their personal lives, take the time to understand the individual challenges they face in their respective departments, and help them navigate toward the best solutions. In our fast-paced world, taking this extra time may seem impossible but in reality, it is an absolute necessity.

They Monitor Team Dynamics

Your leadership team’s dynamics play an important role in the business performance and organizational development. Successful CEOs are highly attuned to their leadership team’s flow and levels of interdependence. An executive team may be skilled and experienced, but combining them into a cohesive unit can be among the most difficult challenges for a CEO. A high-functioning leadership team has an established sense of trust. They’re able to commit to decisions, provide constructive criticism, and hold one another accountable for business performance. On the other hand, a negative team dynamic displays distrust and cynicism and has a lack of focus. As CEO, it’s important to monitor your leadership team’s dynamics and ensure they are setting the right example for the rest of the organization.

They Create a Culture of Accountability

A culture of accountability is key to driving business performance and the process of building it starts with the CEO. Leadership teams and departments need to know exactly what it is they’re accountable for. As the company’s leader, you must set clear expectations that align with your vision. From there, it’s up to the leadership team to set the example for the rest of the organization. Consistently achieving results, driving business performance, honoring commitments, and admitting mistakes are behaviors that must be inherent in your leadership team. These behaviors must drive the decision-making process for every team across the organization. Employees will be quick to adopt accountability when they see it exemplified from their leaders.

They Help Leaders Reach Their Full Potential

Coaching is one of the most effective leadership tools, and it’s widely used by successful CEOs to help company leaders reach their full potential. Your executive team may have extensive experience or be highly skilled, but frequent coaching can still help them drive higher productivity, engagement, and business performance. Additionally, employees who feel supported are more likely to value their position and remain with your organization long term.

The ability to see a person’s true potential and coach them towards desired business outcomes is a crucial leadership skill. As your company’s leader, you have a unique perspective on how an individual’s performance impacts overall business operations and are in the best position to provide feedback and steer employees in the right direction. Remember, coaching your leadership team requires patience, attentiveness, and emotional intelligence. It requires that you take the time to understand each leader’s strengths and weaknesses and adapt your approach accordingly. The key to successfully helping leaders reach their potential is setting specific goals related to business performance and providing continuous feedback along the way.

They Don’t Allow Poor Performers to Drag Down the Team

Poorly performing leaders will not only negatively impact your executive team, they can also have a rippling effect that leads to attrition across your company’s top employees. Management inadequacy is one of the top reasons strong performers leave a company. A lack of productivity or a bad attitude from a member of your executive team can have detrimental effects on business performance. Because of the potential for far reaching effects, it’s best to address the situation head-on. Determine the underlying cause behind the poor performance (lack of skills, unclear expectations, attitude, etc.). Talk to your employee one-on-one and quickly determine if the issue is correctable. If not, it’s best to follow the proper procedures for dismissing the employee as soon as possible to prevent further impacts to business performance.

Fostering an effective leadership team is not simple – it requires frequent coaching, team building, and plenty of time. The benefits of a cohesive, high-performing leadership team, however, cannot be understated and shouldn’t be minimized. It’s the key to driving a strong company culture, long term growth, and solid overall business performance. Successful CEOs invest in frequently assessing the effectiveness of their leadership teams and raise-up the leaders around them.

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