Great management teams are hungry to win in the moment and relentless at building for the future. It takes discipline and deliberate efforts to separate the here and now from an imagined but uncertain future—yet success over time demands this effort and discipline. Here are four big behaviors of management teams succeeding today while fighting hard for a great future:
One of the worst uses of the term, “team,” is in relationship to the group of executives who report to the CEO. For many of the (less than $200 million in annual revenue) firms I work with, there’s little beyond the “report to” issue that binds these groups together as a team. This is often frustrating to CEOs who expect more from their highest paid lieutenants. Here are 3 areas where these groups can and must coalesce as a team:
I’m convinced one of the key limiting factors of management team effectiveness is the discomfort these high-powered functional experts have in talking with each other. While there are few quiet senior management team meetings, the words exchanged tend to be more about functional updates and carefully worded ideas or collegial debate over direction or investments than they are about the real issues confronting the firm. Here are 5 blocking and tackling ideas to help senior executives strengthen their communication effectiveness as a team:
Fresh off the heels of running my annual post on the need for leaders to eschew annual resolutions in favor of a continuous refresh, I’m contradicting myself just a bit with my “blogging resolutions” for the year. I like the idea of making the goals public. Nothing like visibility to promote accountability! Here are 5 resolutions I'm making for strengthening the Management Excellence blog in the upcoming year:
