Striking the Balance – Individual Accountability and Teamwork

Most business leaders understand there are significant challenges to getting the Senior Leadership Team to function as a team. This is despite the obvious benefits to the organization of a shared commitment to the purpose, values and vision at the top.
    

Jon Katzenbach, a former Director of McKinsey and Company, says in his book Teams at the Top:

        “… we all know that these so-called top teams seldom function as real teams because of the pressures of other priorities, as well as their strong desire to preserve individual accountability, if not ego.”

Kerry Larkan explains that “most members of the Senior Team are accountable for a department, function or business unit within the organization. Individual accountability is extremely important. So how do they balance that with the benefits an organization gains by all members of the Senior Team being on the same bus and heading in the same direction?”

The Part Time Role of Being a Member of the Senior Team

”First things first,” says Kerry: “most teams are not full time teams. In fact, it’s very much a part-time role. Senior Team members are selected for their knowledge and expertise and their primary role is to fulfil their individual responsibilities,” he explains:

“Let’s take the CFO for example; they’re a a member of the Senior Team yet their primary responsibility is for the financial functioning of the organization. As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, the CFO’s focus needs to be on the organization as a whole, not just the finance department,” says Kerry “.

To be an effective team member the CFO must understand the difference between these two roles... that they have different responsibilities and require different behaviours,” he said:

For a team at the top to find the balance between individual accountability and a team focused here are two important ingredients that need to be present: behavioural adaptability and the motivation to be a team.

1. Behavioural Adaptability is an Essential Skill

“Effective teamwork cannot be achieved unless team members understand the need to switch from one role to the other,” says Kerry. To do this, team members first need to have the flexibility of mind to mentally switch roles, and secondly the behavioural adaptability to effectively perform both roles.

“Behavioral adaptability requires a high degree of emotional intelligence, which we know can be learned. But it takes time,” he said. “The emotional competencies of Self-Awareness and Self-Management are essential; they increase awareness of the need to excel in two roles requiring different behaviours, and then go through the process of learning to adapt to new habits.”

When a person moves away from the behaviours that are most comfortable for them they may experience a high degree of discomfort and anxiety. “Their natural instinct will be to revert back to the habitual, more comfortable behaviour,” explains Kerry. “Learning to change old habits takes time and a single training event will have virtually no impact on increasing behavioural adaptability,” he said.

2. The Motivation to be a Team

“The second basic ingredient is that teams must have a significant reason for existing,” explains Kerry.

According to Jon Katzenbach, the most important ingredient for team success is a clear and compelling performance challenge. “Many teams fail to establish a team performance challenge that is meaningful and important to all team members. Without that there is no motivation for team members to put out the effort to adapt their behaviour,” he said.

Every organization has many challenges to deal with. “The discipline required for a Senior Team to be effective is to determine what their team performance challenge is at this point in time. And, to work together effectively to achieve the desired results will require a high level of trust and open communication,” said Kerry.

Kerry Larkan’s Approach to Senior Team Alignment

“My approach is to ensure that all team members are heading in the same direction. The key to that is getting agreement on a team performance challenge that is meaningful and compelling to all.

“To achieve this,” explains Kerry, “we use the Team Alignment Questionnaire™ (TAQ) to identify the degree to which the team is in alignment prior to commencing any team discussions. This tool measures the degree to which team members are clear on, and in agreement with, where the team is going and how they are going to get there,” says Kerry.

“By starting with this benchmark of where the team is at, we know what needs to be worked on, what needs to be clearer and where we need to get agreement, so that we can get the team commitment to the team performance challenge,” he says.

The Team Alignment Questionnaire™ also measures the trust level within the team. “When the trust level is low, team members are reluctant to speak up when they don’t agree, cliques develop and essentially we end up with people on a number of different buses, heading in different directions,” explains Kerry.

The Elements of Trust™ is a unique trust model from Integro and it helps teams increase their trust level so the real barriers to being a high performing team can be identified and removed.

“This approach ensures that the team stays focused on their team’s performance rather than on the personalities of team members, togetherness or team building for its own sake,” says Kerry.

Strategic Alignment Survey™

One of the primary goals of the Senior Team is to ensure that employees are aligned with and achieve the organization’s Vision and Goals. “It makes sense,” says Kerry “that the Senior Team has an understanding of the degree to which employees are currently aligned, and what the trust level is throughout the organization.”

The Strategic Alignment Survey™ is designed to measure alignment and trust levels across the whole organization and can provide feedback by division, business unit, location and work groups. This information provides a benchmark that can be reassessed after plans have been implemented to measure how the culture is changing, and the impact it is having on business results.

For more information contact Kerry Larkan.