When I was a consultant for Disney’s Animal Kingdom, I was introduced to an animal called an okapi.  An okapi is a very rare animal that is part giraffe, zebra and antelope.  It looks a bit like a freak of nature.  If you go on the park’s safari ride, you will hear the  okapi’s referred to as the “ghosts of the forest” because they are so rare.

In many ways, the concept of a high functioning Executive Team is like an okapi.  When you see it, it seems like a freak of nature.  Sure, this great team may be featured in an article, book or Fish video.    But the reality is that if a team like this exists – they are like the okapi – sort of bizarre and rare

Why is a high performing Executive Team a myth?

There are four major reasons:
1.  Lack of common goals, interdependence and mutual accountability.

Teamwork 101 says that in order to have an effective team you need common goals, interdependence and mutual accountability.  Consider the basketball team.  That team has a serious common goal – winning.  They absolutely need each other to win.  Offense can’t do its job without defense.  But when you get to the Executive team level, you usually have individuals who are at the top of their respective organizations more often looking for reasons for why they need to interact with one another that are more significant than they report to the same Sr. Executive.

2.  Competing priorities

In today’s global marketplace, it is the rare Executive who doesn’t have some sort of dual reporting relationship.  For example, I may be the head of Information Services in the United States and have a hardline reporting relationship with the President of the company but I also have a hardline reporting relationship to the corporate CIO who is a part of the parent company that resides in Sydney, Australia.   Trying to create a single unit of people who have allegiances elsewhere is near impossible.

3.  Ego

What makes a great Executive is someone who sees what needs to be done and is drawn to be at the helm to ensure that what needs to be done gets done.    This drive and ego is a big part of the leadership gift.  Asking an Executive to stop what they are great at for the good of the whole (unless they have other compensating gifts) is like asking a right handed person to write left handed.

4.  A High Performance Executive Team is really not needed

Let’s be honest.  As a senior Executive, you don’t really want to run your organization by committee.  You don’t really need the team to come up with decisions as a group.  That type consensus decision making is time consuming and certainly doesn’t always lead to the best results.  What you really need is a group of people who know how to lend their respective leadership and department strengths for the good of the organization.  You need your Executive Team to be an effective Guiding Coalition.

The Executive Guiding Coalition

An Executive Guiding Coalition is an alliance of distinct leaders for joint action.  It is distinct from a team in terms of:

1. Reason for working together – A coalition comes together for a specific purpose.  A team is formed because ongoing work processes require the team to collaborate on an ongoing basis.
2. Functioning – Members of a coalition maintain their unique identity.  Team members form a new identity.

I recently watched HBO’s excellent video series on John Adams.  During the American Revolutionary War, the colonies had to form together into a cohesive unit to win the war.  The unique identities of Massachusetts, Georgia, South Carolina etc. were abandoned for the greater good which was the formation of a new country.  In contrast, these newly united colonies sought an alliance with France to fight a common enemy.  They formed a coalition where the newly formed United States maintained a distinct identity from France.

Top 5 Ways to establish an Effective Executive Guiding Coalition

1. Eliminate ongoing meetings.   You are an Executive.  You are busy.  There is no reason to meet unless there is joint action to be taken.  One company I worked with identified and mapped the one major key process that cut across organizational borders.  They scheduled meetings only at the decision points of the process, resulting in less meetings and improved decision making.

1. Be specific about joint action required.  When you bring your group of direct reports, be succinct in describing the problem they need to solve, decision they need to make or action they need to undertake together.  Also, emphasize why they as a group need to do this together.  One leader I worked with started each meeting with a specific, measurable goal that the group needed to accomplish at the end of the discussion, which tapped into the problem solving and efficient nature of the typical Executive.

1. When only subsets of your direct reports need to work together, bring only that subset together.  It is a waste of time to bring your entire group of direct reports, when only 2 or 3 are needed.  You can easily update the group via voice mail or email.

1. Be okay that not everyone who reports to you has the same level of decision making. It is common practice (as it should be) that support organizations such as HR, Finance and IT have a seat at the Executive table.  Line leaders need staff organizations to ensure that decisions take into account realities of money, people and technology.   That said, staff shouldn’t have the same input on decisions as the line leaders, who are ultimately accountable to carry out decisions made.

1. Capitalize on each member’s “power alley”. Your direct reports each have a unique set of skills that make them effective in his or her role.  Find out what each leader is great at and use those strengths to drive stronger alliances among members.  For example, I consulted to major transformation project for a company that was revamping its approach to customer service.  All Executives needed to be on board with this large-scale change.  The leader and I considered each Executive and his or her strengths and identified specific change roles that they would play in the project.  This approach allowed the leadership to be shared, the project to be jointly owned while maintaining each leader’s individuality and strengths.

The Bottomline
Companies spend thousands of dollars trying to build Executives into a high performing team, yielding minimal results.  The lack of results is not on the quality of the intervention but the pointlessness in the endeavor.  Don’t waste valuable time and dollars seeking the elusive okapi Executive Team.   Instead, with a little of time investment, find ways to create an effective Executive Guiding Coalition that actually builds on the strengths that you already have.

Are you wondering how to improve the synergy among your direct reports? Check out the other resources available online at www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com or give us a call at 407.376.8522 for a free consultation. We accelerate results by igniting leadership and organizational potential!