Leadership team health critical to business success

When we talk about health here, we're talking about the quality of the relationships. How unified is your senior team? Do you have a solid group who work in lockstep with one another? Or do you notice factions that spread negativity through back channels, or holdouts that keep their feet pressed firmly on the brakes? Your leadership team health is critical to your business success. This means that until and unless you can overcome the 5 dysfunctions that plague teams you are likely to achieve only a mixed bag of results.

These concepts in this post come from Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. We use them regularly in our interactions with each of our clients, because team conditions can change as the company changes. If you have not yet read Lencioni's book, put it at the top of your business reading list. Better yet, buy it and start reading it right now.

The dysfunctions are like a pyramid - you have to start by firming up the foundation before you can move to the next higher level of function.

1. Lack of Trust - You are all in this business venture together, yet sometimes business concerns wind up taking a back seat to the interpersonal dynamics. If you don't trust the guy or gal next to you at the conference table, you are less likely to share info with them, right? When you trust you make yourself vulnerable without concern that someone will stab you in the back (figuratively speaking of course). Some on your team may be covering up, and they may be doing so with reasonable cause.
2. Fear of Conflict - If you think that your team is highly functioning because you are not hearing open debate and disagreement, you're probably wrong. Without trust, your team members won't come forth with opposition. Conflict will stay underground and you will see artificial harmony. For now. But it will come out later in back-channel personal attacks and more.
3. Lack of Commitment - It's hard to commit when you have not had a say in the decision. See where this builds from the fear of conflict? Weighing in as decisions are discussed and debated makes it easier to buy in once the decisions are made.
4. Avoidance of Accountability - Are team members calling one another out on misaligned behavior? It can be interpersonally uncomfortable to do so, even for leaders who wouldn't hesitate to call out a direct report. Beyond the discomfort, though, is that the team probably never fully committed to a unified direction. 
5. Inattention to Results - Sometimes one team member is more concerned about his or her own results than they are about the team results. Preoccupation with ego and status lead to behaviors like "turfishness" and budget hoarding, signs that "my results are more important than yours - or ours." 

Overcoming the Dysfunctions - The bullets below should get you started with some ideas, but a growth coach can also help you identify and overcome the dysfunctions on your leadership team.

• Start with trust building. Provide opportunities for team members to get to know one another better as individuals. You or your growth coach (that's us!) can involve team members in experiential learning, provide a diagnostic to uncover behavioral styles, or share personal histories.
• Conflict - You might need to take on the role of conflict miner - digging for it and uncovering it for the group to process. Engaging in conflict may be simpler if the leader of the team invites it and reminds team members that it is necessary.
• Commitment - It is not always possible to have full consensus, and it is often that your team will make a decision without certainty that they have complete information. Be sure to confirm at the end of your meetings exactly what was agreed upon and what the next actions are. Set deadlines for decisions to be made. Or engage in a "worst case scenario" discussion to help the more risk-averse on your team to move forward.
• Accountability - The use of metrics and standards makes it easier to hold parties accountable. You can also use team rewards to reinforce the desired behaviors.
• Results - Encourage public declarations of intended results. If you are shooting for $5 million in revenue for the quarter, say so out loud. Post it on a "Mission Control" board and update it as you move toward the number. You are more likely to pursue it vigorously knowing the number is out there. You can also link rewards to results.