Many senior leadership teams consider themselves high-performing when they consistently meet or exceed business targets. But even when business results are satisfactory, these teams often operate below their full potential.
The reasons can be multifaceted, encompassing team dynamics, unchallenged assumptions, and misaligned communication. Why is it that even seemingly successful leadership teams might still not be operating at their optimum?
- Complacency and the illusion of success
One of the most common pitfalls for senior leadership teams is complacency. When a team consistently hits its targets, there’s a natural tendency to equate this with optimal performance. Complacency can mask deeper issues. According to Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, high-performing teams continually strive for improvement, avoiding the trap of becoming too comfortable with the status quo. Being a high performing team is an ongoing pursuit, not a static achievement. The chances are that there is still a lot of hidden potential in the team that can help them accelerate the achievement of their business aspirations.
- Lack of of diversity in thought
Another factor that can limit a leadership team’s effectiveness is a lack of cognitive diversity. Teams often unconsciously fall into groupthink. Similar backgrounds, experiences, and thought processes lead to homogenous decision-making. This can stifle innovation and limit the team’s ability to navigate complex challenges. Research from Harvard Business Review highlights that diverse teams are better at problem-solving and are more likely to develop innovative solutions because they bring different perspectives to the table. When leadership teams do not actively seek out and incorporate diverse viewpoints, they miss out on creative solutions that could propel the organisation forward.
- Artificial harmony
Effective teams thrive on healthy conflict, but many leadership teams avoid it in favour of maintaining a veneer of harmony. While this might create a peaceful work environment in the short term, it often leads to unresolved tensions and suboptimal decision-making. As Lencioni points out, fear of conflict is a significant dysfunction in teams. When leaders shy away from candid discussions, they often miss critical insights, and decisions are made without fully exploring potential risks or alternatives. Senior teams need more cognitive conflict not less.
- Misaligned communication
Even high performing teams overlook the importance of the unanimity of their communication to the rest of the organisation. While leadership teams may have fully discussed and agreed a topic in their meeting, they usually haven’t given insufficient consideration as to how they should communicate further into the organisation to ensure consistency of message. These ‘slightly different’ versions of the story may not be hugely significant at the next level down, but the degree of separation increases further into the business until employees on the front line in different departments receive contradictory messages.
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- Inadequate focus on the team itself
Senior leadership teams often assume that because they are experienced, they don’t need further development as a team. This assumption can limit growth. Continuous development is crucial, not just at the individual level but also for the team as a whole. McKinsey suggests that regular team coaching and development can significantly enhance a team’s effectiveness, even when they are already performing well. This process can help identify team blind spots, build stronger collaboration, and align more effectively with organisational goals.
- Lack of team goals vs personal objectives
Even high performing teams can misunderstand the importance of collective team goals. As heads of their respective areas of responsibility, senior team members will clearly have their own specific objectives to which the team leader holds them accountable. Having teams goals, however, for which the team hold each other mutually accountable is a key feature of ‘performing’ as a senior team. Thinking and working towards the joint success of the team as a whole produces greater cohesion and results.
- Over reliance on historical successes
Past success is often used as a benchmark for future actions. But what worked yesterday may not be effective tomorrow. Senior leadership teams that rely too heavily on historical data and strategies may miss the opportunity to innovate or pivot in response to changing market conditions. Gartner points out that organisations that continuously adapt and challenge their past successes are more likely to thrive in volatile environments. Two senior team capabilities are essential here. Strategic foresight, to be able to identify opportunities and challenges before they land and learning agility, to be able to learn from past experiences.
In my experience, even when a senior leadership team appears to be high-performing, there is often significant untapped potential. Leadership teams that are committed to a clear vision and purpose, common goals and an approach, all of which they hold themselves mutually accountable for, reduce the time to value and increase value over time. These teams realise that high performance isn’t a destination in itself but rather something that needs continuous focus, development and adjustment.