Leading Leaders – top team leadership

A lot of the work I do involves working with top teams. The boards, executive teams, management committees of large  and medium sized organizations. It seems to me that when we are engaging with the most senior team in the organization all the same rules of leadership should apply, albeit with a more sophisticated membership. What I find however, is that when operating at this level, many CEO’s or MD’s seem to expect different behaviour, different motivation needs and different recognition needs from their team. Just because someone has had a successful career and made the top team does not make them any less human or any less influenced by good leadership. To the contrary, if you can harness the skills and experience of a senior team with well crafted envisioning processes, to get their input to your dreams, if you can engage them fully into the challenges of the organization , then actually execution will have a very high probability of success.

So what is it about senior teams that encourages even the best of us to somehow overlook these basic human needs and treat them differently? Do we assume that at this level everyone is a self starter and self motivated individual? Look around you not everyone in the senior ranks of organizations are fully motivated ! Not all stock share schemes have the same incentive value. So think about what if…what if all the team were on board and rowing with you – instead of trailing their oar in the water. At the senior team level the significance of having everyone on stroke, on target, on message, on board …what ever analogy you like …. is incredibly powerful.

 So look up at your leaders – or if you are a leader in the top team – sideways. Is everyone on song? Do you harmonize or sing out of key ? What does it take to lead a team of leaders? Much of it is back to basics, but with higher expectations of the success that comes from an engaged team. Remember – ‘people is people!’   Status is just  the result of the title we assign people, they all have motivation needs and a real need to understand why. Even Vice Presidents deserve to be led well.