Leadership - The Top Team
The Top Team
Choice
When you are at the very top your choice of team will be critical for the direction of the company and the implementation of strategy.
If the key team is wrong the organisation will suffer.
When you are at the very top you do have the choice to build the team you would like.
The team is extremely important.
Once a team has been together for a period of time it begins to achieve a group identity.
This is because the team begins to require group needs.
It is trying to achieve common tasks and work together as a unit.
Within this team framework there are individual needs.
Issues
As a leader you will need to have confidence. However, too much of anything is often a bad thing. If you are over confident it may result in trying to hold on to the decision making resulting from poor delegation. Over confidence can lead to a denial of weaknesses.
This can result in a team that reflects your own virtues and skills. The team just becomes an extension of your self with agreement of decision making being the norm.
You will need to identify you own weaknesses and surround your self with a team that fills the gaps.
Good delegation is one thing but you must still retain the self confidence to know when to make the key decisions yourself and stick to them.
If you don’t you will have all the power but your bite will be toothless. Your team will soon spot dithering and indecision which will ultimately undermine their confidence in your leadership.
Beware of some people becoming too indispensable. If their power becomes too great it will be hard for you to influence those persons they have direct control over.
People in this position can wield disproportionate influence, almost to the point of blackmail. They could easily decide to leave the organisation at a critical stage and even take their entire team with them.
Chicken or egg
When you are at the top it is up to you to set the vision and develop the strategy, choose the team and provide the organisational structure.
Which comes first? Is it the team or the structure?
You could argue a case for either. On the one hand, it is not good to finalise an organisational structure and then try to fit a team into the holes.
On the other hand, if you create your perfect team the structure may not fit their particular strengths. It is easier to change a structure than a key team member. As the implementation of strategy will be best met by the best team it is better to get the team in place first then develop the structure to suit the teams strengths. This method will probably have more positive than negative effects.
The ability to reorganise when you need to is a key mechanism for altering the power balance for apparently ‘indispensable’ people.
The vision
Without a vision the leader has no direction.
Even an extremely good team will be rudderless without a clear vision and strategy to achieve it.
Once you have an idea of your vision you can then decide on the particular skill set of your team that will reach the vision.
Assemble the best team available, communicate the vision and develop the organisational structure and strategy to achieve it.
Communication
Define the problem
We know the leader should be able to concentrate on the vision but why is the vision there?
One view of any organisation is ‘if it isn’t broke don’t fix it’. So why bother to change?
The need for change must derive from a reason for change.
If the organisation is successful there may be an argument for just keeping the ship on an even keel.
This might apply if all of the surrounding influences were remaining stationary.
However, there will be technology advances, trends, developing markets and many other aspects of business that are continually changing.
The truth is, if you don’t change your competitors will which could be disastrous for your organisation.
Thus, the vision must solve a problem.
As for any project management [see Complete Project Management plus PRINCE2] you have to define the ‘problem’.
You will need to communicate the ‘problem’ to your team. There needs to be absolute clarity about the problem the vision will ultimately solve.
Of course, the vision itself is not a solution. However, in order to achieve your vision you must recognise a problem and implement a strategy that will solve it on the way to the vision. If you reach your vision the problem will have evaporated.
Naturally, as a vision may only span say 3 years new problems will appear requiring continued visions to keep pace.
Develop the strategy
You will need to clarify the problem, agree the vision and consider the strategy for achieving it with the team.
For this, you will need a specific meeting that recognises the importance of getting this right at the very start.
A new vision is likely to require change and as we have discussed before [see Skill development] many people are against change.
Some quick significant gains are useful to convince people that you are heading in the right direction.
Hard decisions
Beware of logic driving all of your decisions. Sometimes insight and common sense can out manoeuvre data.
If you need your team to perform in order to improve the organisational standing you must insist on the results and not be swayed by ‘data’ that says it can’t be done.
In other words, be positive and have a ‘can do’ attitude.
Many highly successful entrepreneurs begin with visions that most feel have no chance of being achieved.
You will need to stretch your team without making impossible demands upon them.