Most executive teams fall prey to a surprisingly subtle trap. If you have set a brilliant strategic plan only to see it fall short on execution, you’re probably already in the trap and don’t even know it. However, to show you what it is and how to avoid it, I have to tell a quick story first.
Nathan, a dear friend I worked with for over ten years, always told me, “Scottie, together you and I make one great executive.” And he was right.
He was quick to start. I was more methodical.
He could punch out 80% of a task in 5 minutes. And I could finish the last 20% in 5 months.
He had a brilliant intuition. I had a keen ability to find and understand the underlying data to prove or disprove that intuition.
He was energizing. I was stabilizing.
And the list goes on.
I didn’t realize it then, but our relationship taught me a profound truth. No one person is a great executive on their own.
What makes a great executive is how they contribute to an executive team. You need all of the skills both Nathan and I brought to the table, but no one has all those skills on their own.
That requires executives to come in different sizes and shapes and, most importantly, different leadership styles. (If you aren’t familiar with the four leadership styles, skim this article first.)
But here’s the problem. Most executive teams are highly biased to just two of the four styles. The most common deficient style combination for an executive team is Visionary-Synergist (VS).
And I get it.
Visionaries have big ideas, are creative, and live in the big picture.
Synergists play nice with others, love high-fiving the Visionaries’ ideas, and have a knack for galvanizing their team around those ideas.
Both of these styles seem to be the perfect fit for an executive.
And you might be thinking, what’s missing? If so, you’re not alone.
What’s missing?
So, what is missing from the VS team? Operators and Processors. Granted, they aren’t usually missing from the organization as a whole. They tend to be neatly tucked just underneath the VS team in the organization’s management layer(s).
And that makes sense as well.
Operators don’t want to sit in blue-sky (what they happily call BS, but mean something very different) meetings. They don’t want to wait for other people to get stuff done. They want to be out there getting their “real work” done.
Processors just say no to everything. They rain on our parade, ask a million questions, and seem to destroy every idea before it’s seen the light of day.
So either we don’t want them on the team, or they don’t want to be there, or both.
And you might be thinking, what’s wrong with that? If so, you’re not alone.
What’s wrong with that?
What’s wrong with the VS executive team/OP management team structure? Nothing at first.
It’s like the mouse who walks into a cage to get the peanut butter. For a moment, it’s bliss—until the peanut butter runs out. Only then does the mouse realize his predicament, and by then, it’s too late.
For the first year or two, both teams have a blast. The VS executive team feels liberated to dream big and leave the details to everyone else. The OP management team feels relieved from the constant pressure to smile and say yes in hours or days-long meetings when all they see are the problems piling up. Both teams feel like they have found their sweet spot.
But there’s a problem: their sweet spots point them in two very different directions.
Over the months and years, the VS executive team gets their heads further into the clouds and their feet further from the ground. They come up with bigger and bigger ideas and increasingly hand them off to the OP Management team with the sentiment, “How hard can it be?”
Meanwhile, The OP management team gets better and better at smiling and nodding then quietly killing the ideas from the executives so they can protect the organization and stay focused on what they think matters most.
This gap, which isn’t much more than a crack at first, becomes a gaping chasm between the two teams. I have found this is one of the primary reasons why strategic plans fail, and organizations find themselves constantly fighting Whitewater (if the VS team is stronger) or Treadmill (if the OP team is stronger) or, in the worst-case scenario, both Whitewater and Treadmill at the same time if the disconnect becomes too severe.
How do we get out?
If you find yourself frustrated by a lack of strategic progress or unable to sustain Predictable Success, the answer is surprisingly simple to understand. I wish it were as simple to do, but it is not. I’ll be honest with you. These three steps are hard work. They take time. However, the return on achieving and sustaining Predictable Success for decades is easily worth the investment ten times over.
Achieving Predictable Success is not easy, but it is worth it. Share on XThe first step is to build a balanced team.
The first place you need to look is at the leadership style balance at the executive level. You can find out what those styles are and how balanced your team is with our Team Leadership Styles Report.
The second step is to build the skills of an effective executive.
Every effective executive needs nine essential skills regardless of their style. This article explains these skills in more detail. You may also want to call us and ask about our Synergist360 Leadership Assessment.
The third step is to build the right structures around your team.
Achieving scalability happens in a surprisingly consistent way across industries and even across the business/nonprofit divide. You can find out what those specific steps are and how your organization is doing in each area with our Scalability Index Report so you can know how fast you can grow.
You don’t have to do it alone!
This journey is difficult to navigate on your own. Fortunately, you don’t have to do it alone. Our 6-month Acceleration Program will allow you to accomplish all three steps in a fraction of the time and with a much higher likelihood of success. Together, you’ll become not just one great executive but, instead, one brilliant executive team!
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