Of the seven competencies listed by this study*, competency #4, “crafting a cabinet and team building”, is the one formulated in a way that is most specific to a senior leadership position. While anyone can call their leadership team a cabinet, it’s rare in my experience for that term to be used except at the most senior level. And even then the term is certainly not universal. Whether it’s called a cabinet, an executive team, leadership council, or the Monday Meeting, the group of people working most closely with leaders are critically important to their success and the creation and work of this group deserve time and attention.
The term “crafting” is an interesting word to choose. It assumes, rightly in most situations, that the leader can pick and choose members. That’s certainly true for the decisions about which positions should be included. Which people should be included is often a bit trickier as we all know. Finding the right person for the work to be done in every position we might want on the leadership team is challenging, but critically important.
I have been part of leadership teams of various sizes and I prefer smaller rather than larger both as a leader and as a member of a team. Smaller teams allow for more engagement between members though really large organizations naturally need larger teams. Even then, I prefer a smaller executive team joined regularly by a more expansive secondary leadership council.
Regardless of size and composition, the functioning of the group is the more critical factor. When crafting the team there are two important factors to consider – is the person good at their job and can they work as part of a team? In other words, can they compromise, see the bigger picture of the organization, support the leader and the other team members, and trust others and be trustworthy etc.?
For this to happen, the leader has to be clear about their expectations and support the team in learning to work together effectively. Leaders need to be alert to topics that can and should be discussed with the team. For example, if someone brings an idea to a one-on-one conversation that has an effect on other parts of an organization, the leader needs to say, let’s put that on the agenda for the leadership meeting. In other words, this needs the involvement of the full group. It needs to be safe for a team member to bring a question to the team for ideas and feedback and the leader, sometimes, will need to enforce good behavior as people learn how to participate in this way. Additionally, using this team to hold the entire organization accountable for progress on and monitoring of strategic initiatives is part of leading an organization of disparate parts as a team.
When building a leadership team, it’s also critical for leaders to be clear about their purpose in bringing a question before the group. Is the leader asking this group to make a decision for the organization that everyone, including the leader, will abide by? Or, is the leader asking this group for ideas and input before they make a decision by themselves or take their ideas to another decision-making team? Being clear about this helps the team understand their role and is an important part of trust building because no one is confused about what is happening.
Even if as written, this competency is really for presidents/senior executives, all of us can work on developing this competency, since, I imagine, all of us are part of some team as part of our work.
Take a look at the leadership teams around you, beyond those you serve on and lead. What do you see about the leader’s ability to craft and build a team? What can you learn from that observation? Then do a review of teams you are on and those you lead. You can’t change the one you are a member of, but an analysis of what is working and what isn’t can help you be more effective on the team. It will also help you learn something you might want to apply after you’ve done the analysis of your leadership team. Do you have the right positions and the right people in the group and are you doing the necessary work to have them function as a team? If not, what can you begin doing to shift these elements and to build an effective team? What can you do to craft and build a leadership team?
Take care,
Gage