6 Signs of Dysfunction on the C-Suite Team—and What to Do About It (Part2)

From our last article, we learned about the 6 signs of dysfunction on the C-suite team. In this article, we will show you more about what to do about it.

Getting Past the Dysfunction of Your C-Suite

Let’s be honest: Unless there are major battles happening, most C-suites are reluctant to address the dysfunction on their team. Many assume these issues go with the territory, and prioritize other matters. Or they may be a bit cynical that things will improve much. Or in some cases, they’re afraid of the feedback they may get.

But in our conversations with CEOs, one of their biggest regrets was waiting to address dysfunction in the C-suite. Without clarity and cohesion, their teams spent too long spinning their wheels, costing the company major opportunities and potentially sending them down the wrong paths. And it reflects poorly on the CEO, who can’t seem to advance their agenda.

So what do you do about it? It usually requires some kind of jolt to the system, followed by ongoing development. But it starts by appropriately assessing where your team is, and applying the right approaches from there.

In our experience, successful C-suites go through cycles of development every few years that may look something like the graphic below:

Of course, not all journeys are linear, or start at the beginning. And there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for the complexity of C-suite dynamics.

However, we find it can be helpful to start out with a few simple questions to know where you are on this journey. Then you can begin action on some potential solutions to start addressing your challenges.

Set the vision

You may be here if:

·       You recently shifted your business strategy.

·       You’ve recently been through a merger acquisition, or restructuring.

Questions to ask:

·       What key things does our C-suite need to do to drive our most critical business priorities for the next few years?

·       Are we looking beyond past performance to ensure that our executives are equipped to drive us where we need to go next?

What to do about it:

·       Conduct stakeholder interviews: Whether done internally or with an external consultant, ask individual stakeholders about what they believe are the top business priorities. Find out what skills they believe are most critical in the C-suite, and what may be lacking.

·       Identify your top challenges: Based on the data from the stakeholder interviews, identify the top three to four challenges that are MOST crucial to your success in the next few years. Note that there will always be much more, but try to focus on only the most critical ones. From there, connect key skills and competencies that drive success in that area.

·       Hold a team strategy and alignment session: Bring the C-suite team together to ensure that everyone aligns on the prioritization of the team’s challenges.

Make the tough people decisions

You may be here if:

·       A shift in strategy has radically changed the requirements of key roles.

·       You are seeing performance drops in key areas.

·       There’s discord among the senior team.

Questions to ask:

·       Do you have the right people in the right jobs with the right capabilities?

·       Is there anyone in a key role that is serving as a barrier to success?

·       Are there new roles you need to add to the team to support your strategy, i.e. a Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Diversity Officer, etc.?

What to do about it:

·       Get data on your C-suite’s capabilities: It’s crucial that you make decisions based on data about each individual’s capabilities, rather than gut feelings about who’s right in the job and who’s not. You can use assessments such as a business simulation or an interview assessment to get objective data.

·       Hold a strategic talent review session: Based on the assessment data, your CEO, CHRO, and board will need to have a frank discussion about the capabilities of your C-suite. This session should include discussion of who is in the right role currently, who is ready to take on a new role or initiative, who needs development, and who may be a barrier to the team’s success.

Drive individual and team self-awareness

You may be here if:

·       Your team or business has stagnated in performance.

·       You feel that in order to change the business or culture, your senior leaders must shift their mindsets.

Questions to ask:

·       Are individuals aware of their personal habits, motivations, and behaviors and how they are perceived by the people around them?

·       How are the habits and traits of the team affecting business performance? For example, is the team loaded with heavily risk-averse people, which may be slowing the team’s ability to capitalize on opportunities?

What to do about it:

·       Engage in individual personality assessments and coaching: Personality assessments help C-suite executives understand their natural tendencies, and drive awareness of why they act in certain ways. Understanding their personal attributes can also help them become much more aware of how their actions affect others. Note that it’s crucial, however, to use the right type of personality assessment for the situation.

·       Have leaders participate in 360-degree feedback: Obviously, driving self-awareness depends on understanding how your actions are perceived by others. You can use either a 360-degree feedback survey or interview approach to collect feedback from executives’ peers, CEO, direct reports, and others.

·       Find the towering strengths on your executive team: Finding and building on the team’s strengths is much more than just feeling good about what you’re already good at. It’s about how those strengths play into what each member of the team is trying to accomplish. You’ll find that focusing on strengths also naturally leads to a discussion about development.

Commit to team performance

You may be here if:

·       You know what your team must do, but can see that some players lack the skill or knowledge to do it.

Questions to ask:

·       What goals is the team committed to achieving?

·       How will the team hold one another accountable for both individual and team growth?

What to do about it:

·       Team charter: While a charter may be thought of as something that’s only relevant when a team is first formed, it can also serve as a productive catalyst to revisit why your team is a team, and what the business and culture need from you, collectively. Spending time together thinking about the consistent messages and modeling you wish to share with the organization, and the ground rules you’ll follow in doing so, can go a long way in restoring a team’s energy and shared emphasis on common priorities.

·       Team effectiveness commitments: Every team member needs to leave with a set of commitments – even if it’s just one or two things – that they are going to be held accountable for doing moving forward.

Beat the complacency curve
 

You may be here if:

·       You have well-established team dynamics.

·       C-suite turnover is happening over time, but not rapidly.

·       You are concerned about blind spots in pursuit of your competitive edge.

Questions to ask:

·       How are individuals cultivating the habits that will enable them to grow as the team and business environment changes?

What to do about it:

·       Regularly collect 360-degree feedback: Avoiding complacency depends on feedback, especially from new members of the leadership team or rotating stakeholders. Build in time for structured feedback, possibly annually or at other set intervals.

·       Advanced team learning events: Select topics to extend learning and expertise in targeted areas. Have executives learn together to encourage accountability among the team.

The Strength of Your C-Suite Team Sets the Tone for Your Entire Organization

“We made more progress in the last two days than we did in the last two years.” That’s what a CTO said after his C-suite team spent a few intense days working through their team dynamics.

There were a lot of nodding heads as we looked around the room. His fellow executives felt like they had made so much progress, and got a lot of barriers out of the way.

But we also saw a quick frown pass on the CEO’s face. Later, he said that he couldn’t stop thinking about the time and opportunities they’d potentially wasted over those two years. What would have happened if they’d addressed some of these C-suite issues sooner?

The challenge, of course, is that no individual executive can do this on their own. It takes the time and commitment of the entire C-suite team.

But small amounts of courage and fortitude can yield huge payoff. In short order, you’ll start to see benefits not only on the team, but across the organization.

The data supports the downstream effects of a stronger C-suite. In our research, lower-level leaders were significantly more engaged in their jobs and found meaning in their role when they rated their senior team as high quality. Not only that, they were 40% less likely to quit within a year.

Learn more about how to build a strong C-suite team in our webinar, Your 3-Year Plan: Developing Your C-Suite Team.

DDI's Executive Services provides succession, coaching, and assessment services that help leaders succeed from their first executive role until they reach the boardroom. Our suite of services are specially designed to manage risk at the top. Our experts have deep experience working with boards of directors, CEOs, and executive teams to create sound, data-driven succession plans. At DDI, our executive consultants have decades of experience helping leaders successfully make the leap into senior-level roles. We help them thrive both as individuals and as teams.

Services include CEO, C-Suite, and Executive Succession; Board Services; Executive Coaching and Development; Executive Selection and Assessment; and Senior Team Effectiveness.