Executive teams
Developing joint effectiveness from individual leadership responsibilities
Leaders are responsible for their respective areas. As an executive team, they must also think beyond these boundaries, make joint decisions, and shape the development of their company or department together.
This doesn’t happen automatically. Different interests, leadership styles, and experiences collide. Strategic questions must be answered collaboratively, and decisions must be supported even if they don’t benefit all areas equally.
We bring together the diverse perspectives within the leadership team. This leads to shared decisions, sustainable agreements, and leadership that provides direction for the organization.
What is your leadership team currently working on?
Perhaps your organization is facing a change, differing expectations are hindering collaboration, or your leadership team wants to develop together.
Bring your concerns to a no-obligation consultation. We’ll look at the situation together and explore how we can support you and your team.
When collaboration within the leadership team needs renewed attention.
The leadership team is reorganizing.
New members, changed responsibilities, or a change in leadership require a common basis for cooperation.
The organization is changing
A new strategy, transformation, or merger presents the management team with shared leadership challenges.
Conflicting sectoral interests complicate decisions.
Differing priorities and perspectives make it difficult to align on overarching goals.
What executive teams need to clarify together
Depending on the initial situation, different questions take center stage. Topics requiring managers to act collaboratively beyond their own area of responsibility are particularly relevant.
Shared direction and priorities
What does the leadership team stand for, and what goals does it pursue together?
Executive teams must reconcile different strategic perspectives, agree on priorities, and clarify the contribution of each area of responsibility.
A shared understanding of the direction facilitates decision-making and provides guidance for lower management levels.
decisions and commitment
Which questions need to be decided jointly? Where are there individual decision-making leeway? And how are differing positions handled?
The crucial point is not that everyone always agrees. What’s needed is a shared understanding of how decisions are made and how those involved subsequently take responsibility for their implementation.
trust and productive dissent
Leadership teams must be able to address difficult topics openly. This includes differing interests, doubts, tensions, and conflicts.
Trust makes it possible to critically examine positions without fundamentally questioning the collaboration. In this way, different perspectives can be incorporated into viable solutions.
Shared leadership impact within the organization
A leadership team’s influence extends beyond its own meetings. Its members provide guidance, represent decisions, and shape collaboration within their areas of responsibility through their behavior.
This requires a shared understanding of leadership and clarity about how the team acts and communicates with the organization.
How we support executive teams
We work with leadership teams on the challenges that truly shape their collaborative work. We examine both the interplay between team members and the strategic and organizational issues for which they are responsible.
We begin by gaining a shared understanding of the situation. Depending on the initial circumstances, we use discussions, interviews, or diagnostic tools. Based
on this understanding, we design team workshops, facilitate difficult clarification processes, or support the collaborative work on strategic and organizational issues. Individual coaching can complement the development of individual team members.
What matters most is the subsequent change in day-to-day leadership: how decisions are made, agreements are honored, and shared goals are pursued across departmental boundaries.
Let’s discuss this further without obligation.
Focusing on the leadership team together
Leadership teams also benefit from regularly reflecting on their collaboration from a broader perspective.
Our guiding model, “What Makes Teams Successful” (link to guide download), and the team assessment tool built upon it (link to tool download) provide a structured framework for this. They help to make different perceptions visible and to jointly identify areas for development.
You can learn more about the model and its application on our page about high-performance teams.
Executive teams in practice
Rethinking executive teams;
Joint leadership after a merger
Jointly implementing the strategy within the organization
Leadership and collaboration in new structures
Team development at a glance
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an executive team?
An executive team is a management team whose members, in addition to their respective leadership responsibilities, are jointly responsible for the direction, decisions, and development of a company or department.
This can include, for example, management, board, and departmental leadership teams.
What does executive team development mean?
Executive Team Development refers to the targeted development of a leadership team as a cohesive unit.
The focus is not solely on the individual leadership skills of its members, but on their ability to assume shared responsibility and lead the organization in a coordinated manner.
What distinguishes executive teams from high-performance teams?
We view high-performance teams from the perspective of sustainable team performance: productivity, adaptability, and the conditions that support both.
For executive teams, the focus is additionally on their specific task of jointly assuming leadership responsibility for a company or department.
Does a leadership team need to be of one mind on all decisions?
No. Different perspectives are part of leadership teams whose members represent various areas and interests.
What’s more important is that they address disagreements openly, make sound decisions, and jointly take responsibility for their implementation.
When is executive team development beneficial?
Not only when conflicts arise. Even a well-coordinated leadership team can further develop its collective leadership impact, for example in response to new strategic requirements, a change in leadership, or organizational changes.