Creating a Strong Leadership Team

In order for your company to thrive without you being the driving force behind everything and the strategist to keep all the departments focused on the company priorities, you need to build a Leadership Team.

Here are some Steps to help you build the kind of Leadership Team that you really want:

1.     Be Selective about who you choose for your leadership team.

Start by assessing the people you already have on your team.  Be honest in your evaluation of their talent and abilities. They may not have the ability or the drive to help you get your company to the Next Level.

2.     Involve your leadership team by sharing information, holding them to high standards, and believing in their ability to deliver results.

High Performers want to be challenged. Sharing important information sends the message you trust them to understand and use the information wisely.  Maintaining high standards and believing in your team’s ability to perform enables you create a results-oriented culture inside your business.

3.     Work with you Team to create a Vision for the Future. This creates Buy-in to the Plan and makes it easier to hold leaders accountable for their piece of the Plan.

4.     Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

You must regularly reinforce the Vision with your team.  Take every opportunity to bring it up in meetings, in conversation, and in the normal course of your business. 

5.     Actively seek their input and ideas.

While using your own ideas may be easier for you, it won’t help you develop your leadership team.  Instead, ask your leadership team for their perspectives.   This can be done one to one, or during leadership team meetings.

6.     Ask, don’t tell.

When your leadership team brings you a challenge or a decision to make, resist the temptation to just “solve” the problem or make the decision.  Instead ask, “What do you think we should do here?”  

7.     Involve your leadership team in your quarterly Strategic Planning.

Consistently conduct quarterly Strategic Planning Sessions with your Team. As they get accustomed to this way of running the business they’ll contribute a great deal.  

8.     Enlist your leadership team’s help in holding your company accountable.

Do you regularly measure how well your company is progressing on reaching its most important goals, using the feedback to improve the business, or do you just react to things as they occur?

Giving your leadership team a real voice in assessing and holding your people accountable is a powerful way to get their full buy-in to the company vision.

9.     Give your Leaders permission to hold you accountable

This means you empower your leadership to hold YOU accountable for your behaviors, decisions, and contributions.

No one is perfect.   Your leadership team doesn’t expect that from you.  But if you want them to be serious leaders who takes ownership of their results; then you have to play by the same rules they do.

10.  Clarify your company’s values and make them the filter through which you make all your business’s tough decisions.

Encourage your leadership team to use them as a measure for hiring, leading, and making decisions. Occasionally ask them how they used the company’s values to make a big decisions in the heat of the moment.  It’s a great barometer of just how deeply your values have been adopted by the Leaders.

11.  Model the decisions and actions that you expect from your Leaders

A company’s culture is built by an accumulation of many small decisions made over a long period of time. In business, there are no throwaway moments; your leadership team watches everything you do. Stay true to your Company Values; remember that what you do and how you behave speaks Much Louder than anything you say.

12.  Remain Calm under Stress and Pressure

How you personally perform when the” heat” is high is Key to the Team’s success. If you get upset, angry and unreasonable, when the going gets tough, don’t be surprised if you see similar behavior from some of your Leaders.

As the Co-Founder and Principal of The Angel Advisors, Alan has devoted his career to helping executives—from Fortune 500 companies to startups—successfully assimilate into new roles, create powerful teams and develop cultures that attract and retain the best talent.

Combining more than 30 years of experience as a partner-level management consultant and executive coach and having more than 32 clients at a point in time, Alan recognizes that no two individuals have the same goals for personal fulfillment or professional growth. He focuses on understanding each client’s goals, determining how his or her business fits into the bigger picture – and then gives them the tools they need to achieve their entrepreneurial purpose.

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