Top Teaming is about the conversations and practices that extraordinary leaders and their teams have that differentiate them from usual high-performing" teams, and make them exceptional, high-caliber Top Teams. Simply put, it is about how good teams get even better to become great teams in an increasingly complex world". -Marshall Goldsmith In today's complex and volatile world, the importance of building executive teams that understand how to manage the "Now, the New, and the Next" is perhaps the most important criterion in achieving both operational success and strategic advantage. This guidebook is written from the viewpoint of an experienced practitioner-someone who has been a trusted advisor to CEOs and executive leadership teams for twenty years across a wide range of industries and geographies. Larry understands how great leaders develop and thus develop their Top Teams. Profit from Levin's experience and learn: * how to harness the "power of a collective future" * how to create "trust over peace" to address the issues that matter most * how to drive the "fierce urgency of now" * how to navigate the critical intersections in any organization * how to build key teams 1-3 levels down * how to move beyond classical "high performing teams" to become a Top Team By learning from the case studies and insights in Top Teaming, you'll drive the alignment, collective intelligence, and focus needed to influence your company's direction, mindset, and performance. Whether you're seeking to make a struggling team good or a good team great, you'll find the guidance you need in Top Teaming: A Roadmap for Leadership Teams Navigating the Now, the New, and the Next.

TOP TEAMING

A Roadmap for Leadership Teams Navigating the Now, the New, and the NextBy Lawrence S. Levin

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Dr. Lawrence S. Levin
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-3677-6

Contents

Foreword...................................................................................xiAcknowledgments............................................................................xiiiIntroduction...............................................................................xvChapter 1—Setting the Cornerstone: Being Truly For Something.........................1Chapter 2—Aligning the Stars.........................................................12Chapter 3—Focusing on the Now and the New............................................25Chapter 4—Wrap Your Head around Change...............................................39Chapter 5—Essential Navigational Skills..............................................51Chapter 6—The Art of the Advance: How Good Teams Get Even Better.....................67Chapter 7—Growing and Sustaining Top Teams...........................................90Chapter 8—Being "That" Person: Great Teams Need Great Leaders........................106Chapter 9—The Power of Integration...................................................124Chapter 10—Being Fully in the Game: Building the Top Team............................141Appendix...................................................................................151Bibliography...............................................................................173

Chapter One

Setting the Cornerstone: Being Truly FOR Something

David was named general manager of a highly profitable division of a large manufacturing firm. A very ambitious and forward–thinking leader, he wanted to reshape the historic command–and–control culture and build a leadership team that could use its collective intellect and experience to grow the organization by reshaping its business model and leadership approach. He inherited a culture that was, by most external standards, quite successful and profitable—never having missed a promise to the company or to stockholders. The team was smart, hardworking, and proud of their operational excellence. David's questions for himself and his team were: "How can this team get even better? How can we grow in global reach, innovation, and profitability? How can we begin to think more strategically and more globally?" And, "How can we `raise the bar' of our performance?"

Working with David, our firm decided to schedule an "Advance" (not a Retreat) for his team of direct reports. (Read more about how to plan Advances in chapter 6.) We began this process by interviewing each team member and performing a thorough diagnosis to measure how well the team thought it was doing. We began the actual Advance by presenting data from the interviews to the assembled group. People were surprised at the level of agreement and the passion within the team around their real desire to be more strategic, to think together more deeply, and to take the team to a new level. They knew that it would not be easy and that it would require changes in their dynamics and their willingness to surface and resolve real issues. They understood that it would challenge the very culture that had given them a track record of success.

This Advance was the start of a journey that would, over the next eighteen months, dramatically change the nature, dynamics, accountability, ownership, performance, and even the definition of the team as its members moved from operating as a great collection of individual performers to operating as a Top Team.

Being Truly for Something: The Power of a Collective Future

There is always a beginning. Even for experienced teams that have worked together for years, there are those times when the team must step back and re-ask the fundamental and significant questions about their direction—where they are headed. This is not an uncommon practice on the surface, as virtually every team and organization has a "vision" and strategic plan. What is uncommon, however, and what represents the first critical waypoint in a Top Team's journey, is the articulation of a uniting common purpose and a clear and agreed vision of a desired future—in other words, what the team is truly for.

This is the key aligning principle of a Top Team and the start of its journey as it begins to define the intersection of leadership direction, organizational concern, and current reality. To be sure, this is a very different process from writing a typical vision or mission statement, which often becomes more of a slogan than a deep source of gravity, focus, and commitment. To go through a process of defining what a Top Team is for requires honest, deep, and ongoing dialogue among the members of a senior team and throughout the organization about current realities, real possibilities, and what must and must not change in order to secure the future of the organization.

Everything must be on the table as teams redefine success and survival. As Mickey Connolly writes, "The source of teamwork is a common future" (Connolly and Rionoshek 2002, 145).

So we began the Advance with David's team by asking them what they were really for. This sounds like a simple question, yet the dialogue lasted four hours. We revisited strategy. We talked about what had changed, what was changing, and their ability to control their own destinies. We looked at the business while wearing an "enterprise hat." And they asked themselves whether they should, or even could, raise the bar of their performance as an executive team.

In the course of the dialogue, something broke open—and the team began to define what the future could and should look like. Again, this was happening within a company that prided itself on hitting its numbers and operating with the reliability and operational excellence that would make a Six-Sigma black belt proud. This was a different dialogue that redefined the future. It was not an "either/or" but a "both/and" dialogue that spoke to how the company could dramatically make the changes that would allow it to realize a competitive difference and a different future. This would allow it to not only survive but also to prevail in the marketplace while not missing a beat in its core business.

As David described after the initial session:

"We realized that we had to do more than just make our numbers and build the best product every moment of every day. We became very clear that we were a "growth engine" of this firm, that we are for 30 percent growth, integrating all our global businesses and collaborating across geographies, developing the next generation(s) of leaders, and continuing to drive operational excellence and safety within all our plants. We are for building this team and those that report to us and creating the culture, behaviors, and individual commitment to significantly change our approach to our business."

When Vision and Reality Collide

There is an old saying (von Goethe, Wolfgang, date unknown) that "love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the ideal and the real never goes unpunished." And so it is with the collision between vision and reality. Vision is an idealized state—something to which companies aspire. Vision is formed when the senior team goes on an off-site and envisions the desired future of the firm. It is, by definition and by its very nature, a state that organizations rarely reach. And, cynically, it is that poster in the lunchroom that most people see but don't see.

About four years ago, I was at the corporate headquarters of a fast-growing pharmaceutical company having lunch with a group of managers. The food was terrific, the view of the lake and Japanese maples was exquisite, and the vision statement on the wall-mounted plasma monitors was inspiring as it scrolled over the waterfall backdrop. I commented as to what an inspiring vision it was. One of the managers briefly paused in midbite as he said tersely, "It's a lie." I was struck by his candor and his bitterness and realized at that moment that no false promise, no matter how aspirational or inspirational, ever goes unpunished. The gap between what was written and what was real, between what was said and what was done, between talk and walk, was significant—and it greatly impacted the workforce. Turnover, just after bonus time, was significant. Major initiatives were delayed and postponed as they were constantly getting new people up to speed. Competitors entering the market quickly gobbled up talented ex-employees. And management team members seemed to have no clue. In their case, the "light at the end of the tunnel" (as represented by their vision) was indeed the headlight of an approaching train. They had a vision but could not define what they were for in ways that key people understood and could support. And because of this, they could not craft a going-forward strategy that made sense and that people could align behind.

Ensuring that you have a vision that is not at odds with reality is essential to the intellectual and psychological makeup of a workforce. And it is the full and complete responsibility of the senior team, which must utilize the vision as a "stretch" to connect current realities to a desired future. As my partner, Dr. Patricia Wheeler (personal communication), reminds me, "It's not what a vision is, it's what it does." A workforce is always watching the leaders' feet to see if they are walking the talk. And this is even truer in times of increased turbulence and complexity.

As executive teams think about and work toward aligning their organizations, defining clear priorities, setting goals, and consciously in stilling a culture that can perform, they have to ensure that they have a terrific grasp on current realities, which include external influences, political and global circumstances, changes in technologies, customer issues, and their own capabilities. They also have to be aware of their internal realities, which include history, culture, behaviors, and competencies. As we will see, defining the composition and competencies of teams and growing experienced and evolving teams into even better functioning Top Teams requires defining a vision going forward and having a strong grasp of current and emerging reality.

Strategy as Purpose

I have yet to meet a leader who has not experienced off-sites or retreats in which strategy was discussed, good ideas surfaced, and promises were made. In fact, I rarely ask CEOs about their strategic plans without them turning in their seats and hauling out a large binder or two ("credenza ware") containing a very thorough, smart, and expensive strategic plan. Yet when I ask them how the execution of the plan is proceeding, I usually hear their disappointment in their lack of progress and often hear some excellent explanations having to do with managing crises that unexpectedly showed up, not having the time to take on new things, or waiting for a new and key person to join the team. Everything they say is true. Yet the fact is that the senior team has not advanced the ball as promised. In addition, the organization has just spent a boatload of money on smart consultants to build a strategic map for them, even though the accuracy of long-term strategic planning is more in question than ever and "directional correctness" with frequent course corrections is more the norm.

It is quite possible to stay true to a long-term vision while knowing that the path to achieve it has been radically changed. It is also possible that the very identity and vision of a company must be dramatically shifted, forcing leaders to change direction in ways that were never predicted. This is not all that unusual in times when mergers between competitors, once thought unimaginable, have become an everyday occurrence.

Brian Kesseler of Johnson Controls (personal conversation) describes asking his team to "challenge everything you've ever thought," as decisions that made sense six months ago may not apply today. As a CEO of a large defense firm said to me, "We are having conversations we would never have had a year ago. We're forced to look at things differently. We're forced to anticipate what we might do today that will be absolutely wrong for the future." As these executives expressed, leaders need to drive this conversation and be open to it. And they need to remember that nobody solves problems of this complexity on their own.

Dynamically, this is where teams demonstrate courage, as they must both take on and manage risk while, at the same time, look for opportunities to grow. And this must occur in an environment of openness, collaboration, and engagement as the world continues to churn and change. Defining this future, taking strategy into execution, is the senior purpose of leadership teams. The process of truly defining the future is essential to aligning both leadership teams at all levels and the entirety of the employee body.

This process requires real and ongoing dialogue among the senior team and throughout the organization about current realities and what must and must not change in order to secure their future. Everything must be on the table as teams redefine success and survival. As a senior leader in a large pharmaceutical company told us, "We have to get past how we have historically looked at things; overcome our classic objections, such as, 'We've never done it that way' or 'That won't work here'; and move the conversation forward."

This is strategy that is not static, but is dynamic and purposeful. It is fueled by a Top Team that is willing to put everything on the table. It drives organizational agility, which, as we have seen in the economic meltdown of 2008–2009, represents the difference between survival and catastrophe.

Individual and Collective Commitment

We've talked about the need to articulate the senior purpose of a team—what the team is truly for. At both the individual and collective levels, it is about defining the one or two collective and "audacious" goals that far exceed the individual goals of individual leaders. Yet, we have also seen that it is not unusual for teams to struggle to stay on track and keep their eyes on the larger prize.

What we are talking about here is changing the nature of the dialogue that occurs within most senior teams, thus changing the very dynamics of the team. As David, in the example we used earlier, said, "If we think we are doing things well, we are probably shooting only layups." This is an easy sports analogy, to be sure, but if you think about how the nature of the game and the level of competition are changing, it is highly appropriate. The game is more complex than ever and, as the senior VP of a global beverage firm said to his team recently, "We are all facing the same problems. It is about who gets there first wins."

Individual and collective responsibility is essential in executing any forward-looking strategy. Leaders have to "sign up for the experiences that are valued." They must understand and manage the paradox of achieving both individual and collective goals, and unleash the urgency and passion throughout the organization about what they are for. This is essential, but it is not easy.

There is little doubt that time is the great commodity for members of senior teams. They are usually so deeply involved in the running of their businesses or functions that they cannot take on much more. Their incentive compensation, which is often tied to the achievement of their individual and group goals, understandably drives where they place their focus. One obvious solution for them is to grow the capabilities of their teams of direct reports to better handle the day-to-day operational engine. By delegating decisions down to the next level, senior leaders have more bandwidth to architect and drive key strategies. The paradox is that most senior leaders don't have the time to develop their key people to this stage, and they cannot afford for key balls to be dropped during a learning curve. This is an obvious problem on the surface, which is only corrected by taking greater individual and collective (team) responsibility to grow and develop identified high potentials and teams of direct reports. How does a senior team, in which time is a key commodity and individual achievement is rewarded (and failure noticed), address this paradox?

David's team, for example, made their Strategic Talent Review exercise an energetic and challenging process by linking the senior team members' bonuses to the accomplishment of the key developmental goals for all their high potentials. Think about that—collective and individual responsibility in growing each key person one level down. No doubt this impacted the discussion and group dynamics within the senior team. It set off debate, drove collaboration, and pushed people to operate across boundaries, and it allowed the senior team to move closer to reality and what it was ultimately for.

This is but one example of demonstrating individual and group commitment, but the back story here centers on the tough dialogue that must occur within a team about how to make these goals real. To quote Ram Charan (2001), "Dialogue is the essential unit of work." And this is not automatic, or particularly easy, in most teams.

Questions

Being Truly FOR Something: The Power of a Collective Future

• To what extent is your senior purpose—what you are for—clearly understood?

• How well has this been articulated? Does it have passion?

• Can you state it convincingly?

• Does the organization know it? Do individuals know what this means for them and what is expected of them?

• How well is the vision of your company understood? Does it represent a desired future for the firm?

• How well do you have your hands around the external realities of your business? What about your internal realities, capabilities, and limitations?

• Is there a credibility gap between what the senior team has said and what it has done? Are the current realities well articulated and understood by the workforce?

Strategy as Purpose

• How "actionable" is your strategic plan? What must the team do to make it even better?

• Are all members clear on how their role drives the plan?

• What is the quality of dialogue within your team? What needs to occur to make it even more open and candid?

Individual and Collective Commitment

• To what extent are you held individually accountable for the success of the team?

• To what extent does the team hold itself collectively accountable?

• What would happen if you raised the bar of collective accountability?

(Continues...)

Excerpted from TOP TEAMINGby Lawrence S. Levin Copyright © 2011 by Dr. Lawrence S. Levin. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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