"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last.”
- JOHN, the apostle
Do you have the right people sitting around your leadership table? It is your right and your responsibility to choose. The fruit and impact that the right leadership team can produce are extraordinary. It might just be the most important thing you do this year.
Assembling the right leadership team is one of the biggest challenges the dozens of leaders we work with face.
Typically, all the right components of a great leadership team are already in place. The problem is that the obvious choices (heads of key areas of the business or those with the most experience) often aren’t the right choice for the leadership team.
Before we can craft powerful core values and purpose statements...
Before we can articulate a motivating vision for the future...
Before we can build the clear and simple plan to get us there...
Before we can establish the right meeting governance for necessary accountability and execution...
We need to choose the right team of leaders to help take us on the journey.
(I made the case for why this so important in a recent blog post. Please read GOOD if you haven’t already done so.)
As in most really meaningful things, it is pretty simple, but it just isn’t easy. Here are some of the powerful filters we apply:
- Right representation - You need to make sure that all key functional areas are represented on the leadership team.
- Right person - Who would best serve the overall good of your organization from a leadership standpoint? It may be the one with the most experience or it could be someone less experienced with the most expansive heart and line of sight for the organization’s future.
- Filter - We apply several filters to make sure those initial choices are indeed the best choices. We look at type of mindset: Are they more a technician, visionary, or managerial mindset? We look at culture fit: Are they pillars and the finest examples of your culture? We look at ability: Do they have the desire, capacity, and expertise to be part of the leadership team?
- Outside Input - Get your circle of advisors, a mentor, or a coach to give you an outside filtering mechanism for the people you chose for the leadership team.
Again, this is a pretty simple process, but it is not easy. It is also the pathway to freedom, margin, and a greater sense of ownership by your team. And as I emphatically made the case for in GOOD, it is the way for you to make much better decisions.
- Do you have an established leadership team?
- Do you have the obligatory people on the team or the right people?
- How much is costing you to not have this firmly in place?
- Let us know if we can help you. We have a lot of experience in this and we love helping leaders win!