How do you go about improving leadership team performance, strengthening the connections between leaders, and strengthening the leadership team’s connections with the rest of the enterprise?  This book tells you how.  Leadership teams, working together, create the culture and set the tone for the entire organization. When leadership teams fail to connect with employees, their organizations fail. Expensive leadership meetings often accomplish nothing, and clashing leadership styles can disrupt the entire business. What do these issues have in common? Simply this: The way leaders work together is crucial, and enormous organization-wide performance improvements can be achieved when they work together more effectively. Readers will first learn how to define what leadership team excellence looks like, and clarify the organizational impact you want your leadership team to have. Next, they’ll learn how to systematically optimize the 5% of time your leaders spend working together–in person, electronically, and through subordinates. This book will help readers magnify their impact, whether they’re already at the top of the organization, or aspiring to a future leadership role.

Table of Contents:
Foreword  ix Acknowledgments  xi Introduction A Pack of Top Dogs  1 Who This Book Is For  3 Who We Are  3 How the Book Is Organized  4 Time Is Precious  4 Endnotes  5 Chapter 1 Executive Team Execution  7 Definitions of Success  11 Measures of Success  14 Section 1: Business Results  20 Financial Performance  20 Customer Retention and Satisfaction  21 Strategic Implementation  22 Section 2: Daily Team Effectiveness  23 Decision-making Success  24 Relationship Building  25 The Team’s Reputation Within the Organization  27 Section 3: Talent Development  29 Bench Strength and Succession Planning  30 Management Team Capacity  32 Leadership Team Growth  33 Section 4: The Workplace  34 Organizational Culture  34 Employee Engagement and Retention  35 Organizational Agility  37 Which Indicators Should You Measure? 38 Endnotes  39 Chapter 2 The Clash of Titans: Executive Teaming  41 What Is Executive Teaming? 41 Dysfunction Reverberates  42 Holding Yourself to a High Standard  43 Two Executive Teaming Skills  44 Ensure Differences Don’t Lead to Clashes  46 Practice Partnership at All Times  51 The Traits of Leadership Team Partnership  53 Shared Purpose  53 Shared Ownership  53 Mutual Trust  54 Critical Thinking  54 Shared Success and Failure  55 Effective Inclusion and Communication  55 Partnership Techniques  56 Don’t Try to Control Peers  56 Spend Time Together  56 Resolve Relationship Problems  56 Represent Each Other Well  57 Never Bad Mouth  57 Own Problems and Challenges  58 Be Humble  58 Know Their Needs  59 Working on Your Teaming Skills  60 Endnotes  61 Chapter 3 Meetings Are Money  63 The Cost of Meetings Index  64 Value of Meetings Hurdle  65 Why Are You Meeting?  78 Endnotes  81 Chapter 4 Culture Is the Context and Often the Answer  83 What Is an Organization’s Culture? 85 How Are Organizational Cultures Formed and Changed? 89 Improving the Organization’s Culture  91 Define the Desired Culture  93 Define the Current Culture  104 Assess Capacity for Change (C4C) 106 Create Plan for Cultural Improvement  108 Be the Culture  111 Endnotes  117 Chapter 5 They Are All Moments of Truth  119 Be Fast or Fail  120 Successful Moments of Truth  123 How to Quickly Make a Positive Impact and Build Relationships  129 Trust  130 Credibility  130 Familiarity  131 Connection to You and the Team  131 Connection to the Organization  131 Interest, Passion, and Enrollment  132 Clarity, Commitment, and Focus  132 Make a Splash! 132 All for One, One for All  135 Endnotes  138 Chapter 6 Getting Better Together  139 Leadership Team Member Capabilities  142 More Than Competencies  147 Intra-Team Talent Reviews  150 Peer Coaching  152 Team Assignments  157 Team Development Events  158 Endnotes  160 Chapter 7 Creating an Agile Organization  161 A Primer on Organizational Agility  162 What Is Organizational Agility? 162 Model of Organizational Agility  165 Focus  166 Resources  166 Performance  167 Five Benefits of Organizational Agility  168 Organizational Agility: Two Scenarios  170 Assessment: How Agile Is Your Organization?  172 Individual and Leadership Team Agility  180 Endnotes  188 Chapter 8 Leadership Team Strategies for Remaining Union-Free  189 10 Early Warning Signs  190 10 Reasons Employees Organize  194 12 Issues Targeted by Unions  196 12 Reasons for Union-Organizing Success  199 Be Visible and Known and Build Relationships at All Levels  203 Measure and Improve Your Organization’s Connectivity Index  207 Ensure Role Clarity for Management Positions  211 Shore Up Management Fundamentals from Top to Bottom  212 Endnotes  215 Conclusion A Manifesto About Love and Leadership  217 Will You Go for the Gold?  220 Executive Team Execution  220 The Clash of Titans: Executive Teaming  221 Meetings Are Money  222 Culture Is the Context and Often the Answer  223 They Are All Moments of Truth  224 Getting Better Together  225 Creating an Agile Organization  226 Leadership Team Strategies for Remaining Union-Free  227 Endnotes  229 Appendix The Leadership Team Excellence Assessment  231 The Leadership Team Survey  231 Part 1: How We Measure Success  232 Part 2: How We Spend Time Together  233 Part 3: How We Impact Organizational Excellence  236 The Leadership Team Survey with Discussion Notes  237 Part 1: How We Measure Success  237 Part 2: How We Spend Time Together  238 Part 3: How We Impact Organizational Excellence  240 The Leadership Team Survey as a Tool for Development  241 References  243 About the Authors  249 Index  253