Do You Collaborate?

How do you develop a team to work to common goals?

1) Listen to the right voices. Some leaders look at how to squeeze a new role into the team. The best ones turn the old logic on its head and start with the capabilities that will drive the strategy forward to decide the roles that should on the top team. 

2) Reset the rules of the game. Executives are rational people and act according to written and unwritten expectations. The best make it clear that members of the top team have a shared accountability for the enterprise, not just their own areas. They reinforce this by ensuring that bonus payments reflect overall company performance, not just silo performance.

3) Stop being the "Decider in Chief." Executives often move quickly up the corporate ladder because they get things done. They make decisions and get them implemented. Then they get promoted and stick with the model that got them there — and they get overwhelmed.

4) Be prepared to declare "amnesty for the past." When a company is facing a need to fundamentally change the direction of the company or how it operates, previous approaches may have made sense until now, but it's time to move forward given the need to change (e.g., to increase performance, integrate an acquired company, divest a company). 

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