Employees and managers generally expect the top management group in their company will act like one team in seeking to achieve the objectives of the business.  In our experience, this happens naturally almost never.  Directors all have different takes on what the main objectives of the business are or should be, and can often pursue private agendas.

One of my favourite starting points when starting work with new clients is to ask the executive team to write down what they see to be the top three objectives for the business over the following three years.  Not an unreasonable question.  I have never failed to fill two flipcharts full of what they say are their top three priorities.  The record was with one substantial company whose M.D. had just circulated a list of company objectives three weeks before.  Their list came to 39!

Normally these differences are never revealed, but the outcome can only be serious dissipation of focus and effort in achieving the results the company most wants to see.  If there is not clarity and unity of view at Board level on these issues, there will be no greater clarity elsewhere in the organization, and performance can only suffer as a result.  Coming from different departments and disciplines, Directors will obviously view things differently, but coherence about what the business is aiming at has to assume the highest priority, bar none.

The Rarity of Boardroom Teamwork

A few years ago, consultants McKinsey conducted a survey to see why boardroom teamwork seems so rare, and this is what they found.

• Membership of the top team is generally automatic
  If you are promoted to head a major Division, you often automatically become a Board member at the same time.  It is not a separate choice, and most welcome the accolade.
• Executives spend most of their time with their own teams rather than the top team
  Because of that their relationships within their own departmental team are more developed – and often their loyalties and attention incline in that direction too.
• They see their senior team contribution as the same as their division performance
  No-one actually asks for a senior team contribution beyond that.
• They feel themselves as accountable to the leader rather than the whole team
  They may work with other members of the top team, but if there is ever a dilemma, pleasing the boss is the priority.
• The Leader is seen as the person responsible for bringing it all together
  If teamwork doesn’t happen, they blame the boss rather than themselves.  But one person can’t demand or ‘drive’ teamwork.  The team has to work at it together.

Now some may say that teamwork doesn’t matter all that much at Board level.  Others think it is vitally important.  For those who do, the analogies of the soccer team point up some important lessons. 

• There, the objectives for the team are abundantly clear – to score goals at one end, and prevent any going in at the other end. 
• Team members are so committed to that, they automatically help each other and are quite prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve collective success.
• And the measures of success are crystal clear : either the ball goes wholly over the line, or it doesn’t.  [Would that some business measures were as clear.]
• The players don’t care who achieves success for the team.  When they score, they celebrate together and pat each other on the back.  Personal success becomes the team’s success.

If you applied the same criteria to your top management team, how would they fare?

• Specific team goals
  So specific that, if asked independently, Directors would all say exactly the same thing?
• Clear success measures
  So clear that at the end of the day you would be able to say : yes, we did or no, we didn’t.
• The whole team fully committed to the same goals
  Directors all show by their talk, their actions, and energetic co-operation that the company’s goals are their first priority.
• Celebrations when they win
  Celebrations add fun and emotion to the business of winning, and that winning feeling creates a hunger to repeat the experience.  Do you celebrate very often?

Because teamwork seldom happens by itself, increasing numbers of companies are building team-building processes into their working practices to make team thinking into a normal way of life.  Here’s just two such processes to help get your Board setting a team example to the whole company.

Agreeing Objectives As A Team

The Team Objectives Meeting (TOM) process is one which has been tested and refined in many different companies and countries over more than twenty years.  It’s chief advantage is that it works.  There is a simple sequence of steps.

1. Team members are given a Pre-Think Document setting out important questions which need to be asked, and answered, if the team are to be successful in meeting their key goals for the coming year.  Individuals are asked to complete the document without consultation.  That is deliberately designed to encourage a variety of thoughts on the issues facing the group, rather than standard or parrot-fashion answers.
   
   This pre-thinking is absolutely essential if any meeting of the team, on such important issues, is not to be merely an unstructured get-together, with vague outcomes that satisfy none of the parties.
2. At the TOM itself individuals are asked to give their personal views and answers on each question to the team as a whole.  These are listed on screen or on flip charts so everyone can see the spectrum of thoughts and opinions offered.  The new ideas that turn up can often be eye-opening. That immediately leads to animated discussion on the merits of the various proposals.  But that is the core purpose of the TOM  i.e. in-depth discussion by the whole team of the future direction and performance of the business.
3. Certain guideline rules apply at the TOM.  The first is, before any action goes ‘up on the wall’ as a firm decision, it must have the 100% agreement of the whole team.  That is critical if you are going to get no-fail follow-through later.  Some may say “I can’t see us getting 100% agreement on anything in our group”, but experience with TOMs over twenty years has shown that’s what always happens, whatever the business, whatever the team.
   
   The rule also protects all the parties involved, as no-one can be railroaded into accepting any action which they don’t agree with, or they don’t think will work.  That protection applies not only to every team member, but to the Chief Executive too.  These are genuine team decisions.  The rule also makes outcomes eminently practical – if a team of eight or so people all agree something will work, then you can be pretty sure that it will, especially as they all then want it to work.
   
   Getting everyone on board with a decision can be a tough process, but implementation can be even harder.  At a TOM, no action will have been decided upon unless it had buy-in from every individual in the team.  Ownership and genuine commitment make a huge difference when it comes to execution.  But when the focus is clear, there’s nowhere to hide.
4. So the team does not spread its efforts too thinly, an important TOM rule is: no more than four priority 1 objectives for the business (i.e. must be done, no excuses).  When Directors focus their collective weight and attention on the same few agreed objectives, the chances of their being realised are hugely enhanced.  And whatever contribution they may make in their respective disciplines, Directors know that how they link with their colleagues as a team to deliver on the company goals will now be taking first priority.

Boosting Team Member Co-operation

It is not unusual in any team to find prickly relationships between some team members, and that can often cause a drag on the team’s performance.  But there’s no need to indulge in some great 360° appraisal programme to tease out the issues;  that can be done much more simply, and within the team.  So part of the preparation for the TOM is to answer these questions.

• What could your team boss do personally which would allow you to improve your effectiveness as a member of the team?
• What could each of the other team members do for you which would improve your effectiveness without damaging theirs?

The key is not to make complaints, but to make positive requests.  The recipients do not have to say ‘yes’, but if they say ‘no’, they have to say why.  That’s all.  However, the process is a two-way street – whatever change one team member asks of their boss or a colleague, they should expect to have similar requests made of themselves, and be just as ready to change.

In practice, team members generally ask for straightforward common-sense changes which get readily agreed.  Often the recipient did not realise such small changes could remove some unsuspected irritation or make such a positive difference to a relationship.  But, simple as the process is, the act of seeing so many agreements being made across the team on what can often be sensitive issues, undoubtedly creates closer bonds within the team and their ability to work well together.

*   *   * 

Great teamwork adds an extra dimension to the performance of any sports team, and it’s just the same in business.  After a top management TOM, with its fundamental 100% agreement rule, Directors all start voicing the same story about the priority objectives of the business.  That’s what convinces managers and staff that the Board has really ‘got its act together’, and that in turn is a powerful driver for encouraging teamwork throughout the whole organization.