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Why leadership teams work on the business but not on their own team

If there was one thing that separates okay leadership teams from great ones, it is the decision to turn at least part of their attention onto how well they perform together as a team.

But that is actually relatively rare.

Research from McKinsey & Company found that only about one in five senior executives believes their leadership team is truly high-performing. Most leadership teams spend their time running the business rather than improving how they work together.

So why does that happen?

Leadership teams are trained to focus outward

Leadership teams are under huge pressure to run the organisation.

Because of that, the team itself almost never appears on the agenda.

Leaders become very skilled at responding to operational pressure:

  • Deadlines that keep coming week after week

  • Changes in the marketplace

  • New technologies

  • Regulatory changes

These are familiar problems. Leaders know how to respond to them.

Over time, the team’s identity becomes tied to that work.

The leadership team sees itself as the group that runs and fixes the business.

Turning the focus onto the team itself feels like something quite different.

Examining how the team functions as a group of people can feel much more personal.

Why looking at the team feels uncomfortable

For many leadership teams, examining how they work together touches sensitive territory.

A lot of this comes down to the peer relationships inside the team.

When a team begins to examine what might be holding it back, several things are suddenly at stake:

  • Hierarchies of authority

  • Differences in expertise

  • Length of service

  • Informal influence

Everyone in the room is aware of those hierarchies.

And alongside them sit other human factors:

  • Personal reputations

  • Professional pride

  • Ego

We all want to be seen well by our peers.

Looking closely at how the team functions can feel like it puts those things at risk.

Which is why many teams continue focusing on the external work of the organisation rather than examining themselves.

What becomes possible when a team turns inward

When a leadership team does turn some of its attention onto itself, a lot becomes possible.

First, it becomes possible to have much more honest conversations.

It also becomes possible to make better decisions:

  • Decisions that are faster and sharper

  • Decisions that do not unravel afterwards

  • Decisions that include a wider range of perspectives

Trust inside the team can strengthen significantly.

And the wider organisation begins to see something important:

A leadership team that is clearly aligned and working together.

That clarity at the top has a powerful impact on both performance and satisfaction across the organisation.

About me

I’m Nick Robinson. I work with senior leadership teams who sense they’re not yet working well enough together.

My programme The Shift is a development experience that helps leadership teams strengthen trust, alignment and how they function together, so the organisation benefits from clearer decisions, stronger collective leadership and better overall performance.