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?

In the video above and the overview article below, I explore what happens.

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.

Why leadership teams know something is holding them back, but don’t say it

Many leadership teams sense that something is holding them back from being at their best, long before anyone names it.

And this is surprisingly common.

Leadership teams are often very perceptive about what is happening around them. But the moment of naming it can feel risky.

The signals leaders notice first

Most leaders notice patterns.

They see tension showing up in small ways:

  • A shortness in how colleagues treat each other

  • A sense that someone else is to blame when things are not going right

  • Repeated frustrations in meetings

Often those frustrations look like this:

  • People talking over each other

  • People speaking at length without really saying what they mean

  • People not speaking up at all

You find yourself listening to a long sentence and wondering what the person is actually trying to say.

Another common signal is that decisions take much longer than they should.

Decisions that could be sharp and clear instead drift on and on, getting revisited again and again.

Why teams don’t name the problem

So if leadership teams can sense that something is not quite right, why does it often go unspoken?

Several things tend to hold people back.

1. Fear of personal conflict

This is usually the biggest factor.

Teams often think:

“We are getting by. At least we are not at each other’s throats.”

The fear of opening a difficult conversation about how people relate to each other can stop leaders from naming what is not working.

2. Respect for colleagues

There is often a great deal of respect within leadership teams.

People have worked together for years. They know each other’s experience and expertise.

And sometimes that respect makes people reluctant to raise concerns about the way the team is functioning.

3. Time pressure

Leadership teams are busy.

When the agenda is already full of operational decisions, it can feel difficult to pause and talk about how the team itself is working.

4. A fear of destabilising things

There is often a quiet concern in the background:

“Things are functioning. What happens if we open this up?”

That caution can keep teams from naming what they are already sensing.

What happens if it goes unspoken

When a leadership team senses something is holding them back but never names it, the tension does not disappear.

It quietly grows.

Those small frustrations begin to accumulate:

  • Little irritations turn into bigger ones

  • Meetings start to feel tense before they even begin

  • Tough decisions feel like potential flashpoints

Over time, certain behaviours can become normal:

  • Tiptoeing around issues

  • Avoiding difficult conversations

  • People feeling unable to speak their minds

And the result is simple.

Performance starts to drop.

The turning point

The strange thing is that simply naming what is happening can often become the turning point.

Once the patterns are spoken out loud, leadership teams can begin the journey back towards working together at their best.

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.

How to tell when a leadership team isn’t firing on all cylinders

How can you tell when a leadership team isn’t firing on all cylinders?

We know that leadership teams have a huge impact on the success of their organisation. Research from Bain & Companyshows that organisations with highly effective leadership teams are six times more likely to be top performers in their industry.

The challenge is that you usually only see that after the leadership team has been effective.

So what are the signs that something isn’t quite right? In the video above and the article below, I explore how to tell when your leadership team isn’t quite firing on all cylinders – yet.

The early signals are often subtle

Very often the first signs are not dramatic.

They show up in the tone and texture of conversations.

Meetings remain polite. People are pleasant with each other. But something feels slightly constrained.

Conversations feel guarded, as though people are not quite saying what is really on their mind.

Another signal is that there are fewer disagreements than there should be.

Disagreement, when it is handled well, is extremely useful. It surfaces differences of opinion and extends the range of thinking in the room. Without it, teams drift into group-think.

But when a leadership team starts avoiding disagreement, what you often see instead is this:

  • People speaking more carefully than honestly

  • Team members walking on eggshells

  • Conversations moving quickly past anything awkward

It is as though there is an unspoken agreement in the room:
“We are not opening that can of worms.”

Behaviours that begin to appear

When a team is not working well together, certain patterns start to show up.

One of the clearest signs is that decisions begin to drift.

Something that appeared to be agreed in the meeting slowly unravels afterwards. The decision gets revisited outside the room.

You start hearing conversations like:

“Did we really just agree on that?”

These corridor conversations begin happening everywhere.

At the same time, other behaviours begin to emerge:

  • People start protecting their own departments

  • Teams revert quietly to silo thinking

  • Individuals become cautious about committing resources

  • The room waits to see which way the leader is going to go

Instead of shared leadership, everyone begins watching the leader for signals.

Why these signals matter

These signals matter because the rest of the organisation is constantly reading the leadership team.

Uncertainty at the top spreads very quickly.

When the leadership team is not fully aligned, the organisation experiences:

  • Mixed signals

  • Confusion about priorities

  • Hesitation about where to put effort and energy

Small tensions in the leadership team can quickly become structural problems throughout the organisation.

Which is why these early signals are worth paying attention to.

Because if the leadership team is not fully aligned, even in the room, the organisation will feel that very quickly.

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.