Senior Leadership Teams: What It Takes to Make Them Great

by Ruth Wageman, Debra A. Nunes, James A. Burruss

An organization’s fate hinges on its CEO—right? Not according to the authors of Senior Leadership Teams. 

They argue that in today's world of neck-snapping change, demands on leaders in top roles are rapidly outdistancing the capabilities of any one person - no matter how talented. Result? Chief executives are turning to their enterprise's senior leaders for help. Yet many CEOs stumble when creating a leadership team. 

One major challenge is that senior executives often focus more on their individual roles than on the top team's shared work. Without the CEO's careful attention to setting the team up correctly, these high-powered managers often have difficulty pulling together to move their organization forward. Sometimes they don't even agree about what constitutes the right path forward. The authors explain how to determine whether your organization needs a senior leadership team. Then, drawing on their study of 100+ top teams from around the world, they explain how to create a clear and compelling purpose for your team, get the right people on it, provide structure and support, and sharpen team members' competencies - and your own. 

Timely and practical, this book enables you to create and sustain a leadership team whose members learn from one another while collaborating to pursue your company's objectives.

Genres: Leadership, Business, Management, Nonfiction

266 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 24, 2007

Reviews

[Darby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overview of the structural and cultural dynamics that result in thriving teams, with a focus on senior leadership teams. There were numerous a-ha moments for me as a team coaching practitioner, particularly in regard to the three essential team components (real team, right mix, clear purpose). I am excited to put this to practice and challenge team leaders to consider how they can expand their team’s impact through an intentional “relaunch,” leveraging these six conditions.

Highly recommend for anyone in the leadership and teaming space, or any team leader. Much of it was relevant to all teams, with special callouts to the specific needs of executive teams.

4 ⭐️ as I would have appreciated a bit less storytelling and the inclusion of some quick tools that summarize key lessons and actions to take.

[Joe Valenti · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Hay Group and Harvard have come together to create a truly incredible text full of insight and research. The days of the lone-ranger CEO continue to slip away and the development of the "Senior Leadership Team" is on the rise. Wageman and team have identified six conditions that make a senior leadership team great. The book is well organized and is full of practical advise. If you have ever worked on a team you will quickly realize that the research presented in this text is right on track.

Notable Quotes:

"Poor teams are the ones that meet few of their constituencies needs and show few signs of becoming stronger over time."

"An executive suite is not a schoolyard. Just because someone wants to play on your team, has always been on the team, or was considered the heavy hitter of a past team does not mean that you are obligated to have him on your team."

"What you are looking for in team members is the ability to put hard questions and strong disagreements on the table and work them through to a conclusion that benefits the enterprise and its stakeholders."

[Joel D · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a refreshingly pithy look at a few powerful ideas for making teams more effective. The authors offer well-structured and concise ideas with a lot of specific and useful information to move from acceptance to application. While a lot of the ideas will also ring true, this book offers powerful evidence and convincing arguments for those elements of teams that, when you come to think of it, are pretty clearly a great idea.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a book for every leader. It is very much geared to those in charge of not just a team, but a Senior Leadership Team. So for those in that position or those who hope to be in that position one day I recommend it. It is not a touchy, feel good book about team building. It is very much research based and practical steps getting the most quality people on your team.

[Brian Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seattle U book for class creating high impact teams.