Three Tips for Your Management Team’s Kickoff
- Michael Soderling
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
In a recent meeting with a CEO, ahead of a development workshop with his team, I said: "If we can resolve these issues, the team will be equipped to handle every other challenge that comes along."
If you’re planning a kickoff with your team, you might be curious which three issues I had in mind.
Tip #1
To gain a deeper understanding of the team, I interviewed its members. It became clear that the team lacks a common understanding of its purpose. When this is the case, there is a tangible risk that members pull in different directions during meetings. When a colleague says or does something that doesn’t align with one’s own unspoken interpretation of the team’s purpose, it’s easy to form opinions –about the person, their judgment, or their good faith. In fact, what the colleague says or does is entirely logical given their unspoken interpretation. The solution, of course, is to discuss and agree on why the team exists and what it should contribute to the organisation. Here are two ways to start that conversation at your kickoff:
The See How Your Management Team Measures Up report reveals that in only 40% of teams do all members primarily focus on the organisation as a whole. Why not discuss how your team compares?
Explore the difference between the managerial role and the role of being a member of the management team. How are responsibilities and mandates allocated in each role?
Once you’ve settled on a concept of overarching leadership, you’re ready for...
Tip #2
Where do you stand on a vision? Not for your commercial side – that most likely already exists, perhaps something along the lines of being the market leader in your industry. I’m referring to an idea of what should characterise your organisation. Another management team I worked with arrived at the following: “An innovative organisation distinguished by trust, commitment, and pride.”
For such a vision to be realised, the interfaces between the silos in the organisation need to become a focus area. Two of many questions you might ask are:
Are there effective collaboration processes in place?
Do people across teams understand each other’s conditions?
When you consider all the interdependencies across an organisation, the need for overarching leadership to bridge the silos becomes even more evident.
Purpose and vision are hence two of the three issues I had in mind. The remaining one concerns process.
Tip #3
For the discussion on purpose and vision to be constructive, a healthy communication climate is essential. Two contrasting communication behaviours are “yes, but” and “please elaborate.” Asking colleagues to elaborate gives the team more in-depth and nuanced information. Everyone’s insights are taken into account, and the team climate benefits – after all, who doesn’t feel energised when others are curious about their thinking?
It doesn’t imply that everyone should agree with one another all the time. On the contrary, differing opinions need to be aired. The point, in other words, concerns the balance between exploration and advocacy. Low-performing teams tend to operate at 5% exploring and 95% advocating, while in high-performing teams the balance is 50/50.
If you want to achieve that healthy balance, you can introduce a ground rule for the kickoff (and, in fact, for every meeting): “Our discussions should be characterised by curiosity.”
To wrap up, I return to the statement that if a management team resolves these three issues, it will be equipped to handle every other challenge. Do you agree?
If you need help getting your executive team to address this set of challenges, let's put our heads together.
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