Executives . . . Working as a team? . . . Do they need to be inspired? . . . Would Oreos get better results than Twinkies? So many questions. We better take them one at a time and explore both what these are and what they are not.
EXECUTIVES
These folks often have very different titles, and for many of them their title is quite important. (This is something you owners should keep in mind when money is tight and you want to keep your ‘right hand man’ happy. Don’t go crazy. Having a dozen Executive Vice Presidents really 
won’t make any sense in the long-term.) Some people are overly proud of being an executive and hubris tends to overtake humility – an opportunity for coaching. Other executives don’t recognize the role they are playing and miss many opportunities to communicate messages, acknowledge others’ work and seek out new ideas.
The executives are the ones setting policy, developing and adjusting strategy, setting targets, and analyzing risk and its offsetting mitigation measures. The President/CEO takes the lead of course, and the other roles are often divided up among the executive team based on skillset. After the start-up phase, the number of executives can be just 3 in an emerging growth company up to a dozen or more in a large publicly traded organization. These people are skilled and very good at their jobs – that’s how they rise to the top. If your executives are not top-notch, then it may be time to consider strategic firing as is required in all growing firms.
EXECUTIVE TEAM
Since all of these individuals got to these powerful roles on the basis of their own skills, they are often not predisposed to play well together in the sandbox. Yes, sometimes (read that last word as “OFTEN”) they actually want their team to win more than they want the company to win. This is more than failing to collaborate, it includes intentional sabotage by withholding information from another group, or refusing to let a terrific employee move to another role in the firm. Even in the most collegial organizations, lack of executive team alignment is a staggering 92%. The President/CEO must continually reinforce the messaging, observe the Executives together, work to build cohesion and assure all executives are working toward a common set of well-defined, measurable, collective goals. Failure to do this can result in lack of focus and perhaps even failure of the enterprise as a whole.
BUILDING AN EXECUTIVE TEAM
There will be phases in the life of a firm when new skills must be brought into the organization at the executive level. Experienced executives understand the ‘art of the possible’ and can help the President/CEO create and execute a highly challenging growth strategy. It’s always important to have a strong mix of long-tenured executives and those that are new to the firm. This helps reinforce values and culture and, frankly, makes the inevitable change that comes with new ideas a bit more manageable.
TWINKIES AS INSPIRATION
Alright, maybe your executive team is not motivated by Twinkies, or Oreos for that matter. But you do need to know what is motivating for them. If you don’t know, then ask them, both individually and collectively. It may take them awhile to realize what does motivate them. Perhaps they really appreciate avoiding conference calls after 5pm on Fridays. I’m sure they’ll make an exception if a hurricane is bearing down on your production facility, but otherwise don’t intrude on this time without recognizing the cost to your executives. If your organization has a strong culture, then many of the executives will have similar sources of inspiration. Think about your values – if you hired people with these values, then this will point directly to what motivates them.
Starting new traditions to celebrate achievements TOGETHER, will help inspire teamwork and pride in the collective achievements of the organization. Who knows? Maybe a Twinkie stacking challenge can help them learn to build a strategy together and reinforce teamwork. Never stop looking for opportunities to reinforce your expectations for executives to work as a team. Continually weed and prune your executive ranks if they are not producing results. A gardening metaphor sounds so much more healthy than snack food, doesn’t it? Go forth and make your executive team and your business healthier – even if it takes a few Twinkies to do so.
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Contact Kim at kim.denney@newportboardgroup.com
