13 How Do I Form a Leadership Team?

Kara knew that she had nearly blown her whole leadership career. If it were not for the prompt, coordinated, and decisive action that her closest confidantes in the organization had taken, Kara would have inadvertently destroyed the organization with her one terrible decision. Fortunately, Kara’s team had immediately noticed what had happened and had taken immediate action to prevent even the slightest bit of harm. But for that action, Kara could hardly imagine how many individuals her decision would have hurt or how badly she would have hurt them. All Kara knew was that she nearly took the organization down, after years of sound leadership. And she had no one to thank other than her leadership team.

Team

Leadership is a team sport. Leaders are certainly important to organizations. But leadership teams may be more important to an organization’s consistent success than the individual leader. To put it another way, a leader’s greatest contribution to an organization may be the leadership team that the leader selects, guides, and empowers. An outstanding leadership team can keep an organization humming without the leader’s close involvement in operational issues, leaving the leader to represent the organization externally and work on new initiatives. A strong leadership team can also propose new initiatives and carry them out with the leader’s approval. Depending on the size and complexity of your organization, the success of your leadership may depend on your ability to identify, choose, empower, and guide a strong leadership team. If you truly want to pave your way to leadership success, then give considerable thought and attention to how you form and manage your leadership team. 

Levels

In larger organizations, leaders must have a leadership team. One individual can only effectively guide and interact with so many others. Some hierarchy becomes necessary as a team or organization grows. The leader of an organization with only a handful of employees and volunteers may not need any hierarchy. But have a few more participants than a handful, and the leader may well need at least a second in command and perhaps a couple of them, one to manage the workforce and the other to supervise the volunteers. Even in a smaller organization without multiple levels of authority and involvement, you may need a handful of key staff members or volunteers on whom you can rely to manage and direct minute by minute affairs. In a larger organization, you may need a leadership team the members of which manage other supervisors of smaller teams, departments, and units. Multi-layered management can quickly become necessary, even if some supervisors only direct a handful of others. Be thoughtful about structuring your leadership team and its managers, with not too many but also not too few layers and levels.

Selection

Selecting the members of your leadership team can be a critical task. Your selection may need to balance the knowledge and skills of the team members, on the one hand, with the relationship you may have already established with each member, on the other hand. You need a skilled team. But you also need a team, the members of which you feel confident that you can rely on and trust to support you and carry out your plans. Beware choosing only friends and confidantes, when others whom you don’t yet know so well may have superior knowledge and skills. But also beware choosing leadership team members purely for their knowledge and skills, when you don’t know their degree of loyalty to you and your plans, and don’t know their character for teamwork. Ideally, your leadership team would include members with whom you may have had a longer relationship of trust and confidence, mixed with members who have superior knowledge and skills. Generally, you should have the freedom to choose your own leadership team. Yet you may also need to respect the position, standing, and experience of leadership team members whom you inherit from the prior leader. Again, shoot for a blend of newer and older members. 

Delegation

Leadership generally requires delegating authority to members of your leadership team. You may reasonably expect others in your organization to listen to you, the organization’s leader. Yet others in your organization will likely listen to the guidance and direction of your leadership team only to the extent that they respect your leadership team’s expertise and authority. If you choose your leadership team poorly, or if you fail to delegate your authority to your leadership team members as necessary for them to carry out their duties, then your leadership team will not function as you prefer and intend. For instance, if you delegate certain authority to a leadership team member, that member should be able, within your organization’s systems, to carry out that authority without having to send others to you for your signature and approval. The team member should be able to sign and approve. Otherwise, you will find that others ignore your leadership team member and instead seek out you for the signature, approval, and authority that you’ve failed to adequately delegate to your team member. 

Empowerment

Delegating authority to your leadership team members is a first step in helping them carry out their duties. Beyond mere delegation of formal authority, though, you may need to actively empower your leadership team members. Empowering your leadership team members means encouraging them to exercise your delegated authority, respecting their discernment in doing so, and generally backing them up when they proceed as you authorized. You retain the leadership authority to guide and correct your leadership team. But if you want them to act on your direction and behalf, as a useful part of your leadership team, then you’ll need to show them and show those whom they manage and direct that they have your respect and backing. Your leadership team is your extension into and through the organization. You can’t be everywhere at once. You must make it appear to your leadership team members and those whom they manage, guide, and direct that when they do so, they act as if you were acting. Your organization’s members need to see your leadership team as they are, your representatives in everything authorized that they do. Empower your leadership team members, or they won’t be willing and able to do the job that you’ve given them to do.

Support

Your leadership team may also need resources and other support to be effective in their roles. Resources may include staff members, volunteers, consultants, budgets, facilities, furnishings, equipment, technology, supplies, marketing, and advertising. Your leadership team may alternatively need your instructions, directions, guidance, insight, introductions, referrals, recommendations, approvals, and permission. Anticipate and meet what support needs that you can foresee, but also encourage your leadership team members to request from you the support that they perceive they need. Don’t send your leadership team out without the resources to do the jobs that you’ve given them. A leader’s primary role is to project, acquire, and assign the resources that the organization needs to carry out its mission. Leaders assign resources through their leadership team. Be insightful, thorough, and equitable in distributing resources among your leadership team members to apply to carry out their functions. 

Guidance

Your leadership team members may also need or benefit from your guidance. Different members of your team may need different levels of your involvement and guidance. Senior members of your leadership team, with fully developed job knowledge and skills, and the vision to carry out their roles, may need only an occasional consultation. You may indeed treat those senior members of your team as equals in leadership skill and vision, and may have an eye on one or more of them as your potential or planned successor in leadership. Give those senior members appropriate guidance, while trusting their own vision and skills. But spend more time with the junior members of your leadership team who lack the knowledge, skills, and vision for leadership. Develop your leadership team using your guidance and other opportunities to expand their knowledge, insight, and experience. Occasionally take junior members of your leadership team along to leadership conferences or other developmental events, along with your senior team. Give your leadership team the full benefit of your years in leadership. Take an active interest in their success, so that they remain committed to your own success as your organization’s leader. 

Correction

You may find occasional need not only to guide but also to correct members of your leadership team. When that occasion arises, make your correction private rather than public. If a member of your leadership team fails to follow your direction, meet privately with that team member to learn the cause for the failure. Your direction may have been unclear, or your team member may have been unable to follow your direction. Reestablish the direction with the clarity and firmness you need, while respecting the person and commitment of the team member. If the issue repeats, meet again to determine the cause for the repetition. Correct any condition that you can discern to be the cause, outside of the team member’s control. If the team member exhibits an unwillingness to follow your direction, and you need the team member’s compliance, make clear that continued unwillingness may result in reassignment of the duty to another team member. If that reassignment leaves the team member without leadership team duties, or if the team member retaliates and interferes with your leadership, then remove the team member from the leadership team. Maintain confidentiality between you and the team member as far as you are able. Permit the team member to resign rather than face removal, if the team member is willing. How fairly you treat the team member can affect the confidence of the rest of your leadership team.

Reporting

To guide and correct your leadership team, you’ll likely need some form of reporting from them to know what they’re doing. You choose the form and frequency of reports. Monthly reports may work for most functions, while others may benefit from weekly reports and others need only quarterly reports. Encourage your leadership team members to open a new report file at the start of each reporting period, to make entries in the report as soon as events occur, in the nature of an activity log. That way, you’ll receive complete reports recorded contemporaneously, rather than rushed and incomplete reports prepared forgetfully at the end of the reporting period. Require team members to submit the reports divided into sections with headings aligned to your vision points. When you align reporting with the organization’s vision statement, you not only have instant reports on the progress of each vision point but also remind team members of their goals. Reporting, in other words, works two ways, getting information up the chain of command to you, while getting your vision points down the chain of command to those who pursue them. 

Meeting

You may well want to meet periodically with your full leadership team or as many members are available to regularly attend without interrupting their duties. The frequency of meetings depends on your organization’s type and its leadership needs. Some teams benefit from weekly meetings, while other teams may meet monthly or quarterly. The primary purpose of meeting is to enable team members to coordinate their functions with one another. Share their leadership reports to you with one another for the same purpose. Then allow each team member to highlight their coordination needs and interests or other items of note at the meeting. Also share your own coordination needs, directions, and instructions with the full team, while reserving your individual directions for individual meetings. Lauding individual team members for recognition is fine. Admonishing the whole team over appropriate subjects is also acceptable. But do not admonish any individual team member in front of the others. Reserve individual criticism for individual meetings. Use the meetings for team building, coordination, encouragement, and guidance, not for gossip and criticism. Watch for team conflicts, and address them outside of the group meeting. 

Reward

Find appropriate ways to recognize and reward your leadership team members. If they are paid staff members having other responsibilities, and their leadership responsibilities are additional duties, then their compensation should reflect their additional responsibilities. The additional pay need not be much, but failing to compensate for extra duties is both unfair and can lead to grumbling. Non-monetary rewards can be just as meaningful or more so. Recognize your leadership team members with appropriate titles. Give them credit across the organization for successful, innovative, challenging, or arduous work that they lead and perform. Keep your recognition and reward of leadership team members equitable, though. Beware playing favorites, rewarding and recognizing some while not rewarding and recognizing others. The cohesiveness of your leadership team goes a long way toward determining the success or failure of your leadership.

Reflection

What is the best size for your leadership team? How should you allocate organizational functions equitably across your leadership team? What titles and designations can you give your leadership team members to mark them out for responsibility and recognize their contributions? Have you delegated your authority to team members in ways that they can carry out their duties without requiring others to go to you for approvals? How should you compensate your leadership team members for their additional duties, while keeping the compensation among them fair and equitable? Do you regularly recognize your leadership team members’ service across the organization? How often should your leadership team meet? Are you allowing team members to express their coordination needs to one another at team meetings? Are you guiding and encouraging your team at meetings, while reserving individual criticism for individual meetings? How often should your leadership team members report to you in writing? Have you articulated vision points around which team members should organize their reporting? Are you sharing team member reports across the team, to allow for team member coordination of functions? 

Key Points

• Select and guide a leadership team to help you lead your organization.

• Form a management structure with sufficient levels to guide everyone.

• Select leadership team members to balance skills with relationships.

• Delegate authority to your leadership team to ensure their ability.

• Empower your leadership team members by backing their actions.

• Support members of your leadership team with resources they need.

• Guide your leadership team members with your leadership wisdom.

• Correct your leadership team members privately when necessary.

• Require regular leadership team reports aligned to your vision points.

• Hold regular leadership team meetings to coordinate functions.

• Recognize and reward leadership team members appropriately.

Read Chapter 14.