Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
By Dave Bushy, PCC
Executive teams. EXCO’s. Mahogany Row. Cabinet. They’re called a lot of things. Whatever the term used, they function as the top tier of people running human organizations.
As a coach, I’ve been privileged to engage with numerous members of such teams. I’ve worked with senior women and men in many different fields in over a dozen companies and organizations. And as a former senior vice president, I was a member of executive teams, watching them function and being an integral part of the processes by which they explored challenges and made decisions.
All of these experiences have helped shape my appreciation of the complexity of such teams: I’ve learned that executive teams are never easy and coaching them is no easier.
Each has unique attributes, usually with disparate members who have their own capabilities and limitations. Every executive team develops a culture and way of being. To compound that, there are invariably distinct “types” of members that emerge, with subplots and drama that unfold, within the corporate boardroom setting or in a thousand conversational asides that occur by the water cooler, parking lot or golf course.
Some in the coaching profession strive to enter an executive team “system” and help it identify its own capabilities and limitations and begin to see the team self-correct to a more effective way of being. There are times that it can work, provided the team or “system” is aligned, readily communicating and each member has an intention to grow individually and collectively.
However, there are challenges. For one, when an external party enters a system, it inevitably changes the system. In a rudimentary way, it is much like the “observer effect” in quantum mechanics – called “Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle” (apologies to physicists).
The other is the individuals who comprise the team. There are many different personalities and people with their own realities. Often there are “derailers,” or those with separate agendas, and especially individuals who just don’t play well in the executive sandbox. And each leader of a senior team has their own well-developed and less developed areas they rely on when working with others.
I have worked with a number of senior executives who desired coaching for the team. After several sessions of articulating what their wants and needs were, I usually encountered a situation where the executive stated that the team or the boss was “stuck.” Often it was the leader’s desire to control one or more subordinates as a fix or easy way out. When they told me things like “Well, I need to you to talk Bob. He has a tendency to stir up emotions behind the scenes. And make sure that you touch base with Linda. She seems to have her own agenda and never brings issues to the exec team,” I realized then that they had not yet addressed fundamental issues related to their own leadership styles. Rather than jumping right to team coaching, I encouraged them to continue individual coaching to get clearer on where the “stuck-ness” originated.
Those who consider themselves leaders of teams must have a very real and committed intention to both lead and learn with and for their people. An external party cannot lead, nor can they facilitate change and awareness, without the full commitment and hard work of the actual team leader.
I worked with a leader of an entrepreneurial start-up a few years ago. We engaged together for a period of time to help him learn the areas where he could grow as a manager and as a leader, and for him to expand his range of capabilities. I saw him build awareness of areas where he could grow and learn and experiment with a new way of being. He created an action plan and began to slowly develop a broader set of talents as a leader. It was a joy to see his growth and to serve as an accountability partner, challenging and encouraging his development, using coaching tools of inquiry, evocative conversation and sometimes provocative commentary.
The leader became desirous of working on the effectiveness of his executive team. We discussed his needs and what he saw as important for the development of his executive team. There were a number of other issues he wanted to address.
When he suggested that I implement changes with the team, I was crystal clear in my response: “I’m curious, it seems like you want me to be the bad guy to deliver blunt perspectives to your executives. That’s not what a coach does. What gets in your way of doing that yourself?” He smiled and we continued the coaching journey together.
Over time, he realized that it was up to him to address issues with his team and began to do so. He also became interested in how he could coach his team himself. He showed enthusiasm for pursuing coaching certification and eventually completed a course of study and became an ICF-certified coach. The leader who had developed as a person, expanding his range beyond what he had known before we began the engagement, became a coach. In the process, he realized that the concept of leading a team and coaching a team is completely different. He realized that his personal growth helped him understand himself better, but that being a coach gave him skills that allowed him to view the group of executives as a system made up of individuals. And that helped him to understand how to work with them.
As the leader, he committed to supporting each member to individually expand their own self awareness while using the skills he learned in his coach training to be present to the whole of the team system.
And my role? I continued to help him as he needed to speak about what was working and what he could try next. I supported him in understanding when he could lead as a coach and when he needed to lead as a CEO. He learned how to apply his personal journey in a way that better supported the success story for the whole team. Nothing like walking the talk!
Dave Bushy of Boston Executive Coaches – bostonexecutivecoaches.com – is a an ICF-certified coach who was trained at the Gestalt International Study Center (GISC). Dave is a former U.S. Army officer and senior airline executive who works with leaders throughout the world.