Most of us think of guardrails as a strong fence or barrier at the side of a road, strategically placed at dangerous points to reduce the risk of accidents.
Leadership teams can benefit from executive team guardrails, designed to help teams stay safe, become effective and focus on what only they can do.
Here are three examples:
Leadership Team Purpose enables the leadership team to articulate their meaningfulness, that is why they exist. Occasionally, an executive says, “Our only purpose is to make money.” Money is never a purpose, but the result of some higher, more meaningful purpose.
Unique Team Contribution clarifies the scope of your executive team, meaning what you do and what you don’t do as a leadership team.
Standards of excellence (S.O.E.) are explicit rules of engagement within the executive team. They define acceptable behaviors and describe what is not acceptable within the team. Without S.O.E., it is impossible to hold people accountable to high performance behaviors.
Have you got guard rails that support executive team excellence?
If not, how do you ensure such teams are purposeful, make unique (and valuable) contributions and hold members accountable for high performance behaviors?
Photo Image by Naomi August @ Unsplash