Struggling to deliver on your strategy?
Lack of urgency in your organization?
Watching your competitors do things you have thought about but did not translate into action?
These are signs of “executive nesting”; meaning a leadership team has become complacent and too comfortable. Executive nesting is sometimes disguised as being ultra-busy, yet not moving the strategic needle.
Nesting can happen quickly in the executive team. It diminishes initiative and ownership in the organization.
If you sense the symptoms (see last week’s post) of nesting in your executive team, here are five “anti-nesting” strategies to get your executive team back on track:
-Survey the two levels of the organization under the executive team – ask how the executive team is enabling them to play at their best, or not?
-Bring in an external advisor or executive coach to challenge you and your team.
-Invite customers and former customers to focus group exchanges with the executive team. Listen to what they say to you, then act on it.
-Constructively confront the executive team with the boldness of their vision and the compelling example they set as leaders in this strategic journey.
-Help the CEO or the leader of this team lead these “nesting busting-initiatives”. When the senior leader is prepared to express his or her vulnerability and take ownership for what’s happening in the organization without blaming others, an executive ownershift comes quickly.
Do not let nesting prevent your executive team (or any other team for that matter) from playing at their best. It puts your entire organization at risk.
How do you help leadership teams overcome their nesting habits that leads to disengagement and strategic fatigue across the organization?
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