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?
The questions above address business growth. Growth is vital, for if you are not growing, you are not succeeding.
While it is pleasant to be comfortable, too much comfort leads to stagnation and decline, and this is the result of executive team nesting.
Let us look at some of the signs of nesting in the executive team:
-There is a climate of complacency.
-Debate on real issues does not happen.
-There is a lack of ownership and initiative-taking risk-taking.
-Discussion goes where it wants, discipline and focus are absent.
-Consensus thinking prevails, there is little controversy and even less conflict.
-There is the belief that the outside environment is too tough and not possible to overcome.
-Leaders feel protected; there are not any consequences for poor behavior or performance.
-The client and their needs are no longer the center of the executive team discussion.
Nesting diminishes initiative and ownership in the organization. If you sense the symptoms 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?
-Surround yourself with people who challenge you and your team. If you cannot find these people in your organization, look elsewhere.
-Bring in customers and former customers for focus group exchanges with the executive team. Listen to what they say to you, then act on it.
-Put yourself in harm’s way. Not something potentially fatal for your business or brand, but something that will wake people up.
-Burn the nest (literally) following Cortez’s example when he burned the ships.
Nesting behaviors can attach to any organizational team or function in your business. When nesting creeps into your executive team (or any other team for that matter), the team is not playing at its best. This puts your entire organization at risk.
How do you ensure that nesting does not take place in the leadership team that you are a part of?
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