What is the one role your Leadership Team is there to deliver?

CEO Question to Growth Advisor: "If there was one role my Leadership Team is there to deliver, what would it be?"

Visage Growth Partners Advisor response: "CUSTODIAN OF THE STRATEGIC PLAN!"

I was asked this question from a CEO the other day.  It is a great question, particularly when MOST businesses I see initially have a Leadership Team that is struggling to align around a common cause AND unify their approach to getting things done!

In fact, Leadership Team alignment is one of the most important requirements for any growth focussed business.  Unfortunately, too often it is not present enough!  Common causes of this consist of (but are not limited to):

• No strategic plan in place;

• There IS a plan in place, but it’s not understood by, or does not resonate with the members of the leadership team;

• The leadership team members were not engaged in the development of the strategic plan;

• The leadership team members do not feel engaged and/or heard by the CEO or other members of the team;

• Team members focus on their own department or personal objectives as a priority over the business’ priorities;

• There are too many meetings held, and particularly ones with no agenda, follow-ups, or outcomes driven; and

• There is a lack of accountability for the team.  Too many tasks have no one accountable for their completion and clarity about when they’re due and what the desired standard is.

For those of you who are growing your business and experiencing a healthy and aligned Leadership Team, I dare say you won’t see many of the points above present in your business.  Keep it that way!

Now…back to the role of the Leadership Team. 

A best-practice organisation has its Leadership Team collaborate to create the Business’ Strategic Plan. They’re deeply involved in surveyIng the external environment, considering trends and innovative possibilities, and also understanding the internal challenges and opportunities. This will happen in the lead up to a Strategic Planning session AND through the course of a year.  Typically facilitated by an external party (to enable all members to be active participants), through several activities, the team will create its Strategy that should identify the long-term (10+ years), mid-term (3 years), near term (12 month), and immediate (quarterly) objectives.  

But a Strategic Plan is only as good as its EXECUTION.  Therefore, the role of the Leadership Team members is to take the Strategic Plan and implement it throughout the rest of the organisation. They should be CUSTODIANS OF THE BUSINESS PLAN!

It is typical for a Leadership Team member to be a custodian with their OWN team.  But numerous businesses I know of have the Leadership Team manage the implementation across multiple groups.  The Leadership Team often unites in meetings, communicating key messages from the Strategic Plan to multiple business functions in unison.  Town Halls, and webinars are great examples of this.   Standing-up cross-functional teams is another way to act as that true custodian of the Strategic Plan.

Rolling out a Strategic Plan is simple in notion, but complex in practicality. This is where the role of custodian comes into it.  What does this mean?

Here are some key activities of of a custodian:

• Explain all key elements of the Strategic Plan to their team AND others, making particular emphasis on connecting the plan directly to people's actual roles. A powerful custodian will clearly demonstrate how each role connects and relates to the Strategic Plan;

• Breaking down the Business Priorities (fundamentally for the current (new) quarter and cascading these to all individuals in their business unit/function;

• Developing one or two critical numbers to be tracked by their team throughout the quarter.  Here, custodians would seek the 1 or 2 most significant measures that must be tracked to deliver on the business priorities.  As custodians, they would also help the team to identify why things may be going awry AND what are the things  needed to get these measures trending positively;

• Custodians also look to create "connectivity" across various functional/departmental people across the business.  They're constantly looking for collaboration opportunities that can only strengthen the growth and efficiency prospects of the business;

• Custodians identify when the plan is at risk of being delivered.  Be it in their direct line of accountability or not. They will find their voice and rally the leadership team to determine what needs to be done to overcome the roadblock/risk, who needs to be involved, and what the expected outcomes will be.  This is NOT the role of the CEO.  This is the role of any member of the Leadership Team…a CUSTODIAN of the Business’ Strategic Plan!

As the CEO or Executive of your business, how well are YOU playing the role of custodian of the strategic plan?

And when you consider your leadership team, how well are they also demonstrating the activities we expect from a CUSTODIAN?

In our experiences, the greater the proportion of your Leadership Team who is living the role of CUSTODIAN, the greater the business outcomes will be!