5 SIGNS YOUR LEADERSHIP TEAM MAY BE YOUR BIGGEST BARRIER

The minute you hear, “Our leadership team isn’t the biggest barrier to achieving outcomes,” you know 100% that the leadership team IS the biggest barrier.

Here’s why: A statement like this is signal numero uno that you’re dealing with an LT that is in deep denial about its dysfunction, lacks accountability, experiences low psychological safety, lacks VACC* leadership muscles – or likely all of the above.

*VACC or "Visionary. Architect. Catalyst. Coach," is a leadership model introduced by Mckinsey that enables agile ways of working.

Here are four other common signals that your leadership team’s mindsets and behaviors may be getting in the way of achieving outcomes:

“All Leadership teams have problems.”

VACC leaders don’t normalize bad behaviors. After all, just because another function or location’s leaders works in silos, doesn’t mean we should. They DO always strive to be better.

“Our people leaders aren’t strong enough.”

VACC leaders don’t point fingers at others. Fact is, when leaders spend insufficient time building their agile mindsets and behaviors, it often results in “sloppy agile” transformations that have not set others up for success. Examples include spans of control that are at best not fit-for-purpose (eg, same span of control regardless of the work) and removing layers of leadership before you've built the capabilities and ways of working needed to be successful in the new operating model.

“I don’t want to waste time looking back I just want to look forward.”

VACC leaders know that reflecting on progress and issues from the recent past are one of the most powerful tools we have to ensure we can accelerate progress moving forward. When a team is resistant to these learning opportunities, it is a critical warning sign that the team is lacking psychological safety (one of the MOST critical conditions required for successful organizations).

“The house is on fire! We’ve got urgent issues. We will focus on the ‘soft stuff’ later.”

VACC leaders know that what some like to call the ‘soft stuff’ (blech... I cannot STAND that term) is really the “essential stuff.” ?There will always be a(nother) fire. But our mindsets, behaviors and how we show up as a leadership team inevitably influence HOW we approach urgent issues. Put another way: the definition of insanity is taking the same approach and expecting a different result. So, if we find ourselves wondering why our particular house is [still] on fire, we need to first ask ourselves: “how are we, as an LT, changing?”

IT'S TIME TO TRIPLE DOWN

What's the point? Simply this: If you are hearing these - or similar - statements in your organization, it may be a sign that your leadership mindsets and behaviors may, in fact, be a significant barrier to achieving your stated outcomes and it is time to triple down on leadership mindsets and behaviors. One leader I spoke with estimated about 75% of the meeting time in the first two years with his new leadership team were dedicated to this topic!

Here are two steps to consider:

1) Assess the state of psychological safety within the team (and the overall organization), then engage in a moderated leadership team discussion to reflect on your leadership team's interactions.

2) Reflect on your own leadership | leadership team mindsets and behaviors. Focus on raising awareness of the desired leadership mindsets and behaviors and building those muscles both as individuals and as an intact leadership team.