Change Blocker 1: Leadership Cohesion and The Ongoing Tug of War
Jeppe Vilstrup Hansgaard
CEO and Founder of Innovisor, a Boutique advisory in change, Advisor to leaders on change journeys, Author, Speaker, Henley MBA, Proud dad of 3, Organizer of King&Queen of Javelin, Triple Jump and 800m
Conflicts are good…
If they are value-adding and if you work together towards a common goal. In leadership teams they are especially worthwhile, as different skills and capabilities are brought together – ideally to work as one team – towards the overall objectives.
The Ongoing Tug of War
Mostly, however, this is not the case, as conflicts in leadership teams seem more like an ongoing tug of war. Each leader pulling the team as hard as possible towards their own personal objectives. Driven by ego, incentives, hidden agendas, or just a poorly formulated strategy, with misaligned priorities and unclear goals. You probably know as many poor excuses as I do.
If your leadership team is poorly connected and not working as one, then it blocks your ability to succeed with change. The people will see that the leaders are not working as one, and quickly categorize any directions being set as not trustworthy – and ignore it.
For the same reason, we always assess leadership team connectivity, when we support organizations with their change programs.
We then compare it with the Innovisor benchmark data to see, if the team is on par with benchmark or better/worse. This contrasting and comparison enables learning & improvement, which is essential if you work with organizational networks, and want to be able to answer the 'So What?'-question in a qualified manner.
NB! The visual shows the leadership connectivity across the top-3 layers in an organization. Level 1+2 leaders are shown as red, while level 3 leaders are the blue dots. Notice the lack of connectivity outside the core group.
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Being On Par Does NOT Make You Home Safe
Being on par with the Innovisor benchmark for leadership connectivity does not mean you are home safe. You must beat the benchmark significantly to be in a good position for your upcoming change, and we will show you how to succeed with that.
How do you think your leadership team compare versus the benchmark?
Are you on par, worse, or better?
Other Inspiration
Read more about the Six Change Blockers here:
Pre-order the eBook version of 'Change is Gridlocked! Now what?' - the 3rd book in 'the Now What?'-playbook series, which explores the Six Change Blockers: