“What is the main factor behind your success?” was the key question in our survey of over 200 CEOs, the majority of whom replied as follows: “Having the backing of an effective Management/Executive Committee“.
These are CEOs who have achieved their annual targets, yet are humble enough to admit that their success was made possible by the support of an effective leadership team.
How do these Management/Executive Committees get from “good” to “excellent”? How do they react to their CEO’s management? What are their responsibilities? What behavior do they adopt?
The most effective Management/Executive Committees
We set out to find out why this was such a common response, given that the profile of the CEOs surveyed ranged anywhere from directive leader to participative leader by way of visionary leader.
What role did the Management/Executive Committee play in the light of the CEO’s management profile?
In the following pages, we present the results of our analysis, first identifying the CEO profile and then describing in detail the behavior adopted by the Management/Executive Committees, with their strengths, to adapt to their CEO… and become an excellent source of support on the challenges the CEO has to contend with.
1. The Directive Leader: “hub and spokes” management
This management style puts the CEO at the hub of all decisions. Most discussions are held face to face, and it is often during these discussions that decisions are reached; so the decision-making is swift, but the implementation can sometimes be held up, particularly if it requires alignment or coordination with another division. As a result, this operating method reinforces the concept of silos within the organization.
The silo is not dysfunctional as such: it is essential for a business to succeed, because whatever the activity may be, the work (of adding value) still has to be done. The silo makes it possible to focus on the work and pursue excellence. The quality of this silo work is important because unless this quality is present from the outset, there is no prospect of the business succeeding.
Even if the quality of silo operations is necessary, however, it is still not enough to optimize overall corporate performance, which will depend heavily on the organization’s ability to coordinate, align and bring consistency to the different silos (divisions, structures, departments, etc.).
Management/Executive Committee strength: using transparency and coordination to manage silo and transversal issues
For this reason, each Direct Report to the Directive Leader will need to be adept at switching between two hats, one as the Manager (or VP) responsible for the work performed in his or her silo, the other as a member of the Management/Executive Committee team with responsibility for the coordination, alignment and consistency of his or her silo’s objectives with those of the other silos making up the business.
For this type of management, the role of the Management/Executive Committee will be to communicate with one another in total transparency so that managers are all aware of what other divisions are doing and can coordinate their actions with those of their peers. This way, the whole organization will be aligned and consistent when implementing decisions. Without this dynamic of sharing information, the Management/Executive Committee will have no added value to offer to the rest of the organization.
2. The Participative Leader: consensual management
The CEO adopting this management style is generally looking to achieve consensual decision-making within the management team. Obviously, if the team is unable to reach a consensus, the CEO will have the casting vote, but operates on the principle that involving all the team members in the decision-making process will advance and accelerate the implementation of decisions, once made. For the CEO adopting this style, the time invested in reaching a consensus is more than made up during the implementation phase and, most importantly, guarantees results.
Management/Executive Committee strength: effective consensus on the basis of active listening
In this situation, the role of the Management/Executive Committee will be to make the interests of the business the prime objective, so as to arrive swiftly at a consensus. This calls for considerable aptitude for sharing, communication and, above all, active listening on the part of each member of the management team. It also requires team members to devote sufficient time to the dialogue, which is not always easy, as each and every one of them is also responsible for achieving the targets for their silo.
3. The Visionary Leader: “lookout” management
CEOs adopting this management style tend to make frequent course adjustments. They have the ability to foresee market developments, internal dysfunctions or inadequate results associated with previous decisions. In general, they are correct in their analysis – which is what gives this management style its legitimacy – but the downside is that the Management/Executive Committee has trouble keeping up with the frequent changes. This makes it difficult for the CEO to carry the team (and, to an even greater extent, the entire organization) along with him or her, because the CEO is the only one to “sense” the future. Worse still, the management team risks becoming overburdened with work, seeing themselves as “running around in all directions” but with no real understanding of where to go, unconvinced as to the value they are adding; over the long term, this can undermine team members’ motivation or, at the very least, destabilize them.
Management/Executive Committee strength: prioritization and linkage
The role of the Management/Executive Committee in this situation will be to develop a team dynamic designed to prioritize implementation of the various changes whilst alerting the CEO to the difficulties of following through these changes on the ground. At the same time, the members of the Management/Executive Committee will also bring consistency to these changes of course for the organization as a whole. The management team acts as a link to the organization, helping it to adapt as swiftly as possible to the CEO’s vision.
The three managerial approaches set out above are clearly caricatures; in reality, there are any number of approaches that may include all or some of the elements mentioned above, but however the CEO manages the Management/Executive Committee, the issue for the management team remains the same: adapting to the CEO’s management style.
To sum up, the key factor for success amounts to a lot more than the ability to bring together the best people to build the Management/Executive Committee team. As we have just seen, it is not enough to have the right people on the Management/Executive Committee: they also need to really work as a team! Moreover, the management team has to be made effective, which means that the members of the Management/Executive Committee must succeed in 1) aligning with the CEO’s management style (and thereby meeting the CEO’s expectations) and 2) ensuring they have a clear understanding of the decision-making process geared to the CEO’s management style in order to guarantee rapid implementation of the CEO’s decisions within the organization. Ultimately, it is this rapid and effective implementation that will produce the hoped-for results.
Yves CONNAN
