65 Leadership & Leadership Team Tips
Leaders Letter 209 - Why Leadership Team Development Is More Critical Than Ever
Good morning leaders, wow, a lot has happened since we last spoke!
Today’s newsletter isn’t just a list of tips you can flick through, it’s me opening up battle scars, war wounds and sharing many personal experiences (as I say it includes my corporate blood, sweat and some tears) - I guarantee you at least half will help you in February alone, and they will guide improvement at the leadership level.
The hints, tips and enhancements are from my experiences, coaching and consulting, so if you are experiencing any and would like some support, happily hit reply or email me danny@dannydenhard.com.
» Work With Me: I am taking on projects - so if you are struggling or need 1-2-1 or 1-2-few training, happily let me know coach@dannydenhard.com
I have broken down the 65 tips into 3 categories:
(i) operations
(ii) executive leadership team (ELT) and
(iii) communications.
These are ideal for those in the C-Suite, in SLT and ELTs or ExCo’s, and if you are about to join these levels, this will be an operational way to onboard & hit the ground running & lead from the front.
Some of these have been shared previously on leaders’ letters, so some will be net new, and some will be bundled together to help you move forward and develop yourself and those around you.
Audio Version 🎧
If you prefer audio, here is NotebookLM’s take on the 65 tips
Visual Version 📁
Or PDF download (this is automated but very nicely done)
The Actionable Leadership Advice
Operations 🔧
Create a high operational skills level between the C-Suite, set the bar high - it will create the right standards, it will be noticed in the business, and when partnering externally, it will be accepted as the norm.
Roll out a Decision doc (« free template) - highlight and identify what, how, why and when you made a decision as a leadership team. This is to be shared across the business
Have a “Sit Down” each week as a leadership team - debrief is critical when the business is doing well or doing badly (like a stand up but more debrief and more relaxed - this brought one of the leadership teams I sat on closer than any other team building or bonding)
Walk and talks always beat in office chats - remove the barriers of the office, and remove the status updates
Remove status update requests (especially in 1-2-1s or department meetings) - async is best for status updates
Rehearse QBRs - QBRs are more than just numbers and commentary; they often are a performance that needs practice and performing
Reduce the number of unofficial apps and channels. The side iMessage, WhatsApp groups, the numerous Slack and Team channels you have back and forth on, especially those negative channels
Build collective scar tissue - leadership teams often don’t build muscle memory together, help to build tolerance and muscle together, togetherness and team spirit are critical at the top
MRS (meeting recovery syndrome) is real and can impact your day and week, reduce the meeting load and audit your calendar. Only by auditing and owning your time can you control MRS
Run management performance updates - allow Q&A, be the exec sponsors, allow department leads to own this and back up where required. Be engaged!
Team and department plans, not strategies - “strategies” remove the importance of the company strategy - words matter especially between tactics and strategy
When goal setting and frameworks start to fail, look to centre everyone back to simple goals. Think big act small by when for deliberate focus and simplicity work best in my experience
Run 1-2-1s and check-ins away from the office - office environments often create low-trust environments
Complete the 9 box exercise (you choose if you involve HR) - this is a hard point for many to control; however, identifying and sharing your high standards sends a signal to your leadership peers - expect questions and push for headcount removal or reduction. You have to manage this. Headcount is always a tricky subject but an essential one, planning and scoring removes painful drawn out issues
Have grievances with an executive colleague? Air it out in person first, not on chat apps or email - if you need to protect yourself, move to email over chat apps (document or record everything you need to)
Embrace HR
Into the leadership team meetings
In regular updates and 1-2-1 style catch-ups with them
Reduce the fear of HR as a leadership team (and if you cannot - embrace the fear factor of HR, this is political advice and will need you to be use this trump card if and when required)
Give interview practice internally - especially if you are not hiring, interview each other and allow those more junior to be the interviewer
Create a cross-functional pairing will help you and your colleagues to collaborate and drive performance improvements. Review the pairing and match well; poor pairings lead to cross-functional issues or individual status games
Coaching, training & reverse mentorship
Pilot reverse mentorship - connecting you with cross-functional colleagues who can provide updates, insights and connect you to the pulse of the company is invaluable
Actively coach and mentor management layers - you should be coaching each other and those layers below you. This doesn’t have to be weekly, but regular mentoring and coaching will set standards and indicate how important development is
Find an executive trainer away from the business who can facilitate and hold the room - this is a high-trust role that needs the right fit. Do not always trust the internal trainer you have to run important work streams, they are often inexperienced or have one model they use, not many.
Bring in experts and specialists into ELTs - ensure there is an “exec translator” to help bring clarity (someone in the team who can explain between departments and department heads)
Remove vanity metrics when reporting up into the C-Suite; this is always overlooked and causes confusion and distrust
High Potentials & High Performers
Identify “high potential” and help to shape their development. Who you see in your team, others might see others
Identify “high performers” and connect with management and leadership levels - studies show high performers raise those up around them
Identify internal influencers - they will be great at sharing messages and insights, and they also have an outsized influence on decision-making with their peers
Phase re-onboarding back to the business - people operate in 3 stages,
(i) what the company used to,
(ii) what it is today and
(iii) what it’s going to be - most operate in phase 1, you should be operating in phase 3 and pushing the business into phase 3 at every given momentGet around the campfire - eat together, the connection and trust increase. Lunches over dinners work too - do not wait for exec dinners and dates way in advance
Always align on cross-functional requests - no alignment = no performance
Ensure your number 2s have a strong relationship together and with your leadership peers
Specific working relationships are closer than others - call these out and agree on them being normal
Call out the boundaries you have individually & collectively created (inside and outside of work)
Agree to onboard new leaders onto the leadership team - it must be able to understand your relationships (most important), your rhythm, your flow & your comms cadences. Often this is overlooked and we expect execs to hit the ground running when many leadership team dynamics take months to be understood
Have a collective impact (like a hype file) Slack/Teams channel - share great feedback, great campaign and results - this can be company-wide or at the leadership level, remove the reply all congrats, this is a real fake status game
Culture means many different things to different people. Some are happy to come in and do their job, others would like everything to change, and many want a perfect environment - your job as a leader is to drive performance and create a safe environment, allowing people to thrive where they can. Always manage expectations around culture
Have members of the leadership team who are customer-obsessed & those who are competitor-obsessed (for their strengths and weaknesses) - but they have to meet in the middle, this has to be connected and cannot blindly copy competitors and ignore customer/consumer feedback
ELT 👩💼👨💼
Share your executive lessons - this can be small or large. Sharing exec lessons helps you all learn and develop together
Allow critical distance - allow others to step away and think through issues. Critical distance is the difference between good and bad decisions, especially when the stakes are high
Optimise meetings, optimise agendas, feedback loops, communication styles etc. Do not settle for a style - they stagnate and frustrate many, and only come out when someone has had enough or blows their top at a peer
Decide if you are a writing and document leadership team, a meeting team or something else. Writing is deliberate and challenges your thinking; without this rigorous approach, many will talk and talk and become a low-action organisation (if you can be a discussion-based business, you have to hold people accountable with docs and systems)
Tiering happens in leadership in the C-Suite team, be prepared to be tiered, and if unhappy, address head-on - don’t let it bubble under the surface. This is one of the most unspoken areas (often, CMOs are tier 3, CRO’s, CPOs are often tier 2, CEOs, COOs, CFOs are tier 1)
Set deadlines for feedback loops. Call it out and set reminders; this also ripples through the business, hold accountability
Agree to disagree - disagreement is healthy as long as action is taken
Leave the dispute in the board room, don’t take onto the floor and don’t burden this on your leadership peers or your own management team, this causes huge behavioural problems
Disagree and commit only works if all members of the leadership can actually disagree and commit - this approach takes a long time to mature (Amazon’s famous working style barely works in most leadership teams)
Remove I told you so and every variation of I told you so - and if it rears its ugly head, kill it as soon as it happens
Allow AMAs to happen in public - if you are confident in the C-Suite AMAs drive performance and create a deeper level of connection and high trust. If you or your colleagues are not as good on your feet, expect this to be a work in progress and hard work to begin with. Be wary of the problematic employees attending
Set colleagues up for success - ask pre-approved questions to set them up for success (especially in group environments)
Declare what type of meeting you’re going to host (a brainstorm, a decision-making session, a performance review, problem-solving etc) - this is the only way teams can work through important meetings
No agenda, no meeting rule at senior levels - and that goes with the CEO too
Create management pods - pods that can support each other and rotate if you have a large ELT
Have designated roles within the C-Suite - the approachable one, the direct one, the one who speaks in front of the business etc. The clearer the roles, the easier it is for your company to have the right people at leadership levels
Reduce drinking cultures away from the C-Suite, but go for food or drinks together. Drinking can be a real benefit, but often leads to problems and causes distrust (many feel pressured to drink or cannot handle drink in an exec environment)
Increase / decrease volume and presence of the leadership team in the business - too much volume = noise, lower volume = trust
There will be a time you have to remove a C-Suite peer when their and or their department’s performance isn’t good enough. Have the criteria set - often this won’t be completely agreed upon, but then reduces any surprises
Combat vs conflict - understand there is a difference and call it out once it becomes conflict
Play to your strengths as executives and work out if your weakness needing fixing or can hire / invite others in to address these
Have your executive roles - the ones who are approachable, the ones who are front-facing, and the others who are happy to be behind the scenes
Embrace cultural differences - this improves how you work together and removes executive groupthink and biases
Enable skip meetings - especially with number 2s with founders and CEOs. Increases bonds and trust levels throughout the business (also helps with success planning)
Politics is going to be played. Either agree to play as a team or prepare to be played and manipulated - and even when it’s agreed, political players play the game (PQ = political intelligence is a critical part of work)
Communications 🗣️
Agree on the leadership sub-culture you have and what is in and what is out of culture. Your leadership sub-culture leaks into the business and sets the tone and behaviours that others mimic and copy
Kill jargon and your discipline buzzwords in important meetings - remove the need for translation and too much cognitive load
Remove overcommunication - you are short on time and energy; if people are overcommunicating, it is taking time from everyone. The same goes for no communication, which is a choice many make; they are actively deciding not to communicate
Remove long emails and long threads. Have a rule of x length & if hits it arrange a call or call for clarity
Remove long docs - leverage tech with BLUF (bottom line upfront), use deliberate updates on the front page. Long docs are powerful providing there is a style and agreed working style with them
Create exec work with me docs - this is a way to understand how to communicate, collaborate and work with each other at a deeper level
Understand that everyone has their audience size they thrive with, whether that’s 1-2-1, 1-2-few, 1-2-group, 1-2-many - help colleagues to thrive and own where there are confident and comfortable
This can seem like a lot, and being deliberate in improving your leadership is hard work, but it is critical not just for your performance but also for those around you and those reporting into you.
Need Help?
I am always happy to discuss these or help with coaching, you or those around you. Happily get in touch → coach@dannydenhard.com
Have a great start to Feb, and hopefully I will land in your inbox again soon.
Honestly, this is one of the most comprehensive leadership takes I’ve read so far.
This is solid. The bit about 'collective scar tissue' resonates hard - I've seen leadership teams that never struggled together fall apart the moment real pressure hits. The distinction between combat vs conflict is subtle but huge, most teams dont realize they crossed that line til way too late. One thing I'd add: the reverse mentorship point only works if execs actually surrender status in those conversations, otherwise it's just performance theater. Great breakdown overall.