Your leadership team can make or break your business

The success of a business is not determined by productivity, services, or marketing positioning; instead, Stephanie Bown argues that the core of a thriving business lies in their leadership team.

Speaking with HR Leader, Stephanie Bown, organisational psychologist and author of Curious, Connected & Calm, unpacked why a strong leadership team is the backbone of any successful business and shared actionable steps companies can take to empower their leaders to drive lasting results.

Leading with vision and values

To ensure a business's long-term success and strategic direction, Bown said it is crucial to ensure that a shared vision unites the leadership team.

A clear vision is also essential, as stakeholders – ranging from “customers, employees, and investors” – look to business leaders to “define what success looks like” to shape their behaviour in a manner that aligns with the leader’s values.

That vision is far more than just a statement on a whiteboard, and Bown said it has the ability to drive “long-term success” by sparking “belief in the purpose of the business” to its staff and customers.

While vision sets the direction, Bown emphasised that the values underpinning a leadership team’s vision play a crucial role in shaping the journey and ultimately determining a business’s success.

The shared values of a business’s leaders not only shape “how they will work together” but also have the power to “set the tone for the whole organisation”.

Recognising that values are deeply “personal”, Bown said leaders who take the time to understand other’s values are better positioned to “build both trust and respect”.

Consequences of weak leadership teams

On the other hand, Bown cautioned that businesses with a weak leadership team face significant risks, with the potential costs being both exceedingly high and detrimental to the organisation's long-term success.

An ineffective leadership team could lead to a “dysfunction junction”, where, rather than “bringing out the best in each other”, team members operate in isolation and work independently.

“Instead of fuelling creativity and energy, working together can become a tiring exercise in justifying positions and avoiding blame”.

Leadership teams that operate in this manner create ripple effects with far-reaching consequences for the business. Bown explained that such teams are “missing out on incredible opportunities to leverage collective capacity and generate more value for themselves, their organisation and their stakeholders”.

Key quotes for strong leadership teams

So, what makes a leadership team great? A high-performing leadership team demonstrates three fundamental qualities essential for driving success: curiosity, connection, and calm, Bown said.

To demonstrate curiosity, a leadership team must cultivate “independent thinking, welcoming diverse views, and [remain open to] exploring new possibilities”.

To foster connection, she noted, leaders should harness their team’s collective capacity, “bringing together their strengths in ways that generate creative solutions”.

To embody calm, a leadership team should establish a sense of “team synergy” grounded in the confidence that “together, they are better”.

Proactive steps

To build a cohesive leadership team, Bown emphasised the importance for business leaders to invest time in “strengthening the bonds of trust and respect”, noting that they are the key ingredients that bring a team together and stay united.

To achieve this, Bown said business leaders must:

• Get real: “Have an honest conversation as a team about how the interaction dynamic is either helping or hindering team performance. Agree on behaviours that need to change – like dominating voices, avoidance of conflict, poor time management or lack of meeting preparation,” she said;

• Get close: “Invest time getting to know each other’s motivations, values and strengths. Understand the pool of collective capacity at your fingertips by exploring what each individual has to offer”.
  

• Get better: “Set a shared purpose as a team, as well as agreed principles for working together. Agree on how you will resolve issues and conflicts as they arise and help each other be accountable by regularly checking in on your principles.”