A company that silos critical business functions is destined for failure. Successful leadership teams facilitate the sharing of information across business functions. This effective communication creates a sense of trust across leadership teams, ensures high morale, positively impacts workflows, and ultimately generates a positive customer experience. And when an organization’s employees see its leadership team collaborating effectively, there’s a high probability that the entire organization will be working towards the greater good of the organization instead of exclusively for personal motivations. Here are five topics that the management team should regularly discuss in their periodic meetings to create harmony across business units along with successful business outcomes.
- Quarterly Objectives and Leadership Performance – A leadership meeting provides the perfect opportunity to review the progress of your company’s short-term goals. As Peter Drucker once said, “What gets measured gets done”. Leaders across all business units need to present key performance indicators in an effort to create a foundation for decision making, focus attention on what’s most important, and to allow for strategic and operational transformation.
- Major Wins, Losses, and Insights – It’s important to celebrate wins. There’s nothing worse than a company with a “yes, but what have you done for me today” mentality. Leaders need to share important wins with their peers and celebrate those wins with their employees. Along with wins, it’s critical to share any letdowns that occurred since the last leadership meeting. Remember, the team is there to support every member and to strategize on ways to turn a loss into a future win. Insights from your leadership team are priceless and can come from leftfield. Don’t be surprised when marketing leadership comes up with a unique solution for a problem HR has been experiencing. Never stop building each other up.
- Perception of Your Product in the Market – Leaders would be wise to keep their finger on the pulse of the market and shifting product perceptions. Marketing and sales have the ability to provide the greatest insights. It’s these important insights that will impact the product roadmap and various business units.
- Customers – Every senior leader in an organization should have crystal clear knowledge of the company’s most important customers along with their experiences with your product. Based on the customer success team’s data and documentation, you must discuss your customers’ likes and dislikes. This further enhances the leadership team’s ability to positively influence the product roadmap and customer service operations.
- Team – A strong leadership team is crucial for steering your company towards success. Leadership teams must have a sense of self-awareness, a clear idea of who’s performing well, who needs to be acknowledged, and if anyone on the team is experiencing frustration or underperforming. If anyone appears to be struggling, approach them with compassion. We’re all human and we all struggle sometimes. It’s also crucial for your leadership team to be aware of high performers and rising stars. The company will ultimately benefit from employees with strong institutional knowledge that can eventually fill a seat within the wider leadership team.
Obviously, leadership meetings are critical. Schedule them at a frequency that makes sense for your organization’s needs as they’ll help alleviate complications, impact corporate growth, and propel your company forward. If your leadership team needs to hire a stellar executive or you’re interested in joining a company that utilizes the points above, check out SucceedSmart, an innovative company that’s revolutionizing the traditional executive search industry for executives and hiring managers.
