Council Post: The CEO’s Guide To Driving A Nimble And Cohesive C-Suite

Partner & Co-Founder at Kuroshio Consulting Inc., a management consultant with 20 years of international strategy consulting experience 

Have you ever been in an organization where highly territorial, mistrustful and empire-building egos get in the way of an effective C-suite — one where the C-suite’s toxicity then permeates throughout the organization? For most of us, the answer is, unfortunately, a resounding yes.

Yet, not all conflict is bad. Balancing conflict and cohesion at the C-suite is critical for organizational success. Differences in perspective and focus areas allow for innovative solutions and intentional trade-offs. However, you also need systemic cohesion so that the overall business objectives are being met. So, how can CEOs engender a C-suite that leverages diversity in perspective but also minimizes the poor behaviors that lead to a harmful trickle-down culture?

Leaders’ paths to the C-suite vary significantly from technical expertise in operations, financial skills or business skills, and C-suite training has historically focused on developing executive presence, working with a broad spectrum of stakeholders (boards, regulatory agencies, financial institutions, media, etc.) and jumping to value-generation perspectives that entail longer time horizons (five or more years).

In addition, the traditional siloed C-suite responsibilities are no longer clean-cut or driven purely by authority. That is, CIOs are expected to lead digital transformations; CHROs are expected to have a rooting in the business to predictively manage talent requirements; CFOs are expected to manage beyond only financial risks; CMOs have to be entrenched in their customer journeys; COOs have to streamline operations while maintaining quality and delivery excellence. They are all expected to weigh in on the organization’s strategic direction, and these overlaps might lead to a lack of clarity on decisions and unproductive conflicts.

While the traditional type of C-suite training is still absolutely critical, the ability to execute responsibilities now requires cooperation from the other C-suite peers. For example, in the manufacturing industry, how can a CIO drive a digital transformation to convert facilities to factories of the future if they have no rooting in the strategic business drivers or how operations work and cannot influence the COO to get buy-in for the transformation? The answer is that it is not possible.

So, how can CEOs drive a nimble and cohesive executive team?

• Set and clearly communicate strategic direction and associated differentiating capabilities.

• Drive the creation of strategies that encompass all functional and cross-functional areas, created jointly and aligned to protecting the strategic differentiating capabilities.

• Set clear priorities for cross-functional initiatives, including expectations for collaboration among C-suite peers with a clear focus on organizational benefits, not functional benefits.

• Establish a clear decision-making framework and develop associated executive team norms to ensure that the C-suite is behaving as an integrated decision-making unit (anchoring in available data and evaluating disparate perspectives before taking up a united voice).

• Create a performance management system that rewards shared accountability proportionately higher than those initiatives that are just within the respective function.

• Conduct leadership development succession planning training options by doing rotation programs across multiple functions to gain experience before taking on a C-suite role.

The C-suite of today does more than just manage its own functional area. Technical or functional depth is a table stakes capability. Each C-level executive is expected to be a strategic thinker and have strong soft skills focused on team orientation, communication, collaboration and building trust to influence their peers. C-suite members have more in common with one another than the functions they lead.

CEOs should try to enact these six guidelines to drive a nimble and cohesive executive team that is capable of adapting to internal and external pressures, as well as ensure a cascading trickle-down culture of collaboration with a view toward overall business goals.

Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?