Leadership team research

Although there is a great deal of research into both individual leadership and also on teams in general, there is very little on
leadership teams.

Leadership teams are very different to other types of team and play a huge role in the success, or otherwise, of organisations.

With this in mind, we have conducted our own research with a large sample of directors from a variety of teams in the private, public and not for profit sectors.

This has generated a large number of important insights about leadership teams and how they can be improved including:-

  • The value available is huge. Even high performing teams think they could improve their results by 45% if they were to be fully effective and underperforming teams think they could improve performance by 90%.
  • High performance is achieved by being strong in three areas. High performing teams have a clear and singular purpose, strong relationships leading to robust debate and rigorous management processes.
  • The weakest area for most teams is in the human dynamics. The greatest potential in both under and higher performing teams is to increase trust and openness in order that there can be the robust debate that is required to properly address the underlying issues and also to hold one another accountable.
  • Goal clarity and alignment are often weak. Too many leadership teams are unclear about their purpose and aspired legacy – settling instead for vague and wordy mission or vision statements that don’t bring real focus, guide decision making or enable the prioritisation of resources.
  • Management processes lack discipline. Goals, performance indicators, management information and clear project planning should be the stock in trade of leadership teams but many are surprisingly weak in these areas.
  • Few teams are working effectively on these issues. Only one in eight of the directors surveyed in our research felt that their team had made a serious, sustained and coherent attempt to tackle these issues to unlock the value.


Do you recognise these issues in your team? If so, please click here to benchmark your team and to see how much value is available.