The Four Functions of a Leadership Team
One of the methods (but not the only one :) to help define the purpose of leadership team meetings is to align them around the four functions of a high-performing team. You can use these four functions to set your agenda, to do yearly exec-team-performance-assessments, or to have quarterly check-ins as a team. The four functions are:
We set organization-wide milestones and success standards, then we collaborate on these with each dept or team (so we all stay aligned on ou rshared goals).
We clarify the use of resources, to ensure each team has the things it needs to succeed, and this includes sharing the burden when trade-offs have to be made.
We problem-solve cross-team conflict that couldn't be solved at a local level. This can be helpful when a conflict is more efficiently solved by leveraging the insights of the leaders not directly involved in the conflict (ie use the leadership team as peer-mediators).
We minimize confusion and close information gaps that impact multiple teams’ ability to reach their goals. This includes clarifying which team or leader has final decision-making power over which areas.
An important note:
What I find hurts organizations and companies most is not disagreement but rather a lack of transparency about how and when key disagreements on the above four areas will be deliberated. This creates confusion and unpredictability about who makes which decisions.
For example, some companies have explicitly clarified that they will use a democratic decision-making approach: they discuss issues as a full leadership team every month, and then upvote the final decisions. At these meetings, a 2min360 discussion model is used, and every decision includes the following:
Who is the final arbiter if there’s an impasse on a key issue? For example, if the COO and the CFO are in disagreement about an issue that impacts both departments (and thus impacts the entire company). Usually this would be the CEO, but often, especially with smaller companies or with co-founder companies, who is the final arbiter has not been clarified in advance, and this prolongs conflict and confusion on key issues.
What are the success criteria that the milestones or progress check-ins will be measured against? And on which dates/frequency will the progress check-ins happen (and who will be in the room)?