2. Dilemmas, Dramas and Differences

Leadership teams that manage dilemmas, recurring dramas and differences develop resilient relationships and creates trust that leads to increased collaboration, more innovative solutions and breakthrough results. This chapter helps you identify and master such challenges. Simply because a group of men and women call themselves the executive leadership team, it does not mean that they automatically work together as an effective team. Leaders should not confuse arriving in the team with succeeding as a team. There is a big difference. Only after you arrive does the real work begin. When your company and senior leadership team roles do not take precedence over your functional and personal roles, your team will struggle to perform at its best. If leaders are always arguing about what to do from their own functional point of view and how it will impact their function, your executive team exchanges will resemble turf wars; in-fighting amongst team members for resources and talent leading to a toxic and low performance environment. This isn’t an “all or nothing” switch, it’s more of a give and take, but with that said, leadership teams that play at their best have their default setting at company interests and leadership team interests over function and personal interests.