Top team behavior for winning results

Anneloes Raes highlights competencies that contribute to the smooth functioning of the C-suite and the operational success of the entire organization.

By Anneloes Raes

Imagine the top management team (TMT) of a large pharmaceutical company. The team comprises nine experienced executives, each of whom has a strong track record in the organizational area for which he or she is responsible, whether finance, a business unit or a region of the world. They each pursue relatively independent and extremely demanding agendas in their respective realms.

Working as a real team, though a nice idea in theory, is hardly feasible in practice – or so the TMT members think. And why would it be necessary in the first place? Is it not the CEO whose job it is to listen to everyone, integrate all that information and then make the final decision?

In a stable environment, this model may perhaps serve the organization well. But the organization is facing some strategic challenges ahead: key patents are due to expire, government regulations are changing in certain countries and insurance companies are discussing systemic reforms.

Such challenges cannot be faced by simply dividing and delegating them among team members. To perform well in a turbulent environment like this requires not just the full effort of every single TMT member, but the synergies that arise from a coordinated, wellfunctioning team.

My research is dedicated to understanding how top managers can develop and maintain such high-performing TMTs.

The focus on teamwork among top managers may seem at odds with the widespread notion of leadership as an individual act. In both public opinion and business media, top managers are treated as lone heroes when things go right or renegade villains when things go wrong.

And it’s not just a perception. This is, in fact, what happens in practice. Professor Donald Hambrick of Penn State Smeal College of Business once aptly noted that, in many TMTs, individual members sometimes behave as “semi-autonomous barons” rather than as members of the same team.

This is a mistake. Research indicates that a lack of TMT unity can have very serious organizational consequences, including a lower quality of strategic decisions and decreased financial performance.

My research indicates that the reverse is also true: When teams take targeted actions to develop certain competencies, they can achieve positive results, boosting the organization’s productive energy, and increasing employee well-being as a result.

This article is published in IESE Insight Issue 20 (Q1 2014).

This content is exclusively for personal use. If you wish to use any of this material for academic or teaching purposes, please go to IESE Publishing where you can purchase a special PDF version of “Top team behavior for winning results” (ART-2499-E), as well as the full magazine in which it appears, in English or in Spanish.