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Myth of leadership teams ...

I have been hearing from my colleagues and other friends that sometimes managers seem to think that they are superior in intellect and capability and that is the reason they are part of the top decision making teams in their organizations.

That is not necessarily true - I have studied and also read many articles around successful leadership teams and have noticed that teams that have had the greatest impact derived it from their informal networks of collaborators in the workplace. Their value did not come from the meetings they conducted and the decisions they made together? a leadership team is in most companies a misnomer although many senior executives throughout the company may jostle for a seat on the leadership team because that is where the key strategic decisions are supposedly made.

In actuality, the leadership team rarely conducts its work in group mode, as a deliberative body or a source of direction. Instead, its power comes from its team member's informal and social networks, their determination to make the most of those networks and their innate ability to work well in smaller groups to address specific issues. The most effective top teams are those that recognize this reality and explicitly set themselves up to function as the senior networking exchange of the enterprise. Some other fancy words to be used are "organizational social networks"

This is the case in most organizations ( exceptions will always be there) , so the next time somebody tells you he /she is in the leadership team .. you may smirk and have a quiet smile because high performing leadership teams meet for sharing updates and ensuring they connect with networks in the organization to get their work done ......

have a good day ...
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