Coach's VIEW is a business column authored by executive coaches in COACH A, aimed at providing valuable insights and effective approaches for leveraging coaching to foster organizational and leadership development. The column draws on the latest coaching trends and data, as well as insights from notable global publications on coaching.
Make Your Management Team a "Team"
What does it mean "to make it a team"?
One interpretation would be that the members gathering there are co-creating.
Co-creation, when simplified, means that the whole is more than the sum of its parts; that 1+1+1 is greater than 3. Members interact and influence one another and create value by getting together and working together.
That's the state of being a "team".
Given that way of interpreting what a team is, I believe that the hardest team to turn into a "team", is the management team. The reason is that a management team is like a group of fourth pitchers.
In many cases, the executives are ones who have achieved success in the company and have won the competition. The CEO of a large company with 100,000 employees asked me one time,
"Suzuki-san, do you know what are the odds of being an executive officer in our company?"
"No, I have no idea."
"Only 0.2 percent."
Only two out of every 1,000 people can become an officer.
Because they have been appointed in this way, they have confidence in what they have done, and they also have their own philosophy. They do not easily agree with the opinions of those around them or become complacent, even if that person is the president of the company.
That is why it is so difficult to be a true team.
I Want, More than Anything, a Good Management Team
In my long history of executive coaching, I have found that there are three major themes in coaching CEOs.
One is creating an organizational culture where innovation happens. The second is succession planning. And third is fostering a management team.
I clearly remember what one of my CEO clients murmured to me one day.
"Actually, you know, I want, more than anything, a good management team."
How does a management team become a "team"?
To the best of my knowledge, the way to do that is not written in a book, an article, or an MBA textbook. So, we explore and think together with our clients, who are part of the management themselves, about what we can do to create a good management team.
Talking about Purpose
If I could suggest one thing to our readers from that experience, it would be that we should talk about the "purpose" with our management team.
"What is the purpose of this company's existence in society?"
"For what and for whom does this company exist in the world?"
In the early days of a start-up, the management team's mindset is strongly geared toward purposefulness.
"What do we offer as value to society?"
There is an atmosphere in which such discussions can happen anywhere, anytime.
However, as a company grows and aims to be listed on the stock exchange, it becomes more focused on "targets", such as annual, quarterly and monthly financial results, rather than "perspectives". By when do we need to achieve these results and this level of performance? The targets are penetrated down to the executives who oversee each department, and each executive works hard to achieve his or her own targets.
The achievement of each department's targets become more emphasized than thinking about what is the value we bring to society as a company. When "individual" targets are strongly focused on, egos surface, less constructive clashes occur, and sometimes members can actually get in each other's way.
In these circumstances, the management team has definitely not become a team. However, by re-examining the purpose, the management team can become a team again.
Questioning the Reason for Existence
Microsoft's Satya Nadella is the CEO who put Microsoft back on a strong growth trajectory after it began to decline slightly.
His book, Hit Refresh, opens with the following statement.
"After a few years of sprinting far ahead of the competition, something has changed. It's not a change for the better. Innovative work turned to bureaucratic work, collaboration turned to infighting, and we began to fall away from the competition."
"In the midst of these difficult times, a caricaturist painted the Microsoft organization chart as a gang of bickering men pointing guns at each other. This message could not be neglected." (*)
The first thing he did was to ask the executives, 'What does Microsoft exist in this world for in the first place?'
Says Nadella, 'I knew that in my own mind, and ultimately in the minds of all of us at Microsoft to move the company forward that I needed a definitive answer to the question;
'What is the reason for Microsoft's existence? What is my reason for being in this new position? (*)
By discussing purpose within the management team, Microsoft's management team became a team again. And it was a major factor in Microsoft's resurgence.
Helping the management team to question and explore the purpose, in order to become a "team".
I believe that is one of the major missions for an executive coach at COACH A.
[Reference]
Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone
Author: Satya Nadella
＊Regardless of profit, non-profit or intranet, secondary use such as copying, diversion, selling etc. is prohibited without permission.
Language: Japanese
The author of this article
Yoshiyuki Suzuki played an integral role in pioneering coaching services and coach training in Japan, being one of the founding members of Japan’s first coach training company, Coach21 Co. Ltd. (established in 1997). Suzuki served as the Vice President of sister company Coach A Ltd. upon its establishment in October 2001 and eventually assumed the role of President in January of 2007. With the two companies merging under the name of COACH A Co. Ltd. as of January 2011, Suzuki is now responsible for leading 110 full-time professional coaches and overseeing operations at Japan’s largest coaching firm. Suzuki’s unique background and training has contributed to his success as a coach and leader. After completing his B.A. in Humanities at the prestigious Keio University, he worked as a media planner for McCann Erickson-Hakuhodo (now McCann Erickson Japan Inc.), one of the world’s largest marketing and advertising agencies. Suzuki then proceeded to pursue a master’s degree at Middle Tennessee State University, and after graduation, served as a public therapist for the state of Tennessee, USA.
