Senior Executive Leadership

Leadership, the Chief Executive and the Senior Executive Team

Usually an organisation has a formal leader who is ‘in charge’ and is held responsible for the success and failure of the organised entity.

Often these leaders have reporting to them a group of senior executives with individual responsibility for specific sections, or specialised organisational units, or specific geographies.

Ideally this top group of leaders functions as a Senior Executive Team, with the Chief Executive as its leader.

I attach specific meaning to the term ‘TEAM’ and to the term “LEADER’. These meanings ideally apply to teams and their leaders at all levels.

‘TEAM’ to me implies that this is a group of people with a common purpose, who, while carrying specific

Leadership System and Management Structure

In addition, the leadership style developed and promoted by the chief executive and the leadership team is ideally designed to devolve decision making to all levels of the organisation.

Specific responsibility and accountability is defined and clearly understood as part of a formal management structure, but there is also a collective accountability and a set of shared goals that ensure that all parts of the organisation work together.

The Values the Organisation lives by

Great organisation have developed, communicated and adopted a clearly expressed set of values, which become an important part of its ‘persona’ and are vital to its reputation. Ideally, these values are developed and maintained in consultation with all stakeholder groups and are discussed with all potential and new employees as part of the induction process.

Obviously, the written values must be reflected in the actual behaviour of executives and all leaders, who demonstrate and teach the spirit of these values through their personal

Investment plans need to reflect both the spirit and the letter of the laws of the society in which the organisation lives and works, and should be seen to support the stated opjectives of governments.

At the same time however, they need to support the success of the business. Business success should also be seen as a possitive contribution to the success and welfare of the community.

For specific detail on Category 1 LEADERSHIP, refere to the following pages which show:

POSITIVE SIGNS TO LOOK FOR - World’s Best Management Practice and

WARNING INDICATORS - World’s Worst Management Practice

Then look at your own organistion and compare what you see, item by item, with a continuum from excellent (all Postive signs to look for are present) to very bad (all warning indicators are present). Reach a consensus of how your organisation rates on a scale of 1 to 10 according to the rating guide on page

You may want to list your organisation’s Strength and Opportunities for Improvement, and this self discovery can then form the basis for a realistic improvement