Two approaches have proven particularly effective to start aligning leadership teams at the beginning of a strategy and identity process: Combining a 360-degree feedback and a team assessment. These tools address individual leadership challenges and create transparency about a team’s level of functionality. Functional team consisting of conscious leaders will dare to create strategy beyond their egos, thus building something unique and impactful.
Individual Leadership 360
Most of my clients use the Leadership Circle Profile 360 to produce structured individual feedback. (https://leadershipcircle.com). It creates a deep understanding of a leader’s creative competencies, and of reactive tendencies that hold them back from being the most effective leaders they could be.
The 360 feedback debrief and goal setting followed by executive coaching sessions in the context of strategy and identity, provide the reflection space busy executives often don’t have. These sessions are essential for the individual development of executives, linking their legacy to the organization’s identity.
Executive Team Development
As for team assessments, the Five Dysfunctions of a Team framework (https://tablegroup.com) is structured to help teams create vulnerability-based trust as an enabler of positive conflict. The better your executive team can use conflict as a catalyst, the more commitment and accountability they will build to follow through and leverage the organization to produce the desired results.
A word of caution
Stay away from so-called psychometric tools and personality tests. They have little strategic value and are less effective in driving executive team development. In fact, people often use these test results to put colleagues into boxes, judging them. Or they use results as excuses for how they show up, defending unhelpful behaviors (‘That’s just who I am’). Better deploy a deep 360-degree leadership feedback and engage your leaders in candid conversations.
More about integrating executive team development, strategy design, and organizational identity.