Executives need certain skills, attributes and experience to sustain organisational performance and to be an effective leader. According to Barry Bloch, Global Partner for Board and Executive Leadership, the ability to meet this requirement is determined by 8 critical success factors.
“By analysing more than 5000 Executive and CEO role profiles over the past 20 years, we have developed a deep understanding of what it takes to lead effectively at this level,” says Barry. “This insight informs a framework of 8 critical success factors for all Executives – a simple, practical and effective tool for enhancing Executive leadership and guiding the recruitment and development of leadership talent.”
What determines Executive performance?
1. Shaping the strategic agenda
If an organisation is unprepared for market changes, Executives very quickly go from being highly capable to highly ineffective. Shaping the strategic agenda is therefore a critical deliverable for all Executives, ensuring organisational strategy stays one step ahead of market requirement at all times. “If your organisation is not strategically viable for the future, it really won’t matter how effectively you deliver on other critical success factors for your role,” says Barry.
Shaping the strategic agenda requires leaders to:
- Be able to lead effectively in dynamic, complex and often ambiguous environments.
- Have a deep understanding of the relevant external markets and the factors that shape it
- Maintain alignment around the strategic focus for the organisation
- Scope and deliver on the required strategic change
2. Building across, outward and upward relationships
As enterprise-wide leaders, Executives must be able to influence across, upward and outward from the organisation. This includes building influence with the Board; peers; employees across the organisation; communities; suppliers and business partners; governments; regulators; and other stakeholders.
“Relationships are key to building influence and leading effectively,” says Barry. “For the credibility and license to lead, leaders must understand the true nature of the Executive role and know how to advance their relationships. They must be able to adapt their leadership behaviour and impact, not only inside their organisation but also upward and outward of it.”
3. Developing the leadership team
Leadership teams help to shape the performance of an organisation: providing direction to employees; defining and embedding the vision and mission; and supporting organisational goals. To effectively develop their leadership team, Executives need to:
- Choose an appropriate leadership style and model for their team structure and operation
- Appoint individuals with the right skills attributes and culture to work effectively and cohesively
- Build direct-report relationships to improve accountability, engagement and communication
- Evaluate, develop and modify the team to adapt to changing strategic and market requirements.
4. Defining performance expectations
Executives are responsible for defining performance expectations across their areas of accountability. “To achieve organisational performance, Executives must be very clear on what needs to be delivered,” says Barry. “This requires the Executive to define, balance, communicate and measure KPIs, holding both teams and individuals positively to account. Leaders must also plan for the unexpected, defining the future performance reality and adjusting performance expectations to align with changing market conditions.”
5. Refining governance requirements
Maintaining the enterprise’s regulatory and social license to operate requires risk and compliance to be managed effectively, ensuring the organisation operates within its legal and ethical boundaries. To achieve this, Executives must:
- Understand and adhere to relevant governance requirements, laws and regulations
- Ensure proactive and transparent accountability is taken for compliance failures
- Actively monitor and mitigate reputational, financial, operational, organisational and strategic risk
- Oversee the application of the enterprise’s risk management framework
- Refine key decision-making processes and delegations of authority
- Uphold and promote ethical conduct and decision-making.
6. Formulating the communication strategy
Communication is critical to meeting the requirements of Executive roles, allowing leaders to share their vision; build trust; influence and inspire; foster cohesion and collaboration; and guide the organisation through transformation. “To communicate effectively Executives must develop the right style, messaging and frequency to impact deep into the organisation,” says Barry. “Leaders must also adapt their approach to meet the needs of different audiences and strategic requirements.”
7. Transforming culture
Delivering a culture that is relevant and responsive to future market and organisational strategy is another critical success factor for all Executive leaders.
“For the past two decades our understanding of organisational culture has grown and evolved with culture now recognised as a strategic enabler and risk for every Executive,” says Barry. “Culture transformation requires Executives to define the culture that will deliver the future strategy, identify gaps and subsequent requirements for successful culture change. The desired culture must also be positively role modelled by Executives.”
8. Maximising personal effectiveness
Personal effectiveness is fundamentally important to leadership effectiveness, underpinning all the other critical success factors. To maximise personal effectiveness, leaders must understand and adapt their leadership style and activity to intentionally:
- Pace decisions
- Choose battles
- Accept in-place items
- Learn from and let go of previous roles
- Make realistic commitments
- Manage self-care
Takeaways: What do Executives need to know?
Executives must deliver on all critical success factors – but they are not linear
“Overlap exists between the critical success factors for Executives,” says Barry. “For example, if leaders fail to shape the strategic agenda (#1) or build the right relationships (#2), they will constrain their authority to lead. Equally, if leaders don’t maximise their own personal effectiveness (#8), they will struggle to sustain their leadership energy, impact, insight and focus.”
Leadership effectiveness can be developed
“Leaders can never rest on their laurels, because performance today is not a prediction of success tomorrow,” says Barry. “If leaders don't learn and grow, they will get left behind, but the good news is that they can learn to lead even more effectively. The starting point is choosing to learn and being open to grow.”
To develop high performing leaders for your organisation, connect with Barry or reach out to your local Gerard Daniels team.
