Getting your top talents to work together

Malaysian Business, Apr 1, 2008 by Laura Lee

OFTEN, WE GIVE TOO MUCH credence to the chief executive officer (CEO) that we fail to see the significant role played by the senior leadership teams. Talk to Hay Group Sdn Bhd Managing Director for Southeast Asia Tharuma Rajah and he will tell you that the days of the superhero CEO are long gone.

`AirAsia Group CEO Datuk Tony Fernandes is an exception, as he is an entrepreneur,' says Tharuma, who points out that the airline started with a core team and subsequently was driven to become a professional one.

He queries why CEOs should shoulder all the burden when their job is stressful enough.

`The board of directors has a clear role to play. They must get involved in senior leadership teams. They must take an interest in the top talents of the company who are behind the CEO. We have not fully harnessed the senior leadership.

`Talking about sustainable business, we want the top leadership to look long-term. In terms of global competitiveness, Malaysia is in the mid- quandrant, especially with India and China fast coming up.

`We need to move into innovation and leadership that empowers people. We need new management thinking to move on to the next level.'

Tharuma, who is also an executive coach to a large number of Fortune 500 business leaders, says Malaysian CEOs must be more global and open.

The biggest advantage Malaysia has is to leverage on its multiracial and cultural diversity. Citing the Kuala Lumpur-based Hay Group, he says his outfit not only represents a diversity of people but also the best global talents.

`Another thing that Malaysia could do is harness senior leadership teams and how best to make use of the power and talents of the team.

`With globalisation, Malaysia must do some rethinking and needs to coach its people. A lot more development efforts, not training, are needed. This could include team and people development.'

Tharuma adds, `You can take an average team to be a super-team. The key thing to do is harness the power of the team and not depend on the superheroes. Perhaps, the new government and executive council members of the 12th general election can learn something from here.'

An emerging trend is the growing number of CEOs turning to their senior managers for help in meeting the challenges that they and their organisations face. According to the authors of the newly released book Senior Leadership Teams: What it Takes to Make Them Great, many CEOs stumble when creating their leadership team.

To overcome that, Tharuma says the CEO must be able to identify who his real team is, the number of people he wants in it and the skill sets that they bring to the team.

`The real team is the top team, usually comprising eight to 10 people, while the coordinating team can be large, sometimes numbering 20 to 40 people. Then, there are the learning and the consultative teams.'

Tharuma says the team size is important because when you have too small a team, you not only cannot do a collective task well, but will also not be focused.

`We also need people who bring different things or skills to the team, but when the CEO walks out, he represents one voice.'

Written by Ruth Wageman, Debra Nunes, James Burruss and Richard Hackman, Senior Leadership Teams: What it Takes to Make Them Great is based on their study of 120 top teams globally from companies such as IBM, Shell and Unilever.

The book shows executives exactly what is needed to create and sustain executive teams whose members both rely on one another and learn from one another as they work together to pursue organisational objectives.

When properly set up, these senior leadership teams hold a number of advantages, as the CEO can draw on the rich pool of knowledge, talent, experience, perspective and creativity of the company's most accomplished leaders in making key organisational decisions.

The authors have also highlighted the main findings of their research and identified the three essential conditions of senior leadership teams in the book.

Besides creating a real team, they need to provide the team with a clear and compelling purpose. They must also ensure that the team comprises members who have the knowledge, skills and experience that are required for the teamwork.

As Tharuma puts it succinctly, `Rather than have a superstar, it is better to have a superstar team with star-studded individuals who are driven by the key performance indices.'

The book also lists the basic pre-requisites for good team performance and the three enabling conditions of senior leadership teams, which can help smoothen or accelerate the team's path to excellence.

The three enabling conditions are a solid team structure, supportive organisational context and competent team coaching.

These conditions do not need to be fully present at the outset of a team's work. They can be strengthened as the team gains experience and maturity.

Among the four authors of the book, Wageman, Nunes and Burruss are related to the Hay Group. Wageman is Hay Group's research director and visiting scholar in psychology at Harvard University, while Nunes is Hay Group's McClelland Centre for Research and Innovation vice president who has worked with senior leadership teams spanning over two decades.