There is a phenomenon in sociology called collective intelligence, which occurs when shared intelligence emerges from a group of knowledgeable individuals. In other words, raising your organization’s IQ is all about getting more minds around the table, because, pardon the cliché, but “two (or more) heads are better than one,” which is especially true when it comes to creating and executing effective business strategies.
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE
Ultimately, the role of the executive team is simple: Cohesively create an atmosphere for the strategy to be powerfully executed (click to tweet this!). To build a high-performing executive team, the first challenge is to change the way executive members view its importance, shifting the viewpoint of the committee from something that occurs outside of their daily work to making it their primary job.
When leaders view their executive team as their primary work group, or foundation, the benefits can extend well beyond the specific strategic problems they are addressing. First, relying on a primary executive team can create better collaboration across regions. Second, it provides agility and better utilization of talent across the organization. And, ultimately, it sends a loud and clear message to employees that their leaders are unified and aren’t asleep at the helm.
Katerin Le Folcalvez is an Insigniam partner based in Paris. She specializes in leadership development, corporate governance, strategy design, and executive alignment.
