7 Tips to Build a Strategic Executive Team

Few executives manage to successfully implement the Balanced Scorecard or execute their strategy without the help of a strategic executive core team. Discover how to build the right executive team for your organizations by following these 7 tips.

Here are seven tips that every organization can follow for executive team building:

1. Select people who know the business

Core team members should be people who understand the key business processes that support the strategy. This ensures that executives will be able to connect the strategy with the company’s day-to-day operations and recognize its long term impact on the organization.

 2. Seek influencers

Change isn’t easy to effectuate or manage. Core team members must be able to influence and motivate people to back up the necessary changes.

3. Mandate time and access

Choose only individuals who can dedicate the time needed to the strategy implementation process. They will also need sufficient executive sponsorship to ensure the project doesn’t take a back seat to their regular duties. Executives must understand that the project takes up resources: around 20% of each member’s time (and 40% of the team leader’s) over a 12 to 16 week period.

4. Keep it small

Core teams generally consist of three to five members. A small group makes team meetings manageable and easy to schedule. A larger team means more people missing meetings which, in turn, slows down processes.

5. Establish a team project plan

The core team should establish its meeting schedule and define project outputs through a project plan. Start by appointing a team leader who will be responsible for the team’s logistics and deliverables. Throughout the project, the core team should hold weekly meetings to ensure progress is being achieved on every step.

The meetings also serve as a forum for addressing inquiries, educating the team, and fostering dialogue.

6. Make the core team “theme experts”

Assign each team member one of the strategic themes defined in the Strategy Map. This will enhance members’ knowledge of team areas as well as ensure the execution and development of theme initiatives and measures.

7. Appoint a team for the long term

The most effective core team assignments are long term (more than a year) and extend beyond the initial Balanced Scorecard implementation phase. The core team should continue updating the scorecard and improving the process as it becomes usual for the organization. Switching members before or after the implementation can cause delays as the team must get new members up to speed.

With a clear structure and clearly defined responsibilities, sufficient authority, and a deep understanding of the organization’s processes, the core team will help achieve a successful Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Management implementation. As its members become more invested in the Balanced Scorecard methodology, they encourage fellow managers and employees to also understand it and to use it when aligning their own resources and activities. Indeed, many teams have leveraged their knowledge and experience to facilitate Balanced Scorecard implementations elsewhere in their organizations.

Is your executive team ready for strategy?

At TRISSA we can guide you through your strategy review process, helping you build your executive team and establish a process for strategic performance analysis. We use a comprehensive approach to consulting services, executive education and software solutions to help our clients move from idea to action. We work with visionary executives looking to excel in their industries and that wish to coordinate their efforts with a strategy in order to achieve greater results.

So go ahead, browse our webpage and get to know us better: www.trissa.com.mx/en. Or send us an e-mail; our consultants would be delighted to answer any questions you may have: info@trissa.com.mx

 

Author: Trissa Strategy Consulting

Source: LaCasse, Peter. "How to Build an Effective Balanced Scorecared Core Team." Balanced Scorecard Report (2006): 1-3. Online journal.