Articles on leadership teams
What the research says about making a leadership team work, written for the person who leads one. Each article answers one question first, then shows its sources.
Where to start
What makes a leadership team effective, and how to see where yours stands.
- Leadership team effectiveness: what makes a leadership team effective?Leadership team effectiveness explained: what research links to it, five models compared, the warning signs and how to measure it in your team.Read the article
- Which team effectiveness models fit a leadership team?Team effectiveness models compared for leadership teams: what Hackman, Wageman, Tuckman, Lencioni, GRPI, the Big Five and Google say, and the evidence.Read the article
- Direction, alignment and commitment: does your leadership team produce them?What direction, alignment and commitment mean, what the research shows, and how a leadership team can check whether it produces all three.Read the article
- How to assess a leadership teamWhat to measure in a leadership team, which methods to use, how to write good survey questions, and how to keep answers anonymous.Read the article
- The five dysfunctions of a team: what does the research say?Lencioni's five dysfunctions of a team, described fairly, and what research on trust, conflict, commitment and accountability adds to each part.Read the article
Purpose, tasks and membership
The conditions that come first: why the team exists, which work needs all of it, and who belongs in it.
- What is the purpose of a leadership team?What a leadership team is for, which issues need the whole team, and how to agree on your team's purpose together.Read the article
- How do you write a leadership team charter?What goes into a leadership team charter, what research says about charters and team launches, and how to write one together.Read the article
- How big should a leadership team be?What research says about leadership team size, why larger teams lose effort, and how to keep a small core without shutting others out.Read the article
Meetings and decisions
Where a leadership team does most of its work together, and how to make that time count.
How the team works together
Psychological safety, trust and conflict: the states that make it possible to speak up and decide well.
- Psychological safety in leadership teamsWhat psychological safety is and is not, why it is harder to build in a leadership team, and what the leader can do.Read the article
- How do you build trust in a leadership team?What trust is, why it matters at the top, what builds it and how to repair it after a breach, drawn from research.Read the article
- Task conflict and relationship conflict: when disagreement helpsWhen disagreement about the work improves a leadership team's decisions, when personal friction harms them, and how to keep debate on ideas.Read the article