High-Performing Leadership Teams: Raising the Bar and Lowering the Cost of Coordination

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Aug 17, 2023, 09:10 ET

New C-Suite Intelligence podcast features The Miles Group CEO Stephen Miles and COO Taylor Griffin on maximizing the effectiveness and performance of leadership teams

"If you look closely at the composition of most leadership teams, you'll find that there are strong individual performances. However, the costs of team performance and coordination are still too high, resulting in lower overall performance and outcomes." – Taylor Griffin

NEW YORK, Aug. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Frustration among leaders is mounting when it comes to the overall effectiveness and collective performance of their leadership teams.

"The pandemic amplified this trend even more as we transitioned to the virtual world," says Taylor Griffin, COO of The Miles Group (TMG) on this week's new C-Suite Intelligence podcast episode. "It lowered context while increasing the default to individual executives executing in their own lanes. As a result, companies and leadership teams became more vertical and less horizontal, decreasing the sense of team and increasing the cost of coordination."

On "High-Performing Leadership Teams: Raising the Bar and Lowering the Cost of Coordination," Griffin and Stephen Miles, CEO of TMG, focus on how leaders can maximize the effectiveness and performance of their leadership teams.

Invest in the Team
High-performing leadership teams commit to investing in a set of operating principles and language that removes friction and allows for higher levels of collective performance. There's a coordination tax associated in working with others that "we want to reduce over time so the actual team can be higher performing," says Miles.

Define the Leadership Model
Whether it's hub and spoke, distributed leadership, or a hybrid, defining the leadership model sets clear expectations among the team.

For leaders who have enough experience and capability to evolve the organization, a hybrid model may work best. This is where core groups of people who are relevant on a topic make decisions on that topic, and it creates a competitive, sustainable advantage where leaders can be flexible and respond. "Part of that flexibility and response is that you have an organizational design, starting with the leadership team, which is inputting information, taking it in, and then acting on it quickly," says Miles.

Operationalize the Hybrid Model
"Operationalizing the model is all about creating communication vehicles that allow for people to have full context," says Griffin. "You need to have a weekly team sync. People think weekly can be too much. It's absolutely not too much. Things are moving very quickly, and you want to make sure information is shared readily."

A hybrid model is both hyperlocal and hyperglobal. "When this model is implemented, it can be incredibly powerful," says Miles. "You develop people; you have local nuance and execution and decision making; and you get the value of standardization and capacity for growth."

"High-Performing Leadership Teams: Raising the Bar and Lowering the Cost of Coordination" is out now on Apple, Google, Spotify, TMG's website, or wherever you get your podcasts.

For more information, please contact executive producers Davia Temin or Trang Mar of Temin and Company at 212.588.8788 or [email protected].

About the C-Suite Intelligence podcast
CEOs running the world's top companies don't start out that way – they pull ahead of their peers with behaviors and practices that make them the "best of the best." Stephen Miles and the team at TMG coach some of the world's most successful executives, helping them continuously up their game even as business conditions grow more complex every day. Learn the secrets of the highest performers and use this intelligence to power your career. New episodes are released bi-weekly on Apple, Google, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

About The Miles Group/TMG
TMG develops talent strategies for organizations, teams, and individuals – focusing on high-performance, world-class leadership. Through assessments and development, coaching, leadership transition planning, and organizational design, TMG helps clients cultivate exceptional talent from the C-suite to the next generation of leaders throughout the organization. Clients include many of the Fortune 100 as well as VC portfolio companies, firms in transition, and organizations around the globe and across industries. TMG has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, Fortune, C-Suite, Entrepreneur, and Chief Executive. The firm is headquartered in New York City and operates globally. For more information, visit https://miles-group.com. Follow TMG on Twitter and LinkedIn, and Stephen Miles on Forbes.