Executive team development for CEOs

How to build a leadership team that moves the company forward

As CEO, your executive team is one of your most important leadership tools. This is where the company’s direction should become clear, priorities should be weighed against one another and important decisions should gain traction across the organisation.

Yet many executive teams do not function as real teams. They report to one another. They defend their own areas. They get stuck in operational issues. They avoid difficult conversations. They leave meetings with different interpretations of what was actually decided.

When this happens, the consequences are visible across the business: slower decisions, internal friction, unclear priorities and weaker execution.

An effective executive team does the opposite. It helps you as CEO create direction, alignment, accountability and pace.

Executive team development is therefore not a wellbeing exercise. It is about strengthening the company’s ability to be led.

What is the role of the executive team?

The role of the executive team is to lead the whole organisation together.

This means that the team should not simply be a forum where each manager reports on their own area. The executive team should work on the issues that matter most for the company’s development, governance and long-term performance.

A well-functioning executive team needs to take responsibility for the company’s direction, strategy, priorities, decisions, coordination, culture, leadership, risks, follow-up and execution.

For you as CEO, the key question is simple:

Is my executive team a real team – or a group of managers with separate areas of responsibility?

Susan A. Wheelan’s research on group development shows that effective groups do not emerge automatically. Groups develop over time and need clear goals, clear roles, structure, trust and task focus in order to become high-performing. Her Integrated Model of Group Development is widely used to understand how groups move from dependence and uncertainty towards greater trust, clarity and productivity.

What characterises an effective executive team?

An effective executive team is not primarily defined by strong individuals. It is defined by how the group works together.

It is not enough for each person to be experienced, knowledgeable and strong within their own area. The real question is whether the team manages to use the collective competence in the room.

Research on collective intelligence shows that group performance is influenced by how well the group uses and integrates the knowledge of its members. The Stockholm School of Economics describes this as a capability for better collective problem-solving through knowledge integration in teams and organisations.

For you as CEO, the question becomes:

Are we actually bringing out the knowledge that exists in the executive team – or is the conversation being shaped by position, habit and the strongest voices?

1. A clear shared task

The executive team needs to know why it exists.

That may sound obvious, but many executive teams lack a sufficiently clear answer to these questions:

• What are we here to achieve together?
• Which issues belong in the executive team?
• Which issues should be solved elsewhere?
• What value should this team create for the organisation?

Without a clear purpose, meetings easily become filled with reporting, details and short-term issues. With a clear purpose, it becomes easier to prioritise the right conversations, make better decisions and stay focused on the whole.

Christian Jacobsson’s research and applied work at the University of Gothenburg connects closely to this. Effective teams need a shared understanding of goals, roles, collaboration and ways of working. Jacobsson has worked extensively with team development, group processes and tools for understanding and strengthening team effectiveness.

2. The right people in the team

The executive team should reflect the organisation, but it should also include the competences needed for effective governance.

This does not mean that every part of the organisation automatically needs a seat, but instead, that the CEO needs to make conscious choices. Therefore, ask yourself these questions:

• Which functions are critical for steering the company right now?
• Which perspectives need to be in the room for us to make wise decisions?
• Which people contribute to the whole, not only to their own area?
• Are we missing competence linked to future challenges?

Finance, sales, HR, product, technology, operations or customer-facing functions need to be represented in some companies. In other companies, the composition will look different.

The important point is that the team is designed for the company’s real needs, not for history, status or habit.

3. An appropriate size

The size of the executive team affects the quality of the conversations.

If the team is too large, it risks becoming an information forum. More people remain silent and discussions take longer. Accountability becomes less clear.

If the team is too small, important perspectives may be missing and decisions may be quick, but too narrow.

The CEO therefore needs to review the size of the team regularly:

• Are we enough people to understand the whole?
• Are we few enough to have real conversations?
• Is it clear with what every person uniquely can contribute with?
• Who should be involved sometimes, but not always?

An effective executive team is rarely just a function of an organisational chart. Instead it is an actively chosen leadership-team.

4. Psychological safety and the courage to talk about what matters

The executive team needs to be able to talk about difficult things.

This may include conflicting goals, weak results, poor collaboration, unclear mandates, internal tensions or decisions that are not having the intended effect.

Psychological safety means that team members dare to say what they see, ask questions, admit mistakes and challenge one another without needing to protect themselves. It does not mean that conversations are always comfortable. It means that the team can be honest without becoming destructive.

Amy Edmondson’s research at Harvard Business School shows that psychological safety is central to learning behaviour in work teams. It is about people feeling able to express ideas, ask questions and admit mistakes, which is particularly important in complex and changing environments.

For the CEO, this is crucial. If the executive team does not tell the truth in the room, you will make decisions based on incomplete information.

A strong executive team dares to ask:

• What are we not talking about that we should be talking about?
• Where might we be protecting our own areas?
• Which decisions are we avoiding?
• Where do we have different views of reality?

5. Collective intelligence: using the full competence of the team

An executive team becomes effective when it can think better together than its members can think individually.

This requires more than high individual competence. Before important decisions are made the team is required to share information, listen to different perspectives, test assumptions and integrate knowledge .

MIT-related research on collective intelligence shows that a group’s collective intelligence can predict performance across different types of tasks. The research points to the importance of social sensitivity, more even distribution of speaking time and the ability to use the group’s combined resources.

For an executive team, this means that meetings need to be designed so that the right knowledge is brought forward.

If the same people always speak the most, if dissenting perspectives fall silent or if decisions are made before an issue has been properly explored, the team loses part of its intelligence.

The CEO’s task is therefore not only to lead the agenda. The CEO also needs to lead the quality of the conversation.

6. Clear rules for meetings and decisions

Executive team meetings need to be designed to create value.

Many executive teams have recurring meetings, but lack sufficiently clear routines for how those meetings should work.

An effective executive team needs to agree on:

• What should be discussed in the executive team?
• What is information, dialogue, decision-making or follow-up?
• How is the agenda set?
• How are all relevant perspectives brought forward?
• How is disagreement handled?
• How are decisions made?
• Who owns the next step?
• How are decisions communicated further?
• How do we follow up whether decisions have had the intended effect?

This is often where small changes create a large effect. When meetings become clearer, the executive team becomes more strategic, more focused and better at acting together.

Research on team processes repeatedly highlights collaboration, communication, coordination, conflict management and shared understanding as central elements of effective teamwork.

Common problems in executive teams

Many CEOs seek help with their executive team only when the problems have become visible. Meetings may not create enough value, the team may get stuck in details or collaboration between functions may be strained.

Common challenges include:

• The executive team works too operationally.
• The team gets stuck in details, urgent issues and reporting. Strategic issues receive too little attention.
• Functions compete with one another.
• Each manager pushes their own function. The whole suffers.
• Decisions are unclear.
• The team talks for a long time, but leaves the meeting without a clear decision, ownership or next step.
• Not everyone contributes.
• Some people dominate. Others become silent or tactical.
• Conflict is handled outside the meeting.
• Difficult issues are taken in corridors, in one-to-one conversations or not at all.
• The power balance is uneven.
• Some voices carry more weight than others, regardless of the issue.
• The executive team lacks shared direction.
• Everyone is working hard, but not always in the same direction.
• The team does not review its own way of working.
• The team talks about the business, but rarely about how the executive team itself is functioning.

This does not mean that the executive team is poor. It often means that the team needs to develop its ways of working.

How do you reduce silos and internal competition in the executive team?

Silos arise when managers are primarily rewarded, governed by or identified with their own areas.

This is natural. Every executive team member has responsibility for their function. The problem arises when functional responsibility becomes stronger than the shared responsibility for the company.

To reduce silos, the executive team needs to work on three things.

• First, the team needs shared goals. There should be goals that can only be achieved through collaboration.
• Second, the team needs shared prioritisation. Resources, time and focus need to be guided by the company’s most important issues, not only by the needs of each function.
• Third, the team needs shared accountability for decisions. Once decisions have been made, the whole executive team needs to stand behind them, even if the discussion was intense.

Here, the CEO plays a key role. You need to clearly signal that every member of the executive team has two responsibilities:

To lead their own area.

To lead the company together with the rest of the executive team.

When this principle becomes real, the conversations change.

The executive team as a strategic microsystem

An executive team can also be understood as a strategic microsystem.

In research on clinical microsystems, microsystems are described as small functional units where people work together regularly and where processes, relationships, information and results meet. Much of this research originated in healthcare and improvement work, but the way of thinking is relevant to organisations more broadly.

Translated to executive teams, this means that the executive team is a small but powerful organisational unit. What happens there affects the whole company.

If the executive team works in silos, the organisation will often do the same.

When the executive team talks past itself, ambiguity will spread.

In case, on the other hand, the executive team practises shared accountability, clear decisions, open dialogue and better follow-up, this becomes a signal to the entire organisation.

For the CEO, this means that the executive team’s way of working is not merely an internal issue. It is a strategic issue.

How do you develop an executive team?

Executive team development needs to be practical, close to the business and connected to the issues the team actually works with.

An inspiration day is rarely enough. The team needs to practise the behaviours that make it more effective in everyday work.

A strong development process can include six steps.

Step 1: Clarify the executive team’s role

Start by defining why the team exists.

• What is our shared role?
• Which issues should we own together?
• What should the organisation be able to expect from us?
• What should we stop using the executive team for?

When the role is clear, it becomes easier to decide which issues belong in the team and which should be solved at another level.

Step 2: Review roles and composition

Test whether the right people are in the team.

• Do we have the right competences in the room?
• Is the team too large or too small?
• Are there perspectives missing? Is each person’s role clear?
• Do we have the right composition for the phase the company is in now?

An executive team that was right three years ago is not automatically right today.

Step 3: Improve the meeting structure

Make meetings more focused.

Clearly distinguish between information, dialogue, decision-making and follow-up.

Information is about what the team needs to know, while dialogue is about what the team needs to think through together.

Decision-making is about what the team needs to decide. Meanwhile, follow-up is about what has happened since the last meeting and what needs to be adjusted.

This simple distinction often makes a major difference. It reduces the risk of the team getting stuck in reporting when it should really be making decisions.

Step 4: Create rules for collaboration

The executive team needs shared rules that are actually used.

Examples of rules:

• In this group, we speak with one another, not about one another.
• We raise disagreement in the room.
• When in dispute, we separate issue from person.
• As a team and individually, we take responsibility for the whole.
• We leave the meeting with clear decisions and next steps.
• Each meeting we follow up both results and ways of working.

Rules only become valuable if they are used. The team therefore needs to ask regularly: are we following our own rules?

Step 5: Practise constructive disagreement

Effective executive teams do not avoid conflict. Instead, they use disagreement to make better decisions.

This requires the team to be clear, respectful and fact-based at the same time.

Psychological safety is central here. INSEAD’s research highlights that psychological safety helps teams use differences, perspectives and experiences more effectively.

For the CEO, this means creating a culture where disagreement is not seen as disloyalty, but as a way of improving the basis for decisions.

Step 6: Follow up how the team is functioning

The executive team should regularly do short check-ins:

• How are our meetings working?
• Do we manage to follow our own rules?
• Are we bringing forward the right issues?
• When making decisions, are we making decisions at the right level?
• In what extent are we collaborating across boundaries?
• Are we using the full competence of the team?
• Do we need to adjust our way of working?

Oxford University Press summarises modern team research by highlighting that effective teams need collaboration, communication, coordination, conflict management and shared understanding. It is therefore not enough to follow up results. Teams also need to follow up how they work together.

Can an executive team develop itself?

Yes. Provided the team has the right tools, structure and questions, a great deal of executive team development can be done independently.

That is why our training programmes and learning journeys are designed to help CEOs and executive teams work practically with their own development in everyday leadership.

You receive support to clarify the role of the executive team, create better meeting routines, formulate rules for collaboration, strengthen psychological safety, reduce silos, improve decision-making and follow up collaboration over time.

Development does not happen alongside the work. It happens through how you talk, prioritise, decide and follow up in your normal executive work.

That makes the work practical, concrete and directly connected to company performance.

Questions CEOs and boards often ask about executive team development

What is an effective executive team?

An effective executive team has clear shared purpose and goals, the right composition, a functioning meeting structure, a high degree of trust and the ability to make decisions that strengthen the whole business.

How do I know if my executive team is not working well?

Common signs include unclear decisions, too much reporting, low energy in meetings, internal competition, conflict outside the room, weak follow-up and the team getting stuck in operational issues rather than strategic choices.

How do I get the executive team to take more responsibility for the whole?

Start by making it clear that every member has two roles: to lead their own area and to lead the whole company together with the rest of the executive team. Then connect meetings, goals, priorities and follow-up to the shared role.

How do you create psychological safety in an executive team?

Psychological safety is created through repeated behaviours: listening, inviting more perspectives, handling mistakes openly, separating issue from person and making it possible to say what needs to be said even when it is uncomfortable.

How do you improve executive team meetings?

Better meetings start with a clearer purpose. Each agenda item should be marked as information, dialogue, decision or follow-up. This helps the team know what is expected and makes it easier to move forward.

How do you reduce silos in the executive team?

Silos are reduced when the executive team works with shared goals, shared priorities and shared accountability for decisions. Each member needs to see themselves as responsible both for their own area and for the whole company.

How often should the executive team review its way of working?

Briefly, it should be done continuously, ideally as a recurring part of meetings. A more thorough review can be carried out a few times a year, especially during change, growth, a new strategy or when new people join the team.

Does the executive team need external support?

Not always. Many executive teams can make significant progress with the right training, structure and concrete exercises. External support can be valuable when conflicts are stuck, trust is low or the CEO needs help holding the process. Our learning journeys are built to give executive teams the tools to work independently and systematically.

How our training programmes and learning journeys can help

We help CEOs and executive teams develop collaboration through practical tools, reflection questions, meeting exercises and structured learning journeys. The aim is for you to develop the executive team in your real work, without making development something separate from the business. Step by step, you work on understanding what characterises effective executive teams, analysing the current state of your own team, clarifying roles and expectations, improving meetings and decision-making, strengthening trust and psychological safety, creating rules that are actually used and following up how the team works over time. This gives the CEO a clearer, stronger and more aligned executive team. And it gives the organisation better conditions for success.

Start here: three questions for you as CEO

Bring these questions to your next executive team meeting:

1. What is the most important thing this executive team needs to achieve together over the next 6-12 months?
2. What in our current way of working helps us – and what holds us back?
3. Which behaviour do we need to see more of in the team for the company to become more effective?
4. The answers often show where development needs to begin.

Sources and research basis

This text is based on research on group development, effective teams, psychological safety, collective intelligence, knowledge integration and microsystems.

Susan A. Wheelan’s research on group development shows that groups develop over time and that high-performing groups are characterised by clear goals, roles, structure, trust and task focus. Christian Jacobsson’s research and applied work at the University of Gothenburg strengthens the connection between group processes, team development and practical methods for creating effective teams.

Research from the Stockholm School of Economics, including work by Philip Runsten and Andreas Werr, shows the importance of collective intelligence and knowledge integration in teams and organisations. Their research highlights that modern organisations need to become better at using members’ knowledge in collective problem-solving.

International research from MIT and Carnegie Mellon on collective intelligence shows that group performance does not only depend on individual intelligence, but also on group interaction, social sensitivity and the evenness of participation.

Amy Edmondson’s research at Harvard Business School shows that psychological safety is an important condition for learning, improvement and performance in work teams.

Research on clinical microsystems describes small functional units as important building blocks in larger organisations. Applied to executive teams, this means that the executive team can be understood as a strategic microsystem whose way of working affects the whole organisation’s governance, collaboration and results.

Research and knowledge summaries from INSEAD and Oxford University Press support the same conclusion: effective teams need clear goals, roles, rules, processes, psychological safety, conflict management, communication and shared understanding.

Overall, the research points to a clear conclusion: an executive team becomes effective when it develops its ability to think, prioritise, decide and follow up together.