How are you leading a team of amazing individuals?  If your team ranks at 9 on the 10 scale, what does 12 look like?  What does it take to help a strong, effective team get even better?

Join our discussion on how executive teams transform and move from good to great. My guest today is my good friend Larry Levin, a sought-after executive team facilitator, advisor, and leadership coach.  Larry is the founder and president of The Levin Group LLC.  He specializes in working with leadership teams in global Fortune 100 to mid-sized organizations in planning strategic direction and implementing critical business initiatives.  His role is to help organizations focus on understanding the dynamics and capabilities of their executive teams. He utilizes custom assessments, team-based interventions, and coaching techniques to improve their effectiveness.

Teaming Up Conversations is powered by Stand Out International, and hosted by Simon Vetter. He is an executive leadership coach and CEO of Stand Out International, Inc., and his focus is on behavioral change and executive leadership coaching.  Simon trains managers and teams in Fortune 500 companies, guiding them toward better performance outcomes, increased collaboration, alignment, and accountability.

Discussion Points

• What a team is for, and why does a team exist? 
• Develop excellent, honest, and transparent dialogue in a top team 
• The importance of “collective intelligence”- the team as a whole is smarter than the smartest member 
• Challenges and struggles of ineffective, dysfunctional teams 
• Importance of building trust and establishing psychological safety 
• Three purposes of meetings: reporting, problem-solving, decision making 
• How to make executive decisions that everyone commits to (instead of complying) 
• Team consensus is okay if somebody would speak up if they disagree 
• Three questions any great leader asks 
• Examples of highly interdependent teams are medical teams, sports teams 
• Teams should continually ask, “How are we doing? and, “What does even better look like?”

Larry’s leadership advice: 

(1) Be comfortable being uncomfortable

(2) Know what you don’t know

Last words: Ask that next question, go deeper, find out what’s not being said