In an increasingly digital world, diverse leadership teams might just be your company’s most important asset. In the Jan/Feb 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review article “Reinventing Your Leadership Team,” the authors argue that for businesses to keep their competitive advantage, they need to build leadership teams so the business can transform for the future.

One of the issues that company’s face is leadership roles that meet future needs. The top leader can no longer play all the roles necessary for leading a business and transforming it for the future. In fact, leaders are expected to have expertise at many contradictory skills. In a survey, the authors pointed out leaders were expected to be strategic executors, tech-savvy humanists, high-integrity politicians, humble heroes, globally-minded localists, and traditioned innovators—all at the same time.

There is a solution, however. Instead of trying to be the one leader who is everything to everyone, the authors suggest reinventing their leadership teams so their business can transform for the future. Here are the four principles a business needs to follow to reinvent its leadership team.

1) Identify the leadership roles needed to transform your company for the future. 

In order for your company to stay relevant and competitive in its industry, you need leaders who can bring fresh ideas to the table and then execute them. The authors suggest you think of new roles that can help your company grow. Do you need an innovation officer to bring ideas, a sustainability chief to keep you lean, or a diversity leader to make you inclusive? 

For example, Apple created a chief design officer, showing that design had huge importance to the company. Meanwhile, Google hired Wema Hoover to be Global Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, seeing a need to be more inclusive. 

2) Assemble the right people. 

Once you identify the roles needed to grow, you will need to find people who exhibit the contradictory leadership skills identified by the authors. You will need people who are strategic executors, tech-savvy humanists, high-integrity politicians, humble heroes, globally-minded localists, and traditioned innovators. 

The authors suggest looking beyond the usual suspects to find people who look, think, and act differently than is customary in your organization. Instead of thinking of how this person will fit into the company, instead think how your company can fit with this person. One leader who created a diverse leadership team was CMO Omar Johnson, formerly of Beats and Apple, who built diverse teams to market Beats headphones to success.

3) Focus your leadership team on driving the company’s transformation. 

The challenge for reinventing your leadership team is balancing your business needs of today against the needs of tomorrow. Some companies handle this challenge by creating a separate group to handle their strategic transformation—that also includes leaders responsible for daily operations. It may even include lower-level employees. 

One successful leader who handled this balance is change management expert Frits Van Paasschen. He helped Coors and Nike transform for the future following similar principles of reinventing teams.

4) Take ownership of your leadership team’s behavior. 

Finally, to drive transformation, you will need to align your team around a shared purpose. The authors suggest one of the most effective ways to steer your team is to put pairs of leaders together to collaborate on solving company-wide issues. By having leaders work together, you can merge their strengths and can build trust. 

A great example of two leaders working together is the cofounders of Netflix Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings. Marc was great at building the startup part of the business, while Reed was able to take it to the next level. They used their different talents to create the Netflix we know and stream today.

If you’re looking to build your business through innovation, diversity, leadership, or change management, contact BigSpeak speakers today to book a consultant or keynote speaker today.

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