Building a Cohesive Leadership Team (Episode 2)

How healthy is your leadership team? This week on The Leading Edge, we move into the 1st Discipline of a Healthy Organization - building a cohesive leadership team - as part of our exploration of Patrick Lencioni's book, "The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business."

This series is specifically directed to leaders of mission-centric, spiritually-focused organizations and ministries. In this episode, we'll explore:

• The Importance of Healthy Leadership Teams
• The Difference between a "Team" and a "Work Group"
• How to Define of a Cohesive Leadership Team
• The Ideal Size for Your Leadership Team - and Why...
• The Shadow Side of Inclusivity - and How To Create it in a Healthy Way
• Assessing Your Leaders' Willingness to Be Teammates
• How to Align Your Team on Common Objectives

Share your insights in our comments area below as you follow along.  With your own leadership team, reflect on these key points:

1. In what areas of your organization do you currently have a "leadership team" in place?  In what areas are you operating more as a "work group"?
2. What is your current method for identifying and selecting members of your leadership team? Do you see areas where you could be more effective in choosing your representation?
3. Describe processes you have for engaging your community in decision-making.  In what ways does this foster inclusivity? In what ways (if any) does this make decision-making challenging?
4. How willing are your leaders to serve as part of a team?
5. Are all the members of your leadership team working toward a common objective? What are current stated objectives of your leadership team?
6. What other ideas and insights did this episode pique in you?