2. Executive Summary 1.Introduction 2.Organising the team 2.1Team structure 2.2 Team membership 2.3The team leader 2.4Recruitment and reward 3. Managing the team 3.1Team meetings 3.2 Team working 3.3Team development 4. Leading the organisation 4.1Leadership of strategy and impact 4.2Leadership of behaviour across the organisation 5. Improving leadership team performance 5.1Overall effectiveness of leadership teams 5.2Drivers of leadership team performance 5.3How well leadership teams perform on the drivers 5.4Prevalence of the drivers 5.5Actions across the charity sector 6. Conclusions 7. Implications

3. Appendix 1Summary of literature review Appendix 2Glossary Appendix 3Participating organisations Appendix 4Profile of participants Appendix 5Research methods Appendix 6The full research model Published June 2014 Available from Directory of Social Change www.dsc.org.uk/bol Tel: 08450 77 77 07 Insightful, thought-provoking and long overdue research to assist chief executives to get the best from their leadership teams’. David Bilton, Chief Executive, Woodard Academies Trust

4. Building Outstanding Leadership Teams Chair: Denise Fellows, Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness Speakers: Mike Hudson and Jacinta Ashworth, Compass Partnership NCVO Evolve Conference 2014

5. Objectives of our research 1. To understand:  how the leadership teams are organised and managed  how they provide leadership 2. To enable leadership teams to benchmark their performance 3. To identify the key drivers of outstanding leadership teams

6. Our definition of the leadership team Chief Executive Core Group Wider senior team The leadership team Chief Operating Officer

7. What we did 1. Extensive literature review 2. Workshop with charity leaders 3. Identified 75 characteristics of leadership teams 4. Developed and tested 110 question survey 5. Received 102 responses from the top 500 charity chief executives 6. Corroborated feedback with sample of HR Directors 7. Correlated characteristics with team performance ratings 8. Identified key drivers of team effectiveness 9. Tested conclusions at workshop with charity leaders

8. What does a ‘typical’ leadership team look like? 6 team members 2 or 3 women 2 ‘long standing’ members, in post 6 years+ 1 member working part-time 4 externally appointed members 3 or 4 appointed by the current CEO 2 post graduates No-one or 1 from an ethnic minority

9. Summary of Compass Cass research model LEADERSHIP TEAM Organising the teamManaging the team Leading the organisation Team meetings Team working Team development Leadership of strategy and impact Leadership of behaviour Team structure Team membership Team leader Team recruitment and reward

10. Overall performance

11. Example: Team development Actions taken in the last three years to invest in the development of the leadership team Used external assistance to support development Discussed how team works, without support Conducted a review of performance of the LT Worked with someone from within organisation Other No such actions taken in the last 3 years

12. Example: performance on leadership team development

13. Enablers of high performance LEADERSHIP TEAM Organising the teamManaging the team Leading the organisation Team meetings Team working Team development Leadership of strategy and impact Leadership of behaviour Team structure Team membership Team leader Team recruitment and reward ESSENTIAL BUILDING BLOCKS ENABLERS OF HIGH PERFORMANCE

14. Drivers of outstanding leadership teams GREAT TEAM WORKING  Valuing style and personality differences  Maintaining a cohesive team  Being open about mistakes and weaknesses  Good at compromising EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP OF BEHAVIOUR  Modelling desired behaviour  Acting as a team outside meetings  Communicating well with managers  Managing stakeholder relations EFFECTIVE TEAM MEETINGS  Listening to each other  Using each other’s talents during meetings  Following through agreed actions  Taking good decisions CLEAR LEADERSHIP OF STRATEGY AND IMPACT  Tracking achievement of strategic objectives  Focussing on strategic issues  Focussing on achievement of impact  Bringing innovation and new ideas INVESTMENT IN TEAM DEVELOPMENT  Days spent on working better as a team  Reviewing performance of the team  External support for the team  Planning to improve team effectiveness INCREASING IMPACT ON TEAM PERFORMANCE OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP TEAMS

15. Which key drivers are most often in place? GREAT TEAM WORKING  Valuing style and personality differences  Maintaining a cohesive team 68%  Being open about mistakes and weaknesses 63%  Good at compromising EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP OF BEHAVIOUR  Modelling desired behaviour 61%  Acting as a team outside meetings 60%  Communicating well with managers 59%  Managing stakeholder relations EFFECTIVE TEAM MEETINGS  Listening to each other 66%  Using each other’s talents during meetings  Following through agreed actions 66%  Taking good decisions 82% CLEAR LEADERSHIP OF STRATEGY AND IMPACT  Tracking achievement of strategic objectives  Focussing on strategic issues 70%  Focussing on achievement of impact 65%  Bringing innovation and new ideas INVESTMENT IN TEAM DEVELOPMENT  Days spent on working better as a team  Reviewing performance of the team  External support for the team  Planning to improve team effectiveness INCREASING IMPACT ON TEAM PERFORMANCE OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP TEAMS

16. Which key drivers are least often in place? GREAT TEAM WORKING  Valuing style and personality differences 52%  Maintaining a cohesive team  Being open about mistakes and weaknesses  Good at compromising 56% EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP OF BEHAVIOUR  Modelling desired behaviour  Acting as a team outside meetings  Communicating well with managers  Managing stakeholder relations 51% EFFECTIVE TEAM MEETINGS  Listening to each other  Using each other’s talents during meetings 50%  Following through agreed actions  Taking good decisions CLEAR LEADERSHIP OF STRATEGY AND IMPACT  Tracking achievement of strategic objectives 58%  Focussing on strategic issues  Focussing on achievement of impact  Bringing innovation and new ideas 50% INVESTMENT IN TEAM DEVELOPMENT  Days spent on working better as a team 42%  Reviewing performance of the team 23%  External support for the team 30%  Planning to improve team effectiveness 26% INCREASING IMPACT ON TEAM PERFORMANCE OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP TEAMS

17. How well do leadership teams perform on key drivers? Number of drivers in place % of organisations with drivers in place % of organisations Strength of team performance: Weaker 25% Medium 46%Stronger 29% Average = 11

18. Which are the strongest performing teams? Organisations with higher income and more staff CEO has long tenure and greater breadth of experience At least half are externally appointed members More than two thirds are post graduates With a deputy CEO or COO Ethnically diverse

19. Conclusions 1. Leadership of behaviour and great team working are key drivers Key improvement areas:  valuing style and personality differences  compromising  stakeholder relations 2. Team meetings and leadership of strategy are next most important Key improvement areas:  using each other talents in meetings  tracking achievement of strategic objectives  innovation 3. Investment in team development is the weakest aspect Learning how to do this better is the crucial issue for the future

20. Practical implications 1. Start by getting the right people on the team 2. Ensure a balance of internal and external appointments 3. Invest time in getting the group to work as a team 4. Strive to maintain reasonable stability in team membership 5. Discuss expectations of behaviour openly 6. Review team performance regularly 7. Agree ways of improving team performance

21. Table discussions 1. How do our findings compare with your experience of leadership teams? 2. What do you think is most important in strengthening charity leadership teams?

22. Key take way points 1. Effective leadership teams are crucial to impactful organisations 2. Getting skilled team players with strategic perspective on the team is the starting point 3. Focus on leadership of behaviour and team working to achieve outstanding performance

23. How to purchase a copy of Building Outstanding Leadership Teams  Visit the Directory of Social Change stand located in the King George III Suite - stand number 17  Email: publications@dsc.org.uk  Online: www.dsc.org.uk/bol  Tel:0845 077 7707  ISBN – 978 1 906294 93 9  Price £40Discounted price for charities £32

24. Helping charity leadership teams become more effective Compass Partnership works with chief executives and directors to review team performance, coach teams to increase their effectiveness, and strengthen team relationships. We:  Conduct 360°assessments of the performance of your leadership team  Highlight strengths and weaknesses and pinpoint key actions to improve leadership team effectiveness  Deliver team coaching programmes to enhance team performance  Benchmark team performance with similar organisations. Please contact Debbie Emerson on 01628 478561 or demerson@compassnet.co.uk to arrange a free confidential face-to-face discussion on how to enhance the performance of your leadership team.

25. The first investigation by Compass Partnership and Cass Business School looked in detail at the governance of the top 500 charities in the UK and identified the key drivers of governance effectiveness. Available from DSC via their website or by phone: www.dsc.org.uk/guc publications@dsc.org.uk Tel: 0845 077 7707

26. Tel: 01628 478561 email: info@compassnet.co.uk Publications Managing Without Profit, Mike Hudson, (DSC, 2009) sets out the theory and practice of creating highly successful nonprofit organisations. Delivering Effective Governance, Mike Hudson, Jacinta Ashworth, (DSC 2012), identifies drivers of governance performance and highlights actions to achieve improvements in governance. Building Outstanding Leadership Teams, Mike Hudson, Jacinta Ashworth, (DSC 2014) identifies key drivers of effective leadership teams and actions to improve their performance Available from www.dsc.org.uk Compass Partnership provides consultancy on the governance and management of independent civil society organisations. Over the last 30 years we have worked with more than 800 organisations in health, social welfare, housing, education, international development, arts, religion and the environment. We work with chairs and chief executives to strengthen governance, management and strategy and we strive always to be at the cutting edge of best practices. Compass Partnership