What if the biggest barrier to your executive team’s effectiveness isn’t skill, but the stories you’re telling yourselves about each other?
Executive teams are full of smart, capable people. That also means they’re full of stories.
It starts with stories about each other:
- “They’re not open to feedback.”
- “They’re a lone wolf–they don’t collaborate.”
- “They don’t care about building relationships.”
Those stories turn into stories about the executive team as a whole:
- “We don’t communicate well.”
- “We always avoid conflict.”
- “We’re just not a high-functioning team.”
But here’s the critical question: Is it a fact…or is it a story you’re telling yourself?
Because the story you tell yourself about your team—and the role you and others play—shapes how you engage and how you show up.
If you believe someone “is bad at collaborating,” you’ll stop inviting them to collaborate.
If you assume the team avoids conflict as a whole, you’ll unconsciously steer away from the tough conversations.
The narrative slowly becomes the dynamic.
Here’s what separates high-functioning executive teams from the rest: They regularly ask themselves whether their beliefs about each other are based in fact or story.
They challenge themselves:
- What’s the actual evidence that this is true?
- What behaviors am I seeing versus what judgement am I passing?
- What would happen if I tested this belief instead of accepting it?
So what story is your executive team telling itself? And when will you start questioning whether it’s actually true?
Hey there! I’m a leadership team whisperer, executive coach, and speaker. I guide leadership teams in high-growth companies to achieve rapid growth in a healthy, sustainable way. I coach senior leaders to discover the path to lead with ease.
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