Simply hiring great people and placing them on a senior leadership team is no guarantee for success. In fact, a group of individual leaders who haven’t fully aligned as a team can be a major risk. In our work, we have seen time and again that the way a leadership team works together is a key ingredient for top performance.
To explore team dynamics more deeply, we surveyed over 75 CEOs and Business Unit Heads in Spain and compared their perspectives with leadership teams in Italy and Portugal, where we did the same. We asked leaders how they feel about their teams and how they operate, whom they look to for strategic advice and inspiration, and then analyzed their team dynamics across six factors: Alignment, Balance, Energy, Resilience, Openness and Efficiency.
What we found is that while most CEOs are satisfied with their team’s dynamics, there was room for improvement in their team’s ability to deliver difficult feedback, handle conflict and better manage time.
Alignment Is the Key to Good Team Dynamics
Most CEOs are generally satisfied with their team dynamics. The satisfaction was highest in Portugal, with 97% of respondents being either highly or moderately satisfied with their team dynamics, followed by 91% in Spain and Italy. In our analysis, we found that one of the major drivers of this sentiment is alignment. Many CEOs noted that their team members are aligned on strategy and priorities and that their teams contribute enough to defining the strategy and priorities. In Spain, 60% of CEOs believe their team members contribute "enough" to strategy definition and priority setting, followed by 51% in Italy and 44% in Portugal. Spanish teams are also equally well-aligned around their purpose, vision, and strategy, and team members actively contribute to strategy definition and priority setting. As one respondent put it, “I think it is impossible to have a performing team without them contributing to setting the objectives and believing in them.”
When CEOs look for advice in defining strategy and vision, they most often turn to the President/Chair, their leadership teams, external consultants and then the Board of Directors as a whole. While there is a diverse range of sources for strategic advice, the president/chair and leadership team play pivotal roles in guiding the company's direction. This insight underscores the importance of strong leadership and collaborative decision-making within the executive team.
Key Challenges: Handling Conflict and Time Management
One of the critical challenges that emerged in this study was that teams across regions need more work on dealing with conflict constructively and managing time efficiently. Sixty-four percent of Spanish CEOs feel their teams handle difficult conversations "well enough," while 21% rate it poorly. “We are a team who cares very much about other team members and that sometimes prevents us from giving honest feedback,” a respondent shared. “We are working on tools to address hard conversations, such as those related to conscious leadership.”
In terms of time management, only 10% of Spanish CEOs are "highly" satisfied, with their teams, showing room for improvement. One of the CEOs said, “We are improving every day. Less is more. We are obsessed with reducing meeting times.” Italian leaders are slightly more positive regarding how their teams manage their time—25% are highly satisfied compared to only 2% of Portuguese leaders.
Aspects of Team Dynamics Requiring Further Attention
There were several other noteworthy areas with team dynamics to explore, including:
- Openness to External Inspiration and Experimentation
Spanish teams show a moderate level of openness (46%) to external inspiration and learning through experimentation (33%). “We have to work on this. We are an inbred company,” said one of the Spanish respondents. While Portuguese teams rated their openness to external inspiration much higher (71%) as well as experimentation (54%). Even though Italian teams feel the same about openness to external influences, with 47% of CEOs rating their teams as connected "enough," they are much more positive about learning through experimentation, where 56% of leaders believe they are experimenting “enough.” - Energy and Motivation
Portuguese and Spanish teams are energized and motivated, with 64% of CEOs saying their teams demonstrate "enough" passion, ambition, and initiative in taking risks to help the company achieve its goals. As one CEO said, “Passion and ambition should not be declared but witnessed by daily hard work and hard facts.” However, in Spain, the teams’ ability to cascade this energy down to the rest of the organization is not always consistent, with 51% of CEOs rating it as "enough,” which was lower than both Portugal and Italy where 69% and 56% respectively also rating it “enough.” - Balancing Perspectives
Valuing different perspectives within the team is crucial for fostering a collaborative and innovative environment. Only 26% of Spanish CEOs feel their teams "highly" appreciate diverse viewpoints in their decision-making processes, in contrast to Portuguese and Italian teams, where 51% and 45% of CEOs respectively hold this belief. One Spanish CEO remarked, “Decisions are finally made in a small team of two to three people,” highlighting the need for broader inclusion and consideration of varied perspectives to enrich the decision-making process. - Development and Growth
In terms of developing the rest of the organization, most CEOs were somewhat positive about their teams’ capabilities to drive development and growth. Sixty-five percent of Italian leaders, 62% of Spanish leaders and 58% of Portuguese leaders say their teams do “enough” when it comes to driving the development and growth of the rest of the organization. Though some of the commentary provided shows there is more that could be done in this area. “Many great ideas often do not turn into actions,” a leader shared. Another added, “Our matrix organizational structure is quite extreme and often leads to a silos approach that stifles an entrepreneurial mindset.”
Pathways to Enhancing Leadership Teams
The findings from this survey shed light on the pivotal role of leadership in steering the executive teams toward success. The insights reveal that, despite a general sense of satisfaction among CEOs, there are definitive areas for growth—particularly in the realms of conflict resolution, strategic time management, and embracing external inspiration. By tackling these challenges head-on, leadership teams can transform potential hurdles into stepping stones, thereby cultivating a more cohesive and innovative environment. This proactive evolution will not only enhance team dynamics but also drive the organization toward higher levels of productivity and achievement.
Survey Demographics
The Spanish survey panel included many of the most relevant companies in terms of size, reputation, and impact in Spain, as well as in Portugal and Italy:
- 57% had more than 5,000 employees and 30% had between 1,000-5,000
- 6 industries were represented: Consumer & Retail, Banking & Financial Services, Telco/Media & Technology, Energy & Industry, Healthcare & Pharma and Professional Services
