Advisor on Leadership Team Effectiveness in Diversified Enterprises

Observe decisions in context

Review recent decisions involving investment, shared resources, performance intervention and cross-business opportunities. Examine the information presented, the participation required and the delay between discussion and action. Identify recurring issues that return to the team because authority, ownership or the original decision was unclear.

Interview executives individually and observe selected meetings with agreed confidentiality arrangements. Distinguish disagreement that improves judgement from behaviour that prevents decisions. Assess whether the agenda is dominated by reporting, leaving inadequate time for choices that genuinely require collective attention.

Practical changes to recommend

Propose a clearer executive decision agenda, preparation standards and follow-through arrangements. Clarify the relationship between enterprise objectives and business-unit accountabilities. Use real decisions to test the revised approach, including how dissent is recorded and how leaders support an agreed outcome after the discussion ends.

The advisor may facilitate sessions and provide confidential feedback, but will not act as an executive, adjudicate employment matters or become a permanent intermediary between leaders. Any recommendation affecting role scope or appointment must be decided through the appropriate governance process.

Selection will test facilitation and commercial judgement

Candidates need experience working with senior teams in complex organisations and the ability to understand commercial and operating trade-offs. They should demonstrate a case where improving the decision process mattered more than changing individual behaviour. Strong facilitation skills must be accompanied by the courage to identify structural problems and the discipline to distinguish evidence from interpretation.

The leadership team should make fewer ambiguous decisions, spend more time on enterprise choices and follow through with clearer ownership. The final recommendations must be maintainable without ongoing facilitation. Success is demonstrated when difficult issues can be discussed directly and resolved in a way that operating teams can understand and implement, even when executives initially prefer different outcomes.