Senior Leadership Teams

8

Develop Your Own Team Leadership Competencies

Some seven decades ago, telecommunications executive Chester Barnard wrote a book that turned out to be a classic in explaining what executives must do to help their organizations succeed. The title of the book, still in print, is The Functions of the Executive. We draw your attention to the second word in that title. Barnard recognized that getting people to work together to pursue organizational objectives depends on getting certain executive functions accomplished. What counts is what you get done, and not your personality, pedigree, or position—or even how you go about doing it.¹

In writing this book we have benefited from decades of research on the leadership of teams and organizations, as ...