When it comes to having a strong team you can count on to bring your goals and vision into reality, everyone needs to work together. Yes, every single team member. This includes C-suite actively collaborating alongside other departments and teammates. Rather than continue the path of the top-down mentality, leaders should consider more equitable options. Because in the long run, trying to keep up old-school ideas on how to run a business will cost more than just delays.
Top-down leadership results in teammates feeling like they can’t think outside of the box or even consider that there is something outside of that box. They’ll second guess every idea they might have out of fear of being told off or have their job on the line. The alternative to the more traditional hierarchical system is horizontal cross-collaboration.
It Starts with Trust
Leaders who want to break silos in their companies need to start building trust in teams. You don’t want anyone holding their cards to their chest? Then you should be as open and transparent as possible when it comes to communicating with your team.
You hired this team because you saw their talent and potential. Now it’s time to act like it. Trust them to have ideas that are different from yours but can align with your goals. If the goal is to hit KPIs or launch a product or service that continuously breaks the mold, then it shouldn’t matter who came up with which idea. The results are what matter. Did you reach them? Then don’t get hung up on the fact that your Junior engineer saw a way to fix the bug. Which brings to the next point.
C-Suite Works Alongside the Team
To avoid silos where the Engineering team is not being communicative with Product or Customer Success, then C-suite needs to create strategies to foster cross-functional communication. Does your COO know who’s leading the new features? Perhaps they don’t need to know all the ins and outs of the everyday scrum, but they should be aware of what the team is working towards. They might be able to support them if there’s any difficult roadblocks and vice versa.
Removing the vertical system allows for someone to not be fearful of asking a question to anyone on C-Suite. They might have noticed something that can be fixed, perhaps they recall a particular topic during an all-hands that can be solved or dealt with. The more open and approachable execs are, the more other teammates might be able to provide insights or suggestions to processes or challenges.
Culture can Make or Break Teams
Cross-collaboration doesn’t just apply to c-suite and all of the team, it can also happen between execs. If the CTO feels like their work is constantly being questioned or nitpicked then they might shut off from sharing as many updates as usual. Perhaps they are butting heads with another exec who comes from a technical background or who doesn’t understand the context at all.
When the entire team focuses more on getting goals reached than on office politics, and communicating and developing strategies to get there, the likelihood of reaching said KPIs and OKRs becomes a bigger possibility. Start with something small. What if there’s an open space for a quick chat every week, so teammates can actually get to know each other despite not working on the same project or being from the same department? Can HR ensure that a culture of respect is clear from day one?
It doesn’t have to be the same in every company, but these strategies do need to be aligned with core values. Once a team is working from the basis of their values and mission, then communication and collaboration becomes easier.
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