A group of executives is not automatically a team

In many credit unions the senior leadership “team” is a weekly meeting where each executive reports on their own area to the chief executive while the others wait their turn. Decisions are really made in one-on-one conversations with the CEO. That is a hub-and-spoke structure, and it caps the organization at what one person can coordinate.

A real executive team has three things a group does not:

  • Shared goals that no single function can deliver alone
  • Mutual accountability, to each other and not only to the chief executive
  • Collective ownership of the whole credit union

The first team idea

Patrick Lencioni’s “first team” principle holds that an executive’s primary team is the leadership team they sit on, not the department they lead. In a first team, the chief lending officer cares about the deposit strategy and the chief financial officer cares about member experience, because the scoreboard is shared.

The opposite pattern is familiar: executives who advocate for their own function, negotiate for resources, and return to their staff describing what “they” decided.

Common signs of an underperforming executive team

  • Meetings are polite and the real conversation happens afterward
  • Disagreement is either absent or personal
  • Decisions are revisited repeatedly
  • Executives escalate peer problems to the chief executive instead of resolving them
  • Functions optimize locally: lending and risk, or operations and technology, treat each other as obstacles
  • The chief executive is the tiebreaker on everything

What effective teams do

  1. Build trust based on candor, where members can say “I was wrong” or “I need help.”
  2. Have productive conflict about ideas, in the room.
  3. Commit. Once a decision is made, everyone owns it publicly, including those who argued against it.
  4. Hold each other accountable without routing it through the chief executive.
  5. Focus on collective results, with a small number of shared priorities.

These five behaviors follow Lencioni’s widely used model of team function.

Practical steps for the chief executive

  • State the expectation out loud: this team is your first team.
  • Set two or three enterprise priorities that everyone is measured on.
  • Redesign the meeting. Less reporting, more deciding. Separate weekly tactical meetings from longer strategic ones.
  • Clarify decision rights. Which decisions belong to the team, to an individual executive, or to the CEO?
  • Model the behavior. Admit mistakes, invite challenge, and do not punish dissent.
  • Deal with the member who will not join. One executive who consistently undermines the team sets the ceiling for everyone.
  • Get outside help when the pattern is entrenched. See Team coaching explained.

Moments when the team needs deliberate attention

Frequently asked questions

What is a “first team” in leadership?

It is the principle that a leader’s first loyalty is to the leadership team they are a member of, ahead of the team they lead, so that enterprise results come before departmental interests.

How big should a credit union executive team be?

Small enough for real discussion. Many effective teams have between five and nine members. Larger groups tend to become reporting forums.

How often should an executive team meet?

A common rhythm is a short weekly tactical meeting, a longer monthly strategic session, and a quarterly offsite review.

How do you measure executive team effectiveness?

Through team assessments completed by members, feedback from the level below, the speed and durability of decisions, and results on the shared priorities.

How Syntrina Leadership works with executive teams

Syntrina Leadership’s leadership team development work is built around a “First Team First” culture, designed in partnership with the chief executive.

Related reading

This page is educational and general in nature. It is not legal, regulatory, or clinical advice. Questions or corrections: coaching@syntrinaleadership.com.