The presentation was a workshop at Evolve 2014: the annual event for the voluntary sector in London on Monday 16 June 2014. Jacinta Ashworth, Research Consultant from Compass Partnership and Mike Hudson, Director from Compass Partnership explore how senior leadership teams are structured, managed and developed and the qualities needed in your leadership team to ensure your organisation thrives. Find out more about the Evolve Conference from NCVO: http://www.ncvo.org.uk/training-and-events/evolve-conference

1. Workshops
PM8: Creating outstanding leadership
teams
Chair:
Denise Fellows, Director and CEO, Consultancy and Talent
Development, Centre for Charity Effectiveness
Speakers:
Jacinta Ashworth, Research Consultant, Compass
Partnership
Mike Hudson, Director, Compass Partnership

3. Executive Summary
1. Introduction
2. Organising the team
2.1 Team structure
2.2 Team membership
2.3 The team leader
2.4 Recruitment and reward
3. Managing the team
3.1 Team meetings
3.2 Team working
3.3 Team development
4. Leading the organisation
4.1 Leadership of strategy and impact
4.2 Leadership of behaviour across the organisation
5. Improving leadership team performance
5.1 Overall effectiveness of leadership teams
5.2 Drivers of leadership team performance
5.3 How well leadership teams perform on the drivers
5.4 Prevalence of the drivers
5.5 Actions across the charity sector
6. Conclusions
7. Implications

4. Appendix 1 Summary of literature review
Appendix 2 Glossary
Appendix 3 Participating organisations
Appendix 4 Profile of participants
Appendix 5 Research methods
Appendix 6 The full research model
Published June 2014 Available from Directory of Social Change
www.dsc.org.uk/bol
Tel: 08450 77 77 07
Insightful, thought-provoking and long overdue research to assist chief executives to get the
best from their leadership teams’. David Bilton, Chief Executive, Woodard Academies Trust

5. Building Outstanding Leadership Teams
Chair: Denise Fellows, Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness
Speakers: Mike Hudson and Jacinta Ashworth, Compass Partnership
NCVO Evolve Conference 2014

6. Objectives of our research
1. To understand:
 how the leadership teams are organised and managed
 how they provide leadership
2. To enable leadership teams to benchmark their performance
3. To identify the key drivers of outstanding leadership teams

7. Objectives of this workshop
1. To present findings of our research
2. To give you an opportunity to reflect on how to strengthening charity
leadership teams

8. Agenda
2.00 Welcome and context setting
2.05 Highlights of the research findings
2.30 Questions
2.45 Table discussions on strengthening leadership teams
3.10 Feedback of top point from each table
3.25 Summary of key take away points

9. Our definition of the leadership team
Chief Executive
Core Group
Wider senior teamThe leadership team
Chief Operating
Officer

10. What we did
1. Extensive literature review
2. Workshop with charity leaders
3. Identified 75 characteristics of leadership teams
4. Developed and tested 110 question survey
5. Received 102 responses from the top 500 charity chief executives
6. Corroborated feedback with sample of HR Directors
7. Correlated characteristics with team performance ratings
8. Identified key drivers of team effectiveness
9. Tested conclusions at workshop with charity leaders

11. What does a ‘typical’ leadership team look like?
6 team
members 2 or 3 women
2 ‘long standing’
members,
in post 6 years+
1 member
working
part-time
4 externally
appointed
members
3 or 4 appointed
by the current CEO
2 post
graduates
No-one or 1 from
an ethnic minority

12. Summary of Compass Cass research model
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Organising the team Managing the team Leading the organisation
Team meetings
Team working
Team development
Leadership of strategy
and impact
Leadership of behaviour
Team structure
Team membership
Team leader
Team recruitment and
reward

13. Overall performance
7%
8%
13%
8%
16%
23%
7%
9%
32%
55%
64%
60%
60%
66%
61%
55%
73%
58%
45%
30%
28%
27%
25%
21%
14%
17%
19%
32%
15%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Investment in LT development
Recruitment and reward of LT members
Meetings of the LT
Leadership of behaviour across the organisation
Working as a team
Delivering leadership of strategy and impact
Team members, at leading the organisation
Size and structure of the LT
Chief Executive, at leading the LT
OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS OF LEADERSHIP TEAM
Extremely Very Quite Not very N/S
Effectiveness of:
Performance on the nine components of the Compass Cass model of leadership teams

14. Example: Team development
19%
1%
18%
21%
43%
72%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Actions taken in the last three years to invest in the development of the leadership team
Used external assistance to support development
Discussed how team works, without support
Conducted a review of performance of the LT
Worked with someone from within organisation
Other
No such actions taken in the last 3 years

15. Example: performance on leadership team development
5%
9%
19%
26%
29%
50%
57%
32%
44%
54%
35%
24%
45%
21%
8%
15%
9%
8%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Extremely Very Quite Not very N/S
OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS OF TEAM AT
INVESTING IN ITS OWN DEVELOPLENT
Value of team coach to team development
Team's capacity for learning and development
How good at celebrating success
Quality of plans for improving team effectiveness

16. Enablers of high performance
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Organising the team Managing the team Leading the organisation
Team meetings
Team working
Team development
Leadership of strategy
and impact
Leadership of behaviour
Team structure
Team membership
Team leader
Team recruitment and
reward
ESSENTIAL
BUILDING BLOCKS
ENABLERS OF HIGH
PERFORMANCE
ENABLERS OF HIGH
PERFORMANCE

17. Drivers of outstanding leadership teams
GREAT TEAM WORKING
 Valuing style and personality differences
 Maintaining a cohesive team
 Being open about mistakes and weaknesses
 Good at compromising
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP OF BEHAVIOUR
 Modelling desired behaviour
 Acting as a team outside meetings
 Communicating well with managers
 Managing stakeholder relations
EFFECTIVE TEAM MEETINGS
 Listening to each other
 Using each other’s talents during meetings
 Following through agreed actions
 Taking good decisions
CLEAR LEADERSHIP OF STRATEGY AND IMPACT
 Tracking achievement of strategic objectives
 Focussing on strategic issues
 Focussing on achievement of impact
 Bringing innovation and new ideas
INVESTMENT IN TEAM DEVELOPMENT
 Days spent on working better as a team
 Reviewing performance of the team
 External support for the team
 Planning to improve team effectiveness
INCREASING
IMPACT ON
TEAM
PERFORMANCE
OUTSTANDING
LEADERSHIP
TEAMS

18. Which key drivers are most often in place?
GREAT TEAM WORKING
 Valuing style and personality differences
 Maintaining a cohesive team 68%
 Being open about mistakes and weaknesses 63%
 Good at compromising
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP OF BEHAVIOUR
 Modelling desired behaviour 61%
 Acting as a team outside meetings 60%
 Communicating well with managers 59%
 Managing stakeholder relations
EFFECTIVE TEAM MEETINGS
 Listening to each other 66%
 Using each other’s talents during meetings
 Following through agreed actions 66%
 Taking good decisions 82%
CLEAR LEADERSHIP OF STRATEGY AND IMPACT
 Tracking achievement of strategic objectives
 Focussing on strategic issues 70%
 Focussing on achievement of impact 65%
 Bringing innovation and new ideas
INVESTMENT IN TEAM DEVELOPMENT
 Days spent on working better as a team
 Reviewing performance of the team
 External support for the team
 Planning to improve team effectiveness
INCREASING
IMPACT ON
TEAM
PERFORMANCE
OUTSTANDING
LEADERSHIP
TEAMS

19. Which key drivers are least often in place?
GREAT TEAM WORKING
 Valuing style and personality differences 52%
 Maintaining a cohesive team
 Being open about mistakes and weaknesses
 Good at compromising 56%
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP OF BEHAVIOUR
 Modelling desired behaviour
 Acting as a team outside meetings
 Communicating well with managers
 Managing stakeholder relations 51%
EFFECTIVE TEAM MEETINGS
 Listening to each other
 Using each other’s talents during meetings 50%
 Following through agreed actions
 Taking good decisions
CLEAR LEADERSHIP OF STRATEGY AND IMPACT
 Tracking achievement of strategic objectives 58%
 Focussing on strategic issues
 Focussing on achievement of impact
 Bringing innovation and new ideas 50%
INVESTMENT IN TEAM DEVELOPMENT
 Days spent on working better as a team 42%
 Reviewing performance of the team 23%
 External support for the team 30%
 Planning to improve team effectiveness 26%
INCREASING
IMPACT ON
TEAM
PERFORMANCE
OUTSTANDING
LEADERSHIP
TEAMS

20. How well do leadership teams perform on key drivers?
0%
5%
10%
15%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Number of drivers in place
% of organisations with drivers in place
%oforganisations
Strength of team performance:
Weaker 25% Medium 46% Stronger 29%
Average = 11

21. Which are the strongest performing teams?
Organisations with
higher income
and more staff
CEO has long tenure
and greater breadth
of experience
At least half are
externally appointed
members
More than two thirds
are post graduates
With a
deputy CEO
or COO
Ethnically
diverse

22. Conclusions
1. Leadership of behaviour and great team working are key drivers
Key improvement areas:
 valuing style and personality differences
 compromising
 stakeholder relations
2. Team meetings and leadership of strategy are next most important
Key improvement areas:
 using each other talents in meetings
 tracking achievement of strategic objectives
 innovation
3. Investment in team development is the weakest aspect
Learning how to do this better is the crucial issue for the future

23. Practical implications
1. Start by getting the right people on the team
2. Ensure a balance of internal and external appointments
3. Invest time in getting the group to work as a team
4. Strive to maintain reasonable stability in team membership
5. Discuss expectations of behaviour openly
6. Review team performance regularly
7. Agree ways of improving team performance

24. Table discussions
1. How do our findings compare with your experience of leadership
teams?
2. What do you think is most important in strengthening charity leadership
teams?

25. Key take way points
1. Effective leadership teams are crucial to impactful organisations
2. Getting skilled team players with strategic perspective on the team is the
starting point
3. Focus on leadership of behaviour and team working to achieve
outstanding performance

26. How to purchase a copy of Building Outstanding Leadership Teams
 Visit the DSC stand located need to add info if known
 Email: publications@dsc.org.uk
 Online: www.dsc.org.uk/bol
 Tel: 0845 077 7707
 ISBN – 978 1 906294 93 9
 Price £40 Discounted price for charities £32

27. Helping charity leadership teams become more effective
Compass Partnership works with chief executives and directors to review team performance, coach
teams to increase their effectiveness, and strengthen team relationships. We:
 Conduct 360°assessments of the performance of your leadership team
 Highlight strengths and weaknesses and pinpoint key actions to improve leadership team
effectiveness
 Deliver team coaching programmes to enhance team performance
 Benchmark team performance with similar organisations.
Please contact Debbie Emerson on 01628 478561 or demerson@compassnet.co.uk to arrange a free
confidential face-to-face discussion on how to enhance the performance of your leadership team.

28. The first investigation by Compass
Partnership and Cass Business School
looked in detail at the governance of the
top 500 charities in the UK and identified
the key drivers of governance
effectiveness.
Available from DSC via their website or by
phone:
www.dsc.org.uk/guc
publications@dsc.org.uk
Tel: 0845 077 7707

29. Tel: 01628 478561
email: info@compassnet.co.uk
Publications
Managing Without Profit, Mike Hudson, (DSC,
2009) sets out the theory and practice of creating
highly successful nonprofit organisations.
Delivering Effective Governance, Mike Hudson,
Jacinta Ashworth, (DSC 2012), identifies drivers of
governance performance and highlights actions to
achieve improvements in governance.
Building Outstanding Leadership Teams, Mike
Hudson. Jacinta Ashworth, (DSC 2014) identifies
key drivers of effective leadership teams and
actions to improve their performance
Available from www.dsc.org.uk
Compass Partnership provides consultancy
on the governance and management of
independent civil society organisations.
Over the last 30 years we have worked
with more than 800 organisations in
health, social welfare, housing, education,
international development, arts, religion
and the environment.
We work with chairs and chief executives
to strengthen governance, management
and strategy and we strive always to be at
the cutting edge of best practices.
Compass Partnership

30. Evolve 2014