When Leadership Works as a Team: What Changes, and Why It Matters
For years, leadership development has been seen as the cornerstone of organizational success. Firms invest in executive training, send leaders to immersive programs, and fill their shelves with books on visionary leadership.
And yet…
Engagement scores remain stagnant.
Leadership teams struggle to translate strategy into momentum.
Employees feel disconnected, overextended, and disengaged.
Hybrid work continues to complicate collaboration and alignment.
Clearly, something is missing from the leadership equation.
The Missing Piece? Teaming.
Leadership has evolved. Emotional intelligence, presence, and authenticity are now expected—not aspirational. And still, many firms cling to the belief that strong leadership at the top is the key driver of success.
The reality? The workplace has changed. Markets move faster. Decisions are more complex. No individual leader—no matter how talented—can carry a firm forward alone.
Leadership today is about how well a team can navigate complexity together.
This is where teaming comes in. Not just working in a team, but the intentional practice of how a leadership team engages, collaborates, and aligns to drive outcomes.
The strongest organizations aren’t just building better leaders—they’re cultivating better leadership teams.
What Effective Teaming Looks Like
High-functioning leadership teams don’t just manage operations. They co-create, navigate ambiguity, and steward the vision of the firm as a true collective.
Here are a few hallmarks of strong teaming:
Courageous, high-trust dialogue – Truth-telling becomes normalized. Teams say what needs to be said, directly and constructively, in service of the organization.
A disciplined rhythm of decision-making – Meetings are purposeful. Decisions are timely. There’s a structure that creates momentum.
Shared ownership of culture – Culture is shaped by how the leadership team shows up—together. It’s not delegated to HR or assumed to be top-down.
Productive tension – Disagreement is welcome. Tension is a strategic asset, not a problem to avoid.
These practices are learnable, repeatable, and transformative.
Coaching: A Catalyst for Leadership Teams
Coaching is often viewed as a tool for individual development. But when applied at the team level, its impact scales exponentially.
Through team coaching, leadership teams gain:
Clarity on systemic challenges – Identifying the hidden dynamics that hold teams back.
A shared language – Creating frameworks that support aligned decisions and honest dialogue.
Greater resilience – Strengthening the team’s ability to navigate change, tension, and ambiguity.
Rethinking Leadership Development
If your goal is to elevate leadership in your firm, it might be time to shift the focus:
Instead of asking, "How do we develop better leaders?" ask, "How do we develop a more effective leadership team?"
Instead of focusing on individual strengths, focus on how the team communicates, aligns, and moves forward.
Instead of treating leadership as personal mastery, see it as a shared, relational discipline.
The Next Step
If your leadership team is experiencing friction, decision-making gridlock, or misalignment on vision and execution, you’re not alone.
Team coaching isn’t about fixing people. It’s about optimizing the collective capacity to lead. And in today’s high-stakes, high-change environment, that matters more than ever.
Are you ready to explore what’s possible for your leadership team?
Liv Olson is an executive coach and facilitator specializing in team effectiveness. She partners with financial services leaders and their teams to strengthen clarity, confidence, and collaboration.