The single most important factor that determines a company’s success or failure is its executive leadership team. Therefore, it is logical to assume that this team would be united together around the common cause of company-wide success. However, this isn’t usually the case. In reality, most executive teams are quite divided. Some executive team members serve their self-interests first or place the needs of their operational area of responsibility before the goals of the company.

When we examine the composition of the high technology executive team we realize that this situation should not be a surprise. The team is a collection of diverse individuals. There are scientists with advanced degrees in computers and mathematics, and businessmen with backgrounds in finance, marketing, and sales. There are people with varying degrees of career experience, levels of emotional maturity, and size of ego.

Given this diversity, it is highly doubtful that this odd collection of people would come together and befriend one another under natural circumstances. Even though they meet frequently, the executive team doesn’t “really” know each other personally since they have different orientations. The technologists speak differently than the marketeers and the finance guys think differently than sales. Because the team members range from intellectual introverts to expressive extroverts, they have a hard time working together as a team.

Over time, human nature dictates that team members band together into cliques that share similar backgrounds and political viewpoints. These cliques battle each other openly at meetings or covertly after initiatives have been seemingly agreed upon. As a result, initiatives are sabotaged, the reality about the company’s position is not discussed openly, and the truth is lost. This situation continues to worsen until a critical point is reached and members are ostracized. In fact, the central reason why senior leaders of high technology teams are fired is not over performance, but over their inability to function within the executive team.

Steve Martin’s executive team review is designed to bring the high technology executive team together as a true team. The review starts with an in-depth investigation and executive team member interviews. A blind survey is then created for each executive team member to complete. In the survey, the company’s current position, departmental strengths and weaknesses, technology and products, competition, target markets, and future plans are evaluated. The survey results are collated, themes are identified, conclusions are drawn, and presented back to the team in an interactive workshop session. More than an analytical view of the organization, this cathartic experience realigns personal thinking.

Today’s challenging times, demands the collaborative performance of the executive team solely aligned upon the company and its customers.