Tomorrow, I meet my clients here in Dubai. Our focus will be on Executive Coaching as a support to the development of the organisation’s Senior Leadership Team.

Synchronicity is a wonderful thing. Over morning coffee with my valued colleague Patricia Marshall, I mention this forthcoming trip and she offers me a copy of the recently published Senior Leadership Teams: What it takes to make them great. I have been taking the opportunity to read this book, with its veritable roll-call of authers (Ruth Wageman, Debra A. Nunes, James A. Burruss and J. Richard Hackman) by way of preparation.

Based on their research into leadership teams in a wide variety of organisations, the authors lay out six conditions which differentiate outstanding teams at Senior Leadership level. They describe the first three as essential and the second three as enablers. On the surface, the conditions have a whiff of cliche: don’t we all know that the best Senior Leadership Teams have a compelling purpose and direction? And isn’t it axiomatic that you have to have the right people with the right capabilities for the team to succeed? Notwithstanding the authors explore their research with a degree of precision which adds great depth and illustrate it with many examples. It helps, too, that their research is based on work with a list of client organisations that many coaches, consultants and advisers could only admire – maybe even envy.

In my role as Executive Coach, I find good news and bad. Team coaching for the Senior Leadership Team is highlighted as one of the six conditions, an enabler. The authors tell their CEO readers, “Do not skimp on coaching”. Still, coaching alone cannot make up for the absence of other conditions (though it may help the team’s leader to identify and address their absence). What’s more, the authors highlight a surprising finding: that teams do not improve markedly even if all their members receive individual coaching to develop their personal capabilities. I find these pointers thought-provoking and helpful ahead of a meeting to explore my client’s expectations of coaching.

And what would I say to the CEO, pondering whether or not to read this book? If you are sleeping soundly at night in the full knowledge that your Senior Leadership Team is delivering way beyond your expectations you may find better ways to use your time. If, however, you have any sense at all that the team of which you are leader has more to give, if indeed you are tearing your hair out as you wonder why such a talented group of people behave like children in the board room, this book is an invaluable read. Its systematic exploration of its territory offers a way to diagnose the issues you face as well as guidance on how to address them.

Please let me know how you get on in turning your team from good, bad or indifferent to great. Truly great.