The Executive Teaming Diagnostic

Use this diagnostic when your executive table is busy, capable, and still not moving as one system.

It can be completed individually, then used to create a more honest conversation with the full team.

Time Required:

• 30 minutes individually
• 60 minutes with the executive team

Best Practice:
Have the CEO and each executive complete the diagnostic independently before comparing results. The difference in scores is often as useful as the score itself.

Instructions:

• The CEO and each executive completes Sections 1–4 independently.
• Compile scores and look for patterns, gaps, and major differences in perception.
• Use Section 5 to run a focused 45-minute executive conversation.
• Use Section 6 to choose one first change that will reduce friction and increase enterprise execution.

Executive Note:
The goal is not to prove whether the team is “good” or “bad.” The goal is to see the current operating reality clearly enough to improve it.

Rate each statement using the following scale:
1 = strongly disagree
3 = sometimes true
5 = strongly agree

Enterprise Goal Clarity

• We can name 3–5 enterprise outcomes that only this executive table is responsible for delivering this year.
• Those outcomes require real interdependence across functions.
• We have agreed on what success looks like and how progress will be measured.
• In meetings, we spend more time on enterprise outcomes than functional status.

Subtotal:

___ / 20

Interdependence in Practice

• If one executive disengaged for a quarter, our most important enterprise outcomes would be at risk.
• We actively share resources, priorities, and trade-offs across functions to deliver what matters most.
• We make routine cross-functional trade-offs together without routing everything through the CEO.
• We challenge functional advocacy when it conflicts with enterprise outcomes.

Subtotal:

___ / 20

Decision Quality and Rights

• We know which decisions must be made together and which decisions should be delegated.
• Decisions are made with clarity and rarely get reopened without new data.
• After decisions are made, executives align publicly, even when they disagreed privately.
• The CEO is not the default integrator for routine cross-functional issues.

Subtotal:

___ / 20

Meeting Design

• Our executive meetings are designed around enterprise work, not functional updates.
• The agenda drives decisions, trade-offs, commitments, and progress against shared outcomes.
• We end meetings with clear owners, deadlines, and next actions.
• We review progress against enterprise outcomes, not only functional KPIs.

Subtotal:

___ / 20

Accountability and Incentives

• We hold one another accountable, rather than relying on the CEO to hold everyone accountable.
• Our incentives reinforce enterprise outcomes, not only functional delivery.
• When enterprise goals slip, we diagnose the system together instead of assigning blame by function.
• We can clearly describe what this executive table must deliver together that no one else can.

Subtotal:

___ / 20

Results

Total Score:

___ / 100

Interpretation:

80–100: Operating as a Team
You are doing collective enterprise work with real interdependence. Protect it, formalize it, and continue strengthening the habits that make it possible.

55–79: Hybrid
This is the most common and often the most expensive pattern. You move between team behavior and group behavior. Execution slows at the seams.

0–54: Operating as a Group
You may be high-performing functionally, but enterprise outcomes are likely too dependent on the CEO’s integration, intervention, and follow-up.

Critical Insight:
The most important finding is not only the score. It is the variance. If executives score the same team reality very differently, you have misalignment about how the team actually operates.

Answer yes or no to each question.

• Do major cross-functional issues routinely land with the CEO to resolve?
• Do executives fully align only after the CEO has reinforced a decision separately?
• Do meetings end with “we need to circle back” more often than clear commitments?
• Do executives compete for resources more often than they collaborate around shared outcomes?

If you answered yes to two or more, your executive table is likely functioning more like a group than a team.

The CEO may be acting as the glue: integrating priorities, resolving friction, clarifying decisions, and carrying the burden of alignment.

That may work temporarily. It does not scale.

Executive Shift:
A strong executive team should reduce the CEO’s integration burden, not increase it.

A true team is not a collection of strong players performing near one another.

A true team knows the scoreboard, runs plays together, adjusts in real time, and learns while the game is underway.

Use the prompts below to test whether your executive table is moving the ball together or playing separate games on the same field.

Reflection Prompts:

• What are the scoreboard outcomes for this executive table this year?
• What plays must we run together to deliver those outcomes?
• Where are our plays currently colliding?
• Who is calling the plays, and who is executing them?
• What must change so we learn while executing, not only during planning?

Executive Note:
If every function has its own scoreboard, the enterprise will struggle to move as one system.

Most executive groups are unclear about what only the executive table can do.

That lack of clarity creates low-value meetings, repeated escalations, and too much time spent on work that could be handled elsewhere.

Use this inventory to determine whether your executive table is spending enough time on enterprise work.

Step 1: List the Top 10 Issues on Your Executive Agenda

Write the ten issues currently taking up executive meeting time.

Step 2: Categorize Each Item

F = Functional Update
D = Decision Required
E = Enterprise Outcome Work, Meaning It Must Be Done Together

Step 3: Review What Actually Dominates Executive Time

Totals:

Functional Updates: ___
Decisions: ___
Enterprise Work: ___

If enterprise work is not the majority, your executive table is likely functioning as a group.

Executive Shift:
The executive table should not be the most expensive status meeting in the organization. It should be where enterprise trade-offs, decisions, and shared commitments are made.

Use this script for a focused executive conversation. The purpose is not to debate every score. The purpose is to name the operating reality and leave with one structural decision.

Ground Rules

• Read these aloud before beginning:
  • We are diagnosing structure, not blaming people.
  • We are naming reality so we can lead better.
  • We will leave with one decision.

Agenda

1. Share Scores | 10 Minutes
Each executive shares their total score and one result that surprised them.

2. Name the Variance | 10 Minutes
Discuss where the team disagreed most about its current reality. Large variance is a signal that the team may not share the same operating truth.

3. Identify the Enterprise Work | 15 Minutes
Agree on 3–5 enterprise outcomes only this executive table can deliver.

4. Choose One Structural Change | 10 Minutes
Decide the first adjustment that will reduce CEO bottleneck, increase interdependence, and improve enterprise execution.

Executive Note:
Do not leave the conversation with general agreement. Leave with a specific structural change.

Pick one. The goal is traction, not perfection.

Option A: Redesign the Executive Meeting

This is often the fastest leverage point.

Move functional updates to pre-reads.

Require every agenda item to be a decision, a trade-off, or enterprise work.

End every discussion with an owner, deadline, and next check-in.

Use This When:
Your meetings are full but decisions are slow.

Option B: Define 3–5 Enterprise Outcomes

This creates the team’s operating system.

Write 3–5 outcomes only the executive table owns.

Assign two executive co-owners per outcome.

Review progress monthly as a team, not function by function.

Use This When:
Everyone is busy, but the shared enterprise work is unclear.

Option C: Clarify Decision Rights

This reduces drift and repeated escalation.

Identify five recurring decisions.

Decide whether each one belongs to the CEO, the executive team, or a delegated owner.

Publish the decision rights.

Track decision reopen rates over 90 days.

Use This When:
Decisions are slow, unclear, or frequently revisited.

Option D: Run an Incentive Signal Check

This helps stop rewarding group behavior.

Ask:Are we incentivizing enterprise collaboration or functional optimization?

Review what is measured, recognized, discussed, and celebrated.

Identify where incentives may be encouraging leaders to protect the function instead of advancing the enterprise.

Use This When:
Executives say they value collaboration, but the system rewards individual functional wins.

Executive Shift:
Small changes in what is measured, discussed, and reinforced can change how the team behaves.

Use these templates to move from insight to action. They are designed to help executive teams create more clarity, cleaner decision-making, and stronger accountability inside the normal flow of work.

Enterprise Outcomes Canvas
Use this to define the outcomes only the executive table owns, why they matter, how progress will be measured, and which leaders are accountable for moving the work forward.

Decision Record
Use this to document what was decided, who owns the decision, what trade-offs were made, what data informed the decision, and when the decision should be revisited.

Meeting Agenda
Use this to redesign executive meeting time around enterprise work, decisions, trade-offs, and commitments instead of functional updates.

Executive Note:
A better operating rhythm does not require more meetings. It requires more disciplined use of the meetings you already have.