We are experts in leading Executive Teams toward full use of their pooled resource potential. Board Supervision entails the focused pursuit of previously agreed upon team development goals within the set boundaries of a number of supervision meetings.

An international Board with 12 Executives were on the receiving end of heavy criticism from their CEO due to their tendency during pivotal decision-making stages to behave like "independent principalities" rather than a unified team representing organisational interests. Particularly when called to account for process errors as a group, the Board’s dominant behavioural pattern was to fragment apart and justify the (in-)actions of their own area of responsibility respectively. The necessity to join together for collaborative problem-solving on Board-level was not prioritised. Consequently, solutions failed to target the core of an issue and lacked organisation-wide impact. Quite frankly, a lot of money was lost.

In a series of eight sessions, we explored typical communication patterns of this Board when under stress. We laid open the apprehensions felt by each member when asked to account for mistakes that were more likely co-produced by an interdependence of colleagues so as to understand individual defence strategies. Members learnt how to openly express needs linked to their responsibilities toward one another, as well as clarify expectations and reactions that emerged when these were not met. There was a lot of sweat involved in giving each other direct feedback while the group was observing. However, not only the Board benefited from the more effective collaboration that followed, but also their teams, as the fresh attitude toward shared leadership cascaded down the hierarchy and strengthened cross-functional problem-solving.