7 questions for selecting your top team

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Here are seven questions to ask as you select the top team to lead your company.

You’ve just taken the helm at your company – now what? The first thing you need to do is assemble your top team. To do it well, you need to answer these seven important questions.

Are they outstanding representatives of their functions?

Whether it’s marketing, operations, finance, or government relations, choose people who are accomplished and respected experts in their chosen disciplines.

Do they have the right values? 

You must be able to trust them to do what’s right for the organization.

Can they balance their functional orientation with what’s good for the business as a whole? 

Your top team must understand and support the overall strategy and vision – and, when necessary, be willing to disappoint their people for the greater good.

Do they really want to be here? 

A passion for the business and a drive to achieve excellence are essential.

Are they effective leaders? 

To align and activate engagement down through the business, you need top managers who can communicate and motivate their people to go the extra mile.

Are they able to function as members of the team? 

It matters little how effective they are in their narrow functional roles if they leave a trail of dissension and distrust in their wake.

Can they take on roles that complement the roles you want to play? 

Given the work the team needs to undertake and the roles you prefer to play, who are your natural complements? Find them for your team.

Michael Watkins

Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change

Michael D Watkins is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at IMD, and author of The First 90 Days, Master Your Next Move, Predictable Surprises, and 12 other books on leadership and negotiation. His book, The Six Disciplines of Strategic Thinking, explores how executives can learn to think strategically and lead their organizations into the future. A Thinkers 50-ranked management influencer and recognized expert in his field, his work features in HBR Guides and HBR’s 10 Must Reads on leadership, teams, strategic initiatives, and new managers. Over the past 20 years, he has used his First 90 Days® methodology to help leaders make successful transitions, both in his teaching at IMD, INSEAD, and Harvard Business School, where he gained his PhD in decision sciences, as well as through his private consultancy practice Genesis Advisers. At IMD, he directs the First 90 Days open program for leaders taking on challenging new roles and co-directs the Transition to Business Leadership (TBL) executive program for future enterprise leaders, as well as the Program for Executive Development.