Why leaders fail,teams and organizations?

Why does leaders,

teams and organizations fail?

A surprising number of people overlook the human factor when selecting candidates, assembling teams and when promoting employees to leadership roles. Even if human factors are taken into account, it is still often seen that these factors are not assessed correctly and that the employees are not worked strategically enough.

There are many reasons why leaders, teams and organizations fail. But more and more research indicates that human factors are often behind it and that even a limited effort in this area can produce very good results.
A surprising number of people overlook the human factor when selecting candidates, assembling teams and when promoting employees to leadership roles. Even if human factors are taken into account, it is still often seen that these factors are not assessed correctly and that the employees are not worked strategically enough.

There are many reasons why leaders, teams and organizations fail. But more and more research indicates that human factors are often behind it and that even a limited effort in this area can produce very good results.
How do you choose talent to work for your business?

What do you emphasize? A major challenge for most businesses is to know what qualities and human potential employees in various roles need to be successful.
We help you map out what characterizes managers and other employees your organization needs now and in the future. What skills do they need to have, what personality, what values and capacity? Research shows that only 30% of
high performing employees are High Potentials (HIPOs), at the same time it is one of the criteria most often used to recruit HIPOs in various businesses today. Another classic mistake that is often made is to focus too much on "Emergent Leadership" - i.e. on the charismatic and extroverted person who is good at networking and at "talking his way up the system" (read more here). As a result, HIPOs in many organizations will not be real HIPOs, even though they may appear that way, because the real need has not been assessed well enough and the selection has been focused on the wrong criteria.
"Traditionally, leaders have risen up through the ranks based on their cognitive abilities, analytical skills, thoroughness, and even perfectionist tendencies, but as modern businesses have moved to a more digitally-driven model, the criteria for leaders has markedly changed. The High-Potential Leader explains the modern business climate while highlighting the critical role relationship building, communication style, engagement, and ability to motivate and bring out the best performance in others play in becoming an impactful leader."
The High-Potential Leader:,
Ram Charan 2017
"High-potential programs are intended to identify individuals with leadership potential, but most often they end up mistaking current performance for leadership potential, or favoring individuals who are talented at organizational politics."
The Politics of Potential
Robert Hogan
Talent Management

Typical talent programs and HR processes are often designed for predictable environments that have traditional ways of doing work where "lines and boxes" still define how people are managed. Now that work and organizations are constantly changing, strategy can no longer be about planning several years ahead in time. It is about perceiving and seizing new opportunities and adapting to an ever-changing environment. Then organizations must develop and move talent in new ways to be competitive.

When identifying and recruiting real HIPOs, we recommend that you support recognized research on good management. At the same time, it is important to find out what is unique about your business that is needed to succeed. It is absolutely crucial to choose managers and employees who match the organisation's values and organizational culture, while at the same time they are motivated to work towards the organisation's strategies and goals.

Research shows that 40% of a company's ROI stems from the strength of its senior management team.

An often underestimated success factor for acquisitions and mergers of companies (M&A) is the measurement of top management's potential to succeed under new ownership with new strategic goals. Just because a sales director or CEO has been successful up to now does not automatically mean that he or she will be successful in the future. New products, new technology, new markets, new organizational structure, new organizational culture and size of the organization may require a
new communication style and learning new behaviour. Just as important is the interaction between the management team, and whether they complement each other so that all important roles and necessary focus will be taken care of in a good way.

Research done at Cornell and Berkeley Universities shows that the combination of a strong CEO and an effective top management team accounts for as much as 40% of a company's ROI. Then it is worth spending extra time and energy on ensuring that you have the right team composition to achieve the company's strategies and goals.
“The acquisition reflects a common business problem. Too often, deal makers simply ignore, defer, or underestimate the significance of people issues in mergers and acquisitions”.  

Harvard Business Review, april 2007 
Les mer her om Management Due Diligence >>

What characterizes high performing teams?

Do similar children play best?


Or do differences promote development and change? With support from research and best practice, we recommend ensuring that the team does not become too homogenous, both in terms of competence and personality. The differences will be able to contribute to good discussions and dialogues to ensure that problems are seen from different points of view, which in turn can contribute to better problem solving and more innovative thinking.



However, good dialogues and discussions require an openness and trust in the team that often does not come naturally. This requires effort from both the team leader and the team as a whole. Organized team building workshops are often very helpful in this regard. The team members then work both with self-insight for the individual and self-view (how I appear to others), as well as with the understanding that differences can actually benefit the team. We coach them in taking each other's needs into account, and use the differences to promote good discussions and new thinking.

What is organizational culture and why is it so important?

The organizational culture can be described as "the way we do things at us", and it unconsciously controls the choices, behavior and efforts of the people in your organisation. It is the sum of the organisation's lived attitudes and values, which are not always the same as the organization so nicely markets on its websites.

”Beneath the surface lie our values and beliefs – the components of your culture that make a real difference between success and failure”.
Richard Barrett,
Barrett Value Centre
Many organizations are good at measuring what they actually do in the organization. They have meeting minutes, an overview of various
processes and routines and the results they achieve. However, they often forget to measure what is behind the actions - why we act the way we do.

Research shows that the wrong organizational culture can cost an organization dearly. We help you measure whether your organization lives up to its stated values, or whether there are other, more unhealthy values that are most prevalent in the organization - values that prevent the organization from achieving its goals and strategies.
Read more here about Organizational culture >> Read more here about Organizational culture >>