CEO, How Are You Leading Your ELT?

A 2026 Perspective for CEOs Who Want More from Their Executive Team.

Written by Multi-Award Winning Leadership Coach Nick Roud. Aug 2026, Auckland, New Zealand.

If you are a CEO in 2026, you already know the script.

Confidence is down. Pressure is up. AI investment is outpacing returns. Talent is restless. The board wants clarity, not slides. And somehow, you are still expected to deliver growth in a climate where short-term results dominates and strategic clarity is the scarcest resource of all.

In this environment, the single most important lever you control is not your strategy deck, your capital allocation model, or even your relationship with the Chair. It is how you lead your executive leadership team (ELT).

This article draws on recent research, combined with patterns I observe across CEO and ELT coaching engagements, to help you answer one question with brutal honesty:

How are you actually leading your ELT and what is it costing you?

The 2026 Reality. What CEOs Are Up Against

The data is sobering and there is heaps more I could share but to keep to the point!

• Only 30% of CEOs are confident about revenue growth over the next 12 months, down from 56% in 2022.
• CEOs now spend 47% of their time on issues with a horizon of less than one year, versus just 16% on decisions looking more than five years ahead.
• Nearly half of senior leaders cite AI and emerging technology as both a top priority and the biggest development gap in their teams.
• More than a quarter of senior leaders say lack of strategic clarity limits their effectiveness; ineffective decision-making processes rank close behind.
• Retaining top talent, employee well-being, and team effectiveness have overtaken budgeting and resource allocation as the top internal priorities.

In my coaching work with CEOs across New Zealand and the wider APAC region, these statistics show up in very human ways:

• The exhausted CEO. Working 60+ hour weeks, 70%+ of that time in meetings, yet feeling like nothing strategic is moving. I call this dancing not writing music.
• The fragmented ELT. Functional leaders who are individually strong but collectively misaligned, protecting their own P&Ls while enterprise priorities stall. I call this the solo approach not a team first mentality!
• The silent conflict. Meetings that feel smooth on the surface, but where real disagreement happens in private 1:1s, Slack threads, and “corridor conversations” after the room has emptied. I call this the yes brigade!
• The board that sees too much noise and not enough insight. Long board packs, dense data, and a CEO who is presenting information rather than curating decisions. Cutting to the real issues and opportunities

One CEO I worked with put it bluntly in our first session:

“I know my ELT is not performing. I just don’t know if the problem is me, them, or the way we’re set up.”

That is the right question to be asking.

The Core Problem: Your ELT Is Not a Team (Yet)

McKinsey’s research on top-team performance is clear most executive teams struggle less with strategy and more with how they interact.

The five team-health drivers that top teams find most challenging are:

1. Innovative thinking
2. Psychological safety
3. Conflict management
4. Feedback culture
5. External orientation

In plain language your ELT probably lacks the conditions for honest debate, shared accountability, and enterprise-wide problem solving.

In coaching engagements, I regularly see:

• No shared vision that anyone actually uses. There is a strategy deck, but no lived narrative that guides day-to-day decisions.
• Communication routed through intermediaries. A CFO and CMO who have not spoken directly in months; every message passes through chiefs of staff or long email chains.
• Conflict expressed as silence. Healthy teams disagree openly and resolve disagreements before they leave the room. Dysfunctional ELTs perform consensus in meetings and undermine decisions afterward.
• Talent leaving at layers two and three. High-potential leaders exit because the ELT cannot model clarity, cohesion, or courage.

As one CEO reflected mid-engagement:

“I thought I needed a better strategy. What I actually needed was a team that could execute any strategy together.”

How You Use Your Time With the ELT Matters More Than You Think

Group Setting vs 1:1: Where Is Your Energy Going?

There is a growing consensus among leadership practitioners and coaches: the weekly ELT meeting is more important than individual 1:1s at the senior level. For the past 7 months a couple of my CEO clients here in New Zealand and Singapore have road tested this to see what effect it makes.

Why?

• It is the only forum where all functional leaders hear the same information at the same time.
• It creates shared context, reduces silos, and builds collective accountability.
• It prevents “meeting after the meeting” politics and back-channeling via the CEO.

Yet in many coaching engagements, I see the opposite pattern:

• Weekly or bi-weekly 1:1s with each direct report, filled with operational updates and firefighting.
• A monthly or ad-hoc ELT meeting that feels like a series of functional reports with little real debate.
• A CEO who is the hub of all information, with every critical conversation flowing through them.

One CEO described their calendar to me as:

“A series of private briefings where I am the only person who sees the whole picture.”

That is not leadership. That is a bottleneck or as you may hear me commonly say, getting in the way!!.

A Better Pattern: Design for Team, Not Hub-and-Spoke

High-performing CEOs I coach are shifting their cadence in three ways:

1. Weekly ELT Meeting: The Anchor

• 90 minutes to 3 hours, depending on company size and complexity.
• Focused on enterprise priorities, not functional status updates.
• Pre-reads and dashboards replace “what happened” reporting; meeting time is for decisions, trade-offs, and alignment.
• The CEO facilitates less and enables the team to drive the agenda more.

One CEO we worked with instituted a standing weekly one-hour ELT call during a downturn. Within six months, they reported:

• Faster decision cycles
• Fewer escalations to the CEO
• A stronger sense of “one team” across functions

2. 1:1s: From Operations to Development

• Shift from weekly operational check-ins to monthly or bi-monthly conversations.
• Use 1:1s primarily for coaching, development, and growth not firefighting or functional updates.
• Reserve quarterly 1:1s for deeper development conversations tied to leadership capabilities, not just performance metrics.

As one CEO put it after redesigning their cadence:

“I used to be their manager. Now I’m their coach. The team runs the business; I run the conditions for the team.”

3. Capability Meetings: Small Groups for Real Work

• Replace some 1:1s with small cross-functional “capability meetings” (1:2, 1:3) focused on innovation, customer experience, or operational efficiency.
• These meetings create peer accountability and reduce the CEO’s role as the default integrator.
• Build the dinner table team.

The pattern is consistent: great teams are not built in private conversations. They are built in the room, together.

What Insight Should You Elevate to the Board?

If your ELT is misaligned, your board reporting will feel like damage control.

Board reporting in 2026 is moving away from data dumps toward sharp insight, clear context, and actionable recommendations. Boards require solutions focus that address the short, medium and long term impacts.

What the Board Actually Needs from You

A high-impact CEO report typically includes:

• Executive summary (one page):
  • Overall RAG status (Red/Amber/Green)
  • 3–5 key headlines from the period
  • Top risks or material issues (do not bury bad news)
  • Key decisions required from the board
• Performance snapshot:
  • Financial health (revenue, profitability, cash flow, runway)
  • Strategic KPIs (5–7 metrics that truly matter)
  • Variances versus plan and their drivers
• Strategic narrative:
  • What’s working (with evidence)
  • What’s not working (with honest diagnosis)
  • Top 3 priorities for the next period
  • Where board input is needed (0–2 items)
• Risk and talent:
  • Top emerging risks and mitigation plans
  • Organisational health signals (turnover in leadership, succession pipeline progress)

Common Mistakes I See in CEO Board Reporting

In coaching CEOs around board effectiveness, several patterns recur:

• Too much detail, not enough interpretation. The board gets data but not insight; they are forced to diagnose rather than decide.
• Issues without options. Problems are presented without recommended paths forward, turning board meetings into working groups.
• Late materials. Packs sent 24 hours (or less) before the meeting, leaving no time for directors to prepare.
• Fear of bad news. Risks are softened or buried, eroding trust when issues inevitably surface.

One CEO I worked with redesigned their board pack with a simple rule:

“If it does not help the board make a decision, it does not go in the main deck.”

The result? Shorter packs, sharper discussions, and a board that felt more like a strategic partner than an oversight committee.

What Great CEOs Are Actually Doing

Across research and coaching engagements, several practices distinguish CEOs who are getting more from their ELT and their board.

1. They Redefine the ELT’s Purpose

They move from:

• “A group of functional leaders who report to me”
• To: “A team accountable for enterprise outcomes”

This shift is operationalised through:

• Annual or biannual ELT retreats to align on purpose, priorities, and ways of working.
• Clear role definitions and decision rights so the CEO is not the default integrator.
• Shared “must-win battles” that the ELT owns collectively, not functionally.

2. They Design an Operating Rhythm That Reinforces Alignment

• Weekly ELT meetings that are non-negotiable, even during crises.
• Monthly or quarterly development-focused 1:1s, not operational status updates.
• Cross-functional capability meetings that build peer accountability and reduce silos.

One COO we coached described the shift like this:

“We stopped using the CEO as the integration layer. Now the ELT integrates itself, and the CEO focuses on strategy, culture, and board partnership.”

3. They Lead with Hands-On Execution Discipline

Top-performing CEOs (e.g., at Amazon, Danaher, RELX, Toyota) actively shape how work gets done:

• They coach teams in real time, not just in formal sessions.
• They obsess over customer metrics and embed continuous improvement into daily practices.
• They use experiments for decisions, teach tool kits, and design work processes that foster autonomy and clarity.

4. They Elevate Insight, Not Just Information, to the Board

• They lead with a one-page CEO commentary that interprets the numbers, highlights risks, and flags decisions needed.
• They present real numbers, not flattering ones, and pair every issue with a proposed action.
• They send materials 48–72 hours in advance so board time is spent on discussion, not presentation.

Observations from CEO Coaching Engagements

While research provides the framework, the real lessons come from the patterns I see in the room.

Pattern 1: The CEO Who Does Too Much

A common profile:

• Technically brilliant, operationally strong, promoted from within.
• Struggles to delegate strategically important work.
• Calendar is full of 1:1s and operational reviews; ELT meetings feel like an afterthought.
• Board pack is a data dump; the CEO presents rather than curates.

In one engagement, a new CEO inherited a strong functional team but tried to “be everywhere”. Within six months:

• Decision cycles slowed.
• ELT members disengaged, waiting for the CEO’s view before committing.
• The board expressed concern about succession and bench strength.

Through coaching, this CEO:

• Reduced 1:1s from weekly to monthly, refocusing them on development.
• Instituted a disciplined weekly ELT meeting with clear decision agendas.
• Redesigned board reporting around a one-page narrative and 5–7 strategic KPIs.

Within a year, they reported:

• Faster decisions
• Stronger ELT cohesion
• A board that felt more like a strategic partner

Pattern 2: The ELT That Looks Good on Paper, But Not in Practice

Another common profile: A dream team of names and academic pedigree.

• Individually strong leaders, impressive CVs.
• Meetings are polite, but real conflict happens offline.
• Enterprise priorities stall; functional priorities thrive.
• Talent at layer two is frustrated and leaving.

In one case, a CEO described their ELT as “high-performing individuals, low-performing team”.

Here at Nick Roud Coaching we introduced our client to:

• A diagnostic of team dynamics and leadership styles
• Facilitated ELT sessions focused on real business challenges, not simulations
• Real-time feedback during actual ELT meetings, not just dedicated development sessions.
• A measurement framework tracking behavioral change against business outcomes

Within nine months:

• Conflict moved into the room and was resolved there.
• The ELT began to self-facilitate parts of their agenda.
• Two enterprise-wide initiatives stalled for years were unblocked and delivered. (client from Australia) March 2026

Pattern 3: The Board That Wants More Insight, Less Noise

A third pattern:

• CEO is highly competent but exhausted.
• Board packs are long, dense, and defensive.
• Board meetings feel like interrogations, not strategic dialogues.
• The CEO leaves feeling judged, not supported.

In one engagement, we worked with a CEO to:

• Simplify the board pack to 15–20 slides with a clear narrative.
• Introduce a one-page CEO commentary that interpreted the data and flagged decisions.
• Shift from “here is what happened” to “here is what it means and what we recommend”.

The Chair’s feedback after the next board meeting:

“For the first time in years, I felt like we were governing, not auditing.”

What This Means for You as a CEO

If you are reading this as a CEO, the question is not “Is my ELT perfect?” It should never be in my view.

The question is:

What is the cost of your current ELT design and what would change if you led them differently?

Ask yourself:

• How much of your time is spent in 1:1s versus full ELT sessions?
• When was the last time your ELT had a real, candid debate about enterprise priorities in the room?
• Does your board pack tell a story, or just present data?
• Are you the hub of all information, or have you created conditions for the ELT to integrate itself?

If your answers make you uncomfortable, that is a good sign. It means you are ready to lead differently. Get in touch and let’s talk.

A Call to Action: Lead Your ELT Like the Asset It Is

Your ELT is not a reporting line. It is your most strategic asset.

In 2026/27, with confidence low, pressure high, and AI reshaping every function, the CEOs who thrive will be those who:

• Design their ELT as a team, not a collection of functions.
• Use group time for alignment and decisions, and 1:1s for development.
• Elevate insight, not information, to the board, and curate decisions rather than present data.
• Invest in real-time team coaching, not just annual retreats or generic workshops. These are not serving you. Get ahead of the game now

If you are a CEO who recognises these patterns in your own context, you do not need to figure this out alone.

At Nick Roud Coaching, I work with CEOs and their ELTs to:

• Diagnose current team dynamics and leadership capabilities
• Redesign meeting cadences and decision processes
• Coach CEOs to shift from operational hub to strategic enabler
• Partner with boards to elevate the quality of CEO reporting and governance dialogue

Your next move:

• If this article resonated, book a confidential conversation to explore how we could partner on your ELT and board effectiveness.
• If you are not ready for that, start with one change: redesign your next ELT meeting to focus on one enterprise priority, not five functional updates.

The way you lead your ELT will define what is possible for your organisation in 2026 and beyond.

How are you leading yours?

Nick, Auckland, New Zealand