The most effective CEOs invest in their executive teams because they know today’s strengths may not be sufficient to capture tomorrow’s opportunities.
Drawing on Spencer Stuart’s analysis of 21 executive teams across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru — and our extensive experience partnering with leadership teams across Latin America — we identified common patterns in how executive leaders perceive their teams’ strengths, challenges and ways of working. The organizations represented span multiple industries and range in size from $400 million to more than $20 billion in annual revenue.
Our findings paint an encouraging picture. Executive teams in the region possess many of the ingredients required for sustained success: strategic clarity, strong technical expertise, high commitment and considerable collective energy.
Our analysis also reveals an opportunity for CEOs and their executive teams to deliberately invest in improvement across areas such as decision-making, alignment, building collective accountability and prioritization. Strengthening these areas better prepares top teams for future challenges. Specifically, they create room for anticipation, the defining capability that separates good executive teams from exceptional ones.
The most effective CEOs invest in their executive teams because they know today’s strengths may not be sufficient to capture tomorrow’s opportunities. In an increasingly volatile world, executive team development is a vital strategic capability.
Where Latin American executive teams already create value
Our research highlights several strengths that provide a strong foundation for future performance.
Executive teams across the region demonstrate deep expertise, a strong sense of purpose and genuine commitment to their organizations. Ninety-one percent describe their teams as highly ethical which reinforces trust — a critical component in effective leadership. Two-thirds believe their executives possess the right combination of functional expertise and industry knowledge to perform at a high level, while 79% believe the executive team delivers better outcomes collectively than individually.
Executive teams have an opportunity to create an enduring competitive advantage by strengthening the capabilities that enable them to adapt, anticipate and accelerate performance over time.
These findings reinforce an important principle: High-performing organizations are supported through collective leadership rather than individual excellence. When executives consistently put enterprise priorities ahead of functional interests, they reduce organizational friction, encourage the exchange of ideas and improve the quality of strategic decisions.
Commitment is another defining strength. Nearly 75% of executive teams report a strong commitment to their organization, while more than 80% express genuine pride in their work. Together, these qualities create the collective energy and resilience required to sustain performance through demanding environments.
As one CEO shared with us: “The intentional work we have done as an executive team has enabled us to continuously evolve into a high-performing leadership team — one that is driving stronger business results while aligning our ambition with the impact we aspire to create.”
While these strengths provide an excellent starting point, executive teams have an opportunity to create an enduring competitive advantage by strengthening the capabilities that enable them to adapt, anticipate and accelerate performance over time.
Capabilities that unlock the next level of performance
Our research highlights several capabilities that distinguish aligned top teams that sustain performance. Organizations that invest in systematically and consistently developing these competencies will be better positioned to anticipate and respond to future challenges. Here is where executive teams can focus their energy:
Clarify organizational structure and decision-making
High-performing executive teams continuously reinforce clear roles, decision rights and ways of working, which creates alignment, reduces ambiguity and allows organizations to move faster as priorities evolve.
As organizations grow and business priorities shift, CEOs must continually reaffirm responsibilities, decision-making processes and leadership expectations to maintain organizational coherence.
Yet only 53% of the executive teams in our study believe these elements are sufficiently clear. In our experience, this gap rarely exists because structures are missing. More often, it reflects the flawed assumption that clarity, once established, remains. As organizations grow and business priorities shift, CEOs must continually reaffirm responsibilities, decision-making processes and leadership expectations to maintain organizational coherence.
Build disciplined collaboration
The ability to collaborate across organizational boundaries through constructive debate and quick conflict resolution has become a defining capability of high-performing leadership teams.
Yet only 42% of executives believe their teams manage conflict effectively. Just 39% believe they collaborate well, and 35% consider communication within the executive team consistently effective. Without these disciplines, organizations experience unnecessary friction: Silos are reinforced, bureaucracy increases and strategic execution slows.
We find that effective CEOs shape collaboration through example rather than process alone. By modeling openness, encouraging healthy disagreement and creating psychological safety, they establish the conditions for better decisions and stronger collective accountability.
Formalize development and succession
Strong executive teams recognize that leadership development cannot depend on informal conversations alone.
Only 33% of executives believe feedback is sufficiently consistent, while just 27% view their development processes as effective. And fewer than one-third (28%) have established succession plans.
In a region where business conditions evolve rapidly, development must become continuous, intentional and closely connected to future strategic priorities. While there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to succession planning, we recommend CEOs make C-suite succession planning a priority with the executive team.
Improve prioritization through delegation
One of the clearest barriers to executive effectiveness is the inability to distinguish which tasks require executive attention from those that can be delegated. Only 26% of executive teams believe work is effectively prioritized against available capacity.
Only 26% of executive teams believe work is effectively prioritized against available capacity.
When leaders remain overloaded, they spend more time reacting than anticipating and preparing. Strategic thinking gives way to operational urgency, and innovation, experimentation and learning receive less attention precisely when they are needed most.
The most effective CEOs create alignment around enterprise priorities, empower leaders to make decisions and focus the executive team’s collective attention on the few issues that create disproportionate value.
Balance authority with empowerment
Our research also explored the individual mindsets that shape executive behavior, revealing a consistent pattern: Leaders place strong emphasis on achievement, independence and results. In fact, more than 80% prioritize competing and winning. While these characteristics support execution under pressure, they can also reduce openness, experimentation and long-term thinking if left unchecked.
The strongest leaders understand that they don’t need to choose between authority and empowerment. They are discerning, determining when decisive leadership is required and when creating space for others to challenge assumptions, contribute ideas and learn collectively will produce better outcomes.
Anticipation: The capability that defines exceptional top teams
The highest-performing executive teams recognize that success is never permanent. Rather than waiting for disruption to expose capability gaps, they deliberately anticipate and prepare for what comes next.
Anticipation is the organizational discipline of continually asking what capabilities, behaviors and ways of working will be required to succeed in the future — and beginning to build them before circumstances demand it.
CEOs whose top teams consistently outperform embed anticipation into the rhythm of leadership. They regularly revisit strategic priorities, redefine executive roles as contexts evolve, strengthen emerging capabilities and challenge the assumptions that drove previous success.
Over time, anticipation becomes part of the organization’s leadership culture. Executive teams become more adaptable, more open to learning, more disciplined in execution and more willing to make difficult decisions before they become unavoidable.
One leading consumer company in Latin America adopted a systematic three-to-five-year leadership development plan, investing deliberately in the collective capabilities required to stay ahead of competitors while pursuing ambitious growth objectives. The organization achieved its revenue target a full year ahead of schedule and is now focused on expanding its competitive advantage.
As one telecommunications CEO reflected after years of continuous investment in executive team development: “Sustained work builds trust, strengthens leadership coherence and creates the conditions for lasting cultural change. Over time, those shifts become a multiplier of organizational performance.”
Conclusion
Latin America already has executive teams with remarkable commitment, expertise and resilience. Organizations that outperform over the next decade will be led by top teams that consistently think, decide and lead as one and transform strengths into a future competitive advantage. Indeed, the most effective CEOs understand that executive team development is not an intervention reserved for moments of crisis but a deliberate investment in long-term success.
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Our regional team serves clients across Latin America with consultants based in different locations: