How to Run an ELT Assessment & Tune-Up: A CEO’s Guide to Getting the Executive Team Back on Track

Why Your ELT Needs Regular Tune-Ups - Steps You Can Take Today

How to Run an ELT Assessment & Tune-Up: A CEO’s Guide to Getting the Executive Team Back on Track

As Co-founder and Managing Partner with Maverix Private Equity, I have the privilege of working with many fast-growing companies. One very common issue that negatively impacts growth is a dysfunctional Executive Leadership Team (ELT).

If you’re a CEO or founder leading a fast-growing company, chances are that your ELT has evolved quickly—maybe too quickly. What once felt like a high-functioning band of aligned leaders may now feel disjointed, stuck in silos, or just... off.

This isn’t unusual. As companies scale, ELTs can drift—priorities blur, trust erodes, and meetings become performative rather than productive. If your gut is telling you the team isn’t clicking like it used to, you’re probably right.

I’ve worked with two fast-growing tech companies recently.

Both were on fire—in the best and worst ways.

Both had impressive revenues, ambitious founders, and high-caliber talent.

But guess what? When it came to their ELTs…neither was working.

Both were in urgent need of tune-ups.

One had an ELT of 11 and was paralyzed. Every function wanted “a seat at the table.”
So they gave one. Then another. Then another. Before long, the ELT had become a mini-org chart—not a decision-making team.

The result?

• Meetings turned into status readouts, not strategy sessions.

• Debate was shallow because no one wanted to step on toes.

• Half the team didn’t speak; the other half monologued.

• The CEO was stuck herding cats instead of building alignment.

Radical truth? The team wasn’t leading together. They were just co-existing.

The other had an ELT of 2. It was fast. Nimble. Efficient.

Until it wasn’t.

• Decisions piled up that required cross-functional input.

• Departments drifted without clear leadership or representation.

• The CEO became a bottleneck, and the EVP burned out.

• Other senior leaders started saying, “What’s the point of even trying? No one listens.”

The few held power. The rest disengaged.

Too few people = too narrow a lens on the business.

And both companies were paying the price—in morale, decision speed, and cross-functional trust.

This post is about what happens when your ELT is too big, too small, or just plain stuck—and how to run a radically honest, high-impact tune-up that gets your top team moving again.

It’s time for an ELT assessment and tune-up, the Maverix way.

A quick outline of the core Maverix principles:

1. We are builders, and entrepreneurs are our partners.

2. We believe that opportunity is generated through innovation.

3. We actively challenge the status quo.

4. We believe in respect, transparency (aka radical candour) and freedom from judgement.

5. We believe in having fun.

Why Your ELT Needs Regular Tune-Ups

Think of your ELT like a Formula 1 race car. High-performing at its best—but under constant strain from speed, pressure, and the complexity of navigating shifts in the market.

You wouldn’t race an F1 car without pit stops. So why expect your top team to operate indefinitely without pausing to recalibrate?

The best CEOs treat their ELT as a system—one that needs maintenance, not just motivation.

How to Run an ELT Tune-Up (The Maverix Way)

Whether your ELT is bloated, barebones, or somewhere in between—here’s your step-by-step guide to identifying issues and possible solutions.

1. Start With the CEO Mirror

Before evaluating others, look inward. Ask:

• Am I giving clear direction?

• Do I foster open debate or dominate the room?

• Have I been transparent with the team—or overly protective of decisions?

• Which habits have I outgrown that worked when we were smaller?

Your own leadership style often sets the tone. If your execs are guarded or reactive, they may be mirroring you.

Tune-up action: Ask a trusted board member, coach, or even your COO for brutally honest feedback: “If you had to rebuild our ELT from scratch, who would you include?”

Don’t interrupt. Just listen.

2. Assess: With Candour and Courage

a. First, run a fast, anonymous team check-in. Ask each member how the team stands on the following metrics:

Radical Candour

• Are we speaking truth in the room, or just after?

Deep Respect

• Do we assume everyone here earns their seat?

Right Size

• Are the right people in this room, or just the most senior?

Fun

• Is this team energizing, or draining?

Collect, anonymize, and share at your next offsite or reset session.

b. Then collect cross-org signals:

Symptoms of an ELT’s declining health aren’t hard to detect. Look for:

• Rising confusion about priorities from mid-level managers

• Repeated friction between departments (Sales vs. Product, anyone?)

• Duplicate work or conflicting Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

• Sluggish decision velocity

c. You can also run a quick skip-level pulse: ask a few VPs or senior ICs, “What’s one thing the leadership team could do to work better together?”

3. Facilitate a Reset Conversation

Bring the team together for a half-day offsite or facilitated session. Include:

• Review of survey results and blind spots

• Discussion of shared goals and where alignment has frayed

• A trust-building exercise (yes, even if it feels awkward)

• Recommitment to values, behaviors, and norms

• Clear next steps: what changes now?

Recommended read before the session: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. It is a helpful guide to identify and improve the avoidance of accountability and inattention to results that plague many ELTs.

Tune-up tip: Kick off every ELT meeting with a “real-talk round”: One win, one worry, one WTF from each leader. Make it real. This humanizes the group and sets the stage for radically candid conversations.

4. Redefine the ELT’s Operating Rhythm

Once aligned, fix the mechanics:

• Cadence: Weekly tactical, monthly strategic, quarterly offsite

  • Weekly 60-min meeting: focused on decisions, not updates.

  • Monthly 2-hour strategic deep dive.

  • Quarterly offsite: bold thinking (+ beer, or margaritas…or some other preferred beverage).

• Agenda: Use categories—FYI, Issue, Decision

  • If your ELT doesn’t have clear team norms, create them together

• Preparation: Pre-reads are non-negotiable (“no prep, no right to talk”)

• Decision rights: Clarify who decides, who’s consulted

• Protect the Energy: The best ELTs don’t just function—they buzz.

  • They debate hard, but leave aligned.

  • They laugh. A lot.

  • They challenge each other—and the status quo.

If your ELT meetings feel like funerals or political briefings, you’ve got a problem.

Inject joy. Be real. Take the work seriously, not yourselves.

5. Clarify (or Redesign) Roles

You may realize the org chart has outgrown some roles—or the people in them. That's hard, but necessary.

• Is each function led by someone capable of scaling it 10x?

• Are there role overlaps (e.g. Product vs. Engineering)?

• Is title inflation muddying expectations?

Don’t let loyalty to early hires keep you from assembling the A-team you now need.

6. Make It a Habit

An ELT tune-up isn’t a one-time reset—it’s a deliberate part of a well-maintained culture.

• Embed regular check-ins:

• 360° feedback among the ELT (bi-annually)

• Quarterly reflection on what’s working/what’s not

• Annual revisit of team norms and goals

If you’re not intentionally keeping your executive team in tune, dysfunction will creep back in.

Final Thought

A strong ELT isn’t just a luxury—it’s your primary leverage point as a CEO.

You don’t need more people. You need the right people, aligned on purpose, primed to lead boldly.

If the top team is high-trust, high-clarity, and high-accountability, everything else runs better. Employee morale improves. Teams collaborate more. Strategy execution tightens. Culture strengthens.

If the ELT is off—even a little—then everyone feels it.

So pause. Rethink. Rebuild. Your team (and your future self) will thank you.

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Subscribe if you’re into honest leadership, operational clarity, and blowing up old-school executive BS. DM me. Let’s talk teams!

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