A sense of perspective and responsibility

With all that has been going on the last 12 to 18 months, the leadership challenge for 2009 is, “How can we get a real sense of perspective back into our lives and who is going to take responsibility for making it happen?”

In terms of perspective we need a clear understanding of what our own real situation is now and in the short to medium term future.

Last Monday I was having a bad day. My broadband connection had collapsed at home and after a totally wasted morning I grumpily climbed into my car and drove to the office to catch up on some urgent emails before setting off around the world on business. The very first email that I opened came from a friend in Kenya. Gideon explained in heart rending terms about the current food crisis in Kenya and the fact that his family were surviving by eating leaves and roots.

Suddenly my Broadband crisis seemed to be much less of a problem and I realised just how easy it is to lose a sense of true perspective.

The media will of course continue to promote doom with misleading headlines such as “The UK Economy has ground to a halt!”

I laughed when I heard this because at the time I was driving on a busy motorway having just left a large supermarket where the queues for the checkouts had been as irritating as usual. Had the economy actually ground to a halt, the motorway would have been empty, as would the shelves of the supermarket.

Somehow we have to rise above this hyperbole and keep things in perspective.

Equally importantly we are going to have to make sure that each and every person in our businesses understands their personal responsibility for solving the problems that exist and takes the actions to demonstrate that they accept and enjoy that responsibility.

When people fail to take responsibility it is deeply frustrating and annoying.

For example imagine that you are driving on a motorway in the outside lane. The traffic is such that you’re a making slow if steady progress past the two other lanes and of course leaving appropriate gaps for safe driving. Suddenly you notice another car, it is switching lanes, undertaking, and cutting in, causing other cars to brake; that otherwise unnecessary braking is slowing the general pace and will eventually result in a queue.

You feel tense, angry and frustrated that one person only cares about themselves and is not taking appropriate responsibility and what is more there are no police around to hold them accountable!

As I sat in the departure lounge at Heathrow last Tuesday, the TV’s were all showing the Obama inauguration. A member of the Heathrow team came and sat next to me to watch, as he put it, “History in the making”. In fact everyone seemed to be stopping to watch.

It seemed as if people hoped that this one man could change things that have taken decades to develop.

As I travelled via Beijing and Tokyo and eventually arrived in the USA, I was reading his book, The Audacity of Hope, in an attempt to better understand the man behind the cameras.

It is impressive. He appears to be a man of strong values, someone who is willing to listen to alternate views, see the other person’s perspective and even be influenced to change his own opinions. All great leadership traits. He is also acutely aware that things will only change with the consent and participation of the vast majority of the population!

My greatest fear for the man is that people have created such a sense of expectation, it will be impossible to be successful. I was reminded of a conversation with a CEO just before she took the stage at the annual leadership conference.

“I notice that you are making a series of promises about change and investment.” “Yes” she replied “Twelve in total”

“How many did you make last year and how many were actually delivered” I asked.

“I promised eleven and we did quite well in delivering eight of them” she smiled.

“HMM and which do you think will be remembered, the eight that were delivered or the three that were not? Perhaps this year you should promise six and deliver nine”

“But that would suggest that we lack ambition” she offered

“Well I guess it depends if you want to be remembered for being ambitious or successful!”

I have come to believe that Barak Obama is a man of vision, integrity and hope. Equally I believe that he demonstrates excellent leadership qualities, I just hope that people know that they also have to step up to their responsibilities and help him to achieve change.

Now let us put that in the current context in which our companies are facing great challenges and many are in a life and death struggle. Can you really afford to have people in your business who are not taking the responsibility that the business and their colleagues require them to in order to maximise the chances of survival.

Working one or more levels below:

A few years ago I was working with the Managing Director of a client. It struck me that she spent a lot of her time doing work that should be being done by someone else. Not just another member of the board, but actually someone two or possibly three levels away from her in the company.

At first I thought that it was because she had worked her way up through the industry and enjoyed the operational work so much that she could not resist to get involved in things that she really should allow others to do.

With further study I realised that the problem was being caused elsewhere. The company had a regional management and then local branch structure. The Regional Managers (who were a huge expense to the business) had poorly defined responsibilities and were people who had performed well as Branch Managers and been promoted to this role with little or no assessment of their potential.

Lacking a clear understanding of their expected contribution to the business and associated responsibilities, they filled their time going into branches and “fixing the problems”. Thus disempowered the branch managers became “super team leaders” and so on through the rest of the structure.

As there was no coordinating leadership and management at the regional level, the executive team were forced to step in and take that role, whilst also struggling to take the overall strategic lead.

As I held the mirror of reality up to the MD and her team, she took characteristically prompt and courageous action. The Regional management layer was removed saving the business several hundred thousands pounds per annum.
The good branch managers stepped up to the challenge and did not need regional “administrators” as the regional management team were labelled behind their backs. The ineffective branch managers who had been “protected” by the Regional Managers were exposed and replaced, and most importantly overall performance improved.

Are people in your business aware of their responsibilities and delivering against them? If not are you the missing policeman that everyone else wants to be seen to be dealing with them?

..and finally.

I do love travel. I will also happily admit that I really miss my family whilst I am doing it, but I think it is in my blood, if only because I love to see the similarities between people around the world. We do however still have our own unique issues to deal with.

In China, I found a continuing sense of optimism despite the fact that certain sectors have been very badly hit by the slow down in foreign trade. There is however a challenge that may be familiar to anyone who works in or with privatised ex-public sector businesses. It takes a long time to remove that culture of dependence and the expectation that it is someone else’s responsibility to take decisions.

In Japan, the issue is subtly different. I love Japan because it is such a friendly and polite culture. The only problem is that this means that they avoid conflict in business and struggle to challenge their elders who are so respected that “they should not be questioned.” So different to some tribal cultures in which leaders are the most humble people in the whole community.

..oh and one last thing.

As well as reading The Audacity of Hope - B. Obama, The Confessions of an Economic Hitman – John Perkins, is well worth a read. It tells the story of how America created the mess that the new President has to lead them out of.

Prepare for the Good Times

I don’t know about you but I am now turning the radio off to avoid the media’s attempts to convince me that “the end of the world is nigh” and “we are all doomed”.  The people doing the same at Speakers Corner never convinced me and just because it is being done with modern media does not make it any more plausible.

Let’s face it things will improve and the real question is not when will they improve, but will your business be there to enjoy it? Or will you have fallen into the arms of the administrator or been acquired by a competitor?

I listened to a government minister on the radio the other day who said that they had statistics that showed that those businesses that continued to invest in their people during a recession were 2 ½ times more likely to survive the recession and come out the other end stronger than they were at the start.

Now I admit that I am not a great believer in Government statistics or the spin of ministers, but since he had nothing to gain in terms of votes from saying this, I paid a bit more attention.  It also reflects empirical evidence that I have observed in my 31-year career (ouch that hurts, 31 years since I was a fresh, cheeky and innocent graduate!).

This afternoon I was writing the latest Chapter for our Survival Kit for Sustainability (see our website) and I realised that there were certain things that businesses really need to do to prepare for the good times.

What follows is not exactly what I wrote in the Chapter this afternoon that would be far too lazy!

So what do you need to do?  How can you continue to invest in your people when the cash is tight? What follows are merely headlines with a few thoughts, but do feel free to get in touch via email – chris@changemakerweb.co.uk

1)   Make sure that you people actually believe that the good times will come.  If you have already had to restructure your business and let people go, those who remain are probably sitting there in state of fear.  Hardly the recipe for productivity.  They are almost certainly not “grateful that they still have a job” so what are you going to do to lift them up and get them focussed again.  This takes more time and not a lot of money but it is a big investment.

2)   Sort out your business.  In times of growth, businesses tend to become “fat, dumb and happy”, with inefficient processes, dysfunctional structures, and poorly defined roles and responsibilities.  After all when the revenue is high it is often more about just getting things done rather than getting smart.  Your people have probably been frustrated by these inefficiencies for ages but they have never had the time to stop the bus and sort it out.  Now they may have so do it now and then, not only will you retain more of the revenue that you create today but also you will be able to fly when things get better.  As you spend the time with them discussing their brilliant ideas they will see that as a big investment.

3)   In the same way that businesses get complacent about processes, it is also true that they can suffer from culture creep.  It is noticeable that successful companies create dependant cultures in which the business does ever more things for employees in the hope that this will create loyalty in a positive labour market.  Take a hard look at the terms and conditions you have created in your belief that it will make you an employer of choice and sort it now.  Now this may sound counter intuitive.  Is he asking us to invest less in our people I hear you ask?  No I am merely suggesting that you stop wasting money on things that they do not see as an investment anyway!

4)   Use your own internal consultants.  You remember those heady days when all of your people were so busy that you had to bring in external consultants to help.  Well you may not be able to afford external consultants at the moment but things still need to change.  So appoint your own team of internal consultants.  They may need a bit of support and training, but at least they really understand your business! The skills that they develop will be an incredible investment.

My time is a bit limited today because I am preparing for a trip to China, Japan and the USA so I apologise for a lack of detail but do please email me if you want more.

On a totally different note.  I hear that our Members of Parliament, yet again want us to excuse them the administrative challenges of submitting a proper expense claim every month and only having to submit receipts for items worth £25 or more.

I understand their point of view, I hate the balls aching admin. myself but I have to do it to meet the demands of the tax authorities that are carrying out the laws that these same MPs oversee.

Do they not recognise that this is not an administration question, it a Leadership issue.  People who purport to be leaders should have the humility to accept even higher levels of scrutiny that those that they apparently lead!

And the book recommendation. Not the best month for reading, Christmas was a good excuse to submerse myself in loads of “trashy” thrillers and so this month it is not a book but a DVD in fact two DVDs. 

The War on Democracy by John Pilger, disturbing, eye opening and all I can say is that Barak Obama is right about one this, it is indeed a time for a change. 

Déjà vu by Crosby Stills Nash and Young, to be played at volume 11!  A docu tour review of their tour in protest at modern conflicts, top stuff and a more than a few scary Americans!