Ivan's blog

What To Do About Really Poor Performers? It’s JFDI Time!

2012-02-19T10:45:00.000Z

There is a constant discussion among business leaders about what to do with the member of staff who is a high performer but has a bad attitude.

This subject has been ventilated in earlier posts simply because it is a perennial problem and comes up in conversation perhaps above all others. The rationale for keeping people like that on the team is always something like:

“We can’t afford to lose their results so we will have to live with their tantrums, unpleasantness, aggression or whatever”.

The answer is, of course, that individuals who exhibit those traits may well contribute to results but always have a corrosive influence in the business. It no longer surprises me that when action is taken by a leader to exorcise the devil, the inevitable reaction among the peer group is

“What took you so long?”

If we consider the four quadrant matrix, using Performance as the vertical and Attitude as the horizontal, then people like this always finish up in the top left box and have been termed “terrorists”.

We glibly assume that anyone in the bottom left box (low performance, bad attitude) is automatically excluded from the business but don’t ever be lured into thinking that this is also inevitable.

It is surprising to find that in many businesses there is frequently a small percentage of people who come into this category and the question must be asked, why are they still there?

Furthermore, why were they there in the first place? Some are , of course, legacy figures and could have been in the business for years. The rationale for exiting them can be as simple and as invalid as the cost of redundancy for a long serving employee.

A more likely reason for their still being in the business is the possibility that they “interview well”. Some people seem to be able to exhibit all the desirable traits at interview and then put them away forever after they have been employed.

I recall one of my Vistage members employing a management accountant whom he said had all the great technical abilities they were seeking. After he had been employed he spent most of his time surfing the web and apparently playing games. He was a great interviewee and a rotten employee.

The answer is, of course, to be far more careful at the interviewing stage. One of the traps into which we fall is talking too much at an interview and not encouraging the interviewee to talk. For example, we need to ask them about how they had handled an issue and what had been the result. Chapter and verse is more important than their opinion in these cases.

That great US Vistage speaker, Ed Ryan used to ask:

"Why does it take us eighteen months to get rid of someone we interviewed badly for an hour and a half?"

Equally a certain playwright from Stratford upon Avon said perceptively:

“If t’were done, t’were better done quickly!”

It's a tough and unpleasant call but it's JFDI time again, folks. Remember, it still must be done in both a legal and a compassionate, sensitive way.

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Struggling With a Tough Problem? A Peer Group is the Best Solution!

2012-02-12T10:45:00.000Z

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a long established Vistage mantra:

“No-one is as smart as all of us”

One of my Vistage CEO members liked it and put it on to several social networking sites. Somewhat to my surprise, it resulted in quite a few interesting comments.

The idea of the mantra is that a peer group of like-minded people can offer a range of possible solutions for any issue which may well not even have been considered if one is acting in isolation.

There is no doubt that a typical Vistage group will offer a range of solutions to any issue brought before it, some of which can be very much off the wall. On the other hand, an individual working in isolation could often look for an immediate and obvious solution rather than necessarily taking the time out to consider options.

Many of the people who commented on Twitter et al took the quote to imply that it is better to work in a team than alone which isn’t quite what was intended.

The big advantage of the Vistage type peer group is that ideas and concepts can be put forward and discussed in a safe and confidential environment and among participants who have no hidden agenda or an axe to grind.

There is a subtle difference between that and any typical internal team in a business where there can be hidden agendas and, worse, the occasional power play. That can mitigate against effective discussions and hence effective results.

In general the team approach is usually more effective than the individual one, but it is most important to ensure that participants are encouraged to offer opinions which may be at odds with that of the management and the business. If there is any fear of potential reprisals for speaking out, then the result is corridor conferences and cliques developing around the coffee machine.

This is not to say that there is anything amiss with team building but in the end, there must be a no-blame culture, a freedom of opinion and an understanding that whatever ideas are put forward, however unusual or even bizarre, will be considered without fear or favour.

But to discover how effective a real peer group can be in offering solutions to burning issues, then watch a Vistage group in action.

Please note, you’ll have to join to find out why it works so well.

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Writing a Report, Sending Out a Message? Keep It Short and Simple!

2012-02-05T10:13:00.001Z

There is a story about a woman whose husband was just about to make a speech at an important dinner, when she passed a note to him that just read:

“KISS!”

A friend who saw the note commented that it was a very sweet and supportive thing to do whereupon the woman said:

“Don’t kid yourself – it means Keep It Short, Stupid!”

There is a case for an amended version in business which is still KISS but this time it can be construed as:

“Keep It Short and Simple”

There is far too much complexity in our lives in just about every sense and we do tend to take that complexity into the workplace.

For example and for many long years I have been propounding the concept of the Five Line P&L which looks like this:

Sales

-Cost of Sales

= Gross Profit

-Fixed Costs

=Net Profit

Simple, and tells you pretty well all that you need to know about the profitability of the business. Drill down a little and see that Sales comprise a combination of volume and price, while Cost of Sales is generally a mix of direct labour and materials. All of that information can enable the leader to take action without micro-managing the situation

I recall a Finance Director who became rather tired of sending out enormous and completely comprehensive monthly management accounts to around six regional Managing Directors, so he sent a marker pen with one set of accounts and asked the MDs to mark the places in the accounts that they found of value.

The upshot was that he subsequently sent out management accounts on two pages with the offer to drill down if anyone wanted it.

Take a look at some of your emails, letters, memos (do they still exist?), reports and so on, and ask yourself: What is of true value in this to the reader and what is, frankly, extraneous padding?

When I was producing 250 page market research studies, I used to start off with an Executive Summary of no more than two pages with bullet points which listed the salient findings of the study, all the relevant backup detail being included in the body of the study.

We waste an inordinate amount of time and effort in producing epics of such stunning complexity which only have the effect of engendering glazed eyes in the reader. Our attention span is no more than a few seconds before boredom sets in – not a good thing but it is realism.

It isn’t patronising to keep your communication short and simple. It is realistic and just means that the reader is more likely to take action and not expire from boredom and the resultant inactivity. Even worse, complexity can lead to interminable discussion and argument neither of which are conducive to useful action.

Perhaps I should have read through this epic and used KISS rather more.

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High Performing Individuals? No-one is as Smart as All of Us!

2012-01-29T10:02:00.000Z

The Italian historian, thinker and writer, Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) said with great prescience:

“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him”.

What was said in the 15^th century has absolute resonance today in business. The success of any leader and, by default, the business is not so much the quality of the leader as such, but the calibre of the people around the leader.

Perhaps the most difficult task of any leader is that of building a team which can operate both independently and collectively in the pursuit of success, and at the same time ensuring that the prima donna syndrome is suborned to the greater good of the team and the business.

It can take time and effort. I recall one of my Vistage members hiring three different Finance Directors in a single year until he found the right one. It was painful and frustrating but well worth the effort. The final choice was exactly what had been needed and spurred the business on to bigger and greater things.

I have in the past mentioned my old friend, Lee Thayer, another deep and brilliant thinker who used to say that everyone hired into the business needed to be a virtuoso and a free spirit. Easy to say but very difficult to achieve.

At the same time Lee suggested that the first line in everyone’s role description should read:

“My primary task is to make this business the best in the industry by any measure”

What a wonderful objective for anyone.

Another of my Vistage members changed his job and went to a company which, courageously, hired exceptionally high quality people and then found a slot for them in the organisation.

It worked very well with one proviso. As each of the people hired was remarkable in some respect, they tended to prefer to work individually and not in a team. That is fine if you are simply looking for high performing individuals but not so good for team building.

It is interesting to read recently that the universities are beginning to look at group activities, unusually in an environment which has historically been devoted to development of the individual. They have realised that the team ethic is more productive overall than can be achieved by a single person and are now spending time and effort in its development.

As we say in Vistage: “No-one is a smart as all of us”.

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Selling Books Online? It Will Never Catch On, Will It?

2012-01-22T10:21:00.000Z

Sad news this week as Eastman Kodak goes into administration saying that they were hit by the growth in digital cameras. Question - why did they consider it to be competition?

Most leaders take a considered view of competition. Some constantly look over their corporate shoulders at what they see as the competition, and others, rightly, leave the competition to worry about them.

It is very curious how some people look at the issue. I recall a discount retailer telling me that unless he was the cheapest in the market, he would lose all his business.

That makes the assumption that the consumer buys only on price and would go from store to store looking for the lowest price. Obviously arrant nonsense.

In another instance a client said the same thing so we checked his competitors’ prices and, what do you think, his were just about median in around 70 companies. What is more the highest priced business was the market leader and had the highest market share.

However, the biggest problem in this online world is what would appear to be the easiest, and that is identifying your competitors.

Take, for example, the largest book retailer in the world (at the time), Barnes and Noble. Easy for them to identify other book retailers, worldwide. Unfortunately they didn’t see Amazon coming. What is worse, they perceived Amazon to be both a shooting star that would burn out and an interloper in a business world that they thought was unchangeable.

People like to browse for books in conventional book shops don’t they, not buy sight unseen from the internet. Sure they do and the book stores offer a handy way to look at a book and then buy online.

More and more this is happening and it is not simply because things are less expensive online. It is not always the case and retailers need to understand that browsing and buying online is fast becoming a national pastime even if it could be construed as being morally reprehensible.

The biggest problem for the established businesses is the competitors emerging from left field, having had nothing to do with the sector in the past and often being completely unknown.

Look again at some of the businesses which have been successfully attacked; Barnes and Noble (and most other book retailers), Kodak, Blockbuster and many more.

The key is to realise that these changes are an opportunity, NOT the competition. They are part of the new world in which we live and we had better understand that they are not going to go away.

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Tough Times? It’s The Spirit That Beats Adversity!

2012-01-15T10:49:00.000Z

The BBC World Service runs a daily programme called Outlook, presented by the admirable Matthew Bannister, which scours the world for extraordinary and uplifting stories of people who have come through adversity and have, in many cases, have not only than survived but have prospered.

A recent programme, for instance, featured an Afghan woman who had opened a bowling alley (I kid you not!), a Saudi Princess speaking out against prejudice in the Kingdom and a Chinese man who had lost both his legs in an accident and had become a renowned sculptor.

It brought to mind a quote from the Roman philosopher, Cicero (106BC to 43BC) who said:

“The spirit is the true self. The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure”

What a great attitude with which to start a new year.

Talking to one of my Vistage members yesterday, he said that when he is hiring someone, they go through all the obvious characteristics such as technology and experience, while he looks specifically for that spark that indicates a higher level of commitment and enthusiasm.

It is a manifestation of the spirit and can’t be assessed in any scientific way, nor perhaps should it be. It implies that the individual has an approach to business and, indeed, to life in general, that is special.

These individuals are not always easy to manage but given a measure of freedom, their output can well justify the extra effort put into them.

In the end, it is the team that will deliver success and a group of high performing individuals can be a very exciting way to achieve that success.

It is useful to use the Belbin analysis of team types (contact me if you would like more information) to help ensure that there is balance in the team, but, in every case, it is talented people with the will to excel and win that we need above all else.

Get the right people on the bus, all facing in the same direction; they will make things happen.

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Do You Keep In Touch With ALL Your Customers? If You Don’t, They Will Go Somewhere Else!

2012-01-08T10:40:00.000Z

Some time ago I was retained by a client to do a marketing study for his business as, for some unknown (to him) reason, sales had fallen off and they were beginning to get a little nervous. Ever felt like that?

The business was a manufacturer of fascias for shop fitters, made from moulded chipboard and then laminated. For obvious reasons the majority of the work was bespoke and other than the name of the company, there was no branding of the product.

For a start, we looked in some detail at the sales ledger, a boring exercise on the face of it but very necessary. We looked at the past three year’s activity and found that they had dealt with a total of 815 customers in that period.

In the previous twelve months, they had done business with a total of 235 of the customer list.

Question – where had the other 580 customers gone for their supplies?

So, there was always the possibility that some of them were no longer in business, some had placed an order on a one-off basis and some had changed their requirements but all 580 of them? It seemed very unlikely, so we hired two very experienced people to undertake a telephone exercise to see why customers had forsaken the client.

The results were surprising and, at the same time, obvious. The great majority said that “we hadn’t heard from you” or that “another representative had come in to see us so we gave them the business” or that “we thought that you had gone out of business”..

The simple exercise of calling apparently dormant customers resulted in over 60 coming back and placing orders again. We didn’t need to run the marketing study.

It was a great learning experience. The customer list is a gold mine and we ignore it at our peril. Yes, I know that Pareto would reveal that 20% of our customer base generates 80% of the turnover and probably the profit but if we don’t keep in contact with the customers. We will never know which of them are in growth mode and could well join the 20%.

Keeping in touch with customers is far easier than it used to be. Social networking and judicious use of telephone marketing can ensure that we are up to date with what is happening in the market, and more particularly, to our customers.

Never forget that one of the most important functions of the leader is to visit customers from time to time, just to keep in touch and make them feel that they are not forgotten. When there is little or no brand loyalty, this becomes absolutely essential.

That sales ledger is a gold mine of information and should be treated as such. If another mixed metaphor can be allowed, build a wall round your customers so that they only think of you when they are in the market.

Great service, good products and constant contact will help you build that wall.

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All Gloom and Doom in 2012? No Way - Plan to Have a Great Year!

2012-01-01T10:58:00.000Z

This is the time of the year when the media fall over themselves to assess the year just gone and, heaven help us, try to predict what is going to happen in 2012.

Looking backwards is easy, of course. It has been wisely said that many business people march bravely backwards into the future with their eyes firmly fixed on last year’s results.

I came across a neat little saying recently:

“Learn from the past, live in the present and plan for the future”.

It has equally been said that we learn more (or should) from our mistakes than from our successes and some reflection on the last year with its problems and good times can be very helpful in determining where we are right now and where we are going.

However, don’t fall into the trap enunciated by Albert Einstein, who was a philosopher as well as being a great physicist, when he defined insanity as doing the same thing time after time and expecting a different result.

Live in the present? How easy it is to say that and in many cases how difficult it is to achieve. Either we harp on about what we did in the past, how we ran our lives, how things “were better in those days”, or we look into the future without a thought as to how we can affect it; merely hoping that things will change for the better.

Unless we live life a second at a time it will pass us by without our noticing it or, more to the point, without enjoying every second that has been given to us. Like golfer Sam Snead used to say “Take some time out to smell the roses”.

And the future? Forecasting the future is as much use as trying to knit fog (as they used to say in my home town). The future is in our own hands and rather than try to forecast what might happen, we need to plan, plan and plan again to define what sort of future we want and can achieve.

The great leaders know where they are going simply because they are planning to go there and have assessed what they specifically need to do in order to achieve their objectives .

Sure, it is likely to be a difficult year ahead but with some forethought it is feasible to see where business growth can be achieved. For example, marketing to the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries, and looking at the possibilities of two interesting opportunities; sustainable energy and agriculture, both of which will be essential as demand increases.

There are now 7 billion souls on this planet and they all need a supply of energy and food.

Microsoft and Apple both started in business during a recession. Ignore the gloom-mongers and naysayers in the media. Let’s look at the possibilities for 2012 in a positive light; what we intend to achieve and where success can come. Then JFDI!

May you all have a happy, peaceful, healthy and very successful 2012!

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Do You Know Where Your Business is Going? Do Your People Know?

2011-12-18T10:32:00.000Z

Some years ago I was fortunate enough to be at a presentation in London by the legendary Theodore (Ted) Levitt, Professor of Marketing at Harvard Business School and one of his sayings has stayed with me ever since.

He said: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there”. There was some resonance of Alice in Wonderland there.

Now I discover that the Roman philosopher, Seneca (4BC-65AD) said:

“If a man knows not what harbour he seeks, any wind is the right wind”.

So, there is nothing new under the sun and both (or all) of them, of course, were right. Again for years I have used another little saying which I like very much and which is so relevant:

“People want to know two things; how am I doing and where are WE going”.

It is all a matter of good communication and it is the function of the leader to ensure that the team are kept well aware of both criteria. By far the best way is to have regular one-to-ones with everyone on the team. Timings and dates should be diaried and the time allocated must be sacrosanct.

It is a matter of respect for each team member and nothing should get in the way. The agenda, by the way, belongs to the team member not the leader. Length of time for each one-to-one? Anything from one to two hours is best and they should be scheduled at least monthly.

The leader needs to ask questions and above all to listen. Regular one-to-ones like this almost obviate the need for annual appraisals because feedback monthly will solve the issue of “how am I doing?”.

The “where are we going” question is another matter. Setting the values, the vision and the goals for the future of the business should be largely a matter for the leader because they define the culture which the leader sees as appropriate for the business.

From then on, setting the objectives and defining the strategy and the action, short term and longer term, is a matter of discussion with the team on a regular basis. It is, however, vital that when the objectives and the strategy have been set, some form of accountability needs to be established so that action can be monitored.

Too many strategic plans are beautifully prepared and presented and then languish in a filing cabinet until someone remembers and gets it out to see if it had worked.

Good planning with action and accountability answers both Ted Levitt and Seneca who might have said:

“When you DO know where you are going, your people will go with you, as long as they are constantly involved”.

Remember, no-one ever feels committed to achieving other peoples’ objectives.

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What Don’t You Know About Your People? Ask Them the Story of Their Life!

2011-12-11T10:02:00.000Z

During the summer we (my wife Hilary and I with Bailey, our Cavalier King Charles spaniel) took a day out in the Cheshire countryside finishing up in Chester. While Hilary went into a well known store to buy something to eat that evening, I stood outside with Bailey and did some people watching.

We were accosted (in the nicest possible way) by a charming African American lady who insisted on showing us pictures of her Cavalier back home in the US and then took several photographs of Bailey.

I wished her well for her trip to England and she said:

“Oh, I come here often. This time I’m here to speak at a conference”.

Interested, I asked her what the conference was about and she said:

“It’s an Anglican conference – I’m a Bishop” and went smilingly on her way.

I hadn’t even considered her occupation during our chat. Looking back I suppose that I could have imagined her being a senior administrator in a business or a head teacher, but it wasn’t relevant in the context of our meeting.

The fact is that unless we ask our people or at least give them the opportunity, we frequently don’t know anything about them other than their interaction in the business and their performance.

Too often our people are allowed to come in to work, take off their coats, take off their brains, hang them both up and then do their allotted time until they go home again having put on their coats and their brains. What a waste of talent.

I have fond in my one- to-ones, particularly at the first meeting, that it can be disarming to say to someone: “So, tell me story of your life” and it can be remarkable. if the leader then keeps quiet and listens, how easily people can talk about themselves.

It is always a matter of giving people the respect that they deserve and of showing genuine interest in them and their lives. Of course, confidentiality is vital and it needs to be stressed.

Even more importantly, we can learn so much more about our people, their interests, their hobbies, their families. There is the constant surprise when we find out that someone does something remarkable in their spare time.

And why shouldn’t those hidden talents be brought to bear in the business to the advantage of the company and, more importantly, to the advantage of the member of the team?

Most of them aren’t Bishops, of course, but they are all individuals with feeling, interests and aspirations, and they deserve to be respected as such.

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What Can Be Done in a Nightmare Scenario? Use PEST Analysis!

2011-12-04T10:47:00.000Z

I have so far scrupulously avoided any religious or political discussion in Ivan’s Blog but events have overtaken me and I feel that I must state a case for the leaders of SMEs in the UK (possibly everywhere).

The number of column inches devoted to the eurozone crisis is limitless. TV and radio cover the whole process with enthusiasm and drag “experts” out of any closet they can find to pontificate on the dreadful scenario.

Words like, “cataclysmic”, “unprecedented”, "catastrophe", “nightmare”, “desperate”, and many others are being bandied about and everyone in the media seems to be saying that the end is nigh.

The cold facts are that as leaders of SMEs, there is virtually nothing that we can do about the situation which comes well into the PEST analysis (political, economic, sociological and technological) all of which are external influences over which we have no control.

Who really knows what will happen in Europe? Summit meeting follows summit meeting within a few days and the markets react, positively or negatively as is their wont. The fact is that the concept of the euro was faulty in the first place – one size DOESN’T fit all and it certainly doesn’t fit a lot of very differing cultures in the hotch-potch of cultures which make up Europe.

In 2008 I suggested that we were in an L-shaped recession and were subsequently in a New Normality. This has been repeated and we are back into a Newer Normality again.

Leaders of SMEs particularly need to understand that the world hasn’t stopped. There is still a vast amount of business out there provided that we go for it in a competitive way, not by discounting prices but by offering a service second to none.

Boom times may return but it is certain that it will not happen for some years. New Normality means that what is out there isn’t going to change significantly so redesign your business and your activities according to what IS out there.

So what to do right now? Ask yourself questions for each criterion such as "What political/economic/social/technological events could affect the business?", then discuss with your people what you could do to ameliorate the potential effects.

Do your PEST analysis and see where you can be as prepared as possible for an uncertain future, take immediate action and then go for it, Good luck!

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Thought About Your Exit Route? Look At ALL The Options!

2011-11-28T09:49:00.000Z

I was in discussion with a consultancy client about the longer term objectives for the business (manufacturing engineering), when he laughed and said:

“ I’ll look at the long term but I may not get there!”

“Rubbish”, I said, “Why do you say that?”

“Well, I’m 69 and very fit but you never know what might happen”.

I was a trifle surprised as he didn’t look it but it raised a great raft of questions. So many owner managers just plough on, running their businesses with very little thought about the future and how they are going to release the asset in the business which they have built up over the years.

He was reluctant to get into a detailed discussion at first, but eventually he decided to look at the options open to him.

The business was well run (mostly by him, let it be said), growing and profitable but he was, as many owner managers are, something of a control freak. He needed to know exactly what was going on and he had his little coterie of spies around the company to tell him.

In fact, although he had what could laughably be called a Board, he didn’t have a real management structure. What he had was a group of gophers who did his every demand. It seemed that there was no-one whom he would rate as potential succession.

In any case, after years of ruling the roost, he would have found it exceptionally difficult to let go and allow people to get on with running the business.

So what are the options for an exit route? For example he could prepare the business for a trade sale, see if an MBO is a feasible option, stay on and run it but accept that succession is essential, and so on.

The real answer here is, of course, to prepare long before it becomes critical. This would allow the leader to bring in and test potential succession, to build a management team which would encourage potential buyers of the business and to start the process of looking at all the options in a non-pressurised environment.

A salutary tale. I was asked to discuss with a lady how the business which her recently deceased husband had built, could be run effectively without her input. For the time being accountants were running it and they resolutely blocked any ideas I had for the continuation of the company. Eventually they liquidated it and several people lost their livelihoods

A sad story – make sure that it doesn’t happen to you.

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800 Years Old Yoda? Who He? (I’ve Never Seen Star Wars!)

2011-11-20T10:11:00.000Z

One of my Vistage members recently left the group after nearly five years membership during which we went through some difficult times together. The group undoubtedly helped him to stay afloat and successfully stay afloat he did.

At his final meeting he very kindly gave me the gift of a shirt with a picture of Yoda, who I understand is an 800 year old mentor character in Star Wars (which I have never seen). Some resonance there.

On the front of the shirt is a quote from the aforementioned ancient which also resonated with me:

“Do or not do: there is no try” Master Yoda

Now that is a great thought. How many times do we hear someone say “I’ll try to....” or “I hope that......” as examples.

It isn’t so much a matter of indecision; it is more a lack of confidence in an ability to deliver the goods. At one level it is fear of failure and at another a genuine uncertainty as to an innate ability to deliver.

In the end it all comes down to belief in oneself. Belief that we can achieve anything if we put our minds to it. Belief is at the core of every successful athlete; without that belief they can only rely on their athletic talent alone to take them there.

It is not enough; the great coaches certainly do not need to have the same level of technical ability as their charges. The coach of the great swimmer, Mark Spitz who won seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, not only could not swim but apparently had a morbid fear of water.

What he could do (and did successfully) was to implant in Mark Spitz the unwavering belief that he was the best in the world and the results were evidence of his success.

Do or not do: there is no try. Make the decision. Either do it or don’t do it (whatever it is) or not but just saying that you will try is of little value. In my Vistage group we call it the JFDI Syndrome.

I will wear that shirt with gratitude. Thanks Mike!

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Are Your Sales People Farmers or Hunters? Both is Best!

2011-11-13T10:30:00.000Z

Business Development (which is the posh modern description of sales, it seems to me) is the buzz word in many businesses and perhaps needs to be examined.

Many august consultancy companies have run surveys of the amount of effort needed to build sales through new customers as against developing the existing customer base.

Conventional wisdom has it that the usual ratio is between 7 and 9 times the effort in order to achieve the same level of activity and that means a vast amount of work both externally and internally.

That quadrant so beloved of consultants, the Ansoff Matrix (http://tutor2u.net/business/strategy/ansoff_matrix.htm) looks at the four general routes to market: existing products into existing markets, new products into existing markets, existing products into new markets and finally, new products into new markets.

My old sales mentor, Phil Copp, the Sage of Wythenshawe, used to analyse his working year on the basis a sort of reverse 80:20 rule. For example he would plan for say 30 calls in a week of which 24 were to existing customers and 6 to potentials. Phil was a very wise man and knew where his best efforts would bring success.

Another survey says that we only obtain, in general, around 40% of the available business from our existing customers, simply because they frequently don’t realise that they can deal with us for a range of products or services and not just one. Law firms and accountants are classic examples of this problem.

So what can we learn from that? It is certainly not the customer’s fault; it is up to us to use every possible method (and there are plenty available these days) to make sure that our existing customer base knows what we can offer across the board.

It’s time to change their perceptions.

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How Good is Your Top Team? Use the 9.5 Test to Check Them Out!!

2011-11-06T11:09:00.000Z

Taking the Top Performer subject a stage further reminds me of Vistage speaker, Larry King from the USA, who has the group assessing in some detail the capacities and abilities of their top team.

The first question is: do you really know who are, or should be, on your top team? We frequently have people there who have gravitated upwards less through their abilities but rather more by dint of their longevity. They have simply been around and while they have shown loyalty, their contribution has perhaps been only adequate.

Furthermore people like that hold down the up and coming people who can be the future of the business. The great leader will make it his or her duty to seek out and develop new talent.

However we have what we have and Larry suggests that we shine a light on our top team to assess their real capabilities and how they contribute to the business.

It is not a particularly objective study; rather a subjective view of each individual and how they fit in and contribute. For example how do they relate to others on the team? What (if anything) drives them? What is their work ethic? What are their ambitions? How do they contribute to discussions?

The trick now is to make it more objective so if we then allocate an assessment number from 1 (why are they there?) to 10 (can’t run the business without them) for each of the criteria we start to get to a more objective view of each individual.

The hard, and sometimes emotional problem, is that we then can get an average number from 1 to 10 as to their overall value to the business. The aim is to have everyone on the top team rating 9.5 at least and questions must be asked of those whose ratings are lower than that.

Larry King says that someone scoring 8 will probably be able to improve with help to a top rating but below 8 there is some doubt as to whether people can improve sufficiently to make the 9.5.

The tough question is; what do we do about the low scorers and why are they there anyway? That is a management issue and decisions need to be taken as to how perhaps to re-allocate them into positions where their talents can be better utilised.

As Jim Collins says, we need to get the best possible people on the bus and all facing on the same direction. Ideally the leader has to have all 9.5 people in the team and this is a useful tool to help shine the light on the team.

The tough question to ask yourself is, what action do you need to take right now?

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Look After Your Top Performers or Someone Else Will Do It Instead!

2011-10-30T10:31:00.000Z

Some time ago I had a consultancy assignment with a company running a large door to door sales force and this involved discussions with virtually all 50 of the sales personnel.

It soon became evident that the sales force could be roughly divided into three main sections; high performers (15%), medium performers (70%) and indifferent or poor performers (15%)

The analysis was carried out based on both turnover and the rate of improvement in building their contacts.

It became even more evident that there was an enormous difference in the performance of the top and bottom teams so we initiated some interviews to see if we could isolate the reasons.

In the end, not really to my surprise, it all came down to drive, passion, enthusiasm, dedication, commitment and an overwhelming desire for success or, sadly, the lack of all those desirables.

A learned Vistage speaker once said that the leader should put more effort into working with and encouraging the top performers rather than taking a vast amount of time in trying to improve the poor performers. It does make sense because probably the best that one can achieve is to move them from poor to mediocre and even that with a great deal of effort.

In the end, we need to accept that we can’t change other people. The best that we can do it to create an environment in which people can change if they so desire. The worst of all worlds is to accept poor performance and then tip toe round the problem while making excuses for not biting the bullet.

It all comes down to the strictures of people like Lee Thayer, Ed Ryan, Jim Collins and many other leadership sages all of whom have been saying for years that we need virtuosi, top people, the best that we can find rather than trying to improve poor or even mediocre performers.

Not at all easy, and it starts with the recruitment process. I have said it before and I guess that I will say it again, that we need to recruit on attitude not skills. Only by doing that all the time will we build businesses that are both successful and sustainable.

It is your top people who will take you there. Make sure that it is you that they take there, not someone else.

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Don’t Hold It All In! Talk to Someone About It!

2011-10-23T10:43:00.001+01:00

The more I talk to leaders the more I have come to realise that under that strong, confident, assertive, committed exterior there lies a bubbling mass of insecurity and uncertainty. Not in every case, it must said, but definitely in many.

It is also remarkable how few leaders understand and accept the situation and then do something about it. Possibly the reason for inaction is that they don’t really know what to do.

The answer is usually to swallow foolish pride and talk someone else about the matter, what can be done and how best to do it.

The underlying problem is almost invariably one which has been seen before and even if it is absolutely new, which is unlikely, then a sensible discussion with someone can be enormously helpful. Again, it is curious how often the very act of downloading an issue to a trusted and trustworthy colleague who just listens, can help to solve a problem.

Innately we almost always have the solution to a problem within us; we just don’t want to accept the solution which in many cases can be difficult to accept and achieve.

My several years of experience in Vistage (www.vistage.co.uk) have shown me how powerful the peer group approach can be. Members with what they consider to be an intractable problem, bring it to the group who are supportive and interested, and what is more, have probably experienced the same in the past.

Add to that the ability to talk to a trusted mentor on a regular one-t-one basis and the leader has a very effective support system to get over those seemingly difficult issues which plague us all from time to time.

The worst thing that the leader can do is to hold it all in and hope that it will go away. Sometimes it does but mostly it doesn’t and usually goes worse.

The answer is to grasp the nettle (or bite the bullet), and talk about it to a dedicated listener (or listeners).

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Change is Inevitable! Be an Enthusiastic Early Adopter!

2011-10-16T10:21:00.000+01:00

Two very interesting statistics came to my notice this week:

· Cities and towns cover 2% of the surface of the planet, 50% of the world population live there, they use 75% of all the energy produced and in turn, they produce 80% of all emissions.

· Of a total world population of 7billion, 5billion have mobile (cell) phones and there are more than 7billion in use.

Both of these stats exemplify the dramatic changes that have taken place on this planet over the past fifty or so years. Dramatic isn’t really a strong enough word; extraordinary is probably nearer the truth.

The fact is that the rate of change in the last fifty years has been exponential and this has taken with it the rate of change in the availability of data which is readily available to us via Google and other search engines.

As usual, the gloom mongers and naysayers tell us that the web is a repository of incorrect, dangerous and misleading information and we should therefore treat it with great care and suspicion. For goodness sake, we have been saying that about newspapers for years so what is so different?

One of the most compelling effects of these changes has been the compression of time; not actually but apparently. We now expect a response to our communication, probably through text or email, in hours and preferably minutes, whereas even twenty years ago, we had to wait for a snail mail response which could take days if not weeks.

Urgency has shortened, we are constantly distracted by that ping which tells us that another text message or email has arrived and we must read it and reply instantly.

We can see the demise of email, possibly in the next ten years as the use of messaging on social networking sites takes over. And how long will those social networking sites last before something else arrives out of left field to improve our lives?

None of this is right or wrong, good or bad. It is simply the reality of the way in which our lives have been changed and it is up to us as to whether is for the better.

Sure, we can contract out if we wish; it is always a matter of choice. For example, we can change the cities and the environment by moving out and living a simpler, less compressed existence in the country.

The fact is that aspirations and expectations among those currently condemned in any case to live outside the cities will inevitably draw them there to live a more fulfilled existence, as they see it (mostly on TV).

Change is inevitable and while we can always decide not to join that club, change will still happen around us and by definition affect the way we live. Saying that we are not interested in modern technology is a very King Canute-like approach and just as effective.

By far the best way is to embrace these exciting changes and use them for our benefit. See you in the queue for the next new Apple.

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You Don’t Know What is Going On? Talk to Your People!

2011-10-09T10:11:00.000+01:00

It has been truly said that great leadership is mostly about building and maintaining relationships so that the leader becomes a real person in the minds of the team.

I recall going into the office of one of my Vistage members and noticing that a flip chart, which had been there for some time, had some seemingly mysterious figures on it.

Intrigued, I asked what the numbers meant.

“The column on the left is the week number, fairly obviously” he said, “and the other numbers are the unit cost of production of our products, week by week”.

“OK”, I said, “so tell me why the unit cost of production is reducing so significantly from around £7.00 to just over £5.00. Have you found some sort of magic bullet?”

“There have been no changes in the product” he replied, “No changes in the method of manufacture and virtually no changes in the personnel either. What seems to have made the difference is that I have started to take time out every day to go on to the shop floor and talk to the operatives – nothing about business, just about them, their families and their interests”.

Significantly he later hired an Operations Director and suggested that he should take over the daily chat and, guess what? Unit costs went up.

The whole point was that people wanted to speak to the leader not the stand-in, so he went back to his original plan and improved production resumed.

So what can we learn from the story? It is a matter of having and showing respect for people in whatever function they happen to be involved. It has been truly said that every human being has something, some talent, to offer and great leaders develop the ability to draw it out for the benefit of all.

It starts and finishes with respecting the abilities of everyone, whoever they may be and whatever their position, and most importantly demonstrating that respect at all times.

It used to be called Management by Walking About but it could better be called Management by Building Relationships (If you can think of a more snappy description, let me know)

Talk to your people – you never know what you might learn

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What Do You Mean, I Can’t? Just Watch Me!

2011-10-02T10:23:00.000+01:00

“We can’t plan ahead – there’s too much uncertainty and change out there. We can only be reactive”

So said a business leader to me this week.

Ask yourself the question: when can you remember anything but uncertainty out there? We are in a New Normality again and what is happening is an event that we can’t change so we had better get on with changing ourselves to accommodate it and make the solution work.

The trouble is that out there as well are masses of so-called pundits who are in essence naysayers and gloom mongers. Just watch, read or listen to the media across the board and all you will hear is what is wrong, and absolutely no sensible ideas of what needs to be changed to put it right.

At the micro level it can be just as debilitating. It can seem that whatever ideas the leader (or anyone else for that matter) brings forward then out come the naysayers and gloom mongers again.

How often have we heard: “It won’t work”, “There isn’t a market for it”. No-one will be interested” and worst of all, “We tried it before and it didn’t happen that time so why should it happen now

Confidence can be catching but lack of confidence and prophesies of failure can be equally catching. Winston Churchill said: “Failure is just another step on the road to success”.

A major function of the leader is to engender a feeling of confidence in the people so that even though the prophets of death and destruction will always be with us, their voices are muted and discounted.

That is not to say that over confidence is right – unchecked it could be construed as arrogance; a modicum of reflection and careful thought may just change or modify a plan but that is quite different from what the press used to call “knocking copy”; merely rubbishing without offering a workable solution. Listen to any opposition (and for that matter some Coalition) politicians right now to hear that happening.

Remember, there are so many people out there who will tell you that you can’t. So stop, look them in the eye and say: “I can’t? Just watch me!”.

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No Time to Spare? Be a Human Being, not a Human Doing!

2011-09-25T10:20:00.000+01:00

One of the constant moans that I hear from leaders is that they never have any time to spare and they are always too busy.

The question is: what are they doing with the time that is available to all of us, and why do they not have enough of it?

It is usually a symptom of the “leave it to me – I’ll sort it out” syndrome which means that the leader accepts (and probably enjoys) upwards delegation. People are usually very happy to get the monkey off their backs and on to someone else’s and the best person to take on that responsibility is, of course, their leader.

The overall result is fire fighting, accepting the tyranny of the urgent and ignoring whether the problem is important or not If it is neither urgent nor important, then put it on the back burner or ignore it completely.

If it is urgent and important then delegate it to the person who is best competent to deal with it on the basis of monitor progress, measure results, and evaluate together how the outcome was achieved and ask how could it have been improved (if at all).

The one that is the true and sole domain of the leader is the issue which is important but not urgent. This needs quiet reflection and consideration and demands the valid use of time. The only person in the business who has to take time out to think is the leader. If that vital thinking time is absorbed in merely doing things, then any vision of the future will be dulled or even non-existent.

The primary function of the leader is to define the vision and hence the future and that demands the thinking process.

The fact is that many leaders (and many others for that matter) waste vast amounts of valuable time in doing things that are the jobs of other people and should be delegated to them without question. They then complain about never having enough time for important matters. Just ask yourself: Whose job am I doing now and why aren’t they doing it?

It isn’t a matter of what leaders do; it is a matter of what they are and how they relate to their people, how they value them and how they constantly encourage them.

To be a human being wastes far less time than being a human doing. Get other, probably more competent, people to be that.

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Things Not Going Well in the Business? Get That Winning Mentality!

2011-09-18T10:57:00.000+01:00

Vince Lombardi, the legendary and very successful coach of the Green Bay Packers football (American) team was almost as legendary for his long list of pithy quotes. One of them that I like very much is:

“Winning can become a habit. Unfortunately so can losing”

He could easily have replaced “winning” and “losing” with “positivity” and “negativity”. Both of them can be catching.

One of the drivers in Transactional Analysis is the “Be Perfect” drive which can be very painful simply because perfection as such is unattainable. This driver can make an individual both frustrated and dissatisfied both of which are pretty unhealthy.

I recall a colleague who, when asked how her day had gone, would reply:

“If I had done something differently, which I thought about after the event, it would have been much better”.

Her husband, cleverly, would say:

“Before you decide what didn’t go well, tell me about what did go well”

Again, on one occasion I was waiting for one of my Vistage members in a hotel where we were meeting for his monthly mentoring session and as he came through the door still on his mobile phone, I could see that he was in some turmoil. He sat down and started to bang on about how difficult people could be and what a problem he had and etc, etc, etc.

I stopped him, said that what I wanted to hear was what had gone really well since I had last seen him and when he had finished telling me that, then h could tell me about his problems.

After some thought and telling me the good news, I asked about his difficulties which had seemed almost overwhelming when he came in.

“Oh, nothing of any significance really” he said.

One of the primary functions of the leader is to help the team to make winning a habit, not necessarily in the sporting sense but more in terms of generating an attitude of mind – the “can do” approach.

When a leader (or a customer for that matter) asks for something unusual the answer should always be “Yes” and then find out how to achieve it afterwards.

Too often we experience that metaphorical intake of breath, the shaking of the head and the negative response which is always a turn off. The winning mentality is an attitude of mind and needs to become a habit in everyone in the team.

It is possibly the primary function of the leader to make sure that the winning habit is ingrained into the team.

Vince Lombardi certainly knew how to do just that.

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Great Performance and Bad Attitude? A Trouble-Maker or a Maverick?

2011-09-11T10:40:00.000+01:00

A few times this week, the perennial problem of the high performer with a bad

attitude has come up in mentoring sessions with my Vistage members.

It is curious how the very mention of the problem can raise a rueful smile and a knowing nod of the head. How many times do we have to face up to this problem before we take action?

The leader needs to take action before the problem becomes truly corrosive. I know of one situation where a high performer has failed a drugs test. If the status quo is allowed to continue then other people in the team can logically assume that that behaviour is permitted, or at worst, there is a blind eye turned towards it, so they might as well safely do the same.

But there is a caveat. I recall that my old sales mentor, Phil Copp, the sage of Wythenshawe (which is a place in Manchester by the way) was consistently the highest sales performer in the company. On the other hand, he was probably difficult and at times impossible to manage.

He could be the leader of the awkward squad, he was acerbic, he certainly didn’t suffer fools gladly, and he knew that what he was doing didn’t always conform to the demands of the company. On the other hand, he was dedicated, loyal, committed and always worked for the best solution for his customers.

Many people could have said that he had a bad attitude but in truth, he was actually a maverick. Vistage speaker Lee Thayer says that leaders need to have virtuosi around them and Phil was certainly a virtuoso.

So what is answer to the vexed question of what to do with that high performing individual with a truly bad attitude? However painful it may be, the only real solution is to manage them out before the situation around them deteriorates. However, the leader needs to watch out that mavericks are not tainted with the allegation that their behaviour is a result of a bad attitude.

Sometimes we need people around us who are not always easy to manage, who are not necessarily malleable, but who can and will contribute something that is a little different and which can make a big difference.

PS I have in the past described the high performer with bad attitude as an internal terrorist. On this tenth anniversary of the dreadful happenings in New York and Washington on 9/11, it would be both inappropriate and insensitive to use that word in the context of business.

However, the thrust of the argument and what action to take still stands however we describe it.

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Teller or Seller? Great Leaders Need to be Both!

2011-09-04T10:41:00.000+01:00

Some time ago I went to one of my Vistage members (Managing Director of a significantly sized company) for his one-to-one mentoring session and he greeted me with:

“I’m very concerned.”

“OK” I said, “concerned about what?”

“I think that I am beginning to develop certainties” he said, and sat back looking worried. I pointed out that developing certainties was unlikely to be terminal and he cheered up a bit.

Some judicious questioning elicited the fact that, as a leader, he felt very conscious of the need to involve his people and indeed had put processes in place to ensure that this happened as far as possible throughout the business. In other words, that was his preferred management style.

What had happened, of course, was something well known to all leaders when in some frustration and possibly even irritation, he had decided to impose his decision and get the job done, rather than do the decent thing and discuss it with his people before taking action.

All leaders are instinctvely tellers or sellers. The tellers are the authoritative leaders who hand down decisions from on high, top down, and then expect action and even more so, successful action. In this environment the blame culture flourishes.

The other type is the seller, a leader who shares ideas and thoughts with his/her team and takes action only when satisfied that everyone has bought into the decision.

The problem for the leader is that certain situations demand that he/she needs to be a teller when all instincts scream out to say “That is not your preferred style!”

We need to realise that it is not as black and white as that. In fact, there is a continuum from teller to seller and we move, hopefully effortlessly, towards one or another as the situation demands.

The instinctive style of a seller will keep him/her nearer to that end of the continuum but if some movement towards that of the teller is needed, it is vital to understand that it is not a betrayal of all that is holy.

It is merely an acceptable answer to an immediate need so don’t worry about it. It is very unlikely to be terminal.

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2011-08-29T09:58:00.000+01:00

Some years ago we went to a marvellous Festival of Music and Wine in the south of France and on one occasion were treated to an extraordinary recital of Schubert’s piano sonatas by the redoubtable and remarkable Moura Lympany. She played the whole evening entirely from memory, without any written music in sight, and we were entranced.

At the cocktail party afterwards she revealed (unwittingly perhaps) that memory can be very selective as she wandered round introducing people to each other by the simple expedient of:

“Darling, have you met darling?”

By the way, she was well into pensionable age at this time.

It is said that as we age or better, become more mature, our memory starts to fail. Apart from the sad impact of dementia and other similar conditions, I don’t believe that this is necessarily the case. Perhaps it is because as we age we generate more and more experiences against a limited ability to recall.

The crux of the matter is, of course, that ability to recall. The memory is there all right, however old we may be, but recall sometimes can be a problem. In addition, we also tend to remember things in a selective way so that, for instance, two people from the same family can have vastly differing recollections of events in the past.

It is possible to train ourselves to improve recall and Vistage speaker, the very entertaining David Thomas, tells how he managed to remember and recall Pi to well over 23,000 decimal places (we did suggest when he did a limited demonstration for my Group that perhaps he needed to get out more). Of course, David has trained himself to be able to do that and some more equally amazing feats, by using relatively simple methods which are centuries old.

There are so many distractions in the world in which we live that even though we may start the day knowing precisely what is needed to be done, as time progresses through the day, we forget some things and start to remember others which may or may not be of comparable significance.

The “to do” list does help, of course. I went to see a client once who said that he had a “to do” list on which he worked every day. Impressed, I asked to see it and was slightly surprised to find that he had 72 items on it. I suggested that it was more a “things that I hope I may get round to doing” rather than a “to do” list as such but he said that unless he wrote them all down, he wouldn’t remember them anyway.

That is a fair point; writing down something that you feel a need to remember immediately enhances the ability to recall even without looking at the list. Perhaps I should do that when I go upstairs and then try to remember why.

Keeping a daily journal is a great way to assist in recall: noting down the things to do and the things that you have done, as well as other useful bits and pieces on a daily basis, can be invaluable.

The key to it all is to accept that memory is selective. We recall things that are significant and tuck the rest away. The trick is to decide what we need to recall and put a system in place to help it happen.

Now all you need to do is to remember to do it (and where you left it will help as well).

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Lowest Price? Not From Us – We Sell Quality!

2011-08-21T11:01:00.000+01:00

He sat at the front of the class of Managing Directors that I was taking at a business school, arms folded and a belligerent look on his face as he said: “We won’t stay in business if we don’t quote the lowest prices in the industry”.

There were two fallacies there. Firstly some research uncovered the fact that his prices were about mid-way in comparison to the rest of the industry, and secondly, he did go out of business.

It all came to mind as I listened recently to a radio programme when a Managing Director of a German engineering company was being interviewed. As is usual with radio interviewers, he was asked how difficult it must be to remain “competitive” when the Euro is strong.

The response was illuminating and demonstrated a totally different attitude and possibly even culture. Slightly surprised by the suggestion, the MD said: “We are extremely competitive because we manufacture to very high quality. Our customers know that they can buy cheaper in the Far East but they prefer quality and reliability so they come to us. Because of this we can charge higher prices and we are very busy”.

Slightly shocked, the interviewer went banging on about “being competitive” without realising or even accepting that being competitive does not necessarily imply low prices. In fact, research has shown that when considering a purchase, price can come about fourth or even fifth on the list of purchasing priorities.

The fact is that lowering prices by, say, 10% can mean that you need to sell nearly 50% more just to stay the same and there is no value in that exercise. On the other hand, Vistage speaker, Jeremy Thorn, demonstrates that only a 5% increase in prices and a 5% decrease in costs can double the bottom line.

The problem is a deep seated one and is cultural. Very few items are truly price sensitive although conventional thinking says that we must reduce our offer to obtain the business. In fact we often think, as did my student, that this is the only way to generate business.

Take a leaf out of the German MD’s book. Buyers demand quality and reliability right across the board from a supplier and we need to be brave and charge a price which reflects that fact. That way leads to success.

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You’re Entitled to What? Take Personal Responsibility!

2011-08-14T10:43:00.001+01:00

The turmoil and tumult of the past week led me to recall the experiences of my grandfather who, in the 1870s, was sent by his parents to England from Poland, at the age of 10, to escape the prevailing persecution.

Unescorted and unable to speak English, he travelled by cart, train and eventually a ship, with a label attached to his coat bearing an address in Manchester where some relations lived, having come to England a few years before.

Miraculously, he arrived safely, survived and made a new life in this country. When I knew him, he was a voracious reader, had taught himself English as well as Hebrew, Latin and Greek, and was making a somewhat tenuous living as a tailor.

In all his 80-odd years he paid his taxes, never asked the state for anything and, indeed, never expected anything. He was an intensely fulfilled individual who had survived through his own efforts and had made a happy life in this country, having married and raised a family of five children.

A recent broadcast by a “community” leader complained that the state was not helping them and that they needed more assistance. My grandfather would have been totally bemused by this; what can the state do to help people if they don’t make an effort to help themselves first?

If we consider the situation in business, much the same criteria apply. To employ people who spend their time whingeing and moaning, constantly complaining and in “something needs to done about it” mode, is depressing and corrosive for other members of staff.

We need to give our people the freedom to express themselves, to encourage initiative and decision making and to ensure that if anything goes awry, then it is looked upon as a learning experience not a case for reprimand.

As the Prime Minister, David Cameron said in the wake of the troubles this week, we must get away from the “it’s my right” syndrome and encourage the “it’s my responsibility” approach.

I am absolutely at one with him there.

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Try the Saintly Method - Cut Down on Tension!

2011-08-07T09:56:00.000+01:00

A recent broadcaster on Radio 4 mentioned a saying by St Thomas Aquinas, 1225-1274, (now there’s name dropping for you) that life is like a bow – if the bow string is left on so that the bow is permanently in tension, then eventually it will break. The tension needs to be released from time to time to allow the bow to relax.

That is some metaphor for modern life. The impact of smart phones, laptops, tablets and so on has made communication so much easier but, frankly, now to the point that it intrudes into every facet of our existence.

Not only do we check our emails, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn at the office or workplace, but we can (and do) check them while we watch TV, sit round the dining table, go to the cinema, play golf; in other words anywhere we feel it necessary to see who has been in touch.

It is worth asking the question: when did you last get a message out of normal working hours that was so vitally important that something needed to be done instantly?

The follow up question is: how important are the messages that you normally get after normal working hours that they can’t wait until the next day to be actioned?

The trouble is that all this communication (if that is what it is) can be very addictive or even compulsive. Simply because our smart phone “pings” we deem it essential to take a look to see what has come in irrespective of where we are or with whom we are.

So, back to the saintly Thomas. He got it absolutely right. Unless we release the tension in our lives, (and that is something well within our control), then eventually we can break. It’s all a matter of balance - balance between the day to day needs of the business and leadership, and the equally pressing needs of life outside business. One of the nine fundamentals of the leader as propounded by Vistage speaker Walt Sutton is “Get a Life”.

There IS life outside business, believe it or not, and there are so many things that we can do which contribute to a fuller and less compressed existence.

One of them it to switch off that smart phone, laptop, tablet from time to time and do something else. The mission statement of Vistage is that we are “dedicated to increasing the effectiveness and enhancing the lives of leaders”, and that can only be achieved by making a determined effort to get some balance into our lives.

One way is to unfasten that bow string and let the bow relax a little. Thank you, St Thomas Aquinas and whoever it was on Radio 4 who mentioned him.

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk
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Vulnerable to a Major Customer? What About Your Suppliers!

2011-07-31T11:01:00.000+01:00

Over the years several companies with whom I have been working have quietly and dangerously become vulnerable to a major customer.

It is axiomatic that the sensible approach is to keep the customer base as wide as possible with none accounting for more than around 15% of turnover.

However customer creep can and does happen and before you know it, one of them starts to account for a really major part of turnover. I recall a business in domestic lighting dealing with a major outlet in the UK for the range of products.

Over a long period of time the customer placed more and more orders and at the same time, the demands started to increase. In end, they accounted for more than 80% of turnover and whatever they said they wanted, the supplier had to comply.

It wasn’t a matter of “jump”, it was “how high do you want me to jump?”

When I warned the MD that the company was massively vulnerable, he said firstly that he couldn’t refuse a good order from a good customer and in any case he had a great relationship with the buyer. In fact he used that rather unpleasant and complacent comment of: “I have the buyer in my pocket”.

Guess what happened. The buyer moved on, a new buyer came in and brought existing relationships with non-branded manufacturers. Within six months the supplier had lost the account and was effectively out of business.

A salutary tale but what about your suppliers as well? I had a client manufacturing a high tech product who called me one day to put off a meeting as he had an important matter to deal with. Later in the day I was in Manchester and, lo and behold, there was my client walking towards me.

He said: “ I have just been to see our solicitors. One of our major suppliers who manufactures a special component exclusively for us, has gone into administration. We have had to make an offer to buy his business from the administrator just so that we can maintain supplies and keep our business going.”

Another salutary tale. We keep our eyes firmly fixed on our customers, and rightly so, but it should never be at the expense of watching the supply chain which can be and often is the determinator of the company’s success.

By the way, don’t forget the leader’s health and key people in the business. Even more salutary lessons.

For more informatioon visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.vistageblog.co.uk

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Business Getting Too Complicated? Simplify It!

2011-07-24T10:36:00.000+01:00

It has become apparent over the years that the whole exercise of business has gained a great deal of complexity and to little advantageous effect.

The remarkable impact of IT on the running of businesses has meant that there is a mass of data available of which a proportion is turned into information and a smaller proportion again becomes intelligence, on which action can be taken.

The problem is which information is relevant and of value, and which intelligence is just “nice to have”.

I recall a Finance Director of my acquaintance whose company had seven or eight subsidiaries. For each main board meeting he would prepare individual sets of accounts for each company and then consolidate them for the holding company. The result, of course, was a pack of “information” a couple of inches thick which took ages to prepare.

He decided to send out a marker pen with a set of accounts and asked each Managing Director to mark the information which was important to them. The upshot was that he reduced the accounts pack to half a dozen pages each month, making the point that if they wanted any more information, then it would always be available.

Business is an essentially simple exercise. We buy (or make) something, add a little over the total costs, and then sell it.

A CEO of a public company I worked with used to run his company on the basis of half a dozen charts which gave him enough information to decide on any action which was needed. He could always “drill down” if necessary.

Leaders need to de-clutter in every sense – the intelligence derived from the mass of information available, the mass of detail around, and, most importantly, his/her mind so that there is more clarity about what needs to be done for the future, and not what has happened in the past.

When I worked for Slater Walker in the 1970s, the board meeting financial report from the previous month took no more than ten minutes and the rest of the time was devoted to any resultant actions, and to the future.

As Belbin says, the shaper should shape the business and have completer-finishers and implementers around to take the necessary actions. The leader’s mantra should always be – business is simple, so simplify it.

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk

To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

No Time to Think? Go Into Retreat!

2011-07-17T10:36:00.000+01:00

One of the most important factors in the life of the leader is simply thinking about his/her organisation. Easily said but how often do we actually take time out to reflect on the business and our part in it?

One of the more significant parts of the Vistage experience is the annual "retreat" for the whole group where we go away to a pleasant venue and spend time together. Some groups in the UK have been overseas and my group had a memorable (for many reasons) retreat in a castle in Scotland which was next door (about four miles away in fact) to the legendary Castle of Dunsinane.

My group, once a year, generally takes a two day “time out” in a pleasant hotel venue to spend time together and to work with a speaker for a full day.

That is in a group environment and on the other hand, Vistage speaker, Walt Sutton, reminds us of the saying of golfer Sam Snead who said “Take time out to smell the roses”. He could have added "and think a little". Walt encourages leaders to take time out for a solitary retreat which he describes as taking a metaphorical walk on the beach.

It is vital for the leader to realise that he/she is generally the only person in the business who actually thinks about it, about its present and its future, about its vision and about its potential.

Yes, everyone in the business will give some thought to their job and its manifestations, but only the leader thinks about it in a holistic sense. That thinking time is vital for the future of the business and it is usually the last thing in which the leader indulges.

There seems to be an inherent sense of guilt at apparently not "doing" anything visibly tangible but just sitting quietly and thinking. One member of my group did just that for a full day (after a lot of encouragement) to think about a relatively difficult issue in the business. When I asked him what had happened he said:

“At the end of the thinking day, nothing at all, but a couple of days later, ideas started to pop out and I was able to solve the problem”.

It is well known that if we consider a problem, then close down and forget it, the brain continues to work on it subconsciously.

Remember that if the leader doesn’t apply serious thinking to the business and its future, no-one else will and the future will just happen for good or bad. Go smell those roses and take some time to think.

For more information, visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk

To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

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Unhappy Customers? Under Promise and Over Deliver!

2011-07-10T10:43:00.000+01:00

My wife, Hilary, told me of an experience that she had this last week which caused me to ponder on the need to set realistic expectations.

In brief, her office broadband went down which was a total tragedy and something that needed to be corrected as soon as possible. The engineer promised to be there within the hour and eventually turned up 45 minutes late. Simply because Hilary takes her promises to her clients very seriously indeed and never breaks them, she quite reasonably expects the same from others. Result? She had the job done satisfactorily and was still furious.

I gently pointed out that had the engineer said that he would be there in two hours she might have tried to negotiate a better deal but in end accept his estimate. Then when he turned up 15 minutes early, she would have been delighted.

Same time, different response.

My old sales mentor, Phil Copp, the Sage of Wythenshawe, used to say:

“Always under promise and then over deliver. Set their expectations and then beat them”.

Phil’s approach to commercial life was based on his absolute commitment to building relationships which in turn were based on honesty and transparency. He would never, and I mean never, discount a price, and on reflection, he never discounted a delivery promise either.

“Far better” he would say: “to be firm, have an argument with them at the outset, set their expectations for when the goods are going to be sent, and then deliver early”.

How many times have your sales people (or you, for that matter) been battered by a customer who says that they absolutely the goods in a metaphorical two weeks? The sales person (or you) knows categorically that they can’t be shipped in less than four weeks, but capitulates under pressure and says: “I’ll see what I can do for you – I’m sure we will be able to do something to improve delivery (or words to that effect)” in order to please the customer. It will please him but certainly not when the good arrive in four weeks.

A little gentle but firm questioning at the start can very often make the customer come clean and admit that his demand for quick deliver is based on little more than a macho approach to negotiation and in reality, the goods aren't needed in anything like that time.

So many times in business life we set unreal expectations especially when we are under pressure. It is essential to set expectations which can then be realised and the result is that we have a satisfied customer or client.

As Phil Copp said: “Under Promise and Over Deliver” and that will ensure that you give consistently great service, and more to the point, build a reputation for honesty and consistency. An outcome not to be sneezed at.

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk

To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

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Good or Bad Jundgement? Take Some Time Out!

2011-07-03T10:42:00.000+01:00

Like just about everyone else, I get unsolicited emails, mainly from acquaintances, with lists of sayings, some funny, some rude, some very rude and some banal.

Just occasionally there is the odd one which strikes a chord like this one which dropped into my inbox this week:

“Good judgement comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgement”.

Now there’s a thought. It is, of course, a massive generalisation but there is a good deal of truth in it. It has been wisely said that we really only learn from our mistakes and it is probably true to say that mistakes are often derived from poor judgement.

In the end it is all about the learning process and the key is to ensure that when mistakes do occur, as they inevitably will, that they are treated as a learning exercise and not as a case for discipline.

I have said on many occasions that experience should lead to expertise and as long as we are able to generate relevant experience, then the expertise will follow.

As my old sales mentor, Phil Copp, the sage of Wythenshawe, used to say (and he probably nicked it from someone else): “If you never make a decision, you never do anything”.

Of course, it all depends on a “no-blame” culture in the business and it is the province of the leader to ensure that it is implemented throughout the organisation. In many ways, it is counter intuitive and the primary instinct is to resort to discipline and “if you let that happen again....” threat.

Bad judgement? In the rough and tumble of day to day business, the leader frequently has to make decisions on the hoof and they may be good or bad decisions. At least they are decisions, and it has been wisely said (vide Phil Copp) that even making a bad decision is better that not making a decision at all.

So that little aphorism has a good deal of sensible truth in it and perhaps the key is to take out a little time to assesst the potentially unforeseen consequences of our judgement and decision making. It is definitely worth the effort.

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk

To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

Performance? Results? It's The Activities That Really Matter!

2011-06-26T10:54:00.000+01:00

I tweeted on Twitter (oh dear, how very crass that sounds) last week to say that I was looking forward to hearing US speaker Dan Barnett speak at my Vistage 10 group meeting on Tuesday last.

I most certainly wasn’t disappointed. Dan gave a masterful exposition of his technique for success in business which simply emphasises the importance of activities versus the accountants’ approach of running the business against results.

The whole point of the exercise is that emphasising the rush for results is backwards looking whilst concentration on activities is forwards looking.

That seems simple and in essence it is. The route to success lies essentially in a chain of events starting with the vision for perhaps the next three to five years. In many ways this is the province of the leader but why not involve the top team in developing the measurable vision for the business.

The next link is perhaps the most important. Dan says that there is one factor in every business which can make or break it and it is essential to identify that factor. It ican be defined as the one thing that must be done to achieve the vision.

From there the team assesses the measurable activities that lead to the make or break and from the evidence, there is no doubt that the results will follow.

That is, of course, an encapsulation of a three hour session which captivated and inspired the group (and me) and I have no doubt that they will put his ideas into action.

It is most refreshing to be liberated from the chains of “results, results, results” and to realise that the most important things in the business are the activities which drive those results, which will inevitably happen.

It is not easy to make the transition from the traditional to the radical but it is well worth the attempt. Nothing in business is easy but everything is possible. Thank you Dan!

For more information visit www.tec-canada.com/Make-or-Break-Execution--The-Core-of-Success

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Ivan’s Blog’s Birthday - One Hundred Not Out!

2011-06-19T11:11:00.000+01:00

When my left brain kicks in which is does occasionally, I actually enjoy looking at and assessing statistics. The subject is usually immaterial but the numbers can be fascinating.

Somewhat to my surprise, I noticed this week, that this post will be the hundredth since I started writing the blog. At the beginning it was rather intermittent but at the Vistage conference in 2009, I, with others in our breakout group (that’s conference speak), made a commitment to something for which we would be held accountable.

Having started the blog it seemed to me that it would be a good idea to write it on a regular basis and consequently, it has appeared every week since then. Sunday is my usual day with occasional Mondays when we have a Bank Holiday weekend.

So what about the statistics? Total page views since I started amount to 4,763 at an average per month of about 240 visits, However, I was pleased to see that in the past month the total page views were 553 so it does seem that the blog is gaining some momentum.

Readership is about 76% in the UK, 15% in the USA, 6% Germany and the balance from Australia, France, Russia, Canada, Israel, Slovenia and Iran. How’s that for a miracle of global communication?

So what can I learn from all this? Firstly, I am determined to continue to write the blog and on a weekly basis. It has become my first job on a Sunday and I was recently taken to task by a reader for being late one week after a computer problem. I’ll see that it doesn’t happen again, I promise.

Secondly, it is the power of commitment and determination. Rather to my surprise, I have been doing it for so long now that it has become second nature and I try not to let anything get in the way.

Thirdly, somewhat self-indulgently, I enjoy reading the comments that several of my readers take the time to write – thank you!

So, on this Father’s Day, it’s a double celebration for me to have hit the hundred blogs. Note, this was never an objective but for me it has been an achievement and that is very motivating.

I now intend to get my head down a la Boycott (a cricketing allusion for my overseas readers) and set out for the next hundred. We have a wonderful Chairman in Vistage USA, Pat Hyndman, who is well over ninety and still running a group. He says that he intends to continue until they carry him out on his own flip chart.

Not a bad way of looking at life. Retirement at 66? Forget it , get your head down, take guard again and bat on. Now I have an objective – the next hundred!

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk
Email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

Physics, Biology, Maths? No, It;s The Chemistry That Matters!

2011-06-12T11:22:00.000+01:00

Some time ago, in the dim and distant past, when Vistage was known as TEC, we had a wonderful speaker from the USA called Ed Ryan. Ed is an HR specialist particularly in the sphere of recruitment and I have mentioned his strictures many times before.

His particular point, as I recall it, was that the most important factor in ensuring successful recruitment, especially at senior level, was the need to ensure that the individual fitted into and subscribed to the company’s culture.

In other words, was the person likeable? Ed suggested that the acronym of TEC should be reversed so that the most important factor was C for chemistry. E for experience may or may not be relevant and T for technology (whatever function of the business that implied) should frankly be a given. We wouldn’t, for example, recruit a sales person to be financial controller (or the other way round for that matter).

I recall a colleague of mine once recruiting a salesman and I asked him: “What sort of a person is he?”

“Oh” he said: “He’s horrible but he will do a great job for us”

The salesman lasted six weeks and caused chaos and consternation in the business.

It does seem very simplistic to say that we need to like a person before hiring them but beneath all the facade of leadership and management we are merely human beings and we do tend to work better with people with whom we get on.

How often have we heard that “we need to get the right people on the bus”? Defining the “right people” needs to start with “Do they fit in to our ethos and culture, do they and will they get on with others and do they smile more than they frown?”

After that the experts can come in and decide on the best candidate but only after the list has been comprehensively filtered to eliminate the horribles.

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk

To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

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Forget The Story, Just Gimme The Facts, Man!

2011-06-05T10:58:00.000+01:00

Some years ago when I was working as a specialist product sales engineer I had a call late on Friday from our Leeds branch manager with whom, to put it mildly, I didn’t get on.

He said, rather abruptly: “I want to see you in my office, 9.00am Monday morning – all right?”

It wasn’t a matter for discussion and I said that I would be there. The rest of the weekend was pure hell. I went through every possible scenario as to why he wanted to see me. What terrible error had I made in his area? Which of his major customers had I annoyed? Had he had enough of our relationship?

I went into what I now call negative logic which starts with the issue, then works out all the negative consequences finishing up with a quick leap off Beachy Head, this being the only logical conclusion to the story.

I arrived as demanded at 9.00am in Leeds (pre-motorway days) and my antagonist said :”Thank you so much for coming; I have a terrible problem with a customer and you are the only one who can solve it”.

I suppose that I should have felt pleasure at that but the sensation was largely one of felling foolish, some relief and irritation that I had wasted a great deal of emotion over the weekend.

So what is the point of the story? Story is the relevant word, of course. We tend, when presented with a problem of some sort, to look at the issue and weave stories around it, making assumptions that are almost always negative.

One of my Vistage group members and Vistage speaker in waiting, David Roberts, ran an excellent session recently using the Deming Red Bead Experiment as the basis. In the debate following, he made the point that we make more of the stories around a problem when what we should do is just to consider the facts.

It demands a cold look at what is actually happening without making assumptions, probably negative, as to what might happen as a consequence.

There is, of course, value in assessing what options may be available as potential solutions as long as they are based on the facts of the case.

Remember Nigel Risner’s mantra – Event (fact) plus Response (fact) equals Outcome (likely fact).

Keep the stories for children’s bedtime, better.

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk

To contact us, email ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

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Something Gone Wrong? Heads Must Roll!

2011-05-30T10:33:00.000+01:00

The media has been awash over the past few days about the appeal won by the sacked Director of Children Services at Haringey, not to mention the sad tale of a fallen footballer, and they are in a fine frenzy of vilification as a consequence.

The rights and wrongs of the matters are not an appropriate subject for this blog, but the underlying ethos of blame is very much at the forefront of my thinking.

It is consistent in BBC programmes like Today, PM and other news programmes that when “investigating” a perceived wrong, the interviewer always seems to want to know who is to blame and what punishment would be appropriate.
It was equally refreshing to hear a learned Professor on the radio today saying that blame followed by firing the perceived miscreant does nothing to solve the problem but merely satisfies the human need for vengeance.

If something serious happens, as it did at Haringey, sacking the Director and replacing her with a new incumbent means that the newcomer had to go through a learning process which may or may not be successful.

Far better (and braver) to keep the people in place and monitor how they address the processes and procedures which led to the problem; in other words addressing the root cause and not the effect.

It is only by those means that changes can be made effectively to minimise at least the possibility of a repeat. By the way, if changes are not implemented and nothing improves, then at that stage it would be right and proper to start the disciplinary process.

If changes like that can happen then it might reduce the hypocritical, stomach-churning, “holier than thou” preaching of the media which latches on to subjects “in the public interest” when the real rationale is to sell more papers.

End of rant – I hope that you all had a happy Bank Holiday weekend!

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk
To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk
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Trying to be Perfect? Don't Bother! Be Excellent Instead!

2011-05-22T11:29:00.001+01:00

“The pursuit of perfection does not lead to success”. It was said to me this week, followed by “There’s a blog subject for you!” and so it is. (Thank you Jacqui)

It brought back to mind a consultancy assignment I had some time ago in which I was ostensibly advising two very nice, very clever your women on the marketing of some software that they had developed for small hotels – software that would co-ordinate all the various functions and which designed a complete system.

The assignment was a total failure, not, heaven forfend, because of bad advice on my part but rather that the advice was never implemented.

Why? Because my two clients could never decide when the software was ready to be marketed. It was constantly being tuned, tweaked, adjusted, altered, modified and never were customers consulted to see what they wanted and needed.

After about six months I withdrew gently from the assignment, having constantly suggested, without success, that they issue a Beta Version, possibly with some faults, and then update to Version 1 when customers opinions had been gathered in and implemented.

Just look at Apple and how they market new products. First f all there is a constant and subtle dropping of hints and leaks about the new product followed by the announcement of a date for the launch all resulting in hordes of slavering early adopters battling to be the first to have one. Sure, there will be and are problems but that only leads to the next upgraded version.

The hotel software never went on sale.

So many management mantras come to mind; do the right thing rather than do things right, or pursue excellence rather than perfection, and so on.

It is a truism to say that perfection cannot be achieved so why try to achieve it? The constant pursuit of excellence in everything that we do in business should be a given; to pursue perfection can be a dead hand on what we do and leads always to frustration.

Yes, we do need people in the team who are completer/finishers, who are meticulous in all they do, who need to do things right and who make a contribution to the organisation. They do not, however, take the business forward; only help to ensure that it doesn’t slip backwards.

I like one of the verses in Gerry Rafferty’s song:

“You need direction, yeah you need a name

When you’re standing in the crossroads every highway looks the same
After a while you can recognize the signs
So if you get it wrong you’ll get it right next time”

That’s a perfect view of the pursuit of excellence.

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk

To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

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Hiring New People? Good Enough is Not Good Enough!

2011-05-15T12:33:00.000+01:00

Talking to one of my Vistage members this week, he said that he had decided to hire someone whom he had known for some time and who he rated as an excellent potential manager is his business.

“That’s good news” I said: “What is the job she will take on?”

“I haven’t decided yet” he said: “It’s just that she is right for the business and we will find the right place for her, or even create one.” Brilliant!

Some time ago my Vistage group heard Dr Lee Thayer, a great speaker on leadership from the USA, talk about virtuosity and the need to hire only virtuosi. Lee made the point that in order to become a high performing organisation, the standard of individuals within the organisation has to be of the highest standard throughout. See http://leethayer.typepad.com/.

That concept has stuck with me since hearing Lee, and there is no doubt that his strictures have spread throughout the vast number of management theorists (and practitioners, for that matter). Take, for instance, Jim Collins in his book Good to Great, who says that we need to “get the right people on the bus” and there are many other instances of writers extolling the need for virtuosity in your people.

The challenge is to avoid the HR Elastoplast approach which says that we replace a leaver with, effectively, a clone so that we eliminate as far as possible the need for significant change.

Nothing could be more pointless. It is much better to look on someone leaving the business as an opportunity to improve standards, so the question to ask when recruiting is: “Can this person help us achieve the strategic objectives of the department or the business?”. That means taking the long (and possibly the more expensive) view on hiring the right people and that is by far the best way.

Good enough is not good enough. Never hire the second choice on your list if the first choice turns you down. You didn’t choose them the first time so why choose them the second time? Better to start the process all over again and find the best person for the position.

Even better, just hire exceptional people and fit the positions around them.

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk

To contact us, email ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

Twitter: @ivanjgoldberg

What's All This About Change? We Have an Internet Policy!

2011-05-08T10:19:00.000+01:00

We had a great experience on Friday at the Manchester Vistage Open Day when the speaker, Grant Leboff shattered many illusions about the value of marketing by what has become conventional means.

By conventional means, Grant listed direct mail, cold calling by telephone and advertising on TV and printed media. He made the point that the old blunderbus approach to selling to your customer base in total doesn’t work any more and produced statistics to show how each of these methods were in decline.

That is, of course, all well and good, but what is the answer? Grant’s view is that we need to identify precisely what we are selling, who the customer base might be and then approach them is such a way as to encourage them to want to make contact with you. It all sounds easy and Grant’s enthusiasm was inspiring.

However, it takes a lot of attitude change to move from “the way that we have always done it” to something radically different which requires a complete change of thinking. Not easy, of course, but the rewards are evident if only because you will stand out from the crowd and become a leader in the market.

There is a somewhat inelegant quote which says “if you continue to do what you have always done, then you will always get what you always got” and in fact it’s worse than that. Even that assumes no change in the commercial environment and we all know that markets are far more difficult due to the recent economic problems.

Change takes a lot of courage, foresight, risk and sometimes calumny from peers and staff, but in these straitened times, change is vital. We can’t just go on hoping that things will improve; another great quote, in this case from Albert Einstein, says that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome”.

The world of commerce has changed and is changing irrevocably. No longer can we impose an “Internet Policy” on our staff. Young people coming into such a business (if they ever would come into such a business) just cannot understand how they would be banned from using social media as a normal method of communication.

One of my Vistage members told me of a new member of his staff in his IT department who when asked how they were settling in, said: “Fine but before coming here I hadn’t ever used email so it was a bit of a change for me”. IT specialist who hadn’t used email? Certainly, because she used Facebook, Twitter. LinkedIn and You tube to communicate and very effectively, so who needs email?

Change is inevitable; just don’t think that you can close your eyes and hope that it will soon pass and the good times will return because they won’t – they have gone forever and we need to accept it and do something about it before it is really too late. An “Internet Policy” won’t help then.

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk

To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

Stop Talking so Much and Just Listen! You Might Hear Something Useful!

2011-05-02T10:17:00.000+01:00

My old sales mentor, Phil Copp, the sage of Wythenshawe, once told me that one of the most important talents that a good salesman could possess was the ability to read upside down.

When I pointed out to him that upside down was a pretty unusual pose for me, he snorted and said:”Not you, you fool – his papers!”

I still looked somewhat bemused and he said: “There are three talents that a good salesman needs to achieve: the ability to listen, the ability to think about what he is going to have for his tea, and the ability to read papers upside down on the buyer’s desk”.

I suggested that this was a little cynical and he grudgingly agreed, while emphasising that he making a perfectly valid point.

Reading the papers upside down could be construed as a metaphor for research into the customer, his business and his market and certainly a good salesman should build a dossier on each of his existing and potential customers. Perhaps reading papers on a customer’s desk (upside down of course) is going a trifle too far but the point was made.

Phil’s real emphasis was the on the ability to listen and perhaps to demonstrate to the customer that you are actually listening. There so many old clichés about listening such as “You were given one mouth and two ears so listen for twice the time that you talk”.

I well remember a person being interviewed for a sales position which went well until she said: ”I will make a good sales person – I have the gift of the gab”. End of interview.

Good eye contact, mirroring the customer’s position, making appropriate comments and nodding occasionally in agreement, all add to the building of rapport. In other words, make your interest and listening skills visible.

Crucially it is the ability ask open questions (who, why, what, when, where and how?) and then to sit back and listen, waiting for that critical moment when the customer says something which uncovers the issue that you can solve.

Of course, thinking about what you going to have for tea is foolish if it gets in the way of the discussion because you need to work out and know precisely what you are going to tell the customer and how you can help them solve the problem.

If you ask the right questions, you will be given the right answers and that may offer you the luxury of thinking about that meal. I suspect that Phil Copp always enjoyed his tea.

For further information, visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk

To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

What You Know or Who You Know? Actually It's Both!

2011-04-25T10:33:00.000+01:00

I have said in a previous post that this blog is avowedly non-political but once again, the Prime Minister David Cameron has sparked my interest through one of his statements. At the same time, it was suggested by a friend that I should use networking as the subject at some time. Serendipity!

On the one hand, the Prime Minister has sparked a row (according to the media) by suggesting that he is “relaxed” about using contacts to obtain internships. He has been castigated for going against the concept of social mobility.

When will the press get real? This is not a political matter; it is rather a matter of human nature. We all use contacts in almost every way to make further contacts and that is both reasonable and sensible.

To allege (as do the media) that the Prime Minister suggests only using his public school contacts is both insulting and naive. Do they really want us to believe that no-one uses their contacts for a range of reasons?

A recent survey suggested that by far the most effective way of finding a professional (from tradesman through to lawyer) is to ask either a friend or a business contact. Certainly we at Vistage have found that new members who have been referred by an existing member tend to contribute more to the group and stay longer than others.

It’s equally stupid to imply that the only route for exploiting contacts is through a public school education. What about the golf club, the rugby club, the Women’s Institute, the Parent Teachers Association (at any school from local primary through to public boarding) or church, synagogue or mosque? Do they really want us to believe that there is something immoral in making contacts and then using them for mutual gain?

By the way, many networking groups are there merely for pleasure and for being with like minded people. Sports clubs, arts clubs, gyms, special interest groups all have a part to play in the evolution of a community where we can meet and get to know people.

Networking as such has become professionalised over the past few years and indeed, my friend, Will Kintish formed a very successful consultancy and training company to help people to network more effectively. Ask anyone who has been “Kintished” whether it works or not!

The electronic versions like LinkedIn which build contact databases have also taken their place in the networking pantheon although face to face contact is far more effective and indeed more memorable.

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know that matters” as the old saying goes. In fact it is both. That is why personal experience of people and organisations is so valuable.

It is not a “toff’s” prerogative – we can all do it and, frankly, should do it. because there will be mutual gain.

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk

To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

How Are You Doing? Visit Your Custiomers and Ask Them!

2011-04-17T11:33:00.000+01:00

In a previous post I discussed the need to build relationships in a business; not merely internally with the people in the business, but also and, perhaps even more importantly, externally with customers, suppliers, advisors and others in the community.

It is remarkable how much we can learn from discussions with customers when not in selling mode, but rather in research mode; in an atmosphere of trying to discover from them how their market is shaping up and what does the future hold for them.

This was brought home forcibly to me this week by one of my members who has taken the bold step of going to see all her clients, not to sell to them, but to start to build a different relationship; a move from merely transactional to relational.

Customers were surprised and very pleased to meet the leader and the visits were received with pleasure and enthusiasm. Naturally some took the opportunity of mentioning issues and that was also useful, while in one case, and much to her surprise, a serious problem came to light.

Without going into detail, the discussions brought to the light a situation which would have stayed unnoticed had the client visits not been made.

Feedback from customers, suppliers, advisors, the community in general is essential and merely sending out a general questionnaire to discover customer satisfaction is a step ahead but is not the best way forward.

It is said that the Chairman of a global Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer spends six weeks or so over Christmas working on the sales counter of a major New York department store, just to find out what the paying customers think of his products.

The only real way to have feedback from the market is to ask them personally and that says that the leader needs to take time out to visit his top 20% of customers to ask them “how are we doing and what else do we need to do”. I recall a Vistage speaker who said “build a wall round your customers so that they won’t want to go anywhere else” and that is by moving from the transactional to a relational interaction with them.

If you want to know what business you are in, ask your customers – they know the answer better than you do and it is a primary function of any leader to make thoses visits; to make time to see the major customers and to develop a real and lasting relationship. It is time very well spent.

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk

To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

Total Quality Management? Better the Pursuit of Excellence!

2011-04-10T14:45:00.000+01:00

Business management practices go through phases, many of them merely fashions and they are frequently linked to names of gurus like Taylor, Deming, Drucker, Peters, Covey and many others.

The fact is that many of these fashions are older ones recycled in a new a ostensibly more exciting form but, in the end, the results are much the same.

How many of us recall the rush to “quality” a few years ago led by the fearsomely efficient Japanese automotive manufacturers. We started quality circles, and TQM (remember Total Quality Management?) and added three-sigma analysis, all in a sometimes vain attempt to emulate the success of Japanese industry.

At that time, one of my Vistage members, a manufacturer of scientific products, decided that he would go down that route but changed the focus, so that he called it “The Pursuit of Excellence”.

The point about “quality” was that most people regarded it as applying to the manufacture of products and while they put all their efforts into achieving zero defects, there seemed to be a disregard of all the other facets of the business.

The fact is that quality of the product is essential but even more so is the quality of the relationship with the customer. I well recall going to visit a large supplier of electronic components in a very modern, minimalist building with a smart receptionist who welcomed me with a smile, coffee and something to read while I waited. Everything was most impressive and I knew that their product line was equally desirable.

After a while, the coffee had its usual effect (on me, anyway) and I went to visit the toilets. Surprise, surprise! They were uncared for and generally unpleasant, and my overall memory of that company, good as they were in the supply of high quality products, was one of distaste at the state of their toilets.

Illogical or a normal reaction? The whole point of “high quality” means that everything in the business must be directed towards excellence in all that we do, be it in product quality, delivery service, invoicing, telephone manner and a host of other things which impact on the customer at some time and in some way.

Perhaps we should revert to the old concept of quality circles; ask your people how they can constantly improve on everything that they do, and, most importantly, what help do they need from you in order to achieve that improvement.

For further information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk

To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

Transactional or Relational Interaction? Dump the Jargon!

2011-04-03T12:19:00.000+01:00

This blog never has been, and never intends to be, political but Prime Minister David Cameron in a speech recently referred to the difference between transactional and relational interaction between people, and that struck a chord.

Firstly, for some inconceivable reason, some people seem to think that if they use more and more jargon, the result will be that everyone will think that they are clever. Not true - more often than not they are thought of as being pompous, patronising and unable to communicate in ways which have any meaning.

The great Professor Russell Ayckhoff, late Dean of the Business School at Princeton, said (after he retired, I would emphasise) that the primary function of a Business School is to equip students with jargon that will enable them to talk learnedly on subjects about which they have absolutely no comprehension. Ouch!

However, occasionally, a drill down into some jargon can be rewarding, as is the case with the PM's message. It is worthwhile analysing the differences.

A transactional interaction is typically one where there is no contact other than to achieve an outcome of some sort. For example, you go into a shop, perhaps even smile at the counter hand, offer some money and are given a newspaper. There is nothing in the interaction other than the result.

On the other hand, virtually all of our interactions with, for example, our families are relational; that is, not only is there an outcome but there will be explanation, discussion, argument, and a range of other emotional inputs which can change the whole aspect of the relationship.

So what has this to do with leadership in business? Just think about how many of your interactions with your team members are transactional; whether your contacts with your people are limited to strict business criteria without any building of a relationship.

By the way, this applies not only to internal interactions; it can apply even more significantly to external with suppliers, customers and professional advisers among others.

I happened to be in a supermarket recently and was surprised to hear the check out operator say "Here's my favourite customer!" Taken aback, I said: "Pardon?"

She replied "We all have our favourite customers and you're mine". Still somewhat surprised, I asked her why and she said "Because you treat me like a human being and not like just a machine".

In a situation which was really transactional, it had become relational for her and consequently more rewarding. It was a great learning experience for me.
Forget the jargon; try to remember that we deal with real people every day and they all have something of value to offer us.

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To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

Best Characteristic of a Salesman? Bloody Minded Persistence!

2011-03-27T10:43:00.000+01:00

My old sales mentor, Phil Copp, the sage of Wythenshawe, used to say that the most important characteristic and the one that leads to success in selling is just bloody minded persistence. It's that desire and ability never to give up in the face of rejection.

He used to draw on the example of the Manchester based salesman finding himself in Barnsley on the other side of the Pennines at 4 o'clock on a wet November evening with snow in the air and deciding to make just one more call instead of heading home to home and warmth. How often is that call successful.

Phil's strictures were brought back to me last week by a reader who commented on an earlier post of mine and it's worthwhile reproducing his message in full.

"Four weeks ago I started in a sales job doing well mostly by perseverance. On Friday with 15 minutes to go, the MD arrived on the sales floor to deliver his weekly pep talk. Unaware of this ritual I picked up the phone to make the last call of the day. I delivered the same pitch I had used all day but this guy said "Yes". My only "yes" that day.

As I thanked the customer and closed the sale all eyes were on me. I replaced the receiver to a resounding cheer, "There goes Q again, right on cue!!" came the pun from the back of the office.

"A lot of fuss over a 300 quid sale", I thought until it became apparent that my sale had just taken the team over the 20 grand target for the week. Just goes to prove the next call might be THE sale".

What more need I say, other than have a successful week!

For further information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk
To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

Big Problem? Draw a Line in the Sand and Move On!

2011-03-20T11:43:00.000Z

Some years ago (now I come to think about it, many years ago) I went through a very unpleasant, painful and traumatic situation in my business life. Full of rage, I went to see a good friend, a very clever and mature lawyer, to see what could be done.

After allowing me to vent my spleen for an hour or so he stopped me and said: "I'm going to put three points to you. Firstly, I'm not going to charge you for this discussion (I did say that he was a good friend), secondly, if you hadn't told me who you were in business with, I would have told you. He's got form, he's done it before and he'll do it again".

Then came the clincher, a message that quite literally changed my life.

"Finally", he said: "I'm going to give you some advice". Goody, I thought, here comes the great legal mind applying itself to my problem and coming up with a great legal solution.

"Go home" he said: "Draw a line in the sand and get on with living your life from today. Don't waste your time, effort or emotions on a situation that you can't change".

Somewhat chastened, I did as I was told and ten days later landed a contract that set me up for a year and started my solo business career.

During that time I have had many business leaders, in mentoring sessions, tell me about traumatic events which had blighted their lives and how it had made them resentful, irritated and, in some cases, even looking for revenge. My friend's sage advice always comes to mind on these occasions.

The problem is that we often only learn about the event, when we should learn from it to enable us to move forward in a positive manner. VIstage speaker, Nigel Risner's equation of E + R = O (event plus response equals outcome) encourages leaders to realise that the event is immutable and cannot be changed. The only thing in which we have discretion is our response and that must depend on the outcome that we want.

It isn't always easy to draw that metaphorical line in the sand and move forward, but the rewards are there for the taking for those with the courage to do it. It isn't enough to march bravely backwards into the future with our eyes firmly fixed on the past; it's today and what comes with it that matters, and which offers us an opportunity to effect change for the better..

The simple question "Does it really matter?" or, even better, "Will it matter in twelve months' time?" will put the situation into perspective. Of course, it is often necessary to revisit the past but it is only of value if we really learn from and not just about what happened, and then take action to ensure the future.

For more information, visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk
To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Leader (or Short Distance for That Matter!)

2011-03-13T10:28:00.001Z

One of the abiding issues which seem to afflict many leaders is that of isolation; nobody to talk to who will give them genuine feedback and honest opinions.

The primary problem is that most people on a business have a hidden agenda and sometimes it isn't even hidden. By the way, that goes even for trusted professional advisers, non-executive directors and spouses, especially spouses. They all (well, most of them) have an agenda which wants to be protective and that isn't always what is needed.

The problem escalates when the leader is long distance; perhaps he/she runs a business which is an offshoot of an overseas company or even a subsidiary of a corporate enterprise with the usual faceless people asking for esoteric information most of which seems totally valueless but takes a vast amount of time to prepare.

There is no doubt at all that isolation causes stress; the solution is to find somebody or some organisation which can supply that vital ingredient of total detachment; someone who cares but who isn't involved in any way other than as a trusted companion, or even better, as a peer group of like minded people.

Dig a little deeper and consider people in a business who operate from home, perhaps some considerable distance from base. Their feelings of isolation are often compounded by a lack of understanding of their needs and emotions; often their performance is assessed without any conception of their feelings of isolation and lack of effective communication with headquarters.

In the end it all comes down to more effective communication and, please, not only to complain about performance and to add more and more regulation to monitor activity. Trust must be given and moreover, demonstrated visibly so that the long distance operative can show reciprocal trust in the leadership.

We are all pack animals at heart; we all need reassurance that we doing the right thing and we all need challenge when we are not. The solution? For the leader, find a trusted advisor or better, a trusted peer group, and then make sure that all your people are helped to feel more involved and less isolated. Performance can only improve as a consequence.

I would really welcome your comments!

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk
To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

Prices Too High? Try Improving Your Service Levels!

2011-03-06T11:15:00.003Z

It is interesting to note how an almost chance conversation during the week can be emphasised and substantiated along the way.

In discussion with a CEO running a substantial £40million turnover company retailing consumer goods through some 35 off-High Street outlets, he made the point that his business is a discounter and unless they supply at the lowest price possible, then the competition will take business away.

He was bemoaning the fact that prices from China are escalating and he will have to start increasing his prices to the customer or reduce his margins to maintain his competitive advantage. It was pointed out to him that as all import prices are escalating to everyone, he wasn’t alone; everyone else would have to take the same approach.

He was asked about his service levels to the customer and he said that in the market he was supplying, great service wasn’t expected. It seems that he exploited that myth and had people in his stores who also didn’t care about serving the customer.

We suggested that as his sales by volume are flatlining, that he starts to take the service aspect far more seriously. Prices will have to increase and the effect can be ameliorated by giving really good service which, frankly, doesn’t need to cost very much.

It needs better (and probably fewer) people, better paid and better trained plus a disciplined, committed and dedicated approach to making the customer want to come back again and again. There is nothing wrong in running a business as a discounter and great service can offer competitive advantage.

In my Vistage group I have a member running a company serving professionals, whose sales by volume have increased significantly, year on year, right through the recession even though his prices are substantially higher than the competition. Feedback from customers almost never mentions prices but praises the excellent service given by his company.

I have just seen an email received yesterday by my wife, practice manager in a law firm, which reads, in part: “I really just wanted to thank you for everything you did for us,........., For my part to have someone who calls when they say they will, who does everything they say they'll do and that you can totally trust is priceless in today’s world and very rare......... Fantastic! I will recommend your firm very highly and very often. Thank you again”.

What a great way to end the week! In almost every case, price is actually a secondary feature of why people buy, whether it be business to consumers, top level or discounter, business to business or professional practice. In the end we prefer to deal with people we like, people who we can trust, people who make us feel important to them. How much does that cost? It outweighs price disadvantage every time.

For more information, visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk
To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

But Who Mentors the Mentor (and How Frequently)?

2011-02-27T11:44:00.000Z

Vince Lombardi, the great ex-coach of the recent Super Bowl winners, Green Bay Packers was an inveterate purveyor of quotable one-liners and became almost as famous for them as he was for his evident coaching skills.

One of my favourites on the general subject of leadership was:

“Having the capacity to lead is not enough. The leader must be willing to use it.”

That is a big statement and warrants some serious consideration. For example, in discussion with a business leader this last week, we assessed the methods of communication with his executive team.

When I asked about one-to-one meetings with his team, he said that he did just that, once a year. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but in essence it becomes too much of an event, too formal and moving towards more of an appraisal.

Communication is the heartbeat of an organisation and unless the leader exerts his leadership with his team, they will tend to do their own thing and run their own business within the business.

This is not to say, in any respect, that he is failing in his leadership: just the opposite, as it happens as the business is coming through the recession in good heart under his influence. It is, perhaps more that he is not exerting his leadership qualities to the optimum extent.

One of the primary functions of a leader is that of coach or mentor to his team and that cannot be exerted without direct, one-to-one discussions Corridor meetings, occasional chats, team sessions, board or partner meetings are insufficient. It is only when the leader meets with his individual team members on a regular, formal basis that communication really starts to work.

Crucially, the leader needs upward communication so the agenda of the one-to-one is not his/hers; it is that of the team member. The function of the leader then is to listen and help the team member to uncover the issues which are really important and perhaps help him/her to identify the options for solution.

It takes time for people to fall into a level of comfort with the practice but it is well worth the effort. So, set a programme of one-to-ones with the team, on a diaried, regular basis, perhaps once a month, for a set time. 90 minutes to two hours, ask the team member for the agenda a couple of days beforehand, and then sit and listen.

It's tough call for a leader just to listen and not dive in to solve a problem, but it is essential to allow the team member to dig as deeply as possible into the issues.

This is, of course, all well and good and leads to far better communication and usually a higher level of job satisfaction for the team member.

But, the big question remains: who mentors the leader and how frequently?

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To contact s, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk
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Doing the Right Things or Doing Things Right?

2011-02-20T11:26:00.002Z

It isn't often that we can really learn a lesson in honesty and courage from one of our politicians but this week has seen something of an exception. The Secretary of State for the Environment, Caroline Spellman, came to the snake pit of the House and actually said "We got it wrong" and apologised. More's the point, she went on to say that she will now consult with interested parties to see what can be done to improve the situation.

Of course, there were the ritual screams of "humiliated" and "u-turn" but she had taken the wind out of the sails of the nay-sayers by her honesty and frankness. Whether she was metaphorically pushed to say what she said or jumped herself is academic. Suffice it to say, she did it and with some aplomb.

So what can we learn from this event? There is always a danger when things start to go slightly awry that we default to defence mode and the excuses start to appear. I have had occasions in my Vistage group when certain members, when confronted with radical ideas as to how to solve an issue, revert to "we tried that before and it didn't work" or "my people wouldn't like that" or, inevitably, "it's different in our industry".

Without wanting to appear unbending, unless members with that approach change pretty quickly, they don't last long in the group as the other members expect and indeed want to be challenged.

In essence the same thing applies in the business and, of course, in our daily lives on a regular basis. Simply because we are not perfect, things do occasionally go wrong and the question must be, how do we react? Do we cover up and make like it didn't happen, or brave it out, or best of all, admit the error and take steps to make sure that it won't happen again?

Making mistakes is an all too human trait but we only learn from mistakes, not from success. A business which accepts human frailty and learns from it will go forward whereas the business with a blame culture will only engender fear which leads to people reverting to defensive mode.

It's not easy to admit to making a mistake but the rewards are there; greater honesty, better communication and enhanced confidence in knowing that it's a matter of doing things right, rather than just doing the right things.

For further information, visit http://www.vistage.co.uk/ and www.maa-uk.co.uk
To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

Which Processes Do You Have? Are They Efficient or Effective?

2011-02-13T11:49:00.000Z

I have mentioned in earlier posts how remarkable it is that themes for this blog seem to pop up during one-to-one mentoring sessions with the members of my Vistage group, and then continue with other members for days afterwards. Not too surprising, I suspect, as once the thought is implanted, the conversations can trend accordingly.

This week a member, who runs a consultancy practice, remarked how the people in one of his clients (in social housing), had taken enthusiastically to the process of "lean thinking" in which they had had comprehensive training recently. However, the process seemed to have taken over from common sense.

In one case, a member of staff has suggested that one-to-one meetings, manager and staff member, were not "lean" and it is better to have a team meeting instead. This does not take into account the subject of the meeting or indeed the desired outcome. It merely says that it more "efficient" to see several people at once rather than one at a time.

It's a classic case of a desire for efficiency over the real need for enhanced effectiveness. We hear all the time of the need not just to cut expenditure in the public sector, but to achieve it through "efficiencies". On the face of it there is some sense in suggesting that merely firing people is an easy way out, if not for the victims, whereas thee are many a varied ways to reduce expenditure and maintain the effectiveness of the organisation. This does, of course, need some thought and is not usually politically acceptable to some.

The fashionable business and industrial processes of which lean thinking is a prime example mostly originated in the automotive industry where the relentless pursuit of waste, of either time or movement or both, leads to enhanced efficiency and better productivity. Eminently sensible, but the automotive industry is highly automated and modifying the process on a kai-zen, or incremental, basis can lead to significant improvements.

Strangely, people are not automated systems so the outcome of a relentless drive for efficiency over effectiveness will only result in a crazy world where slavish adherence to the process, as such, overrides common sense.

In previous posts I have emphasised the need to involve the people in the business in the running of the business; this needs a drive for effectiveness of thinking, of decision making and of action.

Systems and processes should be looked upon as important management tools, means to an end, and certainly not as the end themselves.

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To contact us email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

No Enthusasm or Commitment? Involve Your People!

2011-02-06T10:46:00.001Z

One of the perennial complaints of Vistage members and certainly the owner managers, at least in my experience, is that the troops don't think like I do, they aren't as enthusiastic, they aren't as committed.

Why does this come as such a surprise?   The person starting and/or running a business is there precisely for that reason; the thinking, enthusiasm and commitment are in the DNA. On the other hand unless that thinking process, enthusiasm and commitment is transmitted constantly into the business then it is understandable that people look upon it as a job and not a career.

It all comes down to the culture in the business and defining it and driving it into the core of the business is the responsibility of the leader.

Too often, and again especially in owner managed businesses, the owner succumbs to to the "if I don't do it, then it won't be done properly" syndrome and that leads to upward delegation.   The upshot is, of course, a lack of initiative and a reluctance to make decisions. It is far easier to move the monkey off your back and shift it on to the leader's. Job done.

None of that, of course, helps the team to the thinking, enthusiasm and commitment so desired by the leader, and in the end morale suffers.

It is not all doom, gloom and despondency, however. The culture of the business, if properly designed and defined by the leader will, and certainly should, encourage innovation, creative thinking, and a positive approach to decision making. I know that it probably now a business cliche but the idea of "bring to me solutions, not problems", is a great start.

Equally one of my Vistage members has scrapped his weekly Executive Meeting in favour of a Communication Meeting for everyone who wishes to be there when all ideas are encouraged and accepted for consideration. At the same time, the leader can and will be open in telling the team precisely what is happening, both for good and for less than good.

This is a radical idea and deserves a great deal of thought. Giving the people in the business more autonomy and realising that they have, all of them, a great deal to offer, can completely transform a business for the better.

People want to know two things - how am I doing and where are we going? If they can materially contribute to the answers of both of those questions, then the problems of lack of thinking, enthusiasm and commitment will rapidly disappear.

On a very topical note and with tongue firmly ensconced in the cheek on this post SuperBowl Monday, it is well to recall Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers (triumphant last night) who said "I want you guys to be fired with enthusiasm because if you aren't, then you'll be fired - with enthusiasm!"   What more can I say?

For more information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk
To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

Can the Number Two Become the Number One? Not Always!

2011-01-30T11:58:00.000Z

One of the more recurring mantras in business is "never promote your best salesman to be sales manager". My sales mentor, Phil Copp, the sage of Wythenshawe, was certainly one the best in a sales force of more that 120, and he never aspired to change and take over the top job

He was a typical and very successful operator and knew exactly where his strengths lay. Fortunately, so did the management so they never even suggested that he move upwards.

During an interesting discussion last week with a very experienced Finance Director, he mentioned that in his past career, he had been promoted to Managing Director of a company and, in pretty short time, he realised that he just wasn't cut out for the job.

Now that is a hard thing to accept and I have the utmost admiration for an executive who knows his strengths and accepts that he actually has certain shortcomings. Would that more people in business (and certainly politics) could be more forthcoming.

Perhaps that experience suggests that the number two position in a business is not always the best preparation for the top job. The fact is that most CEOs and MDs arrive in the position by rising through a function, be it finance, sales, operations, manufacturing and so on.

Kenneth and Will Hopper in their wonderful book, The Puritan Gift, (http://www.puritangift.com/) emphasise that domain knowledge is essential for the successful top executive and that can only be achieved by coming up through the ranks of management.

Perhaps an important caveat is the danger of assuming that the number two position is the right preparation for the top job. Apart from business and industry, in the annals of sport and politics there are so many perfect examples of failures of apparently competent "assistants" to be successful in assuming the leadership and driving their organisation forward.

It may be that too many number twos are so engrossed in the minutiae of their function that they cannot see the big picture; they just don't have the ability to macro-manage as distinct from micro-managing.

It's the helicopter view of a business that has to be the view of the leader. Anything less than that means a descent into micro-management and consequent interference with functional executives.

So what is the answer? That other excellent book, "Good to Great", says that we must "get the right people on the bus" and that implies that succession planning must take note of the ability of managers to take a broad view of the business while, in the initial stages, running their own function effectively.

It's a big and problematical requirement but essential if the organisation is to prosper and grow. Succession planning demands that making the right decisions in recruitment and, more importantly, spotting the talent in the organisation and then developing it, must be a primary function of the leader.

For further information visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk
To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk

Are You a Leader or a Manager? We Need Both!

2011-01-23T12:28:00.001Z

In and among the multifarious writings and lectures on the subject of leadership we an find just a few different thoughts which stand out. Once again, Vistage speaker Walt Sutton hits home with a really valuable concept; that there is a big difference between the leader/entrepreneur and the manager.

In essence, Walt defines the entrepreneur as a person who organises, operates and assumes the risk for a business enterprise whereas he defines a manager as a person who controls and manipulates resources and expenditures.

Very neat, and it begs quite a few questions.

If we analyse types of people, admittedly in a very subjective manner, by using the PAEI method, (Producer, Administrator, Entrepreneur, Integrator) then the classic entrepreneur/ leader would rate highly on productivity and entrepreneurship (obviously!), probably less highly as an integrator and almost certainly low on administration, being generally far too committed to doing things rather than organising them efficiently.

On the other hand, the classic manager would rate highly as a producer and administrator, reasonably as an integrator and nowhere as an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs are generally perfectly capable of doing managerial functions but they usually do them very inefficiently and often poorly. It would usually take far more effort for the entrepreneur to do a managerial task than it would a capable manager.

On the other hand, good managers often exhibit entrepreneurial traits but generally only traits. For some reason it is unusual for a good manager to transform into an entrepreneur and leader.

Equally, the entrepreneur/leader who for some reason aspires to become a great manager is often condemning the business to death.

So what is the answer? As in so many examples it comes down to compromise. Every business needs a great leader with strong entrepreneurial attributes and the ability to transmit his/her enthusiasm and passion to the business.

On the other hand, the business needs careful planning, organisation and financial competence which implies the need for efficient and effective managers.

Both functions are vital to the success of an enterprise and this means the ability to work in tandem, understanding the differing needs and roles in each case and adjusting expectations of each other as a consequence.

That takes patience and understanding in most cases but if it can be achieved, then it certainly pays off in the end.

PS: Remember George W Bush's comment that the French don't have a word for entrepreneur?

For further information, visit www.vistage.co.uk and www.maa-uk.co.uk
To contact us, email to ivan.goldberg@vistage.co.uk