Changing Business

Who are ‘they’?

Last week I heard three different people say “great idea but they would never allow it”, “they would not accept it”, “they simply would never agree”. In fact, because I hear the ‘they’ phrase used so often these days, I am beginning to wonder who ‘they’ are and why they are so damned negative?

The truth of the matter is on one level, the phrase can mean ‘please don't bother me with a solution; I am just in a self indulgent mood and want to bring you down to my level’. And yet on another level, more often than not, people simply use it as a very weak excuse for inaction. They do not want to hear your solution or advice because they have no intention of trying to bring about the change it implies.

When you think about it, abandoning a creative idea by blaming figurative groups of people for something you have not even bothered to consult them on, is quite is simply ridiculous.

From now on, whenever you hear the ‘they’ phrase, challenge it. Ask “Who are they? What are their functions in the company and why do you think ‘they’ would block you?” Remind the person that uses it, that if their idea is sound; if it has been well thought through and has received a degree of verification, then it is simply is their duty to at least try to get support for it.

It seems that once we have left full time education, the pressures and responsibilities of daily life entrench us with an inner fear of failure. The enterprising spirit that won us our job in the first place seems to diminish with each passing year. And yet we know that nothing worth achieving was ever achieved by anyone without strong opposition. Opposition is, after all, what we humans are frighteningly good at. We enjoy putting each other down, we even put ourselves down, making ourselves feel small and insignificant, until eventually we decide that it is easier to give up before we even begin. After all who wants to make a fool of themselves by being turned down, especially in public?

Having an idea rejected in business, is not as emotionally draining as being rejected by a teenage sweetheart, and yet many of us act as if it is and do everything to avoid it.

Have a good week,

Harley

Applying for a new position

“In no more than 300 words, describe a time where you faced a challenging situation, how did you try and resolve it and what would you do differently next time?” This question was posed to someone I know who was applying for a job on line. They wanted the job badly and came to me for advice on how best to tackle it. After advising them to keep it ‘personal and true’ I thought about many suitable instances in their short career but found it hard to find a single one in my own. After much thought, I came up with this…

12 years ago I was the COO of a small software company. It was growing fast and, as is typical in this situation, the employees were growing with it. My PA had taken on a more senior role and I needed someone to fill the open position. Because I was away a great deal I was looking for a personal assistant that could ‘hold the fort’ when I was gone.

The person I recruited was very intelligent and dynamic. She had a friendly smile and a reassuring ‘I can handle it’ attitude. But it turned out to be a disaster. While I was in the office, her work was perfect. Even when away, she would give an extremely precise picture of what was, and what was not, happening.

However, behind the scene my new PA was not so well received. Mistrust had set in. Jealousies and rivalries were threatening the fabric of the team the CEO and I had meticulously built. After a couple of months the situation came to a head when my former PA told me ‘it is either her or me?’ I had to make a quick decision. Although her replacement had done nothing wrong, I fired her and set about restoring confidence.

From that day onwards, I discussed all open positions with two key colleagues. I explained the need for additional people and what I was expecting from them. Time was given to come back with suggestions. Only then would the recruitment process begin. Times of interviews were scheduled to coincide with lunch, so that selected staff in the dining area could give informal feedback.

The team we had built was too precious to lose and was too small for dynamic changes in one jump.

What would you have answered?

Have a good week

Clearing up before the cleaner comes

I don’t suppose that my wife and I are the only ones that tidy up before the cleaner comes? I know some may laugh and ask ‘why are you cleaning when you have a cleaner?’, my reply “I am not cleaning, I am just clearing up before the cleaner comes”! The difference is subtle but it makes all the difference, especially in management.

When I was young business leader I had a strict open door policy. People could wonder in, bringing their troubles and ideas with them as they pleased. Today my door is kept shut, except by appointment, unless there is something extremely urgent, and why is this?

I found that if you have a real ‘open door’ it is very hard to get any work done, one is always interrupted. But this is not the most serious problem. When my door was open, people just expected me to solve their problems whenever they had them. The better I became at it, the lazier they became. But this was also not the most serious problem. If I solved their problem, they went away happy – if it worked out, it became ‘their solution’ if it went wrong, it was always mine.  I lost, no matter the outcome. I found myself becoming more and more tired. No one seemed to gained in the long run.

When you think about it, it boils down to a question of respect. In India, people spent a life time of servitude for ten minutes of enlightenment with their guru. Surely a few hours, or even minutes of preparation is not too much to ask for an hour with me?

Working at senior management level teaches the importance of preparation. To think the problem through, prior sharing it with ones peers. To look at it from all sides: ‘How would the finance director see it’? ‘What would the sales director say’? ‘Would the marketing director back it, what arguments would I use to defend it’? Etc. etc.

Five PowerPoint slides: one with the problem, one with two alternatives, another with the for’s and against each for the first and another with for’s and against of the second. The last slide with a conclusion, suggesting the best way to progress. With this system, as if by magic, more often than not the solution is at least partly solved before it even enters my room.

Leaders need to make sure they lead. They need to respect their managers and staff enough to have them use their brains and draw their own analytical conclusions, after all that is what they are paid for. Leaders should act as mirrors. They should endeavor to keep above the chores of daily business life, only dipping down into the details once in a while to be sure their footings are still on secure ground.

And so it is just like with my cleaner. I need to prepare for her. How can she sweep the floor if it has boxes and bags on it? How can she clean the worktops efficiently if they have last night’s wine glasses and dinner plates upon them?

As for the cleaner in my office, my challenge there is simply to see if I can make her smile, it’s a tough job but somebody has got to do it!

Have a good week,

Harley

Interesting people

I am very selective with whom I spend my precious free time. If it is not the obligations of family (to which this piece does not apply) then it has to be friends, but when I think about it, I do not spend that much time with friends either.  This is mainly because I am too easily bored.  A friend for me is not just a fine companion, he or she must also be very interesting.  But what exactly is it that makes someone interesting rather than boring?

An interesting person fills me with new ideas. They challenge the way I think, they have a deeper knowledge than I, on a whole variety of subjects. They constantly come up with interesting conundrums or theories. They have always just discovered something, not necessarily at work but perhaps in a new book, or play, or piece of music or work of art. They are always very busy with a wide variety of hobbies and interests which exercises their intellect. An interesting person needs also to be funny too. Not necessarily by telling jokes but simply by finding comical connections with themselves, the world and their subject matter. They should not take themselves too seriously, after all we are all only passing through, our time is now, but it will fade and for that one needs a sense of humor!

In much the same way leaders, like friends, need to be interesting too. Leaders need to be inspiring, but how can they be if they are boring? When I think of the leaders I enjoyed working for, they were all inspiring. Every one of them had the ability to plant a new seed or idea in my mind to motivate me further on my journey.

I do not suppose there is anyone on the planet today that can be interesting to everyone, all of the time. Perhaps even Leonardo Da Vinci was boring once in a while? And this is one reason why leaders need to restrict the amount of time they spend with any one person.

The question is: where do interesting people get their ideas? This is easy; from life, from others, from books, from newspapers, from research, from self study, from travel, from exploring new ideas, from trying new hobbies. By ensuring that all their senses are stimulated as much and as often as possible, by ensuring that they are alive and living life to the full.

My book of the month for February is ‘Think like Da Vinci’. I found it interesting not only because it takes as its subject probably the most brilliant person that ever lived but also the author Michael J. Gelb brings Da Vinci to life and then gives us exercises to do in order to learn how to think more like the great man himself, to understand how he saw the world and how it shaped his life.

Just this weekend a friend of mine reminded me that in the fifteenth and sixteenth century it was normal for a man to study everything. That a scientist was measured by the depth and breadth of his knowledge, and that it was only in the 18^th and 19^th century that narrow research papers became the normal output from our universities.

A question: on a scale of one to ten (compared with Leonardo Da Vinci or Francis Bacon) how interesting are you?

Have a good week