No vision, so how can you lead?

It is a myth that a good manager can do his job with no vision.  I have recently seen two examples of under performing businesses where there is no vision for the senior managers to work towards and as a result the businesses are in danger of descending into chaos.

In the first which is owner managed the Managing Director cannot see further than the next year.  There are no plans in place for succession nor for the challenges that face their industry in the coming years.  Funding is taken out for the short term needs without considering what their longer term requirements are.

The second business is run by two executive directors who are both looking to retire within the next 4 years, the MD within 2! The shareholders (who are represented on the Board by 4 non-executive directors) have differing views on where the business should go and therefore have still to prepare their succession plan.

In the first business the MD doesn't acknowledge that there is a problem. He has an out dated approach to management and although he is fast approaching retirement age he doesn't see the need to plan to retire!  When he does realise that, it may be too late and the value of his business will have plummeted. 

In the second business both the executive directors and the non-executive directors see the potential problem and although it may be late they are doing something about it.  A visioning workshop is the start point. This will hopefully result in goal congruence and what was once a highly profitable business returning to that position.

In both cases though currently there is chaos within the business and it is causing uncertainty and under performance within their people.  By having clarity of vision and communicating it with their teams businesses begin to perform and to grow.  Indeed the succession that you have been looking for may be within those teams.

Do you Lead or Does no one Follow?

What are the attributes that make a leader stand out from the crowd of managers?  Many  managers think that they are leaders but in reality they aren't. 

John Kotter described a leader as being "associated with taking an organisation into the future".  This has nothing to do with management.  Another definition of Leadership is "Taking people to places that they haven't been before, for the right reasons".

However it is not about attributes.  You will find similar attributes from strong managers as you will find in great leaders.  It is about behaviour, about vision and about passion.  Great leaders have a vision and demonstrate a strong passion about the organisation.  You don't always find that with managers.   Even though they are passionate about their work managers will often fall in line with the vision rather than developing their own.

Leaders also understand the 5 forces that affect business as set out by Michael Porter:

• The Threat of New Entrants
• The Extent of the Bargaining Power of Suppliers
• The Extent of the Bargaining Power of Buyers
• The Threat of Substitutes
• The Rivalry with Competitors

and use this understanding to create an uncontested market space where the whole system of activities can be alligned in pursuit of differentiation and low cost.

Finally leaders leave you feeling energised, in awe of their passion and approach to their work.  Its uplifting to be in their company and they are the people that you look forward to spending time with.

So if you are a good manager do you have what it takes to become a leader?  Or will you be content to work for that positively infectious individual.

The Customer is no longer Right!

Is it just about getting the sale now?  Are we forgetting the customer and their experience? On Friday I had 2 bad experiences which suggest that businesses large and small may just be doing that.

During the early part of the morning I received a call from my firm's mobile phone supplier. It was in response to a reminder I had sent to them on Wednesday on the fact that since I hadn't heard from them since I had received an email a month ago to say that they couldn't fix the problem with emails not being redirected to my BlackBerry.

During the phone call the Director of the Company that had phoned was consistently denying that it was their responsibility, blaming other people for giving him incorrect information and consistently trying to wriggle out of trying to sort the problem out.

Later in the day I was on the 16:49 train from Birmingham New Street to Hereford.  I tweeted that people were standing (in some cases all of the way to Worcester Shrub Hill) and that the operator, London Midland should add more coaches as it was in my opinion unacceptable.  London Midland responded by saying that they had increased that particular service to 4 coaches and sorry if I found that uncomfortable.   No response to a suggestion that they should increase to 5 coaches.

As the customer I find both the attitude of the mobile phone salesman and the train operator poor and wrong. In the case of the former I will be looking for a new supplier and will contact the service provider to complain.  

For the train operators the position is that although I find the train a useful method of transport into major cities the reputation of this particular operator is already very low following a string of cancellations a few months ago. Attitude like theirs will not recover this but do they care.  They have the licence to operate the trains for a number of years and are more interested in profit than giving a good customer experience.

For me?  I will ensure that I am never on the 16:49 train in the future!

Taking the Plunge

To be successful you sometimes need to make some outrageous and brave decisions and I was reminded of one such decision recently.

On Friday evening two friends of mine, Steve and Andrea Borwell-Fox hosted a dinner a party to celebrate the 10th anniversary of them launching their business Borwell, a software engineering business. At the party were around 150 of the people that had helped them through the first 10 years of business, including their first customers, representatives from the Local Enterprise Partnership and the Chamber of Commerce, as well as their 12 employees and their partners.

The party also celebrated an award that they had recently received from the Ministry of Defence for a successful software project.  But the main purpose of the party was to say thank you to those who had helped them along the way.

I have known Steve and Andrea for about 5 years yet the invitation made me feel a little humble because Andrea had been a guest at a Leaders Group meeting I had hosted last November. The subject was Going for Growth in 2013 and in that meeting she had told me something that I hadn't been aware of previously.

We were discussing the key lessons for leadership for growth and had identified that they were:

1.Constant Innovation

2.Great customer relationships

3.Great culture and core values

4.Tenacity was critical

5.Data and Instinct equally valued

6.Growth enabled them to deliver a better product / service not just be bigger

Each of these points are applicable to both the Company and to Steve and Andrea personally; but when we came to tenacity, culture and values Andrea bought into the discussion the need to make those brave decisions.

Steve had been talking about forming his own business to develop software for the Defence Industry and for businesses generally and was ready to set up his own business. Nothing unusual there I hear you say.

No there isn't but it was what Andrea told me then that has cemented them into my mind as exceptional leaders capable of making those brave and difficult decisions.

They both wrote their resignation letters on the same day. Andrea resigning her post as a music teacher at a local secondary school having just completed her maternity leave following the birth of their first child to help support her husband and his dream. How difficult a decision was that? Leaving a career with the security associated with the teaching profession to support your husband as he is starting his first business.

Their values have allowed it to work but they have needed to be tenacious along the route as there are always some bumpy patches as you go and you must not allow those difficulties defer you from the path that you think is right.

I am honoured to count Steve and Andrea amongst my friends as not only do they show great work-life balance and the highest technical skill in their work, they truly are exceptional people.