Articles and Lectures
You may find the attached thoughts of interest.
TEN THINGS I WISH I HAD KNOWN BEFORE STARTING MY CAREER
I have listed below some things I wish I had known before I started my career and which I have only come to understand and appreciate over the years. Having said that it has been a challenging and fun process finding them out and it is a journey I am still on. They are not easy and each individual, and that includes me, will find some more difficult than others.
Some of the observations reflect the fact that market research was a major activity in my career.
It’s dangerous to assume anything in business and indeed life
In my first week at work I was told by what I then thought was an elderly manager (he was probably about 35) “Never assume anything”. How right he was both in relation to the destiny of organizations and individuals.
In both life and business we all walk around with a whole set of assumptions. Over time the assumptions solidify into a mindset and that leads to denial that other perspectives could have equal or even superior merit. The answer to counteracting this tendency lies in constructive challenge which involves questioning and investigating the assumptions held.
Although not noted as a management thinker (or indeed that well known in Great Britain) fictional character Lemony Snicket eloquently summed up the situation with “Making assumptions simply means believing things in a certain way with little or no evidence that shows you are correct, and you can see at once how this can lead to terrible trouble”.
Even if you don’t do politics you still have to be aware of politics
Politics has for good reasons a poor image in business and many managers take the view that they do not want to know or be involved. However whenever human beings group together there are politics. The secret is to be concerned with constructive organisational politics.
David Butcher and Martin Clarke in their excellent (and short) book “Smart Management” define politics as “those deliberate efforts made by individuals and groups in organizations to use power in pursuit of their own particular interests”.
What distinguishes “good” politics from “bad” politics is the purity of objectives in using that power. It should be, but unfortunately is not always, used for worthy motives that benefits others.
Emotional intelligence is more important than standard intelligence
When I started out on my career the term emotional intelligence did not exist. The skills of emotional intelligence were important then but arguably they are even more essential in today’s business environment.
Daniel Goleman popularised the idea of emotional intelligence in his 1995 book entitled “Emotional Intelligence”.
Goleman described the three main elements of emotional intelligence as:
· Being aware of our own emotions
· Learning to manage those emotions
· Learning to recognise and respond to the emotions of others.
Effectiveness and success in business requires managers to have and hone these skills, and put them into practice on a minute by minute basis. The focus of emotional intelligence in recent years has made it easier to understand and practice something that before was less appreciated and was, therefore, more instinctive.
The importance of taking risks
It is not easy but it is important to take risks. Anything of value tends to have an element of risk associated with it. We are not talking wild, kamikaze-style risks but the uncertainty associated with taking action which is all too common in business, and indeed, life.
Measured contributions mean influence
The importance of measured contributions to a meeting cannot be underestimated. Some managers plunge in regardless but participate too early and consequently have nothing to say as the meeting progresses. A far better approach is to sit quietly and listen carefully. With a full understanding of what the meeting is really about a contribution will be more telling and influential. Influence is getting others to think, and then to act as you want them to.
Flexibility at all times
Good managers are always flexible. This is illustrated by the fact that senior managers can always find the money for their pet projects even if the normal budgets available are depleted.
Business is fast moving and the ability to adjust is essential. It is necessary to have a flexible mind set and expect the unexpected.
It is not always possible to be in control but you can give an outward demonstration of seeming to be in control.
Cultivate a strategic perspective
This is not easy at the start of a career and for many it remains an elusive capability even as their career progresses. Such individuals remain enmeshed in operational thinking. The strategic perspective enables you to see the so called bigger picture. But this is not easy as the difficulty with strategic thinking is that it is often intuitive and inductive. Unfortunately the boundaries are not clear but ambiguous and fuzzy.
Senior managers don’t always know what they want
It is an easy trap when dealing with senior managers to think that they are crystal clear about what they want. Do not broadcast it but sometimes they struggle to define the problem and to articulate how to address it. Such moments present a great, career enhancing opportunity to be useful by refining and shaping the direction of what is being done. There is a saying a problem defined is a problem half solved.
Good news is easier to present than bad news
Shoot the messenger is the old adage and anyone who stands up to present bad news to a management team must be prepared for a rougher ride than those bringing good news. Managers do not flee or freeze when confronted with bad news - they fight. The answer to this onslaught is to be prepared by anticipating what will be controversial, preparing and rehearsing sound responses and keeping calm under fire. As Kipling said:
“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too”.
Managers aren’t really interested in methodology except when they don’t agree with the results
This is a corollary of the previous rule. If management trust and accept the findings of what is being presented they will need only a cursory description of the methodology. If however they take issue with the research results be prepared for a lengthy and detailed dissection of the methodology. You have been warned.
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The following article appeared in the Co-operative News.
Is it time to think about the Group’s next Chief Executive?
The increased scale of the enlarged Co-operative Group since the merger with United has been well rehearsed, particularly in the pages of the Co-operative News. The new Society is the world’s largest consumer co-operative with a turnover of £9.4 billion, 4.5 million members, 87,500 employees and 4,500 trading outlets.
It is an interesting question to consider whether the job of Chief Executive of the Co-operative Group is now a more difficult job than it has been previously. Those supporting that view would quote the sheer scale of the operation, as evidenced by the above statistics, and the tumultuous nature of the current business environment. Some, however, will consider the more streamlined structure of the Co-operative sector has made the situation easier, with the days of literally hundreds of autonomous societies now part of history. Whatever viewpoint you take the fact is that the position is highly demanding.
It was reassuring to read, therefore, that the present incumbent, Peter Marks, feels that the role of Chief Executive of the Co-operative Group is “exhilarating” and “exciting” and that he has ambitious plans to lead the Group to a doubling of profit.
In thinking about the position of Chief Executive of the Co-operative Group, a new book has appeared “The CEO Within” which has relevance. The author is Joseph L. Bower, a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard School, and in his book he looks at the issue of succession, arguing that in these challenging and turbulent times organisations need to start thinking about succession some ten years before the new person needs to be in place.
Peter Marks was born in 1949 and has, therefore, a number of years to go before completing his watch, but if Professor Bower is right the Directors of the Co-operative Group should be giving some serious thought to the process by which they will choose, and who might be their next appointment, as Chief Executive Officer.
Bower has studied succession through ten years of extensive research and has some advice to offer on the planning of succession. He starts from the rather obvious point that the prospective Chief Executive can be either from outside or inside the organisation. The attraction of external candidates is that they bring fresh perspectives and contacts. Their weakness is often that they don’t understand or appreciate the history, traditions and culture of the organisation they are attempting to lead. To use the professor’s words they are not “substantively grounded”. This means that they do not have the in-depth inside knowledge of the organisation to know how to make the difficult and necessary changes that may be required. As a consequence they are not successful.
To find the only outsider to be ever appointed Chief Executive of the Co-operative Group, or Co-operative Wholesale Society as it was then, we have to go back more than forty years to Philip Thomas, whose attempt at revolution was stopped by his tragic death in an air crash in South Africa. As an outsider Thomas most certainly brought fresh perspectives and contacts to the Co-operative Wholesale Society, but many of his contemporaries within the Co-operative sector doubted his ability to understand what was needed in the climate of the times to be successful in his programme of radical change. Since then, as was the case before Thomas, the Chief Executive of the Co-operative group has come from inside the Group, or if not there from the Co-operative sector.
Joseph L. Bower’s prescription for successful succession planning is to look to what he terms “inside-outsiders”. These are individuals who come from within the organisation (so in the case of the Co-operative Group that would be from within the organisation itself or from the wider Co-operative sector) but importantly bring an outsider’s perspective, which enables them to see the organisation as a newcomer moving in for the first time would. As Bower eloquently puts it, they are “unencumbered by the cognitive and emotional baggage that comes from a long tenure in the organisation”.
In essence this means that such managers have a view on how the world is changing, and know what the organisation needs to do to become strategically aligned with, and successful in the new environment.
Many insiders are “substantively grounded” in how their organisation works and have the desire to lead, but they still lack the necessary qualities to be a great leader. The problem is that they do not really recognise the magnitude of change that is needed for the organisation to be successful in a turbulent world. They are too focussed on execution and today’s performance rather than the needs of tomorrow. They cannot see the way the world is changing from the genuine outsider’s perspective.
Past precedent would point towards the next Chief Executive of the Co-operative Group being an “insider”. If Professor Bower’s thoughts have validity, and his research and reputation mean that he should not be dismissed lightly, this individual would have their “insider” knowledge and understanding tempered by the perspective of an “outsider”.
The Co-operative sector has a long and honourable tradition of discourse and debate through numerous forums, not least the pages of this newspaper, and these should provide adequate opportunities for all “insiders” with aspirations to be Chief Executive of the Co-operative Group to demonstrate fully their credentials as an “outsider”, by taking and sharing with us a constructively critical view of what is, as well as offering a vision of what should be. Such a dialogue, fellow co-operators, would enrich us all.
“The CEO Within: Why Insider Outsiders are the Key to Succession” by Joseph L Bower is published by the Harvard Business School Press.