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18
— Management conference 2011 —
the
manager
WINTER 2011
➽
and great leaders go to great
lengths to engender this ‘conversation’.
When Greg Dyke became director
general of the BBC he was aware that
his predecessor John Birt had been
accused of being remote, aloof and,
particularly, London-centric. So, very
deliberately, Dyke spent his first 100
days away from London, visiting
locations that no BBC director general
had ever visited before.
Dyke used this ‘tour’ as an
opportunity to speak to as many
people as he could at all levels of the
organisation, asking them all the same
two questions; “What one thing
should we do to improve our service?”
and “What one thing should I do to
improve your working life?” Dyke
then spent his second 100 days
implementing as many of those
suggestions as he could. The whole
process took more than six months,
but when it was finished Dyke had
17,500 employees of the BBC onside,
following him. Dyke realised that
without followers, you’re not a leader.
Not everyone can spend 200 days
on a communications project, but
all leaders need to find the time for
dialogue. Every day, every leader will
be approached by at least one member
of their team who will ask if they
can “have a minute”. What these
people are really asking is: “Can I
have a few moments of your
undivided attention?”
Some years ago, I interviewed the
YO! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe
in front of a live audience. This began
as quite a disconcerting experience, as
there was a marked pause between the
end of each of my questions and the
beginning of Woodroffe’s replies.
However, all became clear after a few
minutes when Woodroffe explained,
saying: “A few years ago I realised that
when I was in conversation, about
halfway through the other person
speaking I began to formulate my
response and, as a result, was no
longer listening 100 per cent. So now
I’ve taught myself to listen and, only
when the other person has stopped
talking, consider my reply.” Most
leaders live very much ‘in the now’
and find it very difficult to give such
undivided attention, but it’s
something that many should learn.
Perhaps the biggest challenge faced
by any leader is the management of
change. Change is generally a good
thing; change delivers innovation,
change delivers continual
improvement and change can deliver
better performance. However, there is
one major drawback to change...
human beings don’t like it. Change is
complicated, change is stressful and
change is inherently messy, but change
will probably be a necessity if your
organisation is to remain successful.
Leaders need to recognise the need for
change, must be motivated to make
that change and must be prepared to
take others with them.
If you are to change, though, you
will need to challenge and question
everything. None of us will ever have
all the answers and I take the view
that If you’re not going to have all the
answers, then you need to equip
yourself with most of the questions.
Einstein was once asked: “If you were
given an hour to solve a problem that
your life depended upon, what would
you do?” The great scientist replied
that he would spend the first 55
minutes determining what was the
right question, because he would be
confident that he could answer it in
five minutes.
So are you asking the right
question? I wouldn’t presume to tell
you what the right question is, but I
would offer you four questions which
will provide debate and discussion
around your organisation’s
performance:
- What are the good things you do
that you must keep doing?
- What are the bad things you do that
you must stop doing?
- What are the things you do
occasionally that you must do
consistently?
- What things don’t you do that you
must start doing?
The last of these is the most
difficult, because we don’t know what
we don’t know. A good way to find
out, though, is to ask someone who’s
relatively new to your organisation.
This will work even better if you’ve
already taken the time to establish
good two-way communications.
Successful organisations learn from
their past performance; they review
both successes and failures because,
as Lord Coe once put it: “If you don’t
know why you’ve failed, how can you
improve? And if you don’t know why
you’ve succeeded, then it must have
been an accident.”
The reality is that most
organisations examine their failures
and celebrate their successes. In fact,
they should examine both, because
it’s success that they’re trying to
replicate... not failure.
About Jeff Grout
Jeff Grout is a business consultant specialising in leadership, people
management, team building, peak performance, recruitment and retention
issues. A graduate of the London School of Economics and former UK
managing director of the world’s largest specialist recruitment agency,
Robert Half International, Grout has also been business manager for
Sir Clive Woodward and worked with the former England rugby coach
Martin Johnson. Listed in the ‘100 Best Business Speakers in Britain’, Grout
works for a variety of clients including Morgan Stanley, Barclays, HSBC,
the FA and Saracens RFC. www.jeffgrout.com
“If you are
to change,
though, you
will need to
challenge
and question
everything”