Taking Management Seriously.......

90% of the problems in organisations can be traced back to a failure of management - fact. So why do we fail to take management seriously?

The first thing to say is that it is not the individual managers fault it is the system (or lack of) for recruiting, developing and managing managers. Management is the only profession that you get promoted into because you are good at something else. The classic mistake is promoting the best salesperson to be a sales manager.....

Also, management is the only profession that it is thought no preparation is necessary. Yet the latest research clearly shows that high performance is any field requires considerable practice over a long period of time.

Managers are generally hired without any real assessment of their ability to manage. They receive little guidance about what is expected and have few real successful role models to imitate. They get little feedback on their performance and few opportunities to practice their skills with useful feedback.

However, no one within the organisation normally recognises that the standard of management, recruitment, development and performance is poor, therefore nothing usually gets done about it. Likewise, the managers in other organisations are no better so benchmarking is of little value. This is a conspiracy of silence.....

Meanwhile competitors, the government, taxes, banks, markets etc are blamed for the organisation's failure. We are looking in the wrong place! It's down to management.

What is to be done about it? In my view nothing less than a revolution in the way we select, train, motivate and manage managers will solve the problem.

Are we ready to take management seriously?

Which side of the balance sheet is your culture?

Often when I first visit new clients their culture is either neutral or a liability. The challenge is to make the culture an asset of the business. You get this by design not default.

Here is how we do it:

1. Clearly state the values you want your business to operate by e.g. treating people with respect, delighting customers, every person a business person, non-negotiable health and safety practices etc.

2. Write a one page policy for each of the values, preferably simple, bullet point rules.

3. Tell all your people this is the way we now do things here - they are non-negotiable.

4. Monitor the application of the rules scoring individuals/departments/units out of 10. The aim is to get consistent 8+ across the business.

5. Consider getting individuals/depts/units to review and score each other.

6. Keep up the discipline for a minimum of 2 years. Celebrate high scores, insist low scores change.

7. After 2 years your culture should be embedded and serving the business.

When you do the above well the culture will be an asset and if you do it really well you will be an industry leader.

There, culture, done!

The Talent Myth

What do you look for when trying to recruit high performing people into your business?

- IQ
- Experience
- Memory
- Emotional Intelligence
- Personality

Well some of these characteristics may help but a new book based upon extensive research 'Talent is Overrated' suggests that the key to high performance is personal practice on the skills that really matter in business, sport or any other endeavour.

The book argues that even Mozart, Tiger Woods and Bill Gates were not particularly talented they just worked really hard over a long period of time, often alone. They put in the hours to hone their skills. Jack Nicholas the golfer knew this years ago when he said "the more I practice the luckier I seem to get!"

So when recruiting, look for people who have worked hard at developing the skills you require.

There, talent done!

Helping managers to get the job done

One of my business values is that the wisdom to make businesses a success resides within..... and my job is to provide processes to help managers to find and use the wisdom to creates successful businesses.

Here are the processes that have really helped to add value:

- setting and delivering strategy
- creating a preferred culture
- developing a strategic action plan
- making important decisions
- protecting plans
- picking the right people
- innovating
- supply chain management
- identifying and focusing on priorities
- delighting customers
- becoming more efficient

I have used these processes with the majority of my most successful clients. I recommend them to you if you need to get the job done!

Successful Clients

I am very proud that most of my clients are now the top performers in their market or sector including:

- Keepmoat - the most profitable construction company over a long period

- Gordons LLP Solicitors - the 4th most biggest fee earners in the UK

- MKM Building Supplies - the most profitable private building supplies

- Rex Procter & Partners - the most successful private quantity surveyors in the region

These are just four, there are more.....

So what features do they have in common?

- A smart, hard working, open-minded, no-nonsense CEO
- A clear strategy
- A team that is up for it and has pride in the business
- They take the actions required to develop the business

Not rocket science..... it just seems to work.

Why do customers buy from you?

There are many myths about why customers buy - it's hard to get at the truth. So I decided to investigate.

Reviewing the research is also inconclusive but the evidence suggests that in many markets customers buy for one of four reasons:

1. Price
2. Quality
3. Service
4. Personal relationship or habit

In many markets its seems it is about 25% for each of the four criteria.

Lessons....

1. Do not assume that all your customers buy for the same reason.

2. You may be able to increase your prices and profits if they are buying for reasons 2 - 4.

3. The only real way to find out is to conduct research to give you better customer insight.

Understanding customers, done!

Guiding Principles

I have been reflecting on what has influenced my approach to working as a consultant. 25 years ago my friend Gerry Egan (a world class consultant) shared with me his guiding principles. I have tried to use them ever since.

Here they are:

1. What ever you do should be based on the needs of the business and not the latest management fad.

2. There are no magic formulas for success.

3. The wisdom to make the business a success resides within.

4. Managers benefit from having a set of shared models to help them to find and use internal wisdom.

5. Your role is to facilitate learning in an organisation not to tell them what to do.

6. Seek to work as close to the top of the organisation as you can.

7. Your biggest contribution will be to help the management develop a shared strategy, create a preferred culture and manage the 'shadow side' of the organisation.

Well there they are. I hope I have managed to apply these principles in my work.

Lessons for Managers from the Sports World

I have discovered that the sports world is way ahead of business in its understanding that high performance requires paying attention to the mind.

Our research shows that high performers actively work at getting and staying in the 'zone'. They learn how to:

- Develop a compelling vision of what success looks and feels like
- Are proactive and action orientated
- Have a positive mindset
- Are persistent and tenacious
- Recover from setbacks
- Have high energy and drive

Top athletes have employed mind coaches to help them develop these behaviours for years. Maybe there is a lesson here for business people wishing to become successful?

Are you CEO material?

In order to help a client recruit a new CEO in Ireland I have been catching up on the latest research into high performing CEO's. What qualities do the star performers possess?

What do you think?

- Innovative
- Brainpower
- Teamwork
- Listens
- Planner
- Communicator
- Interpersonal skills

If you ticked any of the above you would be very wrong. The latest research on 316 CEO's shows clearly that the key quality is execution skills i.e. getting the job done, not interpersonal or team related skills.

In order to do this the research identified the key qualities as:

- Efficiency
- Integrity
- Persistence
- Analytical skills
- Strategic thinking
- Proactive

Well there you go, CEO's done!