Author: Tim Luscombe

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Are you working below your pay grade?

In the world of independent business people, there’s a phenomenon known as the “busy fool” where instead of selling, marketing or delivering their services the speaker/coach/trainer/consultant is taking on duties that are not within their skill set. A frequently cited example is where time is spent on record keeping or accounting when that is one of the easiest to outsource.

For me, there a direct comparison to an observation I make in larger businesses.

I often find clients are really busy and don’t have time to think about, let alone implement, some of the improvements we have identified for the business. Sometimes that’s why the business hasn’t moved on in the past few years – the team have reached capacity (or at least the managing director/owner has) and new initiatives are few and far between.

I’m a great believer in analysing the workload that crosses your desk. How much of that are things that you should not be doing – how much of it is things that are “below your pay grade” or if you are an independent, not in your core skill set?

As I have written before, many of these things can be delegated out outsourced, but you have to make the decision to “let go” and I know that many people find that hard.

I don’t – in fact, I once delegated responsibility to someone who didn’t work for me or even work in the same organisation

Another way to think about the tasks that consume your time is to rank them by potential consequences. For each task, ask the question

“What’s the consequence if this doesn’t get done – or done on time?”

You may just find there are some tasks or responsibilities that are making you a busy fool!

 

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Red or Blue?

 

John held up the ball in his hand and asked his Chris “What colour is this ball?” to which the angry young man replied, “it’s red, of course – what that got to do with it?” John replied “Actually, from where I am sitting, it is blue”

John rotated the ball, and Chris could now see that it was red on one side, but blue on the other.

A simple story but one that illustrates the saying “There are two sides to every story”

Most of the time there are many different versions of the truth. People see things from their own perspective and often will embellish a story or an event. Sometimes that’s just to make the story more entertaining, and sometimes because their version makes them look better.

Often that is harmless but it can lead to real problems, especially if there is competition or conflict in the team. That’s when the different perspectives can become misleading and may cause you to make poor decisions.

Good decisions are based on sufficient accurate information – or blind luck. Poor quality information, including that seen from one perspective, should be eliminated or counterbalanced.

If you have doubts about something you have been told, gather more evidence!

Transparency and honesty from the leadership team will help eliminate the tendency to only tell the story from one side. If you know you are going to get found out, you won’t cross the line!

This approach works outside the company as well as within. If a supplier has let you down, and you are given an excuse that doesn’t quite ring true, check it out. Often, the supplier’s sales manager or account manager is giving you the positive story but you can get closer to the truth by asking higher up in the organisation.

The same applies to your customers – be careful what messages your team a delivering. If they are trying to keep the customer happy by embellishing the truth, they (and you) will probably get caught out. Honesty and transparency will go a long way.

 

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You hear the words but do they mean it?

 

Have you ever had a conversation where it just didn’t feel right? You know there’s something wrong, but it is not in the words – or even in the tone of the conversation – but there is still something not quite right.

There’s a good chance that you are picking up on non-verbal cues – body language – without even realising that’s what you are doing. You may think “I don’t know anything about body language” but actually we all do – we just don’t pay attention to it. Think of a mime artist – can they convey a story or an emotion? You are reading body language.

When you are interviewing someone you will have a good feel for the outcome of the interview within a few seconds. First impressions include the way the interviewee moves and talks as well as their external appearance, and we are really good at picking up those signals.

You can use this inbuilt ability in the office. Take a look at the team, see if you can picture an individual’s emotional state. If you see someone who is having a bad day – whether that’s because there are problems at work, or something is going on at home – have a conversation with them.

How would you feel if, when you are having a bad day but you haven’t told anyone, the boss came over and offered support? You’d be more motivated and there’s a good chance you will relax & start doing an even better job.

Now I am not saying you should walk up to someone and say “You look as if you are having a bad day.” Perhaps they are, but perhaps it is entirely personal and private and they have no wish to share.

You might try something as simple as “How is it going?” but that can lead to just the facile “fine, thanks” response. More effective is an offer of assistance “How can I/we help today?”

 

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Are you up for the next challenge?

 

When you take on a new role or a new responsibility, or you are giving a presentation or making a speech, you should be a little apprehensive.

If it is really new and you have not done it before, why wouldn’t you be apprehensive?

There’s a difference between being apprehensive and paralysed by fear!

If you are paralysed be fear (as many are by the thought of public speaking) that can be overcome. Practice, practice and practice again – ideally in front of an audience, but even practising to the dog will help! There are also plenty of people to help with presentation and/or public speaking skills.

If you are apprehensive that’s a good thing. We all need to be a little on edge, a little more aware of giving of our best. Can you imagine an athlete on the starting line being totally relaxed?

You can control your apprehension through preparation and be envisaging the outcome. What’s the worst that could happen, and why would it? Often just picturing that is enough to cut through the tension and help you do a better job.

All these same thoughts and feeling apply to the team member to whom you just gave a new role or responsibility or who is taking on a pitch to a new prospect.

It’s your job, as the business leader, to help them do their job and part of that may be to help them reduce the fear level. You can guide or coach them, you can help them practice and they will then do a better job.

A session preparing for a pitch for new business is a classic example. The team making the pitch will benefit from as much research as they can do, and benefit again from a rehearsal where other team members throw up possible objections or challenges. Imagine how confident the sales person feels if the real objection is one they have already rehearsed?

 

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It’s not about the numbers

 

If you are successful in reducing your day to day responsibilities so that you have an empty diary occasionally, you may be wondering what next – what to do with all this free time!

The temptation is to dive back into the detail but that’s to be avoided.

The job and duty of the business leader is to provide direction and to enable other members of the team.

Providing direction is partly about having a good idea where you want the business to be in six months or more – the vision – but in my experience, most leaders have that.

The missing piece is communication.

Circumstances change and the business environment changes. When that happens it’s time to communicate your vision again – and this is where many people fail. You have discussed the position with your closest advisers and adjusted your strategy, but have you told the team?

Taking Brexit as a recent example have you reconsidered your strategy and have you told the team – even if the strategy is no change.

The other part of being a leader is the enabling of the team.

Enabling others to take on responsibilities and tasks is extremely satisfying, especially when they are not sure they are capable!

This too is about communication. You have to be very clear on the required outcome, offer support and be approachable for the team.

In short, you cannot over-communicate but you most certainly can under communicate.

Keep an eye on the numbers but always remember that they are the result of the efforts of the team. Improve the effectiveness of the team and the numbers will show the
result.

 

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Where are you investing?

 

Some time ago I visited the London Eye. It gives you a unique view of the capital.

I’d expected the attraction to be really busy – and it was! We had a voucher, but no one seemed to know to which desk we were supposed to go to redeem it. Eventually, I found the right desk and we took the ride and the obligatory photos.

Customer service was very poor – not enough staff, not enough signage and not enough training for the staff that were there.

On that same trip, we had lunch at a restaurant run by a Michelin-starred chef. Service was first class and the food was excellent, but for me, the whole experience was tainted when the bill arrived with service included and space for an extra gratuity!

I asked the waiter to take off the service charge so that I could choose how much to tip, but his immediate reaction was to tell me that I should have complained earlier!

I struggled to get him to understand that I was happy with the service but wanted to determine for myself how much I thought it was worth.

Both experiences were excellent, but both were let down by the customer service and I would not recommend either.

Both businesses have invested heavily – Wikipedia tells me the London Eye cost £70m and I don’t think there is such a thing as a low-cost rental in Chelsea – but both have lost sight of the need to delight every customer.

If you run customer satisfaction surveys, perhaps the most important customers are those who used to buy from you but no longer do so. Find out what changed – just as you would with a team member leaving, you would do an exit interview. You may be surprised to find it was something really small that caused the change.

A satisfied customer is only one poor experience away from being dissatisfied. Are you investing enough in customer service, or just focused on the internal workings of your business?

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Leadership is service

I’ve often seen the challenging situation where the leader of a business or an organisation has lost the respect and belief of those who are supposed to be following.

Rarely is that anything to do with the followers!

Many leaders seem to think that to lead, you have to make all the decisions.

The trouble with making all the decisions yourself is that you don’t allow anyone else to have a say. You might as well employ trained monkeys (or robots) to do the job because it doesn’t really require a brain.

Sometimes with this goes the ego piece:

If I am going to make all the decisions, I should get all the glory – after all, I am the one doing all the hard work, right?

Now I am sure no one really thinks this explicitly, but is it there somewhere? Is there a grain of truth?

If you listen to the language of many great leaders, they show a different mindset. They will talk about empowering people, about building great teams and enabling projects. It’s not about them, it is about the organisation and the people in the organisation.

Those who lead our countries and our armed forces refer to themselves as “serving” and for me, that’s a great place to start.

Extending the military analogy, the commander in chief doesn’t tell his subordinates how to take the enemy target. That’s for the junior commanders to work out and for the front line troops to execute.

Think of your role as a leader as one of service, not control. Your job as a director is not to direct people to do things but to point out (direct) the path the organisation should take. How the team get to the objective isn’t your concern – it is your job to make sure they know what the objective is!

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Why hire an expert if you are going to ignore them?

I have seen many businesses engage with an expert who undertakes some form of analysis and tells the business how they can improve in the expert’s particular area and skillset.

Very often, the business will take the recommendations from the expert and add it to the “to-do” list. What is very rare is for the business to fully engage with the expert and seek their help implementing the recommendations.

There are circumstances where not continuing with the expert is appropriate, but I’m not sure that is really what is going on.

Not using the expert is appropriate:
1. If the recommendations are not going to result in sufficient reward
2. If you don’t trust the expert and/or don’t think they really are an expert.
3. If you have the skills in-house to implement the recommendations yourself in a timely manner

I believe many business leaders justify the decision not to continue the experts’ engagement based upon the 3rd reason, but actually. they are kidding themselves.

You almost certainly don’t have the skills in-house. If you do, why did you engage the expert in the first place?

You almost certainly don’t have the time to follow through.
Let’s say that you have some of the skills required, but there will be a learning curve. It will take you and your team much longer to implement than it would the expert.

What’s really going on is that both the expert and the business are missing an opportunity. The expert, when they “pitch” for the first piece of work, are really clear and specific on the costs and the benefits the business will receive.

The business engages the expert on this basis, without thinking of the follow-up work that might be required. The expert doesn’t mention it – they are trying to make the buying decision really easy for the prospect. Talking about follow-up work might put the prospect off.

When you do get to talk about the follow-up, the business only sees the costs. There’s no investment analysis going on. The expert is thinking. “Well, I’ve shown them all the things they need to so – I’m sure they’ll need my help” without recognising that the follow-up needs to go through another round of investment appraisal.

Next time you engage with an expert, make sure you undertake a cost-benefit analysis for each stage of engagement.

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It’s time to make yourself redundant!

The percentages vary but everyone involved in buying and selling businesses knows that the vast majority (75% – 80%) of businesses that try to sell fail to do so. One common reason is that the owner is too involved in the day to day operation of the business – take the owner away and there is no business left.

If you would like to be promoted from your current role your boss can easily have a similar problem. “How can I promote X, they are the only person who can do that job?”

The answer in both cases is very simple – make yourself redundant!

A good starting point is to look at your diary or even better your “to do” list and create a list of those things that only you can do. That doesn’t mean only you in the sense of there’s no one else in the business who can do it, it means only you with your particular set of skills and experience can do it.

There should not be many items on the only-me list.

Take the remainder of the to-do list and delegate (or dump) each item.

When you delegate something, talk about the result you want and try using language like

“Let me know what you need to achieve this?”

That helps the person taking on the responsibility recognise that help is available and it is OK to ask!

If you can’t delegate it internally, can you outsource it? Sites like Odesk and Fiverr connect an army of contractors to potential customers and many of them are available at very low hourly rates.

The items that appear more difficult to delegate may require some further thought. Can you break them down into steps, and delegate some of the steps? Perhaps some can be solved by training?

Now take a look at the only-me list. What’s on there that you really cannot apply the same process? Yes, it may take time – I have forgotten how many times I’ve been told “I can’t train someone – I don’t have the time!”

Your objective is to come to work, look at your diary and think “Great, now what shall I do today?”

The answer to that is “work on the business, not in the business”

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Sometimes we get it wrong

Sometimes we get it wrong and when we do there isn’t much choice we have to go and apologise.

It might be that you jumped a little too hastily at somebody when they gave you some bad news, but if you don’t apologise the following day or even earlier if you can you create a sense of resentment and a real problem for the future

They say it takes a big man (or a big woman) to apologise but actually, I think you just need to be honest. Say “I made a mistake” and move on.

You’ll have the respect of the other person – they will respect your openness and will tell everybody else. Your reputation won’t be damaged by that momentary slip of your attention or that unwarranted reaction. Your reputation will be enhanced by the recognition from your team that you are big enough to say

“Sorry guys I got that one wrong”

If you don’t admit the mistake the team know that you made a mistake they know that you reacted hastily and your reputation is diminished. The level of trust the team will give you is reduced and if you’re not careful the team will stop sharing with you and you will lose out.

There’s no protection or face saving in hiding from the facts.There’s no point pretending to the customer that everything will be fine when you know the delivery will be late or the project will overrun. They won’t thank you for avoiding the issue and giving them a nasty surprise.

In the same vein, if something has gone wrong with your department or your area of responsibility, tell the boss – sooner rather than later.

Honesty really is the best policy