The Praesta Insight Pieces 1
The Praesta Insight Pieces
praesta insights 2
Table of Contents Foreword
3 Foreword
When Praesta’s founding partners first planned their new business, they were determined to create a firm that would be wholly focused on their collective 5 Faster Faster passion – harnessing the power of executive coaching to help people and the Thriving in a faster faster world organisations they work for achieve their ambitions and aspirations. We wanted the firm that opened on July 4th 2005 – Independence Day! - to 10 Riding the Rapids achieve a reputation for professional excellence. We were also determined How to navigate through turbulent times not to rest on the laurels earned in our legacy business. After all, our clients evolve and develop, so it was right that we should too: we owed it to them to be as good as we could be. 15 What Makes a Great Chair in the Public Sector?
Our coaches begin with the foundation of senior careers, have undergone 22 Seizing the Future advanced coaching qualifications and then commit to on going development through supervision, peer sessions and annual international conferences. As we bring in new coaches to grow the firm and take the practice forwards 28 Living Leadership you will see some new faces, while longer serving members continue to be Finding equilibrium active and bring significant value to our clients and the firm through their extensive experience. 34 Metro Leaders A new breed of men in business? We have coached and mentored in excess of 6,500 senior executives and 100 executive teams. In addition to our UK business we have member firms in France, Ireland, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, Singapore and UAE. To harness 39 The Age of Agility the collective experience gained through our client assignments we decided to provide some practical – as opposed to theoretical - thought leadership in 44 Continuity and Succession our market place. We began to publish practical, thought-provoking Praesta How not to lose the baby with the bathwater Insights on topical subjects that would inform and engage our clients. As they are busy people, we set ourselves the challenge of boiling the content of these documents down to a fifteen minute read. 48 Beyond 2020 Things will be different In this publication we have brought together a collation of our most popular Praesta Insights, covering topics such as developing resilient teams, 52 Board Players continuity and succession, board players and living leadership to name a few. How Chairs, Independent Directors and CEOs make their boards effective We hope you enjoy as much as we have enjoyed the journey with our clients to enable us to share these insights. 58 Knowing the Score What we can learn about leadership from Edward Dulson Chairman and Partner, on behalf of everyone at Praesta music and musicians
67 The Resilient Team 4 The Praesta Insight Pieces 5
2007 Faster Faster Thriving in a faster faster world
by Heather Dawson (2005-2013)
praesta insights
Work, at senior levels, in the 21st century has accelerated – many executives find themselves in what we call a “faster-faster” world, with unrelenting pressure, global travel and high performance expectations. Yet, contrary to popular belief, many individuals thrive in this pressured environment. How is this possible? We decided to explore this question and draw together what other executives could learn from those who cope well, because this shift to a “faster-faster world” has been so noticeable in our coaching practice.
But wait a minute – have things really Key skills and disciplines changed? We have observed that there are certain skills and Some point out that senior executives were expected disciplines that allow some individuals not only to work long hours in the 20th century, often in to survive but even to thrive. The first is a classic highly pressured environments. But executives tell set of skills that every successful executive must us that the nature and pace of work has changed have. These nonnegotiable skills have become even noticeably in more recent years: more critical given the sheer complexity and speed of business today. They provide the foundation for • There is far less time for leaders to settle into success. But there is also another set of disciplines bigger and more demanding roles. that gives some executives the edge, allowing them • These roles hold challenges that are more varied, to thrive in a faster-faster world. This paper explores numerous and complex. these “faster-faster” disciplines, starting with “shaping the role of work in one’s life”. • Decision making must be faster, leaving little time for consultation and reflection. 1. Shaping the role of work in one’s life • Information from voicemail, email, text messages, websites and “hard copy” documents can deluge We have noticed that executives who believe “my senior executives and distract them from thinking life is my own” are a step ahead. They have clarity and maintaining strategic focus. on the key tenets of their life – what is important to • Boundaries between work and personal time them, what they would like to achieve, and how they are more porous. Many executives have global want to lead their lives. They may not have been responsibilities in different time zones, their successful all the time, but they approach their life sleep and work patterns are disrupted by world and work with a positive attitude. They have a sense travel, and there is a creeping sense of needing of choice about the role of their career in their life. to be “available” constantly, with the help of One size does not fit all. Some are fulfilled by communication technology. working hard in demanding jobs – and they have made that deliberate choice. For others, a different It is notable that those who thrive in this new balance between work and family life is appropriate. environment appear to see these trends as Some protect weekends and holidays, others opportunities – opportunities to move quickly on appreciate the flexibility of interweaving work and major initiatives, to engage with employees and personal life throughout the day – for example, customers around the world using today’s exciting taking children to school, working, getting home communication technology, and to build new early, and working late at night. The notion of businesses. So, what skills, disciplines and attitudes uniformly separate times for work (e.g. 8am-6pm) underpin the executive who thrives in this faster- and personal activities (e.g. evenings and weekends) faster world? 6 2007 Thriving in a Faster Faster World The Praesta Insight Pieces 7
is shifting towards each individual finding a balance to another. Our experience indicates, however, that this that works for him or her. approach to work – operating in mini slices of time and constantly multi-tasking – is at times useful but is not a The must-have foundation skills Whatever their personal rhythm, executives who can prerequisite for success at senior levels. see choices feel liberated from the sense of “being One, perhaps surprising, insight from our • Listening carefully to colleagues, clients and done to” or out of control. They may not get all they In this fractured working life, it is even more critical conversations with executives is that thriving in advisors to help build an understanding of ask for, but they are often surprised at what they can that executives find time for deep focus. This enables a faster-faster world means really mastering some what is important achieve. them to step back and reflect thoughtfully on a business basic, classic management skills. These skills issue, on how they are doing, or on a particularly • Stepping back and asking oneself “what is 2. Managing communication technologies need practice and updating as responsibilities knotty problem, without distractions. This focused time going on here?”, “what matters?” has a different quality from checking off a to-do list or and circumstances change. Successful leaders In the early 2000s, many executives found themselves reacting to what others are saying or doing around one. master all three: Many of our clients appreciate that they need swamped by emails and voicemails. They were sucked into the middle of issues that really belonged to other Executives have told us about some of the approaches time to do this, either by themselves or in 1. Build capability around them executives or managers. Communication technology that have helped them find time to focus: changing conversations with colleagues. What they find can draw executives into a level of detail that is the physical environment (e.g. working away from a Those who thrive in a faster-faster world challenging is carving out that time (see faster- unproductive, thus pushing decisions inappropriately cluttered desk), engaging in conversation/dialogue with recognise and act on the following principles faster skill number 3: Finding time to think up the line. Moreover, the ubiquitous “ccing” of email a trusted colleague/friend/mentor, writing out pros and in building a team: and focus). allows individuals to abdicate responsibility with the cons, going for a walk, working half a day at home. phrase “but we told you so”. There is now published Whatever the approach, finding time to focus and think • They cannot do it all by themselves. evidence that interruptions – e.g. through emails, pays dividends with greater clarity and perspective and 3. Plan and think ahead voicemails, instant messaging – reduce productivity. renewed energy. • They understand where, as leaders, This skill may seem selfevident, but Not surprisingly, then, some executives are beginning they can add value. it definitely helps to manage stress. to think carefully about the signals they send out 4. Leading amidst uncertainty and ambiguity It includes: on how they wish their organisations to work with • They know when to be hands-off or communication technology. By actively managing This is the ability to lead when one does not have hands-on. how they use these technologies themselves, they find all the answers, to make decisions without all the • Understanding when key initiatives they can enhance both their own productivity and their information, and to keep going amidst constantly With these principles and skills, leaders can will need attention organisation’s. Modern technology has increased the changing circumstances. Executives who respond shape a team with complementary skills. This pressure to “be on call” or be available all the time, but well to change appear to be comfortable with “not • Identifying important events and enables them to focus their energy on the right our experience is that those who thrive in the faster- knowing”. They display flexibility and adaptability then managing one’s time and issues, and it gives their colleagues the space faster world make very clear where their boundaries in more than one sense. The Centre for Creative energy around these are. At times, they switch off “being available”, by Leadership in the US has identified three types of to take on responsibilities. turning off their mobile phones and email. flexibility: • Managing the expectations of 2. Distinguish clearly what matters colleagues, friends and family. 3. Finding time to think and focus • Emotional flexibility. Ability to vary one’s approach in dealing with emotions. This involves being aware Without question, a senior executive needs Senior executives’ days are typically splintered – of one’s own emotions as well as the emotions to master the skill of sorting and synthesising one-minute conversations, two-hour meetings, social of others, balancing one’s doubts with a positive information to get to the heart of an issue. chit chat, a 15-minute catch up with a direct report, a attitude, and combining listening/talking with This includes: 30-minute video conference, and so on. In this world, directing/making decisions. executives are finding it more difficult to focus their • Cognitive flexibility. Ability to look at things in • Asking questions so they really understand attention and energy on a single issue, person or different ways. This means continually watching for what is going on, what colleagues think, activity. In spite of this, and because of it, carving out the need to change approach, and then creating the what the options are time to think and focus remains critical to the success appropriate strategy or response. of any executive. • Dispositional flexibility. Ability to display realistic Indeed, evidence is mounting from research that “our optimism in the midst of change and, at the same hyper-connected world is making it difficult to think”. time, tolerate ambiguity. Adaptability allows leaders First, technology has the capacity to overwhelm people to “let go” of the strain of always being certain. with information from multiple sources. Second, They learn the skill of knowing what they can Example: creating a picture of what’s coming up the speed of today’s communication technologies and cannot control. It is as if they have the ballast encourages people to think that it is “good” to make needed to remain steady as they are knocked and One executive we know carries with him an A4 notebook containing decisions faster, respond more quickly to issues, and buffeted from all sides. get projects done faster. Slow is equated with “bad”. a hand-written matrix. The left hand column lists key projects and 5. Creating one’s own oxygen tent stakeholders while the top shows the months. In the body of the matrix, We have also seen increasing numbers of executives he writes key points such as when he needs to see someone, project concerned about their ability to multi-task. Indeed, Executives who know how to maintain their own milestones, etc. Thus, at a glance he can see where the stress points are some see multi-tasking as a key part of their success. mental, physical and emotional vitality cope more and whether an important initiative is behind or ahead. This simple tool Work is defined as skimming from one topic to another, effectively with the stresses of their jobs. They build for thinking ahead may not be for everyone but it will work for some. in a vortex of emails, voicemails and text messages, in time for their “oxygen tent” or “oxygen pocket” while moving from one short meeting or conversation – e.g. a hobby, a physical endeavour, a cultural 8 2007 Thriving in a Faster Faster World The Praesta Insight Pieces 9
interest or charitable work. An oxygen tent, separate from holidays and normal family activities, gives Closing thoughts executives energy and refreshes them at many levels – mentally, physically and spiritually. It is an activity Clearly there are many skills to be mastered Some practical things to try for themselves and no-one else. It can be thought of as a leader – including some that we have not out today as a form of “enlightened self interest”, providing a discussed here, such as being able to create space for renewal in the hectic business of leading a vision, inspire people to pursue it, and • Carve out 1-2 hours fortnightly in the diary to organisations. Put simply, without a chance to recharge, ensure that key processes are in place. But our think, reflect or discuss issues with a colleague the battery runs down. conversations with executives have convinced without interruption us that there are distinctive sets of skills and 6. Understanding one’s trigger point disciplines that can be developed in order to • Find a colleague, advisor, coach or mentor thrive in the faster-faster world of the 21st whose judgement and experience you respect. Finally, even those who master all the disciplines century. Use this person as a sounding board, to mentioned so far will hit upon the occasional hellish help you step back and focus on what really day, when they simply feel overwhelmed. Some matters. executives have found ways to deal with such stressful moments. • If your assistant is not already screening and placing your emails in priority folders, start The key is understanding one’s “trigger point”. As today. A PA can screen all emails and put them Edward Hallowell puts it in his book Crazy Busy, in folders – e.g. check urgently, action needed, this is when we move from the C-state (clear, calm, and reading. Design your own categories. cool, collected, consistent, concentrated) to the F-state • (frenzied, frantic, flustered). In the F-state, we “lose it”. Ask yourself how you are using We know it is coming when we feel we are about to communication technologies. What example snap, or sense we are running with “empty” on the fuel are you sending to the organisation? Are you, tank gauge. If we understand what can bring us to this for example, answering emails at midnight, or point – lack of sleep, too many back-to-back meetings, reacting too quickly to non-urgent requests? days of constant interruptions and demands – we can • Build in time for your ‘oxygen tent’ – a hobby, figure out how to avoid flipping. a sport activity, cultural pursuit – that is So, how can we anticipate and deal with such trigger separate from holidays. points? Of course, getting enough sleep and eating well is a good start. But what some executives also find helpful in moments of feeling overwhelmed is going for a short walk (even 5-10 minutes) to clear their head, taking a few minutes between meetings to call a friend or partner, going to get a glass of water, or talking to a colleague for a few minutes. In other words, in the midst of an unrelenting day, they find they can regain their composure by pausing, changing pace, and varying the activity – even if only for a few minutes.
Research on the interplay between our emotions and the neural and endocrine processes provides a fascinating basis for what happens when we hit a trigger point or stressful time in our day. Our limbic system (thalamus, amygdala, hypothalamus, insula) regulates our emotions by responding to what our senses tell us. As an older part of the human brain, it is quite powerful. The cerebral cortex, on the other hand, is the centre for thinking, discernment, making choices and judging. When in balance, the circuitry works between the limbic system and cerebral cortex and we are able to register how we feel about a situation. We can evaluate, make decisions and feel balanced. In comparison, when under stress, negative emotions can cause the circuitry to break down. We lose attention, balance and perspective and make poor choices. 10 The Praesta Insight Pieces 11
2008 It is critical to hold on to and encourage the attitudes • Evaluate the impact: assess how important the and beliefs that drive your leadership approach. situation is and how your reaction is affecting your Riding the Rapids Experience shows that paying attention to three things work and the people around you makes a difference – doing what you think is right; • Step away: take a break from the situation, How to navigate through turbulent times remaining positive; and being honest about yourself. however short. This can mean walking round the block, having a coffee, or deciding to delegate Do what you think is right a task to someone else. A common learning is that focusing on doing what you believe to be ‘the right thing’ gives you by Peter Shaw (2005-To Date) & Jane Stephens (2007-2013) a sense of personal integrity, self worth and even accomplishment, no matter what the final outcome. How intense pressure can affect you… What you regard as ‘right’ can come from your own • Being a rabbit in the headlights: feeling praesta insights values and experiences, or from having considered stuck and unable to make a decision the perspective of trusted advisors. Using your sense • Getting lost in the detail: finding it easier Good leaders know how to manage periods of change, but what happens of what is right to inform your decisions gives an underlying consistency to your approach that others to focus on the little things rather than when that change is sustained and driven by forces outside their control, and can identify with, and helps to build trust and loyalty. longer term goals and the bigger picture when its scale and pace is unprecedented? Sudden changes in business • Going for a quick fix: making decisions Leaders today are faced with intense work and too fast without fully assessing the risks fortunes combined with high levels of uncertainty and ambiguity are extremely personal challenges that can cause them to question or wider implications their normal leadership approach. As a coaching difficult to manage, and have knock-on effects throughout the private, public • Feeling stampeded into action: being too practice, we have seen the impact of the current influenced by people who appear confident and third sectors. economic environment on leaders – on their ability to or more knowledgeable make decisions, on their confidence, and on the way than you they work with others.
Leaders today are faced with intense work and Be honest about yourself personal challenges that can cause them to question 3. Know to look after themselves to maintain stamina their normal leadership approach. As a coaching and well-being for a lengthy and often exhausting During challenging times, it can be hard to admit practice, we have seen the impact of the current period. what you cannot do; it can feel like an admission of Cultivate a Positive Mindset economic environment on leaders – on their ability to failure. However, a consistent message is that being make decisions, on their confidence, and on the way honest with yourself is a considerable leadership Being positive means believing that no matter how they work with others. strength. In particular: intractable the challenge may appear, there is a way out of it. It is about focusing on what can be done, We have spoken to leaders who have been working Focus your energy and time not what has gone wrong. through times of extended turbulence. We asked them what they had learned from their experiences. Many leaders describe the pressure of feeling they Research shows that some simple techniques can What are the fundamentals that matter? What can 1. Maintaining core attitudes and beliefs have to do it all – that they should have all the be highly effective in cultivating a positive mindset. you do that ensures you continue to perform at your answers and be able to solve everything on their own. For example, if you find yourself with free flowing best? This booklet shares their insights, supported Leaders talk of being under pressure to make This is reaching for the impossible, and can lead to negative thoughts, it is worth deliberately trying to by our own observations of leadership behaviour uncomfortable decisions, wanting to find all the overstretching yourself to breaking point, so: contain and then stop them. Or, if you are unable and relevant research. We hope it will stimulate answers themselves and feeling overwhelmed by the • Know what things you do well, and accept the to see a way forward, try generating options without your thinking about what you can do to remain an enormity of their challenge. limits of your abilities. This realisation allows you then immediately dismissing or editing them. How effective leader despite, and sometimes because of, to use the people around to best effect and fuels many ways can you think of to get out of the sustained periods of challenge and uncertainty. self confidence situation? By doing this you realise you have choices, no matter how difficult they may be. It is this sense of • Leadership essentials How sustained pressure can make Recognise what you, and you alone, can uniquely choice that gives the psychological freedom to look you feel… do. Concentrate on this and delegate the rest. ahead. Many of the characteristics identified as important • Fear of failure: taking everything are leadership fundamentals. However, they require Recognise when you may be about to ‘lose it’ Leaders emphasise the importance of having a particular focus at times like these – they are the personally, and paralysed by the risks Leaders talk of feeling disappointed, resentful, grounded optimism rather than false optimism. easiest to lose when under extreme pressure, and they involved in every decision exhausted, angry or afraid during turbulent times. Grounded optimism requires a constructive mindset make the greatest difference to effective leadership. • Lose heart: not believing that things will These are powerful emotions that fundamentally combined with a healthy realism about what is get better affect our ability to view things logically or to act going on. Strong leaders during turbulent times: • Worry about lost reputation: focusing on rationally. If you feel yourself closing down, lacking confidence, blaming others or not listening you 1. Maintain their core attitudes and beliefs, no matter how people think you are coping here should: how much pressure they come under. and now, not on long term results • Acknowledge your problem: be honest with 2. Tackle each new challenge clearly and calmly, • Lower energy: falling energy levels both yourself that you are in danger of becoming leading from the front to inspire those around them. in yourself and in those around you emotionally overwhelmed and accept that it is affecting your judgment and behaviour 12 2008 Riding the Rapids The Praesta Insight Pieces 13
• Listen to others’ views: you should actively seek to prioritise what will make the biggest difference to amazing creativity and output. Pressure on the group opinions widely throughout your organisation long term success, and sometimes to choose between to think the unthinkable can force creativity and ideas. and beyond. It helps to discuss issues, get fresh a set of equally unattractive options. These decisions thinking and listen to a broad range of people – may prove unpopular if they don’t result in immediate not a narrow few. Try to remain open minded and action or results, but, having invested in being Be a visible leader interested in opinions to avoid shutting people informed, trust your judgement. 2. Tackling each new challenge down who may think you have already decided on During times of uncertainty, stress and panic, the answers. Not only will you pick up new ideas, Many leaders find that turbulent times open up executives have seen how people need to see a leader When faced with day to day decisions and issues but you will stay attuned and in touch. This will be opportunities to make radical change. Things that who is calm, focused and inspiring. You cannot do during extreme turbulence, the most effective leaders invaluable when you need to act quickly. have seemed impossible or unthinkable may now this from behind a closed door. This is a time for continue to define their role, and their success, within not only look feasible, but necessary. visible, personal leadership of your people – for the context of the bigger picture. They also have a • Have personal sounding boards: make sure you keeping everyone informed, and for publicly setting sense of who they are and what they stand for, which have some trusted people to talk to - a safe space the tone of how you expect your whole organisation goes beyond their current job. They therefore resist where you can speak your mind, say the unsayable, to react and to behave. being subsumed by any specific situation or crisis. think the unthinkable, and talk it through out loud. The Finance Director of a UK Industrial plc This will help get your mind straight. It will also During extreme uncertainty, it is unlikely you will described feeling overwhelmed (“frozen in the They do this by focusing on four things that make a ensure you are exploring the issues fully. Some have many answers for people’s questions. However, headlights”) by the scale of the problems he difference – keeping a sense of perspective; setting of these people should come from outside the experience has shown the dangers of going silent faced. He felt as if he had an insurmountable priorities; having the right people around them; and organisation to give you a broader perspective and with the organisation and spending too much time mountain to climb and he lost the ability to leading from the front. a truly separate place to think. Often people find an in a huddle with your immediate team. Silence executive coach helpful at this time. make decisions or move forward. To overcome breeds rumour and negative energy. People need this, he set himself a clear timeframe for action Keep a Sense of Perspective information to be able to understand where to focus, • Create personal space: regularly find places to of 80 days, with specific goals to achieve. and to prioritise, and to offer ideas. It is vital to Losing perspective is one of the first things that think clearly on your own and gain inspiration, Suddenly everything felt more manageable and communicate constantly, and to keep the dialogue leaders have experienced during such challenging, such as going for a long walk. The rest and space he was re-energised, with a restored sense of open. Keep talking, not only in meetings but when unpredictable times – being unable to put each issue this creates can leave room for a breakthrough decisiveness and a positive attitude. walking around your organisation. If there is not a or decision in context, understand how real a threat it idea to come to you. clear answer you can always explain your direction, represents, assess the scale of its impact or decide if it what you are focusing on to solve any problems, and has long term implications. what you want people to be working on right now to Draw on the right team keep things on course. Under pressure it is easy to feel drawn to action, and A senior leader in a media company the normal ‘thinking time’ can seem like a luxury. was faced with an extreme threat to his During extreme challenge your team needs to be high As a leader, be conscious that everything about you However counter intuitive it may feel, it is critical to organisation’s reputation and future. He knew performing, with the right people in the right roles. gives a message to your organisation; not only your step back to think, even for a short time. that when under significant stress he tended Your team needs to be loyal, committed, aligned and words, but your posture, facial expression, tone to become aggressive and go into denial. To collaborative. A team can sometimes develop its most of voice and appearance. People will look for any How do you put things into perspective while counteract this he relied on a small group of innovative ideas when put under pressure. signals that you feel things are out of control. The maintaining the necessary pace of decision making? people around him whom he could trust to tell perception of your mood will spread like wildfire and A powerful lesson for many has been the value of him the truth without making him feel in the It is crucial to be surrounded by people who are both will often become distorted through gossip. When a having the best inputs possible. You need quick wrong. They were also the people from whom ‘on side’ and able to openly disagree during debates CEO asked his chairman what was the single most access to information to test your judgement and he felt most able to accept the truth. before reaching agreement about what to do. It is important thing he should be doing, the reply was make focused decisions. You also need to ensure you your role to create the environment where people feel “smile”. Many refer to the ‘cheerleader’ element of stay widely informed, even when under pressure, to encouraged to be honest and to question your views a leader’s role in turbulent times, which may require keep perspective and your antennae tuned. This may and decisions when appropriate. It is not putting on a leadership mask. This is extremely require searching wider and deeper for opinions, data a place or a time for ‘yes people’ or for dysfunction difficult when your working environment is visible to and ideas. When gathering information, it is critical Set Clear Priorities within your team. others, and makes finding safe, personal space during to do it selectively and with a clear purpose that the day all the more critical. will help you take action. Avoid the common pitfall As well as seeking others’ views, a leader ultimately If the pressure and uncertainty reveals flaws or gaps of ‘paralysis by analysis’ where continual research has to make decisions and set direction for the in experience in the team, leaders need to make the becomes a substitute for decision making and action. organisation. This is particularly difficult when necessary changes and make them quickly. You cannot sit in your bunker and fall back just on the day to day reality is constantly changing and previous experience – it will not be enough. unpredictable. It is easy to get sucked into lurching You do not have the luxury of time to ‘wait and see’. from one crisis to another, to become a firefighter. It can be painful, but is essential. In turbulent times leaders stress the need to stay The most effective leaders during turbulence are as focused on four fundamental ways of informing clear as possible with themselves and others about The need for constant, rapid reactions to the changing 3. Looking after yourself decisions: where they want to take the organisation, and what environment may occasionally require a smaller group everyone needs to do to get there. At the same time to make specific strategic decisions – for example, the Leading an organisation, its people and yourself • Get the best data and information you can: you they have the flexibility to adapt quickly when Chairman, CEO and Finance Director. Any such small through radical changes and pressures requires a might have to work much harder for the right circumstances or perspectives change in the light group needs to be explicit in defining why and how it high level of stamina and personal strength. To many intelligence, by challenging what you are told and of new information. is operating, and to ensure it keeps the wider senior leaders, focusing on their own well-being can seem sometimes spending the resources to get the best team informed and involved as much as possible. external help. During difficult times people may When focusing the organisation, leaders tell us of like self indulgence. They explain how it can feel as tell you what you want to hear and put a gloss on the need to hold their nerve in the face of panic or Pulling together under real pressure can result in if every moment matters, and that it is important to things. pressure from others. It is about finding the courage 14 2008 Riding the Rapids The Praesta Insight Pieces 15
dig in, to work all the hours you can to ensure the 2010 organisation and the people are on track. This may In summary… work in a short term crisis. The danger is that, if you What Makes a Great Chair don’t look after yourself over the longer term, you Being a leader right now is tough and exhausting. can lose perspective and start to lack the energy to You have to learn to live with a higher level in the Public Sector? make the tough decisions. This may be exacerbated challenge, pressure and stress as a normal part by the fact that, under pressure, many people find of working life, rather than a short term crisis. It it difficult to sleep, and suffer the adverse effects of requires resilience, stamina and focus. Resilient sleep deprivation. leaders – those who are physically and mentally by Hilary Douglas (2010 -To Date) strong – are able to accept change and also to learn There is growing evidence that looking after yourself from it and to thrive under pressure. They regard fundamentally affects a leader’s effectiveness and the challenges as an opportunity, a chance to learn ability to be at their best. It is not an optional extra; it and to deepen their experience. Their ability to be praesta insights is the foundation for your leadership success. Being flexible, positive and energetic comes to the fore in good shape will mean you will have the inner and separates them from other leaders. resources to dig deep into your energy and resilience, In the UK public sector there is a wide range of bodies of different kinds and not let the tank run dry. Ask yourself how ready you are to lead through the that support the business of Government. Their nature and numbers may This evidence points to four areas of well-being turbulence to come. Then start work today on taking that are well worth considering. Each gives you a back control of your life. If you do, you can emerge change over time, but they remain an important part of the landscape. Praesta hinterland that allows you to succeed. You should stronger and wiser. clients who are Chairs of such bodies have wanted to explore with us the key assess which areas are most important to you, and how you can ensure they remain part of your life ingredients for success in the role. even during the busiest times:
• Physical well-being: building stamina fuels creative and mental energy. It involves a combination of We have talked to a number of Chairs and Chief - Ensure clear governance Executives with experience of both the public and the personal fitness and relaxation time. One CEO - Use your “levers” effectively explained the impact of improving his health: private sectors, and have drawn on key reports and - Review Board performance regularly “A few years ago I was heavier than I am today. publications about Board governance. To summarise Losing weight has helped me cope with difficult our findings: - Recognise the distinct skills required situations. I am totally clear that mental capacity is of the Chair affected by physical capacity”. • The role of Chair, whether in the public or the private sectors, requires a distinct set of skills; - Invest in relationships – especially with your • Emotional well-being: finding a state of equilibrium Chief Executive and non-executive Board helps you to remain calm and balanced. For some • A positive relationship between the Chair and members. this is supported by their relationships; for others the Chief Executive is critical to organisational by confidence in their sense of self-worth and success; If you are already an experienced Chair, these unique value. principles may be second nature and your main • The Chair must help the organisation to get full interest may be in the sections at the end of the • Intellectual well-being: engaging your mind in benefit from the non-executives on the Board; booklet. But a quick refresh may still be useful! something different from everyday work, no matter how trivial, can be a source of relief and can • Private sector norms of good governance are Ensure clear governance stimulate creativity. highly relevant to the public sector and a good place from which to start; and • Spiritual well-being: knowing what matters most in Corporate governance is the system by which organisations are directed and controlled. It describes your life keeps things in perspective – whether it • A Chair with private sector experience will be the relationship between the various players at the comes from enduring interests or relationships, or struck by specific differences in the public sector, top of the organisation, the structure through which is rooted in beliefs and faith. arising from the role of Ministers and Parliament, they operate and make themselves accountable to the existence of multiple stakeholders and stakeholders, and the processes by which they make objectives, and a high degree of public scrutiny. decisions. The corporate governance framework for The successful Chair needs to understand these businesses in the UK operates: differences and have strategies for handling them. • Through legislation, particularly the Companies Act; The fundamental principles for an • Through regulation, and through the Combined effective Chair Code which is the responsibility of the Financial There are many different types of public body and Reporting Council. it is impossible to generalise on every detail of their constitution. However, all of our interviewees agree For the public sector, an Independent Commission that the fundamentals are those that apply in any chaired by Sir Alan Langlands produced “The Good sector: Governance Standard for Public Services” in 2004. 16 2010 What Makes a Great Chair in the Public Sector? The Praesta Insight Pieces 17
All agree it is essential to clarify the distinct • Set the forward agenda for the Board to focus Board-level appointments can override objective Board Member: leadership roles played by the Chair and the Chief on the key strategic and business issues; evaluation of the skills they bring. This is particularly “I was once on a Board of a business where the Executive. This can be even more important if the true when it comes to highly-tuned listening and CEO became Chair and appointed the Finance • Ensure that the executive understand the objectives Chair has previously held a Chief Executive role facilitation skills, and the ability to observe, interpret Director as Chief Executive. The Chair could not of papers commissioned for Board meetings; and has limited experience as a non-executive. and draw conclusions about what people are saying or let go, and in the end, the Board had to ask him The standard set of assumptions would be: • Encourage the non-executives to challenge the not saying when they attend to stand down.” executive constructively, and guard against the Board. • The Chair and Board appoint the Chief Executive; “groupthink”; Chair: Board evaluation thus needs to address both the • Review the cycle of non-executive appointments to “It does not work if there are competing egos. If • The Chair runs the Board; the Chief Executive runs content of Board discussions, and the way that the Board and plan ahead for opportunities to fill the Chair is too prominent, the Chief Executive the organisation; business is conducted, including process, skills mix, gaps in experience /expertise. can be fatally undermined.” • The Chair facilitates from the wings, the Chief culture and behaviours. An astute Chair uses it as an opportunity to identify areas that need strengthening Executive drives from centre stage; In planning Board agendas, the Chair also considers: or approaching from a fresh perspective. It may also highlight areas where Board members have collective • The Chair leads the Board, in conjunction with the • Is there clarity on the performance measures to or individual development needs. A good Chair takes executive, in working out the strategic direction be reviewed at Board meetings? Evaluation of Chief Executive performance has been of the organisation and the priorities for resources. those development messages seriously. the subject of some debate in recent years, in both The Chief Executive implements; • Does the Board have the information it needs to the public and the private sectors. There is general support horizon-scanning and decision-making? recognition now that it is not sufficient to judge • The Chair and the Board monitor organisational • Is adequate time allowed for the Board to review Chief Executive: success by financial performance alone, important and executive performance, and ensure risks and agree strategies for managing them? “The Board review identified some lack of though this may be. The Board needs to agree what accountability to stakeholders; clarity about which decisions are reserved to success would look like on a number of dimensions, • Does succession planning get discussed and is the such as strategy, culture, operations, and position • The Chair provides cover for the Chief Executive the Board or require a formal input from them. Board satisfied of the arrangements for senior staff comparative to competitors/benchmarks. They then when the going gets tough: if the Chief Executive We are now doing something about it.” appointments and performance management? need to agree how achievement will be monitored does not deserve that cover, the Chair may need and measured, and how the views of employees to consider dismissal. Chair: Depending on the circumstances, the Chair may want and stakeholders will be taken into account. A good “I find it helps to have regular one to ones Chair will give regular informal feedback to the to take soundings with a mentor or trusted colleague with individual non-executives. Sometimes that Board Member: on how to exercise these levers most effectively. Chief Executive throughout the year and work with is the best way to find out what is really on him/her on any development areas, but at least once “The Chair leads us in constructively challenging This may also be the moment to get an independent their minds and to encourage them to surface the executive, searching for the unknown assessment by commissioning a formal Board a year there will be a formal process to determine issues in the Board. It also provides remuneration, and to highlight any critical issues of unknowns in terms of risk to the business, and effectiveness review. a safe space to give feedback.” ensuring that the Board is measuring the concern to the Board. outcomes that matter.” Chair: “My predecessor allowed the Chief Executive Evaluation does not stop at the Board as a whole. In to determine the agenda for Board meetings. Chair: the private sector, there is a well-established process Chair: The result was overlong papers and “Ideally, you decide what powers are to be for reviewing the performance of the Chair. Once “It was my role to explain to our Chief Executive presentations which prevented us from reserved to the Board and devolve the rest, a year the nominated Senior Independent Director why the Board thought that he needed to move discussing the key strategic issues. I have rather than try to specify everything that is to takes confidential views from all of the other non- on, after 12 successful years in post.” changed that.” be devolved.” executives as well as the Chief Executive, and uses Chair: Chair: Chair: the summary feedback for a 1-1 with the Chair. The “The Chief Executive has many fine qualities, “I have found that close reading of the “Looking back, I should have sat down when I Chair is expected to take that feedback seriously. In but does not require his Directors to work as a Combined Code has been extremely first took up post, and consciously used the set extreme circumstances, it may lead to a discussion of Board responsibilities to take a systematic about his/her future as Chair. team. I have had to tell him this is not helpful in my work in the public sector.” look at where we were and what we needed to acceptable to the Board”. act on.” In the public sector, decisions on the future of the Chair rest with Ministers, but there is still scope for a process to allow Chairs to respond to feedback Use your levers effectively from colleagues. It is currently up to individual Recognise the skills required of a Chair Regularly review Board performance organisations to arrange this, whether using a senior With these guidelines in mind, the Chair can review non-executive as facilitator, or bringing in a third the current state of the organisation using the levers Good corporate governance does not ensure good party. At least one of our interviewees has chosen to which properly belong with the Board. The Hogg Review of the UK Corporate Governance Board performance, and the skills needed of Code (2009) recommended amongst other things translate the private sector model across to the public executives and non-executives are not identical. In particular, it is the Chair’s responsibility to: that there should be an external review of Board sector body that he chairs, and to use the Deputy performance in UK listed companies every three Chair to collect annual feedback. We asked our interviewees about the skills needed of • Appoint and appraise the Chief Executive; years. an exemplary Chair, and their views coincided with the results of a survey conducted with 215 Directors • Clarify the responsibilities of the Board and the In parallel, the Walker Review of Corporate in 2004 by Praesta’s predecessor, The Change executive, and ensure that everyone understands Governance in the banking industry noted that the Partnership. The respondents took it for granted them; general reputation of individuals considered for that all Chairs would have certain skills such as 18 2010 What Makes a Great Chair in the Public Sector? The Praesta Insight Pieces 19
strategic thinking, personal presence and relationship and is an exceptional communicator. The Chair’s Chief Executive: Chair: management at the highest levels. In addition, though, ultimate responsibility is to ensure an ordered CEO “Very early on, I spent time talking to each of “It has to be an open and trusting relationship they identified ten differentiators: succession, and to take any necessary tough decisions the Board non-executives, finding out where of mutual respect – even though there is the about changing the leadership without destabilising their expertise and interest lay, as well as any possibility that one day the Chair may need to the business. The Chair thus needs a huge degree of concerns they might have about the organisa- fire the Chief Executive.” self-awareness, self-discipline and personal integrity, tion and the way it was run. I learned that it The ten differentiators as well as the humility to do all was best to share my emerging thinking with of this without being centre stage. A sense of humour them before seeking decisions at the Board.” Chief Executive: “The Chief Executive role can be a very lonely at the right moment can also help! Great Chairs are Chief Executive: A good Board Chair: one. On some topics there is no one else I can exceptional people. “I had a concern that some of our non-execu- talk to. I look to the Chair for a receptive ear tives with deep expertise were getting drawn • Gives guidance in private to the CEO as a and constructive advice.” mentor and sounding board, but does not into running with an issue, rather than provid- ing advice to the executive and leaving them undermine their responsibility for delivering Chair: the strategy; with responsibility to follow through. This “I make it very clear to my Chief Executive that I caused a lot of confusion about accountability, Chair: won’t interfere in the running of the business, “A good relationship between the Chair and • and I had to seek opportunities to talk it Guides the CEO on what should come to the but I don’t expect my access to people, sites the Chief Executive is very beneficial for the through with them and the Chair.” Board and ensures that all Directors understand and clients to be closely controlled. I expect to company. If it does not exist, it is very difficult the context in which options are being be out there taking the temperature, and to compensate.” discussed; bringing any issues back for the Chief Executive to consider.” • Creates the conditions for long term success Invest in the Chair/CEO relationship by promoting diversity of skills, experience Chair: What’s different in the public sector? and personal attributes amongst the Board “My role in a Board discussion is to dock the Directors; Writing down the respective roles and responsibilities ship successfully, having heard the debate and of the Chair and Chief Executive is essential, but weighed the views expressed. It is a big We spoke to Chairs and Chief Executives who had • there is no alternative to working at the relationship Gives more or less time to the organisation mistake to come out with a personal view early operated in both sectors. The consensus was that the at short notice, according to need, such as a on a day by day basis. In particular, many Chairs good practice described above should be universal, in the discussion.” major change of direction, or the arrival of a have a past history as successful Chief Executives, but there are additional complexities in the public new CEO; and may instinctively want to intervene, in what they sector which Chairs need to be aware of. consider to be the best interests of the organisation. • Demonstrates the organisation’s core values Experienced Chairs tell us that they seek to avoid this Whereas a private sector Chair is appointed by the What does that mean for the skills of the Chief to internal and external stakeholders, sets the trap by reviewing the number of days per week that Board Directors, a public sector Chair is a ministerial Executive? He or she needs all the skills and tone of the organisation and communicates they need to be in role, as someone without executive appointment, and the Minister will expect the Chair attributes which go with effective leadership and in an open and accessible way that inspires functions. In addition, they: to steer the Board and organisation to achieve the management of any complex organisation, but also confidence; objectives set for them. needs to know how to get the best from the Chair. If • Make sure there are regular opportunities for 1-1 the Chair does not initiate, the Chief Executive needs • Has had previous non-executive experience in conversations with the Chief Executive – not Depending on the nature of the organisation, the to prompt a very early discussion on how they will this or another organisation before becoming only about tasks but also about how best to work Minister may expect the Chair to take a close interest work together, including the rules of engagement for Chair; together; in the detail of the business, and may want regular Board meetings, the particular interests and working progress meetings where each is accompanied by style of the Chair, and how the two of them will best • Discuss business issues by asking open questions • Has broadly-based rather than sector-specific supporting officials. When this happens, the skilful divide their representative and ambassadorial roles of the Chief Executive, rather than seeking to experience; Chair needs to build the relationship with the outside the organisation. impose an opinion; Minister, without undermining the leadership role • Is prepared to work at understanding the • of the Chief Executive within the organisation. In In addition, the Chief Executive must think Ensure that any disagreements are discussed, and organisation and what it needs of the Chair; particular, he/she needs to ensure that any action proactively about how to win the confidence of the if at all possible, resolved, in private conversations items from meetings at the sponsor Department are other non-executives and to get the best from the or with the mediation of a trusted non-executive • Is personally accountable for Board clearly assigned to the executive team for follow up, executive’s interaction with the Board. Some of this is colleague; performance; and that the Chief Executive is not impeded in access about hygiene factors, such as ensuring that the Board • Work on the understanding that the Chief to the key decision-makers and influencers. • Balances the need for the Board to address gets the information it wants, and that Board papers Executive will not spring surprises on the Board, are well-written and circulated well ahead of time. current issues, with the imperative of quality nor seek to bounce them into decisions; If the Minister does not ask for regular progress Other aspects are more about relationship–building: time to discuss key strategic and leadership meetings, the Chair nevertheless needs to remember matters concerned with future performance. that he/she is accountable to that Minister, and find • Make sure that employees and stakeholders see ways of maintaining a relationship, so that any the Chair and Chief Executive appearing in public problems that arise - including any doubts about the Chair: together as one team. performance of the Chief Executive - can be handled “I once appointed a first time Chief Executive. in a spirit of partnership. A Chair who floats free of To combine all of these attributes requires a Chair He was a very good manager but I needed to the sponsoring Department may prosper as long as who can see things from the CEO’s perspective; coach him on how to interact with the Board, things are going well, but becomes vulnerable if they can act as coach and mentor; has moral authority when to surface issues with them, and are not. and inspires confidence within the organisation; is critically to recognise that Boards do not committed to the organisation’s long-term success; expect to be treated as rubber stamps.” 20 2010 What Makes a Great Chair in the Public Sector? The Praesta Insight Pieces 21
Chairs and Chief Executives in the public sector Chair: Chair: need to be sensitive to the political environment, “Your appointment as Chair may be subject “Public sector Boards can be more diverse and to public opinion. They need to establish strong to a Select Committee hearing. Even if it is in the experience that they bring than many working relationships with civil service counterparts not, you need to understand the workings of private sector Boards, so the dynamics of and recognise when to consult on decisions. Ideally Parliament, and be prepared to give an Board management can be different, and they will have complementary skills and support each account of yourself if asked.” require more investment from the Chair.” other in getting the relationships right. Chair: Other factors that affect the expectations of a public “It’s really important to do your due diligence sector Chair are: before accepting an appointment, so that The public sector Chair also needs to know that you understand what is expected of the Chair • It is not always easy to define who in the public they do not have quite the same autonomy over of this body, and how your skills match those sector equates to the private sector shareholder appointments as in the private sector: of the Chief Executive.” interest. Multiple stakeholders must be managed, and the Chair and Chief Executive need to • Selection processes in the public sector are agree between them who will lead in each case usually led by the relevant Government – or where they will consciously manage the Department and approved by a Minister. The relationship together; rules on public appointments must be followed, and a representative from the Office of the Ten things for the public sector Chair • Chairs in the public sector may find that they are Commissioner for Public Appointments may be presumed to be the public face of the organisation. involved. Unlike in the private sector, the Chair to think about: They may need to take a conscious decision on does not usually have the last word on a Chief • Check that Board members have a shared whether to accept the role, or seek to persuade Executive appointment, but needs to find ways understanding of governance others that this lies best with the Chief Executive; of articulating any concerns that he or she may have about particular candidates; • Think about your levers and use them wisely • When it comes to reputation management, a public sector Chair can rarely stay out of the spotlight. • Similarly, public sector Chairs may not always • Regularly review Board and Chief Executive The Chair needs to agree with the Chief Executive have the final word on the appointment of performance how they and the Board will be alerted to emerging Board members, and may therefore have greater • issues in time to make an input, and be ready for challenges in building a cohesive team; Ask others to review your own performance media interest in everything that the organisation against the key skills for a Chair does or spends money on; • If the Chair of a private sector company has • Build a strong relationship with your CEO – serious concerns about Chief Executive or Board or part company • Public sector Boards are expected to expose member performance, he/she is likely to take their proceedings to public scrutiny to a degree soundings with the Senior Independent Director • Understand the politics and the expectations unfamiliar to many companies - and may moreover and then decide what action to take. In the public of Ministers risk judicial review of some of the decisions they sector, the relevant Government Department will take. expect to be consulted, and the eventual decision • Identify your stakeholders and how you need may not always lie in the Chair’s hands; to work with them • Be prepared for the media spotlight Chair: • In some cases in the public sector, none of the “No public body Chair could keep below the executives are full members of the Board, but • Consider designating a “Senior Independent parapet when issues or allegations arise over are described as “in attendance”. The Chair has Director” to support you value for money.” to ensure that their views nevertheless get full attention; • Think about your other sources of personal support. Chief Executive: • Sometimes the sponsor Department may expect to “The Freedom of Information Act, the Public have a senior official present at Board meetings as Accounts Committee and political an “assessor”, which can impact on the dynamics accountability add another huge dimension to of Board discussions. how things are managed, including risk.”
Chair: “Chairs with predominantly private sector experience may need to familiarise themselves with public sector accounting conventions, the complexity of the regulatory environment, and the expectations of Ministers.” 22 The Praesta Insight Pieces 23
2010 The opportunities are always there: you have to As you look through the perspectives of different focus on where they are likely to be and get ahead protagonists for fresh thinking, you may find Seizing the Future of the competition. Less resource forces difficult yourself more open to and engaged with new questions to be asked. Those who bring insight and approaches. Freshness of thinking flows from perspective and can spot trends and discontinuities allowing space for reflection, and then moving will be in a strong position to innovate and may beyond introspection to wider engagement with receive a more receptive audience than ever before. different ideas and approaches.
by Peter Shaw (2005-To Date) & Robin Hindle Fisher (2010-2013) We observe that there are three important initial Our clients’ experience is that the key components steps – accepting change, calibrating the gap needed for releasing freshness of thinking include: between the old and the new, and allowing facing up to the reality of the facts and trends, yourself a touch of excitement. consciously moving your thinking into another praesta insights place so you are not harking back to a previous era, a) Accepting that conditions have changed and recognising and removing inhibitors to your thinking letting go of the past is the first step towards and releasing energy in yourself and others. It Seizing the future demands an upbeat and assertive approach coupled making the most of future opportunities. involves sometimes following your intuitive thinking Embracing this new reality might start with and not always being entirely logical! with realism, humility and the confidence to lead by example. It involves recognising that the past has gone and adjusting standing back, re-evaluating and being liberated from those previous emotionally to what has been ‘lost’. It means frames of reference that constrain. The most successful leaders do this standing back and seeing the journey to date and working out how to deal with obstacles Promoting freshness of thinking: while remaining true to clear guiding values. that are now in the way. some ideas • recollect when you do fresh thinking well, b) Calibrating the gap between the old and the new means being ruthlessly honest about where • identify the intellectual, personal or In Riding the Rapids, published in 2008, we explored 1. Accept new reality you are now and the degree of challenge. emotional baggage, the strategies that our clients across the private, It can involve acknowledging that parts of public and ‘third’ sectors were using to navigate their Economic growth will be re-established at some • simplify the data to key facts and trends, the organisation are in trouble and that you, ways through the turmoil and uncertainty created by stage, but looks likely to be modest. Therefore as a leader, do not have clarity about the • look at others’ perspectives as a way of the financial crisis. managing and leading organisations in all sectors way forward. The new reality is likely to freshening your own, will be intellectually demanding, physically tough be more demanding and will require leaders In this booklet, we highlight what we are observing and emotionally stretching over the next few years. • spend time with those people who stimulate and managers, more than ever, to create and in our work with senior executives about what is Adopting a siege mentality and keeping your head fresh thinking in you, drive success for themselves and their own required to be successful in the future. Whether down is unlikely to work. organisations. • support others around you as they renew the future holds continued focus, renewed growth, their ways of thinking, painful restructuring or complete reappraisal, it needs to be faced up to and addressed successfully. c) Allowing yourself to feel a touch of excitement • consider other people’s motivations and It will almost certainly require adjusting the skills, by the new landscape. You may feel daunted how they can be aligned, The impact will vary by sector or dejected but the new reality can include competencies, attitudes and sometimes emotions that • learn from people from different cultures and • In the private sector, companies are likely to opportunities, if you adjust the lens you are delivered survival or success in the recent past. age groups, experience only limited top line growth. Achieving using to assess it. New vistas you never thought possible will open up. You can feel a new sense Five Key Skills acceptable results will require continued • follow your intuition and respect the insights improvements in what is offered to customers at of liberation and be a source of energy to those it brings, and Many of the characteristics identified as important the same time as further increases in efficiencies around you. • set aside time for reflective thinking. are leadership fundamentals. However, they require and, probably, sector restructuring a particular focus at times like these – they are and consolidation. 2. Promote fresh thinking the easiest to lose when under extreme pressure, • In the public sector, expectations from both the and they make the greatest difference to effective public and politicians will continue to grow. At the 3. Ensure effective engagement leadership. Promoting freshness of thinking is about same time the pressure is on to reduce headcount. being open, discerning, reflective, and liberated, Leaders have no option but to view reduced Our conversations with senior leaders suggest that while not devaluing what has gone before. It is Effective engagement with others – teams, groups, resourcing as an opportunity to take a completely seizing the future successfully requires five key accepting that life has moved on and that you take boards, customers, clients, suppliers, competitors – fresh look at the ways services are delivered. skills; with you your values, experiences and insights into is often sidelined in importance at times of change the new landscape. and uncertainty. We can so easily convince ourselves • The third sector looks set to face a significant squeeze on revenues, but may well find its that there is not time, or that engagement needs to Freshness of thinking only begins in earnest when wait until the picture is clearer. Ironically, effective 1. Accept new reality role and services are welcomed even more as Government looks for innovative solutions to you acknowledge what you are feeling about the engagement is even more important at these times. 2. Promote fresh thinking providing public services. Leaders in this sector future. If you are feeling constrained, fresh thinking will not get much of a look in. If you are feeling From the experience of the senior leaders we talk to, 3. Ensure effective engagement will want to address where it is appropriate and feasible for their organisations to take up new open minded, fresh ideas can flow in. How willing engagement that works involves; relationships based 4. Embrace radical approaches roles. are you to step inside a bigger landscape and see the on trust, effective listening, common purpose, shared 5. Pace your energies world differently? endeavour, and emotional self-awareness. 24 2010 Seizing the Future The Praesta Insight Pieces 25
Public Sector: an example have limited professional and personal engagement Ensuring effective engagement: 5. Pace your energies will rarely provide the leadership necessary to grasp some ideas Two Government Departments learned that a the future effectively. • build connectivity with others – emotionally, as Our consistent observation is that leaders who make Ministerial reshuffle would result in them being well as intellectually, the most of opportunities know how to pace and merged. This was at first difficult for many The team that knows what each person brings and apply their energies skilfully. They are self-aware • take responsibility for raising the quality of people to accept, as they had worked hard how and when its members engage effectively enough to know that they cannot always be at peak engagement with your peers and with your team, to build their own brand with staff and with together will have a measure of robustness which performance and that allocating their energy and stakeholders. Many of them now found their will enable it to keep its resolve in tough times. • encourage honesty and, when required, be time is important. jobs at risk. The leadership could not change challenging in engagement, the new reality, but they could help people This may involve re-examining the purpose of teams • ensure engagement stands the test of time and Drawing from the experience of senior leaders, three to come to terms with it. They called open as many teams perceive that they in reality have of disagreements by building and re-establishing trust, steps towards achieving successful pacing of energy meetings where they could share what they limited operational or professional shared interests. include: build patterns and rhythms that work for knew and paint a picture for the future. They • identify the protagonists who you are least Recognising the reality and redefining what a team comfortable with and focus on effective you, understand the sources of your resilience, and promised further open conversations. They is there to do can be liberating and energising. engagement, create ‘shafts of stillness’. explained how staff would be supported with • practice good quality engagement even when their personal concerns, but then encouraged Individual leaders tell us about the importance of A starting point might be the rhythms that the wider organisation does not seem to support everyone to think about the contribution they emotional self-awareness and understanding when it, and maximize the vitality and creativity of both your could make to building the new organisation. their personal feelings are getting in the way and organisation and you. Pacing energy involves being People found new energy by concentrating on inhibiting effective engagement, be they emotions • recognise that the more you look outside acutely conscious of health and well being, and what they could control and influence, rather of apprehension, frustration, fear or tiredne yourself and mentor and encourage others, the acknowledging the positive and negative aspects of greater will be your sense of personal fulfilment. than dwelling on what had happened. working under pressure. It can mean becoming more ruthless in your use of time and energy. It will mean watching for the danger signals when your spiral of creative energy goes down, and creating situations Creative debate within relationships based on trust Universities: Third Sector 4. Embrace radical approaches where the spiral of energy can go up. is critical, so that purposeful dialogue can release new ideas and not be destructive. Interdepartmental In anticipation of major changes in their sector, We observe that the most successful leaders are battles, individual power struggles and blame a Vice Chancellor commissioned three separate those who continue to embrace radical approaches. cultures will kill trust. At all levels, trust cannot organisations to imagine future scenarios from They are open to radical thinking about the way be taken for granted. It needs regular attention and a socioeconomic perspective, a customer that things are done and will embrace the need investment of time, energy and emotion. perspective and a technology perspective. to redesign their own leadership approach and These scenarios were used to engage new personal aspirations. Building trust requires being genuinely committed thinking by the executive team and a cross section to understanding where others are coming from and of staff with the presentations conducted off-site. Our clients talk about the obligation on leaders what success looks like for them. At the same time By engaging these different groups in different to stand back uninhibited by previous models or recognising who you can trust is important. ways and challenging them to think radically frames of reference. The strength of resolve Sometimes there is limited basis for trust and all – a more innovative and flexible strategic plan to redesign well involves being audacious in you can do is listen hard and try to have reasonable was created and the level of engagement with understanding others’ points of view but not being Building rhythms that work for you: conversations. ‘unknown’ futures had begun. derailed by fear of upset, uncertainty or ambiguity. some ideas Once next steps are clear, the vision behind it Our clients tell us that they are constantly reminded • know the patterns of use of time and energy needs to be shared with those around you. that work best for you, about the importance of effective listening to those with an interest at any level, while not • recognise when you are at your most alert to Embracing radical change is about taking control being sucked into narrow team or departmental solve difficult problems, of your situation, your energy and your attitude. perspectives. Success comes through bringing a Many decisions are in the hands of others, but • understand the context when you are at your quality of listening that is “full on”, discerning and you control decisions about your attitude to the best at influencing and persuading others, discriminating. It is bringing undivided attention future. • watch the consequences of trying to do too and seeing the wider picture at the same time. many things at once, Effective partnerships with good quality engagement • know the best way of not being distracted, flow from building shared agendas and a sense of Private Sector: one company’s experience • know the rhythms that help you feel more in common purpose right across the organisation. Some control of your own situation and your own A company with a long and successful history had to face colleagues may tend to build or reinforce barriers creativity, up to falling sales and a credit drought during the downturn. in periods of change. Partnerships where feedback Management had to take action. A wide ranging strategic • be willing and assertive in varying the pace of can be given and received openly and sensitively are review led to site closures and the loss of thousands of jobs. the day, far more likely to survive, thrive and create shared • be ruthless in your use of time and energy, success in times of change. But the company never lost its focus on innovation, and the workforce valued the continued investment in their skills. • be conscious when you might go into a downward spiral, and Senior leaders tell us that committed and flexible Shareholders strongly supported a rights issue and accepted groups where individuals are dedicated to both a short term loss of dividends. Suppliers appreciated even • recognise the best ways of keeping rhythms the shared endeavour and each other’s success are closer engagement. Overall the company emerged stronger. that work effectively for you. central to good quality engagement. Teams which 26 2010 Seizing the Future The Praesta Insight Pieces 27
Understanding the sources of your resilience, what Creating ‘shafts of stillness’ can be an effective recharges you and what saps your energy are vital way of pacing your energies and keeping events in in being able to pace yourself successfully. The perspective. What may seem initially an indulgent Seizing the future: in summary successful leader is nurturing and growing the luxury can prove to be re-energising and re-vitalising. resilience of themselves and their teams. • Define clearly what difference you want to make,
• Develop and share goals and objectives, Guarding resilience involves: Creating ‘shafts of stillness’: some ideas • Take control of your diary and create time for • create some personal space where you are thinking and reflection, a) recognising when uncertainty can create a sense uncluttered, of threat and knowing how to handle any darker • Take control of your working schedule and feelings of doubt, vulnerability or alarm. Some • cultivate stillness as an attitude of mind, pace your energy, thrive on uncertainty. Others need to be alert • allow yourself to breathe, relax and cherish good • Choose your own attitude to the new reality to the risk of going into victim mode, and take moments, and the future, measures to avoid the self-destructive effect of feeling a victim. • develop the “mental stillness” muscle and the • Know who is committed to your success, and ability to block out • Recognise and celebrate progress. b) using your emotions as valuable data about or tolerate external noise, people and situations, without being captive to the • be responsible for creating contexts of calmness debilitating consequences of and stillness for those you work with, crossness, frustration or antipathy. • know how to use stillness to calm you down and c) training your brain to focus on your priorities move you into the right pace, by scheduling blocks of time for different types • build methods of dealing with habitual noise in of work and modes of thinking, and trying not open plan, e-mails, texts and chatter, to memorise masses of information and instead focussing on identifying key data and trends. • accept when noise and interference can be a helpful stimulus,
d) being conscious of how your own brain works and • know how you can use shafts of stillness as a how you can work with your preferences can be catalyst for action, and very useful in building resilience. It might involve practising noticing your emotions as they arise in • allow silence in conversation and do not always order to get better at sensing their presence earlier, rush to fill the space or when a strong, difficult emotion is growing refocusing your attention on something else before this emotion takes over or blinds you. Seize the future e) looking after your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being is central to ensuring Taking control of the future as a leader is both resilience. Whatever gives you energy, can you hugely exciting and daunting. It involves recognising do more of it? Whatever lifts your spirits is likely the uncertainties and harsh realities without being to make you more open-minded to different diminished by them. Taking control of the future people and their ideas. Knowing the limits of your includes being upbeat and assertive, seeing and taking resilience is crucial as is taking avoiding action to opportunities. It is recognising that you may well be ensure that your reserves do not become depleted. developing and using different skills and attributes.
f) being conscious of your own stress levels: when Progress will involve accepting the new reality, they are helping you be creative and when allowing freshness of thinking, ensuring good quality they are leading to your becoming unhelpfully engagement, embracing radical approaches, both defensive, and organisationally and personally, and pacing your energies. In this journey, knowing your sources of g) being conscious of where you want to make a personal support will be invaluable – be they family, difference and why. It is standing above the fray friends, colleagues and a mentor or a coach. and allowing yourself to smile. Are you ready to be positive in your approach and attitude? The choice of attitude is yours. Keep the focus on what is most important to you and be willing to take control of the opportunities that will emerge. 28 The Praesta Insight Pieces 29
2011 Example: A renewed confidence 2. Short-Term and Long-Term The organisation felt fearful of making mistakes and How can you best have one foot in today and Living Leadership constrained. Its reputation had taken a hammering because of some well publicised errors. A new one in tomorrow? Key elements are: Finding equilibrium leader brought both clarity of purpose and a strong sense of both challenge and encouragement. • Recognise the urgent alongside the important People within the organisation felt able to try new • Build the right foundation approaches. They felt more confident because of by Peter Shaw (2005-To Date) both purposeful leadership and sound programme • Ensure that long-term intentions and realities and performance management arrangements. inform short-term decisions
Recognising the urgent alongside the important praesta insights is about the necessity of keeping the show on the resilience is about building the capability to address road while delivering the transformation necessary both the known and the unknown. Evaluating to achieve long-term goals. It involves living with Living leadership is about fully embracing your leadership challenges and clearly what happened following a minor crisis can the polarity of doing both the urgent and what is opportunities. Leading well is about bringing all your experiences to bear, lead to important lessons about addressing future, important for the future. It is recognising that fire unpredicted events. storms do have to be managed as well as ensuring while not trying too hard and exhausting yourself. When you are living time is preserved for longer term planning. It is leadership you are drawing on your energy and insights, while leaving the Key questions to consider might be: acknowledging that the “day job” cannot be ignored.
sense of guilt behind. You are able to judge when to be on the balcony • Is there more that needs to be done to inspire a Building the right foundation might mean 70% and when to be on the dance floor: ie when to be observing and when to clear passion to make a difference? of the effort going into the preparation. It means stimulating debate that brings together quality and be intervening. • Is there enough emphasis on sound management quantity with no factors being in the taboo or too practices covering programmes, projects, difficult categories. It involves preliminary work that performance and risks? examines all the linkages, sees issues from different • What more can I do to engender liberation, angles and embraces the perspective of customers Living leadership embraces enjoying leading, Bringing clarity of purpose requires a combination energy and hope? and stakeholders. Preparation is about building on adapting your approach to fit the context, being true of leadership that inspires and management that solid rock rather than shifting sand, wherever that is • What practical next steps might be taken to to your values and drawing on all your insights and delivers. Good leadership ignites a passion to make possible. experience. It involves being confident in what you a difference. Sound management is about well build organisational resilience? bring as a leader while always being open to learn. planned programme, project, performance and risk Ensuring that long-term intentions and realities It means being liberated to make your own choices management.It means clear expectations based on inform short-term decisions is about bringing on the way you lead. underpinning standards, with a significant degree of understanding about the long-term implications of empowerment. Developing organisation resilience short-term decisions, and about ensuring that long- Five Key Axes term desires are not seen as irrelevant or unrelated • Ensure as much clarity as possible about Without leadership there is no vision and energy. to necessary short-term decisions. At the heart of living leadership well is finding the Without management there is limited discipline or the outcomes the organisation is to deliver. point of equilibrium on five key axes, namely: structure. Clarity and purpose that is engaging and • Be continually focused on customer A tight focus may be important to deliver specific expectations. realistic will inspire a clear passion both to make tasks, but a wide field of vision helps ensure that 1. Leading and Managing a difference and to ensure quality management. • Create an atmosphere where challenge is consequences are seen. Bringing clarity about 2. Short-Term and Long-Term Creating a clear picture of what an organisation welcomed. long-term intent can build a greater commitment to is there for requires both uplifting leadership and • Ensure effective and honest two-way the initial steps. A clear understanding of attitudes 3. The Individual and the Team effective management. communication throughout the organisation. and the approaches of others is essential to sustain 4. Activity and Reflection the energy and commitment necessary to deliver • Build an acceptance of the importance of 5. Being Resolute and Adaptable Liberation, energy and hope flow naturally when multiple outcomes and not be thrown off course. simple things are done well and when there is a collaboration. consistency between values and behaviours. A sense • Demonstrate courage in the way difficult of personal liberation as a leader results from the decisions are taken. individual knowing where they stand without guilt 1. Leading and Managing • Keep explaining the context within which Example: Pulled in all directions or fear of blame. Energy flows when the direction decisions are made. is clear, the sense of mutual encouragement and A leader felt pulled in many directions at the same There is a false dichotomy between leadership and common purpose is strong and mutual respect is • Demonstrate consideration for the time. He was rushing from one thing to the next. professional development of your people. management. Living leadership requires doing both high. He knew he needed to be more systematic about well. Key elements are: • Take care of yourself and the signals you allocating his time between the urgent and the give. important. He used a combination of allocating blocks Growing organisational resilience can often be of time in his diary for longer term issues, being • Bring clarity and purpose ignored. Building organisational resilience is both • Be consistent in the values and behaviours clearer what success looked like both this week and • Create liberation, energy and hope about engaging people in new ways and building next year, being explicit about when he was available you want to encourage in the emotional resonance, alongside clarity about who is and not available, and recognising what raised or • Grow organisational resilience organisation. accountable for what. Growing organisational sapped his energy. 30 2011 Living Leadership The Praesta Insight Pieces 31
Key questions are: A successful team will be delivering stronger outputs than they would as individuals. Successful What is it only I can do as a leader? Example: A more reflective approach • How might time best be allocated between the teams will be generating energy in individuals as • What is brought together at my level? urgent and planning for transformation? well as in the team through building on a sense A leader found himself exhausted and failing to of collective endeavour, with recognition and • Who can I influence more effectively than others? remember the names of key people. He knew • How do you best ensure that the everyday development of the diverse talents within the team. • What accountabilities do I have that others do he had to stand back in order to move forward routine work is done well alongside work on Teams that are doing well flow from individuals not have? effectively. He needed to calm down and create longer term transformation. some shafts of stillness. He began to take five who are playing their part effectively, are true to • What is it I can do which affects uniquely the minute breaks which helped recharge his energies • Are there times when more resource and energy their own values and are focused on team rather viability of this enterprise? needs to go into building the foundation? than individual outcomes. and put issues back into a wider context. He saw • If I was not here what would not happen? times of being reflective as a strength and not a • How might long-term intentions be made more • What will members of the team get from me that weakness. robust and explicit? they would not get from other people? • • What unique insights does my background and How can you ensure that your field of vision is Example: The team as more than the sum of experience mean that I bring? not blinkered and is wide enough to encourage the parts the adventurous? “Timing is all” is knowing when to stand back Each member of the team shared their perspective and when to press the button. The most precious on what would bring out the best in them. They skill of leadership is about judging the moment identified the distinctive contribution each member 4. Activity and Reflection to take an initiative, make a decision, or change Recognising the urgent alongside the brought and what they needed in particular from direction. Good timing is about creating defining important the leader. They worked through what success moments for both teams and wider organisations. Getting the equilibrium right between activity and looked like and how jointly they could increase their Moments of crisis or celebration can be important reflection is about, connecting head and heart, • What might get you or your boss sacked prospect of success through the way they supported in crystallizing what in an organisation is there to bringing focus and observation, and applying if it isn’t done? and stretched each other. They identified how they do. Living leadership is about knowing when to could keep their deliberations fresh, energised and determination and detachment. Key elements are: • What is damaging your reputation which decide, when to “wing it” and when to stand back needs to be addressed? reflective. and reflect. • Seize the moment • How best do you ensure enough time and • Exercise the power of reflection Key questions might be: energy to deliver transformation? Effective teams are not only internal teams. • Timing is all • When can the urgent be dealt with by Building external partnerships well is about • What needs to happen for you to seize the someone other than you? creating a wider sense of mutual engagement moment as a leader? and commitment from people with a diversity of Seizing the moment is about accepting new reality • Who can hold you to account to ensure that interests. Living leadership involves creating a and being willing to promote fresh thinking and • What practical steps might you take to enhance the urgent does not drive out the important? sense of team both with those outside and inside embrace radical approaches. It is recognising that your powers of reflection? • How best do you measure progress in dealing an organisation so that there is a shared sense decisions are needed and not procrastinating. • In what ways can you remove inhibitions so with both the important and the urgent? of common endeavour that creates commitment, It is being willing to put the foot on the accelerator energises and liberates. Success comes through when there is an opportunity that may not come that your decisions on timing are uncluttered by asking the question regularly about how can again. Seizing the moment will often be about previous behaviours or expectations? building a broader team create synergies and taking the initiative to build mutual understanding energy that increase the prospect of success. and a shared will to initiate change. 3. The Individual and the Team Exercising the power of reflection is about the Enhancing the power of reflection Living leadership means nurturing and growing the Key questions can be: importance of standing back and seeing a situation energy of both the individual and the team. Both or decision from a number of different angles. It • What helps you to stand back and stare so are crucial to success. Key elements are: • What is it only I can do in ensuring a involves encouraging freshness and new thinking, you observe well? particular area of work is led well? even at busy times. Allowing effective reflection • What helps light your fire in terms of what are • What is it only I can do as leader? time so that preconceived ideas can be re-examined you passionate about? • What more might be done to enable and • How might I build a stronger, internal team? is fundamental to long-term success. develop a sense of shared endeavour within • How do you best reflect in short bursts • What external partnerships need to be a diverse team? through creating time and space to think or strengthened? Good quality reflection will mean that learning is for shafts of stillness? • What external partnerships need to be codified, embedded and built on. Astute reflection and observation will mean there is recognition of • In what environment and at what time of day Most leaders can see where they can make a cultivated and grown? both the formal and informal processes through do you best stand back? difference. They want to add value in lots of which decisions are arrived at. Reflection is not for • Who are the companions on the way who different ways. They may be better equipped than wimps. Reflection sits alongside courage to ensure best enable you to reflect in a purposeful and many of their team to do individual tasks well, but that decisions are thought through, consistent with perceptive way? ‘what is the value I can bring’, may be the wrong your values and aligned with long-term intent. • Who do you admire who reflects on situations question. A tighter question is, “What is it only I well and what can you learn from them? can do?” Asking that question puts a much tougher filter on how best the leader uses their time and • What small steps can you take to enhance energy. your powers of reflection? 32 2011 Living Leadership The Praesta Insight Pieces 33
5. Being Resolute and Adaptable and partnership reaffirms the benefits from new positions on the axes. Success will involve ways of working together. Learning fast by working judgements about when you lead and when you Underpinning the four axes above is the importance jointly and building buy-in can create both clear follow, when you press your point and when you of getting the balance right between being resolute resolution and adaptable ways of getting things concede to others, and when you lead from the and adaptable. Being adaptable is a sign of strength done. front or steer from behind. and not weakness. Being overly resolute can mean rushing into a brick wall. Key elements are: Key questions to ask can be: These five axes may well be eternal verities but getting the balance right is fundamental to success • Be clear what you are passionate about • What am I passionate about and how much of for any leader in any sector at any time. Enjoy • Be adaptable and agile that is rooted in reality and the need for change? observing yourself, standing back, experimenting and flexing your approach. • Emphasise co-creation • How much do I trust my own internal barometer to get the balance right between being resolute Being resolute is about having the passion to make and adaptable? a difference in uncertain times and a doggedness • How do I need to be more agile in taking Annex: Reviewing Your Approach to keep at it. Passion with a purpose starts from forward living leadership? clarity of intent, consistent underlying values and Many leaders we have worked with have the importance of building on the imperative for • What opportunities are there for more co- found it helpful to stand back and reflect on change. creation where I can encourage adaptability where they are currently on these five axes. while ensuring a strong sense of common Resolution and determination flows from confidence purpose? • What is the split in the time I am currently in your values and goals, and trust in your own giving to: judgement. It involves recognising when you are - leading and managing given authority by others and being willing to take What might being more adaptable mean? responsibility for your actions. It incorporates a - short-term and long-term strong sense of self-authorising beliefs and actions, • Recognising that your experience gives you - the individual and the team distinctive insights. with a sound, internal barometer that keeps you on - activity and reflection • Believing you have choices, at least about a reasonable track. - being resolute and adaptable your attitude Being adaptable and agile includes recognising • Acknowledging that your perspective is equally • Do I need to find a new equilibrium and when persistent action and determination can risk valid to that of other people move the “slider bar” on some of these axes? blinkering your understanding of current reality. It • Being willing to try new and different • What might I experiment with in varying the includes understanding your own emotions and how approaches balance of my use of time and energy? sometimes we can be rigid in our reactions. • Not being restricted by previous frameworks • Who can I ask to stretch my thinking and or conceptions give me feedback? Example: Choosing to be adaptable • Not allowing yourself to be defined by the expectations of others In relation to your team questions to enable Being single minded was not getting a leader the • Not limiting your perspective about what them to reflect might be: conclusions she thought were right. She felt as if success is to previous definitions she was banging her head on a brick wall. She • Where are we as a team on these five axes? knew she had to adapt her approach but was not • Not allowing yourself to feel guilty if you do finding the prospect attractive. She forced herself not get it right first time • What benefits might flow from assessing to be more open to the views of others, more whether we have got the balance right? willing to vary her approach and less dogmatic • What steps might we take as a team and about how the objectives should be delivered. as individuals to reassess the right point of Next Steps She was reassured when progress began to be equilibrium on these axes? made. Living leadership to the full can be both painful • What might we do differently? and exhausting. It means recognising your own limitations, while continuing to stretch Being adaptable means both being focused the boundaries of your own understanding and Looking again at these five axes can provide and retaining bandwidth with a breadth of preferred approaches. Living leadership is about a defining moment for an individual or team, understanding. Agility is about how we get over or taking control of the future, being upbeat and when reviewed individually, or with a colleague around barriers in the way. Constantly searching assertive, while at the same time recognising the or a coach, or in workshop. Time spent after new opportunities to deliver well reinforces realities and limitations of both yourself and others. reflecting on these themes is likely to result in adaptability and agility, which is crucial to ensuring greater clarity about next steps and a renewed that resolution does not become tunnel vision. Leading successfully involves keeping an eye on energy, however daunting the issues being where you are on these five key axes, possibly addressed. Putting a strong emphasis on co-creation reinforces using the approach set out in the annex. It is about adaptability through the involvement of diverse recognising your natural behaviour and being interests and individuals in developing coherent willing to flex it. It includes training yourself to next steps. Building progress around co-creation “stretch the slider bar” so you are trying different 34 The Praesta Insight Pieces 35
2012 The defining characteristics of Metro Leaders ‘Our personal brands are more visible. Your reputation follows you around. It is tougher The key attributes of Metro Leaders we have Metro Leaders identified are: to get away with being a big stick monster.’ A new breed of men in business? 1. Attitude to authority – they prefer to establish Managing Director, global technology credibility than use the status of their position provider
2. Collaborative yet decisive – they delegate and collaborate but expect results by Jane Stephens (2007-2013) & Robin Hindle Fisher (2010-2013) 3. Access to knowledge and information – they The characteristics that make Metro recognise that access is not limited to the top Leaders ‘different’ praesta insights 4. Ideas come from everywhere – as above, the It is important to stress that the characteristics best ideas are not limited to those at the top that define Metro Leaders build on traditional Saul Klein, the technology venture capitalist behind a host of successful start leadership traits. All of our interviewees mentioned 5. Comfortable with lack of omnipotence – they ups including Lovefilm, Firefly and Seedcamp, describes himself on Twitter the importance of setting vision, of competence and acknowledge that they do not have all the mastery of the detail of their businesses, of being as ‘Husband. Dad. Serial entrepreneur.’ He is a high profile example of a answers exemplars of hard work and of delivering strong results. Metro Leaders know that getting the basics new breed of men in business life who are choosing to behave differently 6. Comfortable having multiple roles – they take right is as important as ever. in the workplace and who are happy to express priorities in their lives that their multiple roles in life for granted
are different to their fathers’ and older generations’. 7. Manage competing priorities – they manage We observed a number of characteristics that we believe define Metro Leaders. The first is their their time to suit their various roles attitude to authority. They are clear that changes 8. Present single identities – they are the same in the workplace brought about by the trends We have seen a growing number of this new breed in staff numbers in the hundreds in multiple locations. person at work, at home and down the pub mentioned above mean that establishing credibility our coaching work in recent years. They take having Being based on interviews with a selected group, to lead is preferable to using the authority bestowed collaborative, relationship based styles of leadership our study is observational and qualitative rather than 9. Manage the whole person – they manage upon them by their positions. They therefore place for granted, have different assumptions about the quantitative in nature, but is, we believe, nevertheless staff as people, not employees great importance on the quality of the relationships nature of their authority and define their identities representative of an interesting phenomenon in they have and on influencing skills. Demonstrating through multiple roles in their lives. Their leadership corporate life. their own personal commitment, being trustworthy, styles reflect their personalities, characteristics and open, genuine and sincere, are essential elements values – for this group being authentic is a given. Products of their time of their behaviour. These qualities stem from deep We have labelled this breed of younger leaders rooted attitudes and beliefs – meaning that it is ‘Metro Leaders’. Some are comfortable with being Identifying what has prompted the emergence of difficult to adopt this style of leadership without open about being ‘different’ while others find it less this new style of male leadership is complex. The ‘Getting the right people into the truly believing in it. Many commented that the easy and encounter some resistance from colleagues fact that the current generation of leaders in their right jobs and motivating them has title on your business card brings something, but who still expect more conventional behaviour from late thirties and early forties are the offspring of the always been fundamental to business, not enough, and that it can be easily squandered. male business leaders. baby boomers who were themselves influenced by but complexity has increased due to The interviewee quoted below summarised this the 1960s might partly explain why they are less globalisation and technology – email, particularly eloquently: In order to get a clearer picture of Metro Leaders hierarchical than previous generations. However, Blackberry, more travel mean there are we interviewed twelve male business leaders over we believe globalisation and technology are key more moving parts...’ a six month period. Some were coaching clients of drivers of the changes in attitude we have observed. Praesta and some were not. All of our respondents Instantaneous access to information has changed President, global publishing company were recommended to us by our colleagues or third the power dynamic between leaders and followers. parties as fitting our description of executives in Knowing more is no longer enough. Followers’ their late 30s and early 40s who are leading in a positions have become stronger and they have less more collaborative way, involving a lot of active respect for hierarchy. This means that command and They also accept that others can do the same – listening, welcoming of challenge and notably less control styles of leadership are less effective – even meaning that they are more inclined to judge by ‘...short term it (authority) comes from your ‘hierarchical’ in style. if you could command, you certainly could not results than by compliance with traditional office position in the hierarchy, but that only lasts control the implementation of real time decisions in routines. about ten minutes. From then on it is not All of the cohort we interviewed have already been multiple time zones and languages. about what you know or being the best highly successful in business. They all operate at Transparency – personal, professional and at what you do anymore, credibility comes board, exco, CEO or managing director level – at, Working regimes have also been transformed by organisational – is also affecting attitudes. The from your ability to have insights, to see or close to, the top of their organisations. The technology. Metro Leaders use technology positively proliferation of information, particularly via social connections and to influence people....’ businesses they work for are in multiple sectors – to bring flexibility to their working days, rather media, means that reputations are open to wider and vary from venture capital backed to publicly than allowing it make work the master of their time. scrutiny than ever before. It is much more difficult Director of Strategy at a UK food retailer quoted. In size, they span a consultancy with around now for people in business to have multiple 60 people to major units of multinationals with personas and much easier for failings as a leader or boss to circulate in the public domain. 36 2012 Metro Leaders The Praesta Insight Pieces 37
Having a delegating and collaborative yet decisive pressure to deliver business results as their inclined to judge people by results, to be relaxed style of leadership is how Metro Leaders establish more hierarchical predecessors. Encouraging about working remotely and supportive of part-time ‘Years ago people thought their job was their credibility. Like their predecessors, they collaboration and seeking multiple inputs to and flexible arrangements. their status, but I would prefer people appreciate the need to hire very smart people. They decisions do not equate to being overly to see my family unit than to hear about observe that the greater complexity brought about democratic or ‘soft’ on people. These men are typically clear about how they my job’ by globalisation means that hiring smart people intend to manage the competing priorities of work they can trust is even more critical than ever. Once and home. They often have targets for what they Co-Founder and Managing Director in place, colleagues are given authority and ‘space’ are trying to achieve such as having breakfast with of an IT consultancy to operate with short, open lines of communication. ‘I fight against being ‘collegiate’ a little the family 3 times a week, not travelling for work Colleagues’ involvement in decisions reflects the – there needs to be a bit of edge and on a Sunday or cooking dinner a certain number relevance and quality of their input, not their you need to remember that people are of times a week. They are pragmatic and realistic place in the hierarchy. Open and frank debate is looking to you to make decisions...I that given the nature of their business roles they The significance of our interviewees’ comments is critical to how Metro Leaders work. They welcome am collegiate but then operate as a will not always be successful. Nevertheless, as one not that they are substantially different to those that challenge and some put formal mechanisms benevolent dictator once decisions Metro Leader said ‘if I make 80 percent of the time older men would have given in answer to the same in place to ensure that their position in their I am doing ok’. There is an interesting contrast have to be taken’ question. The difference was nuanced yet clear organisation does not dissuade staff from openly here with many women we coach who worry more – Metro Leaders feel they have a choice, to be debating and challenging them. CEO, European quoted technology about the 20 percent they miss. involved in roles outside work in a way that their business fathers did not. And, either overtly or covertly, they Metro Leaders recognise that access to knowledge Metro Leaders understand that, if misused, are exercising that choice. Metro Leaders manage and information is no longer confined just to those technology can allow work to become the master of their multiple roles but present single identities. at the top of organisations. ‘Need to know only’ their time. Several spoke of limiting email time at They are consistently a whole person - the same ‘in is anathema. They believe that good ideas come Metro Leaders are comfortable having multiple weekends and while on holiday - not letting contact office’ as ‘out of office’ with no distinction between from everywhere. Their style involves high levels roles in their lives. Their roles outside the office with the office disturb their families’ routines. their business personas and their personal personas. of transparency and active listening to others, are as important as their work. This applies to their One interviewee mentioned that he rarely uses his One Metro Leader summed this up as: irrespective of their position, which would look roles as husbands and partners, fathers and sons. laptop in front of his children during the week and anarchic to a generation of managers used to clear is too busy coaching his son’s football team at the lines of decision making. This is not to imply that previous generations weekend to be in contact with his business. Several of business leaders were not good and loving disclosed that they feel their intense involvement in family life helps them keep perspective and remain ‘I went from being a ski bum to being husbands and fathers. Although the extent to which an investment banker and I like to think our interviewees are open about it with colleagues grounded, and thus contributes to their effectiveness ‘In the old style of management the I haven’t changed...I try to be the same varies, they all see being actively engaged with as leaders. senior person made the decisions; in down the pub as I am in the boardroom families and/or partners as being integral to their this more modern style, the ideas come lives and how they want to live them. These We gained a strong impression from the cohort we – maybe a bit more structured, but from everywhere’. are not optional extras, or ‘nice to haves’. One interviewed of the importance work and family basically the same person’ play in their senses of identity. This was often clear President, global publishing company Metro Leader described how ‘the job description from the responses to our question that effectively CEO, European quoted technology for men has changed’ to include a broader range business of contributions with less emphasis on merely asked them to write their interim obituaries – ‘what being the bread winner than previous generations. would you like other people to say about your life Another summed this theme up with the following to date when you are 60?’ Acknowledging that good ideas can come from comment: everywhere requires humility and being comfortable Without exception, the Metro Leaders we The attitudes to their own identities influences with lack of omnipotence – things Metro Leaders interviewed mentioned aspects you would expect how Metro Leaders recruit, lead, manage and are entirely at ease with. from any successful business person - comments retain talent. One interviewee spoke of how he ‘Being more involved in family life is now such as ‘made a difference’, ‘left businesses in builds personal relationships when hiring new part of the job description of fathers... better shape than when I arrived’, ‘made a lot of staff, believing that the generation of talent in I commit maybe 30 to 40 per cent of money for clients’, and ‘made enough money to their 20s and 30s is attracted to an organisation be comfortable and for people to say I have been ‘…I explained that the top team does my time to “the other job’’ as much by its people and senior leaders as by its not have all the answers, that we ‘successful’’. Many also mentioned, with equal corporate reputation. They believe they need to be have blind spots and that there is CEO, e-commerce network company weighting to success, factors concerning their seen as a person as well as a compelling leader. an opportunity to raise issues and teams – ‘created a band of brothers’, ‘developed his To do this they must be accessible and interact people’ and ‘had fun’. contribute to decision making…’ with people at all levels in the organisation. They appeal to people’s hearts as well as their heads UK Managing Director, US consumer Once again, technological change is having But the majority of the senior leaders we and this involves revealing something of their own credit company an important influence. Metro Leaders use interviewed also mentioned some aspect of their hearts too. It also means making an effort to get to technology positively to help juggle their roles. family lives. A number of interviewees commented know their people and being present and visible in One interviewee recalled how being able to check that they were not prepared to let their success be multiple locations. and send some emails in the morning allowed him achieved at the cost of their relationships with their Despite their humility and desire to involve more families. They want to be integral players in family people in ideas generation, Metro Leaders are clear the flexibility to attend a meeting at a potential school for his daughter – a meeting he speculated life – not absentee husbands, partners or fathers. about the need to set direction. They are decision Others gave this an even stronger emphasis: orientated, firm about their expectations of others his father’s generation would not have been able and understand that they are under at least as much to justify in their schedules. They also appreciate that technology benefits others too – so are more 38 2012 Metro Leaders The Praesta Insight Pieces 39
The same Metro Leader quoted above gave an Our work at Praesta with hundreds of senior leaders 2012 example of how he manages the whole person. certainly does not suggest that management styles When he realised that a Chinese colleague was favouring more collaborative, less hierarchical The Age of Agility responding to his emails at 3 o’clock in the behaviours are the only show in town. Indeed, morning Beijing time, he actively discouraged the current position is that there are still at least him from this diligence and commitment to the as many Alpha Leaders in the senior echelons company, explaining that a senior executive who of business as there are Metro Leaders. But this was not sleeping would not be able to perform in more modern breed that we have portrayed here the way he wanted. This attention to being a caring is growing and gaining greater confidence. We boss appealed to the heart of his colleague and speculate that in the next decade there will be more by Peter Shaw (2005-To Date) & Steve Wigzell (2005-To Date) generated great results through improved loyalty. Metro Leaders at the top of organisations and that Others talked about the importance of responding the corporate world will be the richer for their to key events in peoples’ lives and making sure influence. praesta insights they take the time they need for important moments in their lives. Agility and why it matters - When we at Praesta reviewed our work recently, we were struck by the way clients were trying to deal with economic and ‘I am conscious of their (his team’s) geo-political uncertainty. Rarely in our working lives have macro economic whole lives, not just their working lives – I manage the whole person’ outlooks seemed so hard to predict. Many organisations had used the recession to good effect. They had revisited strategies, taken and enacted President, global publishing company tough decisions, re-focused businesses, re-configured top teams and got corporate finances into robust shape, so as to be fit for a new, likely future scenario of steady, low growth in western economies. Yet, to many, making Senior leaders being true to the whole person rather than being ‘good corporate men’ is not necessarily any sort of bold move constituted a wild throw of the dice. The new priority wholly positive for companies. Whilst Metro was ensuring a safe passage for their organisations. Leaders want challenging and successful careers, they are not prepared to compromise the other roles they have to achieve them. A very strong theme of our interviews of Metro Leaders was that they When we dug deeper some dynamic activity was • Agility requires mental alertness that informs, are much less prepared than previous generations in play. Many of our clients were investing in and is informed by, a high state of suppleness of men to be geographically mobile. Many have environmental scanning, to pick up weak, early and fitness. It is a state of readiness and of wives or partners with their own careers of equal signals of changes relevant to their organisations. being, albeit one that needs to be rested to importance and consider it unreasonable to move They were developing their organisations’ ability to conserve energy and strength for when they location at important times in their children’s act swiftly and surely in response to opportunities are most needed. education. and threats, to react faster than their competitors and to switch resources at short notice. Agility – • Agility’s use is situational, so it is important to Metro Leaders’ broader attitudes to their employers how to wait, watch, and make fast, decisive moves develop it for when you need it. Once the time are similar to their views about location. They at the right time - has become a core source of has come, if you and your organisation do not expect their jobs to be interesting and challenging survival and long-term competitive advantage. possess agility, it is too late to start working and for roles to build their credentials and to on it. support their CVs. They believe they have Our view is that agility starts with the leader, who more choice in how they develop their careers shapes the capability of his/her teams and, through than previous generations. They are no longer them, the wider organisation. We therefore look at expected to pick one company and stay with it, agility from a leadership perspective. complying as necessary, for their entire career. They believe the development of the knowledge economy and changes in technology mean there is Agility: what it is…. a wider array of opportunities and more mobility. When a leading building society heard Greater appreciation by employers of cross sector that another mortgage and savings book experience and the growth in private equity backed For the people and organisations we work with: was available, it moved fast. By deploying business were also cited as reasons for the current the appraisal and decision making generation of men having much greater choice • Agility is the facility to act and react fast and capability it had achieved through making about their careers than in the past. Metro Leaders decisively, to move into and out of situations two other acquisitions, it rapidly secured take advantage of this choice to find jobs that they with sure-footed confidence, when the time attractively priced funding that reduced are committed to but that fit the needs of their is absolutely right so as to open the door to whole person too. its requirement to access more expensive opportunities, secure competitive advantages and volatile wholesale markets. and avoid potential threats. 40 2012 The Age of Agility The Praesta Insight Pieces 41
…and isn’t these ponderous behaviours will make them A newly appointed leader who took • Integrating with the informal organisation. worse. Enabling others, by encouraging their over a national organisation knew he had Most of the effective communication within Agility is not: contributions and supporting their efforts, is to both sustain momentum and change organisations is carried out informally. If top more likely to succeed. the leadership team. He recognised team members have influential positions in the • he had to exercise choices about both informal social networks that operate across the Restless, aimless action. Having agility and • Frame the context. The way you frame the using it are different things. Agility is best priorities and people. He had a sequence organisation’s key functions and geographies, context in which other people work will affect the team as a whole can get the intelligence it used selectively and purposefully. of frank conversations that prompted a the nature of their thinking and activity. Agility needs, disseminate information, test decisions, step change in the performance of some • Purposeful action at the wrong time. Things is well served by establishing a combination marshal opinion and mobilise resources. people and the departure of others. He can go badly wrong if even a worthwhile of clear goals and a framework for decision move happens on the wrong occasion or at making that gives people a lot of room to use kept his physical agility by doing long • Avoid isolation. It is easy for a top team to the wrong time. their own initiative as to how things are done. walks, his mental agility by talking with a create its own bubble. Common manifestations trusted mentor and his emotional agility are special office and communications facilities; • Heavy change management programmes. Agility by listening to the small voice within. and frequent, regular meetings that suck in more is about travelling light in the right general With regard to managing yourself: and more decisions. Whilst it is important that a direction with strategic goals in mind. top team functions efficiently as a discrete unit, • Accept the new reality. When things have it can also become distanced from the rest of the • An athlete permanently condemned to sitting changed, recognise a new reality and accept it. • Listen to the small voice within. The organisation and concentrate power in ways that on the sub’s’ bench. If agility is never properly Making commitments and taking action may subconscious has a habit of making connections were not intended. The trick is to get the best of exercised, then it will degrade over time. require you to set aside things to which you that we find hard to articulate. That does not both. were previously committed. Put your emotions mean that the messages it sends us are wrong, to one side, manage your anxiety, let go and but they are easy to dismiss. Instinct is a • Working in small, networked teams. By dint of move on. bedfellow of agility, so take time out to reflect their size and business-as-usual agendas, most Becoming an agile leader and, when your inner voice speaks, give it some executive committees are unsuited to doing air time: it may be saying something you should high quality work fast. Small, collaborative, A lot of Praesta’s work is with individual leaders. When faced with major changes hear! well-networked executive teams use informal processes more than formal ones, and work We have therefore explored how they can promote in student funding senior leaders in a and embody agility themselves. Eight mutually Becoming an agile team iteratively to facilitate rapid information university took time out to work through reinforcing elements stand out in relation to how exchange, thereby enabling fast decision the challenges involved. They needed an agile leader relates to others and manages him/ We also work with a lot of top teams. For them, making. to take tough decisions if they were to herself. agility is promoted by: become agile and responsive to shifts in students’ requirements. It meant • Doing what only it can do. A top team – any With regard to relating to others: The top team of a consumer telecoms overcoming barriers to change, turning team – needs to be clear about the place it business looked at how it could best • Sustain momentum. The emphasis needs to uncertainty into new opportunities and should occupy in the organisation’s value chain. meet its ambitious goals. It concluded be on finding reasons to say “yes” rather then motivating their staff to get behind the What must the team’s differentiated contribution that it had to operate with the agility of “no”. If you are behaving like a rabbit in the new agenda and make it happen. be to help the organisation to deliver its headlights, going round in circles, parking things strategic outcomes? Many top teams fail to take a start-up. Its members promptly moved or putting them off, then your organisation will a hard look at their core purpose, take on too to a shared space to facilitate the kind drift. It is easier to exercise agility if there is much, lose focus, become a choke on enterprise if iterative communication, fast decision some momentum that can be deployed to seize • Think radically and recognise you have choices. and a block on progress. Agility dies as a making and collaborative working that an opportunity, take avoiding action or find When many factors are outside your area of consequence. was required. another way of achieving your own or your influence, it is easy to feel boxed in, to rehearse organisation’s goals. and perfect circular arguments and concur with the collective wisdom of group-think. In When the Underwriting Board of a • Have adult conversations. Organisational our experience, clients suffering in such ways global insurance business was asked Becoming an agile organisation confidence is fragile and fickle. Easy clichés and are usually constrained by their own limiting what its prime accountability was, its glib assurances do not impress people who read beliefs. When they re-frame their situations and initial answer was “this year’s underwriting What might leaders and top teams attend to in newspapers and are plugged into informed social challenges, new insights and choices emerge. result”. When it revisited the first answer, order to achieve organisational agility? At a networks. Talking meaningfully to your own Most times, there is a way. it concluded that the current year’s practical level, organisational agility depends people keeps you and them in the loop of what underwriting results were actually the critically on the following points: is actually happening. They will take comfort • Take care of yourself and ensure other people from knowing you and others are “on watch”. do the same. If you and those around you are responsibility of its regional businesses • You will make better decisions because of what working 110%, you are not well placed to notice and that its own responsibility was to Comprehending the environment. Most of our they tell you. And when you take action, people what is going on and make sense of it. Nor create sustainable, long-term competitive clients’ organisations are investing more effort will be prepared for it. do you have spare capacity that can be rapidly advantage through its professional in the complementary activities of scanning the deployed when needed. So arrange things such leadership of the group’s underwriting environment and making sense of what they are • Encourage initiative. If you have all the that people cover for each other and do whatever systems, policies, processes and people. finding out, in order to inform decision making in a timely way. Typically this involves: answers, set all the goals and have a marked rests and energises you on a regular basis. That resulted in it working on a very preference for how things should be done, then different agenda and reducing the cause others will tend to do what is safe: keep their of tensions between itself and the regional heads down, walk the treadmill and do what they’re told. Expressing your displeasure with underwriting teams. 42 2012 The Age of Agility The Praesta Insight Pieces 43
> Widening and deepening the information sources they trawl. This usually involves When an international company faced making new and different connections to unexpected financial problems in one area • Developing organisational capability. The key comprehend soft data, such as opinions and of its business this provided a stimulus to to an organisation’s agility resides in the people informed speculation, as well as factual data. address wider issues across the Group. who lead and manage it. Their attitudes, energy Ways of addressing issues had become and skills affect the culture and infect the people > Pooling information with colleagues more around them. Our insight suggests that three fossilised. Agility meant moving away from frequently, formally and informally, so that complementary factors should receive attention tired routines and stimulating fresh ways more brainpower and experience are applied so as to encourage initiative and collaboration to a wider set of data. of tackling a rapidly changing market. and nip dysfunctional behaviours in the bud. These are: > Making sense of disparate sets of data by developing, sharing and testing insights > Knowing, developing and deploying talented and hypotheses, thereby building a shared people who find it natural to create a can-do perspective whilst avoiding group-think. • Engaging stakeholders. Ongoing engagement culture that encourages the use of initiative > Regularly applying the resulting learning to of internal and external stakeholders, whose within a clearly communicated strategic the organisation’s strategies and plans and support is likely to be needed to get buy-in to framework. This involves appointing and then making decisions appropriately. decisions and implement them, helps establish promoting people who exhibit the right kinds the conditions for agility. of attitude - including telling it how they see it - and weeding out derailers and blockers. > Better decisions can be made faster by well An incoming CEO called for the informed people and teams, who understand > Widespread use of a coherent, practical abandonment of his company’s digital the bigger picture. They can be better tested leadership approach that equips senior strategy when he heard how much it and built upon by key stakeholders who are managers to engage hearts as well as heads in already up-to-speed; and executed better and was costing. The head of the digital the pursuit of the corporate agenda, thereby faster by engaged, well informed managers business pushed back: “My business now getting the best out of people. This involves and collaborators. generates 21% of our revenue for 2% adopting a model that suits the organisation, of its cost using 0.2% of its people. You > The challenge is to win hearts as well as training people in it and helping them to use it properly day-to-day. can cut off the investment if you like but I minds, to generate the energy, focus and, wouldn’t do that.” The CEO reversed his thereby, the momentum needed to act fast: to develop the goodwill that helps avoid blame > A performance management regime that decision because he realised the world recognises team outcomes as well as had changed. The investment continues and witch hunts when changes of course are required and mistakes are made – i.e. at individual contributions. Even today, many as does progress: the digital business put the very time that constructive energy and organisations whose goals can only be on another million customers last year. positive action are needed most. Corrective achieved by the whole becoming greater than action needs agility too! the sum of its parts, still run performance management systems that in reality only comprehend individuals, not teams. • Achieving and maintaining organisational resilience. A resilient organisation can withstand the buffeting and traumas an uncertain After two years of stabilising and environment inflicts upon it. It has a dynamic improving a substantial international, equilibrium that enables it to take bold, decisive family owned business, the CEO decided A Final Thought action without being destabilised as a consequence. it was at a strategic cross roads. He believed the business was ready for All individuals, teams and organisations deserve to > Resilience is usually achieved by a significant investment that would spur embed the competences and attitudes that produce combination of financial robustness, market further growth, but this money had to confident, sure footed agility when needed. Agility power, leadership continuity and the come from the family forgoing dividends, for an individual, team or organisation requires a thoughtful, persistent and adapatable approach. continued confidence of key stakeholders taking on debt and/or ceding 100% such as customers, employees, regulators, Individuals need to keep reminding themselves how ownership. He suggested there should investors, lenders, politicians and the media. they keep agile so they can ‘float like a butterfly be a family conference at which the and sting like a bee’. Similarly any organisation > Resilience is also promoted by organisations options for the business and their funding should be mindful of how it is going to retain recognising the choices available to them implications were presented and discussed that capability. It will be tough and rewarding at about which geographies, products, services, in depth. He insisted the family should not the same time. So keep making the right inputs investments and initiatives they can back. make a hasty decision, but take advice and, with an element of good fortune, you will be Agility facilitates timely switching of and time. They were very impressed pleased with the outcomes. resources between them, thereby increasing with the input and agreed a process and the probability of meeting goals and timetable for coming to a clear, agreed mitigating risk. way forward. 44 The Praesta Insight Pieces 45
2013 The day a new chief executive assumes the role, Be careful what you wish for one thing is certain: someone, some day, will Continuity and Succession succeed him. It follows there should always be credible potential successors to the chief executive, BADGER: Toad Hall is now Weasel Hall, How not to lose the baby with even if none of them is the perfect article. After all, I’m afraid. the bath water someone has to do the job! TOAD: They can’t do this to me. They just A well-run enterprise will always have someone can’t do it. Toad Hall belongs to a long line who can step into the breach, with support, if an of Toads, and I intend to have it back. (2005-To Date) emergency arises. And it is a poorly run enterprise by Steve Wigzell Kenneth Grahame and Alan Bennett, that cannot develop credible, attractive internal The Wind in the Willows, Act 2, Scene 3 succession candidates, given a few years. praesta insights That said, the universal rule about succession plans is they usually don’t happen as described. The purpose of this Insight document is to prompt thinking and action that Sometimes the chief executive moves on earlier Most organisations have strategies that are fit than expected. Sometimes the planned successor is for purpose, that have been guided by and are de-risks chief executive succession. It is informed by our knowledge of what lured somewhere else. The most robust foundation supported by their boards. They are executed happens before and after a change of guard at the top. for both planned and emergency succession, according to plans that are regularly refreshed and therefore, is to ensure the business is not critically renewed, that their boards have also supported. dependent on one individual. It should have There is a commonly-used name for this happy, sufficient direction and momentum to carry on in yet hard to achieve, condition: “business as usual”, It is aimed at those who have a big stake in how attitudes to make the fundamental changes that lead the chief executive’s absence. This permanent state “BAU”. succession impacts the organisations for which they to a sustainable, quantum increase in performance. of practical preparedness is enabled by having: have a duty of care. These include board Chairs; It can be folly when what is in place is working just It is therefore stunning how often succession non-executive directors, especially members of fine. • A stable, effective executive team in place, that triggers wholesale reform and revolution, rather Nominations Committees; Chief Executives who are leads and runs the business. The chief executive than nurtures continuous improvement and interested in the fate of the organisation that they must create a constructive environment in which evolution. Whilst few external appointments to will, one day, leave behind; members of executive ‘...I spent a huge amount of time researching people can blossom individually and work chief executive are made without good reasons, teams whose working lives will be affected by who this issue of CEO succession. In companies together effectively. This requires him/her to they are always attended by significant risks to their next boss might be and how he/she will impact that are doing well and with a culture that is operate first and foremost as a team builder, BAU. the success and nature of the business they work for; successful, you tend to find that the internal rather than an autocratic hero or virtuoso and the HR professionals who support all of these candidate is much more successful than the performer. constituencies. external candidate. It is where the culture A well run mutual business with a strong • is broken and the performance is in tatters An engaged board, whose Chair and non- tradition and culture had groomed Ne’er his like again? executive directors will mould around a new that it needs a change in direction from the a successor to its long-serving chief chief executive, interim or otherwise, to mitigate outside.’ executive. Two non-executive directors his inexperience and build his confidence if hi-jacked the succession process, turning “When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills required. Whatever the Chairman and board did Gareth Davies, Chairman, William Hill it from a validation exercise involving shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, before, they will have to do things differently Quoted in The Daily Telegraph, July 5th 2013 benchmarking into a full-blown market and even elephants lumber after safety.” whilst a new chief executive gets his/her feet under the table. search. The internal candidate did not Maya Angelou, When Great Trees Fall make the short list of two. The incumbent chief executive argued successfully against How, then, do organisations that operate successful • A practical contingency plan. Who would chair strategies, that know what they’re doing, avoid the the executive committee pro tem? Who, if the preferred external candidate, who was chief executive becoming “irreplaceable”? And when anyone, could become interim chief executive? obliged by the regulator to stand down It takes years – often decades - to implement a they do, how do they avoid risking their hard-won Will the Chair fill the gap? Is there a non- from his own job shortly afterwards. The successful strategy; not least because it takes time success when he/she retires? In short, how do boards executive director who could help out? If default candidate, who had no history to build the kind of distinct, coherent culture that and chief executives assure continuity of strategy and your board’s answers to these questions are in the sector or in running mutuals, was delivers sustainable competitive advantage. So the execution through succession? unconvincing, then it has got some more work appointed: an outcome with a very different current regime can be tempted - and encouraged - to to do! risk profile to what the company intended. stay too long as they, and those around them, fear a future without them. Be prepared
Yet everyone moves on eventually. Appointing Why does this happen? Sometimes, nominations the wrong chief executive is often the crack that “But we’re talking kings and successions, committees are impressed by candidates who shine becomes a fatal fault line in a patiently executed Even you can’t be caught unawares” brighter than those close at hand, with whom they strategy. New people want to make a mark and are have dealt for some years; familiarity can breed usually expected to do so. That’s fine when what’s in Tim Rice/Elton John, Be Prepared some form of contempt. Sometimes it is because place isn’t working as well as it should as it usually a cadre of non-executives, whose ambitions for takes a clear head, a new set of skills and different the organisation have been frustrated by the 46 2013 Continuity and Succession The Praesta Insight Pieces 47
cogent “steady as she goes” arguments of a strong • Insist the top team manages its own refreshment existence and are usually drawn from different executive, scent the chance for getting their way and renewal. Planned succession at a savings and parts of the chief executive’s life – family, old through appointing a new broom who will sweep loans business went badly awry when friends, past colleagues, professional advisors clean. Sometimes the board just underestimates Assuring continuity by building resilience in the board sent mixed messages to some and so on. They not only respond to the chief the capability of people inside the business. the top team isn’t “job and finish”: the team is senior executives shortly before the chief executive, they’re also close enough to raise a living entity. Its members deserve to devote executive’s long-telegraphed retirement was points of interest and concern that help him care and attention to picking, mentoring and announced. As a consequence, all but one keep his feet on the ground, for example, you’re Succession as a team game preparing prospective new members; and then to member of the top team formally expressed driving yourself too hard, you are getting a bit welcoming and involving them properly when interest in the job. Although there was a carried away, you’re neglecting your family. appointed, encouraging them to have their own preferred internal candidate, none of the Revolution is no solution we ought to realise voice whilst also putting their shoulders behind executives had been well prepared to step (Now!) Now is the time to set things right the team’s shared enterprise; and ensuring they up to the job of leading his/her peers. As Two tips for... are no-one’s “yes men”. the succession process played out, several Jimmy James and the Vagabonds executives were disappointed, in some cases If you don’t want to throw your business continuity • Don’t rock the executive boat needlessly. angry, as they failed to make even the “baby” out with the chief executive succession short list for reasons that seemed at odds It takes time and care, by all involved parties, “bathwater”, then here are our some tips for the with the feedback they had received in the to create the conditions whereby an appointment key players involved. We make no apologies for the Imagine the top team sat around its table in five past. Others travelled the same route when to the top team is viewed by others as natural motherhood and apple pie. years time. How many current members will not be it became clear that the board preferred and deserved. In the meantime, avoid beauty sat there then? Who will be there, who currently is – and had, perhaps, always sought - an Chairmen contests and creating false gods: they both not? And, of those new members, how many are in external candidate. Succession could and the organisation already? Who might be chairing encourage dysfunctional behavior. • Get close to three or four people inside the should have been conducted a lot better. the meeting? Who might exercise influence? organisation who could become chief executive As a lot of his/her time will be spent on the one day. Find out how they tick. corporate agenda, an executive who steps up Stabilising the top team de-risks the transition to the top team will need to change how he • Work hard with the CEO to ensure possible from one chief executive to another. So: runs his own direct reports. It follows that Now what do I do? successors get the experiences and guidance the continuity agenda has to comprehend and they need to become impressive succession • Take great care with appointments to the address the capability of executives two and candidates. top team. Aim for the sweet spot, defined three levels down, not just the top tier. This by “someone we respect, someone we like, If I knew then what I know now, I’d be Nominations Committees knock-on is best anticipated and planned for. someone who brings things we value, someone different, I would slow down I would not • others can work with.” be running around, if I knew then what I Make sure that people promoted to the top team As a result, the whole process of developing a new know now operate in ways that reinforce the organisation’s The board’s nominations committee usually espoused culture. member of the top team is best started at least a Lyfe Jennings considers and approves appointments to the year or two before promotions to it happens. • Ensure detailed knowledge of internal executive top team. Directors must get to know succession candidates doesn’t put them at a executives who are two or three years away disadvantage to external candidates about from joining it. Attempts to appoint people whom very little is known. simply because they are high achievers and The law of unintended consequences, often Many clients who have stepped into the chief cited but rarely defined, is that actions of good at managing upwards should be resisted: executive role admit privately to experiencing mini- Chief Executives these are necessary but insufficient conditions. people—and especially of government— crises of anxiety, panic and self-doubt. How did I Directors should also take an active interest always have effects that are unanticipated get here? Am I good enough? Will I be found out? • Make top team effectiveness your personal in how these executives walk and talk the or unintended. priority. No-one else can! organisation’s espoused values and thereby Often they don’t get much help or constructive, Rob Norton, The Library of Economics and Liberty • Don’t keep a dysfunctional executive on the top reinforce its culture; and so avoid putting a timely feedback. They have to navigate using team, however effective he/she may be. rotten apple into the team’s barrel. their own magnetic north. For people who find themselves in this position, we have found two things are especially helpful: Top team members Even when a stable, well-functioning top team is • Always put the health of the business ahead of • Timely self-assessment. A balanced score-card in place, the succession agenda is often disruptive. your personal ambition. “The top leader....could more or less choose It fires personal ambition in those who think they informs a chief executive as to what to focus his/her energies on, enables him/her to check • Build constructive relationships with your peer to stay in power until he died, appoint are in with a chance, or who might benefit from the out how things are progressing and can inform group colleagues. Be as willing to help them as anyone he favoured to any powerful change in guard. an open discussion with the Chairman where you are for them to help you. position, and depose anyone who he disliked appropriate. We have evolved a check-list for or deemed incompetent.” It usually prompts team members to consider HR professionals how their own fates will fare when someone else this purpose, that can be found at www.praesta. - European Union Institute of Strategic Studies: – perhaps a close colleague - is installed in the co.uk/page/What-We-Do/Chief-Executive- • Encourage the CEO to invest in his direct China’s leadership succession: new faces and chief executive’s role. All this has the capacity to Resources reports and to treat team effectiveness as a new rules of the game immobilise and destabilise the business without • A personal support team provides a safe priority. really trying. space in which the chief executive can share • Always arrange for someone to speak to a range inner thoughts, conundrums and challenges in of people who have worked with and for an absolute confidence. The team is a virtual one. external succession candidate before he/she is Its members may not even know of the others’ offered the job. 48 The Praesta Insight Pieces 49
2014 prosperity seems one obvious strategy we If that’s true of international consumer markets, should implement. The question is: what kind of then there is also plenty of evidence that talented Beyond 2020 commercial, social and public enterprises will make people are attracted to working for organisations a lasting difference to our prosperity; and how can that demonstrate an innovative approach to good Things will be different we mobilise to build them? corporate citizenship, even if the organisations themselves are not so good at communicating what 2020 Enterprises they are about. The information and social networking revolution, by Steve Wigzell (2005-To Date) Ideally, the kind of enterprises we help build and catalysed and supported by mobile, web-in-hand work for will fundamentally improve our socio- technology, ensures that even small pieces of economic condition by generating sustainable Photo: NASA news that can affect an organisation’s reputation prosperity. spread quickly, in ways that are not susceptible to praesta insights Successful enterprises are already supporting people traditional management techniques. in their quest for better lives. They are moving Consequently, the best approach to earning a from value chains to value cycles, that achieve “There is tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to reputation as a great organisation, that people prosperity and growth by enabling improvements in want to deal with and work for, seems to be a fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and the welfare and capability of their customers and of combination of: in miseries. On such a full sea we are now afloat; and we must take the the environments they live and work in. current when it serves, or lose our ventures.” • Doing the right things well, day after day, week after week, year after year; and A regionally-focused building society (Julius Caesar, Act IV, Scene III) • Operating with sure-footed agility when the believes passionately that its members’ opportunity or need arises. interests are supported by it playing an active role in promoting the prosperity This consistent, sure touch needs the kind of How should organisations reposition themselves for The World, Our Nation and You and well-being of the community it serves. authentic leadership that can only be sustained 2020 and beyond? What should leaders be doing Social housing, that enables lower paid by embedding a culture that connects the now to prepare for that? Big questions. Our view is Sixty years ago the world’s population was 2.6 people to live close to their work, is one of organisation’s head and heart to its moral compass that today’s answers are very different to yesterday’s. billion. It is now 7.0 billion. Only 10 years ago, that community’s most demonstrable needs. in such a way that “doing the right thing” is sine A sea change is in motion. Here, we pull together global socio-economic power and influence rested The society has joined with local groups qua non. some strategic strands towards a focus on what you firmly with North America and Europe, now it does and government to build several hundred and your organisation could and, perhaps, should do not. An old order is yielding to another. Our world is affordable homes on a derelict, urban site. to get in shape for the long term. The bare bones that more dynamic and less sustainable than ever before. That commitment will enrich the community 2020 Leadership emerge are: Few, if any, of us is immune to, or isolated from, the it serves and reinforce the relevance of its impact of these mega-trends. brand. It is, very literally, good business. If the key components of leadership are to be • To play their proper part in our changing world, mindful, give hope and show compassion, in Some continents and nations are winners, others are enterprises must be socially useful as well as the context of emerging 21st century corporate not. Britain is one of several countries that finds socially responsible. They must help people lead citizenship it seems to us that: better lives. itself economically challenged by low/no growth, Enterprises like this one are working authentically fierce international competition for raw materials, from a guiding philosophy that informs activity • Mindfulness has, at its core, a well-informed • Doing so makes good business sense. Not doing goods and services, the uncompetitive nature of and stimulates creativity. They are seeking to make awareness of the impact our organisations and so increasingly incurs reputational risk. much of its national infrastructure and unsustainable a difference by playing proactive, leadership roles ways of doing business have, not just on those levels of national borrowing. It is socially challenged in the societies and communities in which they • Most enterprises will need to re-think “what who interact directly with them but also on the by the growing unaffordability of our welfare and operate. we’re really here to do”. Some form of cultural wider world. health systems, lack of jobs, an ageing population transformation will then be needed to make it and the creation of a relatively uneducated, poor and • Giving hope is not only about showing how happen. unemployed underclass. For at least the next decade, our organisation can deliver benefits to its • Authentic leaders, who can identify with a high may be a lot longer, we are probably going to be direct stakeholders but also about engaging moral purpose that guides their own conduct and poorer economically. constructively with other parties to help shape decision-making, are more likely to succeed in and deliver desirable, sustainable outcomes that No-one we speak to wants this situation to pertain. creating socially useful enterprises than those who In their 2012 “Top 25 corporate benefit the societies and communities to which it Nearly everyone wants things to be better. Few, if cannot. reputations” survey of 40,000 consumers belongs. any, believe government will do it all for us. Rather, in China, Brazil, Germany, Japan, USA • as leaders, we have our own part to play, even if • Showing compassion is more than about giving Leadership of that kind requires a combination and Russia, Burson-Marsteller et al we’re hazy about what that is. We recognise that something back. It stems from a fundamental of deep self-awareness and the exercise of skilful concluded that: “In short, good corporate most of the choices we face are dilemmas, that none understanding that our organisation – any management practice over a long period. citizenship really is good business….in an of the options is wholly attractive or easily achieved. organisation - has a duty to care for the wider • None of this is easy, but all of it can be done. increasingly transparent, world, isolated socio-economic systems of which it is a part. If creating wealth and using it wisely is part of programs and insufficient, insincere It must be socially useful and seek to do as the solution, then mobilising our collective talents commitment will undermine, not build, much as it can rather than as little as it can get and resources to help create greater, sustainable corporate reputation…..Put simply, a brand away with. It belongs, cares and therefore acts is what a brand does” accordingly. 50 2014 Beyond 2020 The Praesta Insight Pieces 51
2020 Leaders Mobilising Enterprise Each of us has to ask him/herself: should my What Can Our Organisation Do? organisation be part of such an agenda? Should A generation of leaders is emerging that embraces Mobilising to build enterprises on the scale I be part of it myself? Do I want to be? And, if these challenges very differently to those who went required to change our fundamental socio-economic your answers are affirmative, then how can you • How good a corporate citizen is your before them. They are finding ways of operating in condition needs sustained leadership that is, by engage others in shaping that agenda and making it organisation? How well does it fulfil its duty of a 24/7 world of multiple time zones characterised definition, a team game because: happen? care to the communities and societies of which by contending professional, social and personal it is a part? priorities, which can place unsustainable demands • The impact of our collective leadership must be to engage, motivate, and catalyse a generation • How does your organisation help support people on individuals that become stressful when they The MD of a credit card business is in their quest for a better life through its day-to- conflict with personal values. (or two) to act in the service of creating a better future. After all, if we carry on doing what we determined that it, and the sector of which day business? Can and should it do more? These leaders have at their core an attitude to life are doing, we will carry on getting what we are it is a part, should help its customers build better lives. He has taken a sustained • What is your organisation’s guiding philosophy, that resists, more than previous generations, work getting. So, it follows that building sustainable implicit or explicit? Does it inspire others and taking over everything else. Yet they are highly enterprises will require us, collectively, to personal interest in mobilising his business to think and behave differently, such that help give true meaning to what they do in its effective. They are accomplished users of modern change what we do and the way we do it. name? Is it fit for future purpose or past its technology that they exploit to organise their lives. it now holds itself responsible for helping • The required outcomes cannot be delivered by sub-prime credit card customers restore “best by” date? What would be more compelling They tend to work in organisations whose can-do and motivational? cultures support and facilitate flexible working individuals doing their own jobs well. They their credit rating and thereby qualify for lower interest rates. This has involved arrangements: they, in their turn, sustain them. require collaboration between the public and • Is your organisation doing enough to help create taking some personal risks, including They travel easily between different cultures and private sectors; between suppliers, producers the sustainable prosperity that will enrich future advocating, and winning support for, his geographies and see things from an international and customers; between those who have the generations? What else could it do? perspective. Although leaders like this are still in a ability to make things happen and those who approach with the foreign parent. minority, their example is indicative of a growing have the power to stop them; between those • How does your organisation use its resources, cadre. Generation Y is coming of age. whose collective skills, experience, knowledge, power and influence to help mobilise enterprise power and influence are required to get the What Can I Do? and enable others to do so? In what respects is results we want for our country, our society, our it, or can it become, a role model for others? communities, our neighbours, our children and We Do This Already...Don’t We? One of the principles of solution-focused coaching ourselves. is that the client comes up with things he/she Questions Are Easy... Does mobilising enterprise in this strategic way might do to help mobilise his/her own enterprise require organisations – private and public, yours and others. As coaches, our role is to facilitate and mine – to re-think their core purpose, goals, Many agencies subordinated their right clients in that process. So what follows is intended …it is the answers that are difficult. Yet the tide of operating principles and business practices? Does of independent action to jointly deliver to stimulate your thinking and action, rather than change that is already flowing strongly is likely to it require their leaders to re-define what they are an outstanding experience for those who provide a blueprint or checklist. take all with it. For most organisations, the people there to do? The short answer, for most of them, is visited and participated in the 2012 that work for them and those who would like to, “yes”, at least in part. For example: • What is your mission in life? What will matter Olympics and Paralympics. Westminster the choice is how to travel rather than whether to Council’s CEO was one of many who were most to you when, in your healthy old age, you • To become a good 21st century corporate citizen travel at all. Bon voyage et bon chance! involved in years of planning and delivery. look back at who you have been, what you’ve requires many organisations to re-interpret what In his view, the result could not have done and whose lives you have touched? What citizenship really means and how that will be been achieved without a clear commission regrets might you have, if any? How might all tested in courts of public opinion. Increasingly for the team that was put in place; and this inform your next step? it is about embodying the spirit of what society sustained, effective team work to make is seeking rather than complying with the letter • Reflect on who you really are. How well do you it happen. On the few occasions when of the law, as recent debates about the UK connect your head, your heart and your moral someone protected or promoted their own Corporation Tax paid by well known companies compass? Is the version of “you” whom you narrow interest rather then the overall one, such as Amazon, Google and Starbucks most like and respect the one who speaks and Come gather ‘round people the behaviour was dealt with quickly and illustrate. acts most of the time you’re at work? If not, effectively. Wherever you roam how can you bring the “best” you more fully • This model of citizenship informs not only the into your job? And admit that the waters roles and goals of corporate leaders but also the Around you have grown • • sort of people they should be. A wide range of Achieving the required outcomes will take a Find a source of inspiration that lifts your spirits And accept it that soon stakeholders is increasingly influencing who is long time. People will run their own laps and and raises your sights. Catch the mood and see fit to lead major organisations, such as Barclays, then pass the baton to others. One generation where it takes you. Let your imagination You’ll be drenched to the bone. as they assert new corporate values. will take over from another. This isn’t “job and take flight. If your time to you finish” – it is a way of being. • There is then the challenge of how to retain a • If there is one thing you could do to make a Is worth savin’ strong focus on the outcomes you most want • Building sustainable enterprises isn’t just for difference, what would it be and for whom? Then you better start swimmin’ for your organisation and yourself such that a business men and women. Public servants and How can you use your talents, resources and Or you’ll sink like a stone series of tactical decisions, each sensible in its regulators must also participate in and help positions of influence and power to do that? own right, does not lead it, or you, to a very expedite the process for it to succeed – creating For the times, they are a changin’ different place than the one you wanted to get wealth and using it wisely is at the heart of • How can your colleagues, friends, neighbours and family help you become the best you can to. Who wants to end up beached, wondering, as public service too. (Bob Dylan) so many people do: “How did that happen?” be? How can you help them to do the same? 52 The Praesta Insight Pieces 53
2015 Nonetheless, our experience is that the roles • Check your understanding, ask good questions most pivotal to board effectiveness, and the most and persist until you get good answers. Board Players challenging to perform, are those of independent directors. That is principally because: • Form an independent perspective, avoid group- How Chairs, Independent Directors and think and make up your own mind. • The burden of independent scrutiny they carry CEOs make their boards effective • Remember your duty of care to the business can lead them to operate more as inquisitors and and its principal stakeholders. Ensure board and corporate policemen than is appropriate. The committee agendas give time and attention to role of oversight eclipses the equally important the issues that matter most. role of guidance. by Steve Wigzell (2005-To Date) • Contribute constructively, make your own points • To exercise informed, independent judgement concisely, explain where you are coming from, and engage in constructive challenge, acknowledge and build on good points made praesta insights independent directors have to gain knowledge by others, use neutral language and thereby and insight from sources within and beyond generate light not heat. The characteristics, attributes and behaviours of board members and the host organisation without going native. This can be a lonely, poorly signposted journey • Work outside the board room as well as inside. the chemistry between them, alongside the information they work with, that requires dedication, persistence and, Connect with others informally as well as determine the effectiveness of a board. occasionally, ingenuity. formally so as to get to know key executives and other directors. • They can easily be marginalised such that they make little impact on the organisation and its • Look ahead, re-educate yourself and upgrade agenda. on sustainable success over the long term. The your skills to keep current. Use your old war Code addresses key components of effective board stories sparingly. Playing for complications is an extreme Independent directors are greatly helped in the practice, grouped under five headings: leadership, pursuit of their obligations by the transparency • Get good feedback and act on it. measure that a player should adopt only effectiveness, accountability, remuneration and and openness of the executive team. By contrast, when he cannot find a clear and logical relationship with shareholders. It is not a straitjacket: • Know when its over. If you cannot subscribe to a defensive executive team that controls access rather, its exhortation is to comply or explain. key decisions, or have reservations about how plan. to information and people, and is overly-sensitive The Code has been almost universally adopted by the board runs then stand down. When others to alternative input, is likely to get poorer value Alexander Alekhine corporate entities and most of its guidance has been take little notice of what you’re saying and/or from its independent directors. They will be less adapted for use in the public and voluntary sectors you feel your ability to contribute has started to well equipped to challenge and, if the chances of too. wane, then engage the chair’s help to leave on a dismissive or negative response are significant, a high with the board’s goodwill towards you become reticent do to so because the stakes are too We have seen these roles performed with great There is no point in duplicating the Code’s content intact. high. They may resort to back-room gossip instead. distinction. Where that has not been the case, it has here. Rather, we have chosen to map our own usually been an issue of understanding rather than experience of board work onto the three board capability. People have either misunderstood the players whose individual and collective performance Best Practice The Chief Executive true nature of the board’s link in the corporate value most impacts board effectiveness: The Chair, the chain or they have held a misguided view about Chief Executive and the Independent Director. the purpose of the board role they occupy. Once Two bishops are stronger than two “The Queen is the most identified, these matters are easily resolved but it valuable and important The Independent Director knights or than bishop and knight, is obviously better not to get there in the first place. though very few know the reason for piece and the whole If this short document helps any one do that, then this advantage and how to turn it to outcome can depend upon producing it has been worthwhile. The future belongs to he who account. how successfully she plays holds the bishops. Our firm’s interest in the work of boards was her role.” stimulated nearly two decades ago by clients Richard Reti Siegbert Tarrasch articulating the challenges they experienced when Anatoly Karpov interacting with their own boards and, in some cases, stepping up to them. What started in the privacy of one-to-one coaching gradually migrated to board We have found a number of best practices that are Context facilitation, especially at off-sites; and, as the UK Context adopted by independent directors who rise to these Corporate Governance Code gained traction, to challenges well. As an independent director, it pays In our experience, the Chief Executive (CEO) has carrying out independent board effectiveness to: All directors have an equal duty of care for the the power to make or break a board’s effectiveness. reviews as well. continued good health of the host organisation, today We’ve seen powerful CEOs dominate their boards • Find out for yourself by walking the business, and tomorrow. Formally, there is no distinction in and equally powerful ones enable and inform talking to a wide range of people, understanding The Code itself deserves to be a first port of call for law between a non-executive board director and an the board’s work. We’ve seen CEOs lead their the sector, looking out to the market place, and everyone that has an interest in good governance executive one. The same applies to an independent executives into the board room, and others who getting expert input. and board effectiveness. Overseen by the Financial non-executive director and one rendered non- don’t give an effective executive lead – and have Reporting Council, it is based on the principles of independent, either by dint of long service or being • Be diligent, read a wide range of material and no doubt that board effectiveness is enhanced by accountability, transparency, probity and a focus the nominee of an interested party, such as listen carefully. the former. We’ve seen CEOs who collaborate with a shareholder. the Chair to structure and support an annual board 54 2015 Board Players The Praesta Insight Pieces 55
calendar that brings all the important subjects to • Show respect and regard for others and expect The Chair As Chair: the table in an orderly and well-informed way; it in return. Welcome and invite comment and others who, meeting to meeting, cobble together insight, and respond constructively to input even • Be clear about what the business most needs an incoherent pot pourri of papers, briefings when you beg to differ. When your patience is “The King is a strong piece from its board; what the business needs from and standing items that suffer from insufficient tested, don’t let exasperation show. Remember - use it!” its chief executive; and, in relation to those, preparation, coordination and forethought. that the board is your friend, not your enemy. what they both most need from you. These Reuben Fine needs change over time, so revisit the subject Board members, in general, and the Chair in • Collaborate with your Chair to design and periodically. particular can influence these matters; nonetheless, execute a strong board calendar that ensures all it remains surprising how tolerant some boards are major topics are systematically brought to the • Do your job and insist others do theirs. The of CEOs who don’t service them well. table, in ways that comprehend the division of Context board needs strong contributions from all its labour between the board and its committees. directors, especially committee chairs and the Servicing boards can seem a waste of time and Prepare high quality inputs to stimulate high The ability to adapt to changes in board Chief Executive. Help them shape up and ship energy to busy CEO’s who occasionally complain quality discussions. membership and the organisation’s circumstances, them out if they don’t make the grade. that non-executives add little value, are quick to planned and unplanned, seems to distinguish a good • Run a good agenda at every meeting and across • criticise and slow to praise, don’t bother to read Lead your executive into the room. CEOs Chair from the also-rans. meetings. Ensure those agendas are the ones the the papers or get briefed properly and are more enable board effectiveness by delivering a report organisation needs its board to address; and that concerned about their own reputation than the that covers all the main bases, identifies the Observing Chairs at work, the best of them the discussions about key topics and decisions organisation’s. Opinions such as these, even if held issues and directs the Board’s attention to what achieve a strong, clear framework for the board’s are the ones the board deserves to have. privately, have a way of expressing themselves to matters most. They do this whilst ensuring other engagement inside and outside formal board and those who are held in some contempt. Even if the executive directors have air time and support committee meetings; and then facilitate relevant • Don’t let the Chief Executive dominate the criticisms are justified (and we have seen places them when things get sticky. contributions from all board members. They have board, treat it as a necessary irrelevance or where they are), they rarely help change things for a constructive, open relationship with the CEO be economical with the truth. The CEO is the better. The CEO has to help the board move to • Step out of the CEO role to speak as a director that falls well short of a job-share. They retain an the board’s agent, to whom it has delegated a better place, even if this takes time and patience. from time to time. Flag clearly when you are independent, well-informed perspective and avoid executive authority for running the business: it doing so. You should not restrict your board going native. They are attentive to what directors has a right to expect openness, transparency and It is also difficult for CEOs to act as “just another” contribution to that of an officer of the business feel and think about the board and the business it respect in return. director. Even if they can switch their hat for a or feel you are on parade the whole time you guides and oversees, and act on the intelligence director one, other board members continue to look are in the boardroom. they receive. They nip dysfunctional behaviour in • Be alert to the possibility that independent to the wearer in his/her executive capacity. Simply the bud with a quiet, private word and, in a mature directors may feel marginalised by the way put, it is hard to step out of the CEO role on your • Promote openness and transparency. Encourage way, mentor new board members to help them you and the CEO manage the board. Stay close own board. non-executives to walk the business and tell make worthwhile initial contributions and avoid to your directors, find out what they really them what is keeping you awake at night. pitfalls. think, take notice of what you hear. Use that intelligence to make appropriate adjustments in the way the board and its committees work and Best Practice • Take options and questions to the board, not When board chairmanship takes a wrong turn, it is just answers and solutions. The board has a usually because the Chair loses sight of what he/ how the board’s relationship with the executive responsibility to guide the business as well as she is really there to do, which is to ensure good is operating. I didn’t picture myself as even a oversee it. You can use the talent and experience stewardship of the organisation through running an • Build a board for tomorrow, not just for today. grandmaster...because I simply lived in in the room to inform your thinking and effective board. It is a mistake to let relationships, Anticipate the skills, knowledge, experience and influence the organisation’s direction of travel. however close they are, and commitments to past one world, and the grandmasters existed qualities tomorrow’s board will need and keep decisions, however good they were, compromise in a completely different one. a constant look-out for potential candidates. • Work with your Chair to configure the board, this duty of care. These worthy loyalties are Engage the CEO in that process. Use the anticipating its future need for knowledge and misplaced. Anatoly Karpov flexibility offered by annual elections to retire skills, when planning succession. CEOs meet a directors whose currency has waned– the days lot of people, so you are well placed to identify The day a Chair feels the need to spend a lot of of everyone serving three three-year terms are and introduce contacts who might become good time in the business to keep track of how things are over. In the context of a board and its work, the best directors one day. going, he is tacitly acknowledging that others are things a CEO can do are: not performing as they should. When that begins to • Focus your board on “tomorrow”. It cannot • Don’t let things fester. When a director has happen, he has started to lose the plot. influence “yesterday” and it is too late to • Invest in your board by, for example, organising upset you, got the wrong end of the stick or affect “today”. Insofar as the board spends elective briefings on topics of strategic said something inappropriate - or you have time looking in the rear view mirror, then it relevance, taking directors off-site a couple of done that yourself - don’t let it rest there. Pick Best Practice should be to draw lessons from the past that are times a year to stand back from the day to day, up the phone, deal with the issue and get the relevant to securing an attractive future. and encouraging them to speak to your people. relationship back on track. The great mobility of the King forms • Don’t go too soon. It takes a full annual cycle It pays back. one of the chief characteristics of all for a Chair to get his/her feet firmly under endgame strategy... We must therefore the table; another year or two to refresh the • Get to know your non-execs by spending 1:1 board’s membership and embed changes in the time regularly. As part of that, do some things develop him, bring him nearer to the agenda, structure and style of the board and its together, such as seeing-is-believing visits and fighting line. committees. Once the new way of operating has co-hosting stakeholder events. Aron Nimzowitsch been established, it deserves to run for a while. 56 2015 Board Players The Praesta Insight Pieces 57
• Don’t stay too long. Chairs, like most of us, Best Practice seem to lean on old, familiar ways. If you find yourself regularly saying or thinking “we’ve Sit there for five hours? Certainly not! The Chess Masters been here before” or “we looked at this a few A player must walk about between years ago” then it is probably time to think The Grand Masters quoted are: about succession. moves, it helps his thinking. Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine Alexander Kotov a Russian chess grandmaster and the fourth World Chess Champion. He is widely considered Working Together one of the greatest chess players ever.
If the whole board is to operate more effectively Siegbert Tarrasch than the sum of its parts, then the Chair, CEO and one of the strongest chess players and most independent directors should: influential chess teachers of the late 19th century and early 20th century. • Enjoy full, frank and constructive dialogue inside and outside the boardroom. Richard Réti an Austro-Hungarian, later Czechoslovak chess • Share what you most need from others so as to grandmaster, chess author, and composer of fulfil your own role. Ask what they most need endgame studies. from you. “It is not enough to be a good player... Alexander Alexandrovich Kotov you must also play well” • Find out what and how others can best contribute, encourage that contribution, a Soviet champion, two-time world title Candidate and a prolific chess author. Siegbert Tarrasch acknowledge it and build on it.
• Allow time and space for discussion. Build on Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov other people’s comments before starting down a Russian chess grandmaster and World another path. Resist any attempt to rush the Champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was Context agenda in the name of efficiency. defeated by Garry Kasparov.
Guiding and overseeing an organisation, so that • Ensure the margins of board and committee Reuben Fine it is successful today and tomorrow, requires the meetings allow sufficient time to socialise and an American chess grandmaster, psychologist, collaborative interaction of all the board’s players. use that time well – don’t spend it making calls university professor, and author of many books They need to understand that board effectiveness and reading emails! on both chess and psychology. depends on the nature of their interactions, not just on how they fulfil their own roles. Making • Invite feedback about your own contribution Aron Nimzowitsch an added-value solo contribution is necessary but from time to time. Give each other positive insufficient to deliver an effective board. Every feedback when warranted. If you have a Russian-born, Danish chess master and influential chess writer. He was the foremost director has to help other board members contribute constructive criticism to make, do so privately figure amongst the hypermoderns. well inside and outside the boardroom. The Chair, not publicly. CEO and Independent Directors play different roles within the team, but it is one team. • Ring the changes. Swap seats, sit next to someone else. Change the venue from time to Where we see a board’s dynamic operate in ways time. It is surprising how changes in a board’s that lead to its whole being less than the sum ritualistic routine can improve its dynamic. of its parts, this is rarely attributable to wilful dysfunctional behaviour on the part of directors. More often, it is because the board’s formal and informal processes for doing its work are A Final Thought inadequate; and/or there is personal antipathy between some board members; and/or the Chair, We have already said that mutual respect CEO and independent directors are not performing between the Chair, Chief Executive and Non- their roles as they should. Addressing the last of executive is a necessary condition for board these is usually pivotal to sustainably resolving the effectiveness. They don’t have to like each others. other.....but it really helps if they do! 58 The Praesta Insight Pieces 59
2015 Similarly, you perhaps remember the first time you some chords sound as though they bring a piece to a took the lead in your dealings with others, whether close, while others open the music up? Where do the Knowing the Score at work or in other activities. Nearly all of us lead different styles of music come from, and how did they sometimes, whether or not we are formally described develop, one from another? What we can learn about leadership as leaders. from music and musicians Musicians and leaders both benefit from understanding Leadership, like music, is something we can practice how best they learn. Some prefer to be hands on, and bring to our relationships with others, at work and to learn by doing. Others want to understand the in other parts of our lives. As leaders, whether or not underlying principles and theory first. we are active musicians, we can learn from music as Whichever approach to learning musicians prefer, a discipline: from how musicians learn their craft, and music-making is about more than hitting the right by Peter Shaw and Ken Thomson how they work with others. notes and reading the right books. Musicians learn to Musicians learn from teachers, from instruction books, put meaning and feeling into what they play: to put praesta insights by listening to and watching better players, and, above heart and soul into the music. They are engaged with all, by practicing. They understand the point made their emotions as well as their technical capabilities. by Malcolm Gladwell and others, that mastery comes Leaders too need to put heart and soul into their work from hours of practice – as many as 10,000 hours. if they are to engage and influence others convincingly. 1. Music, work and leadership influence it – including, often, by paying for it. Leaders can only truly lead if people choose to follow. Finally, we reflect on “wrong notes”: things that get Organisations are complex. Leadership is challenging. Practice makes perfect Musicians can learn technique and theory on their own, in the way of performing well, and what leaders can through practice and lessons. Like leadership, however, One way to approach the challenge of leadership is Learning an instrument, or learning to sing learn from how musicians deal with them. music is not a solitary discipline. Just as leaders to learn from other fields. Often, those are sports well, demands commitment, study and We illustrate each of these themes with examples work with others to create something new, musicians grounds or battlefields. We watch and learn from the dedicated practice. A subtle musicians’ joke drawn from “classical” music, because that is the combine their technical skills to make music together: skill and concentration of a golfer or the competitive makes the point: music-making we know best; and we offer questions to to listen to and co-ordinate with others, attending to edge of a great football team. We hear how generals help you see and reflect on parallels between the work what musicians call “ensemble” as well as technique. use leadership to create a sense of purpose and shared “Can you play the violin?” of musicians and your practice and performance as a commitment in pursuit of a campaign strategy. “I don’t know; I’ve never tried.” In the following sections, we turn to music as a leader. collective discipline. First, we offer some points to Work is about more than winning games or battles. In We hope leaders of all kinds will find something help leaders reflect on what they can learn from music the following pages, we focus on leadership as helping relevant and useful here, whether your work is paid or Like actors and athletes, musicians perform with their as a creative discipline. people perform together, creatively. voluntary, and whether as the head of an organisation bodies as well as their minds. They learn the movements Seen in that way, music is what work can be: a or a team, or as someone who wants to create that produce a good sound, and the co-ordination of left challenge to be competent and then excellent; to something new by influencing a few people close to hand with right, or breath, tongue and fingers. combine our efforts with those of others; to create them or in much wider systems. By practicing, what seemed impossible becomes Points for reflection: something together that we could not do alone; to All of us can appreciate and learn from the skill, possible. Scales and arpeggios help musicians learn their • How do we learn and practise new skills contribute and get something back; to communicate teamwork and creativity of musicians. way around the instrument or the vocal range. Working as leaders? with our audiences; and to feel part of something on studies, they train fingers, brains, and breath in the • Who are our teachers? Who gives us bigger. 2. Leadership and music as disciplines techniques and patterns demanded by composers. They feedback on our performance? Whose develop muscle memory that allows them to focus We see leadership, like music, as a discipline: as a Leadership is creative. Leaders contribute and performances show us ways to develop on continuous refinement. Musicians work on a hard contribution, and not a position in a hierarchy. Both influence others to create something that did not exist, our own skill? leadership and music demand skill, knowledge and passage over and over again until they can play it right; or encourage people to work and relate to each other • How can we practise leadership more engagement. Both are developed through practice. Both or, for professionals, until they trust themselves never to in new ways, for new ends. effectively in order to maintain and develop can be performed in private and in public, in small play it wrong. Leadership is a discipline, not a position in a hierarchy. our skills? groups, on large stages, and for a wider public. Both Musicians call these skills, “technique”. Leaders, too, Leaders acquire skill and experience through practice. demand of us that we “know the score”. learn techniques: for example, how to communicate • Do we practise enough, or are we getting Like music, leadership happens in private as well influentially with individuals and groups of people by on sight-reading? We consider conductors, orchestras and leadership, as in public, and in small teams as well as larger and how to work with others to bring about change. and make the case for leadership as enabling as well as organisations. Both music and leadership demand of us • Can we develop our understanding of the These aspects of leadership involve technical skills directive. The best conductors do more than choose the that we “know the score”, and bring it to life. theory and principles of our work, as well work and set the tempo: they create a space in which we can practise. Improving them gives credibility and as its daily practice? We start our reflection on the parallels between effectiveness to our leadership. every player contributes to a greater whole. • What can we learn from the history of our leadership and music by considering music as another Musical development doesn’t stop when the piece organisation or profession that will enable We discuss parallels between self-organising teams creative discipline. Perhaps you remember the first lies under the fingers. Musicians continue to grow by us to contribute more fully? and chamber music and what leaders can learn from time you held an instrument, picked out a tune on a learning to listen, bringing their minds to bear on what how string quartets and other chamber musicians work keyboard or set out to learn a song: the challenge of • What is the best blend for us of learning they are doing and how they could do it differently or together: that it requires good listening as well as getting the notes right, and the feelings evoked by the from writers and teachers and learning by better. playing your own part well. music. doing? Similarly, as leaders, we learn to reflect on our own We reflect on rehearsal and performance, and how For some, that first encounter with music-making is • Do we put heart and soul into leadership, performance and development and to learn from our leaders can work with teams to prepare them to do the start of a lifetime of practicing and performing, as well as knowledge and technique? peers and from coaches and mentors. their best work together. as professional musicians. For others, music-making We consider the part played by the audience: those becomes a recreation: a way of re-creating not only As well as learning by doing, musicians learn the beyond the organisation, affected by its work, who sounds, but ourselves. principles and history of their art and craft. Why do 60 2015 Knowing the Score The Praesta Insight Pieces 61
3. Conductors, orchestras and leadership • and Talgam’s own teacher, Leonard together they could not do on their own. By giving change. This creates challenges and the opportunities Bernstein, starting from the meaning, direction along with freedom, and by creating that paralleling those musicians experience in chamber When we think of parallels between music and enabling the players to become the sense of contributing to a larger whole, conductors and music. leadership, perhaps the first image to come to mind storytellers and thus to share in leading leaders earn the respect, support and loyalty of players Chamber musicians play without a conductor and one- is that of the conductor holding a baton in front of the interpretation of the music. and followers. an orchestra. to-a-part. Chamber groups are usually self-organising. You might like to watch Itay Talgam’s TED Each player is a voice in the music and has a voice Those used to large organisations will recognise the talk and ask yourself which leaders in your “The Music Paradigm” in decisions about how the music will be played. That structure and hierarchy in an orchestra. The different organisation come to mind as he describes isn’t always an easy experience. David Waterman, specialist players form sections, each with a leader and illustrates these conducting styles. After becoming curious about how the cellist of the Endellion Quartet, says that “the responsible for quality and co-ordination. There are organisational development issues could be communal nature of decision-making is often more first violins and seconds, front desks and back. brought to life with parallels in orchestras, testing than the decisions themselves”. The musician and writer Benjamin Zander Like members of other organisations, the individual conductor Roger Nierenberg developed acknowledged during his conducting career that the Similarly, there are times in other work when how players in an orchestra contribute their skill and “The Music Paradigm”, described at conductor is the only person on the stage who doesn’t we take decisions is as much of a challenge as the expertise to create a whole greater than the sum musicparadigm.com and in his book Maestro: make a sound. Whatever their style, all conductors substance of the issues. Listening is always important. of the parts. a surprising story about leading by listening. depend on the players, as well as the players on How does a conductor lead these creative, skilled, the conductor. We suggested earlier that leadership Among the points brought out in a series of The ego-busting art of listening individuals? There are as many ways to lead and is a discipline, not a position in a hierarchy, In an short videos on the website are the effects conduct as there are leaders and conductors. Most orchestra, and in an office, Zander suggests there can on professional musicians of a conductor In Together: the rituals, pleasures and politics conductors combine, in different ways, the ability to be leadership “from any chair”. There needs to be micromanaging and giving mixed messages, of co-operation, the sociologist and author give direction with the capacity to enable others to ownership at every chair of the purpose and quality of and the positive effect of giving good Richard Sennett draws on his own experience contribute well. the overall performance. directions and trusting professionals to act as a professional musician to describe what happens when skilled individuals work together. Each of the conductors considered by Itay Talgam (see on them. the box on page 8) drew great performances from his Young musical hotshots are often brought up orchestras. Each found a leadership style authentic to “Leading from any chair” short when they begin playing chamber music; himself as a musician. All of them carried authority In The Art of Possibility, Benjamin Zander Something of the quality of the relationship between nothing has prepared them to attend to others. and exercised power in taking decisions, whether over describes how he came to see the an orchestra and its conductor can be seen in how they (I was like that, aged ten.) Though they may the membership of the orchestra, the interpretation importance for him as a professional communicate while performing. Some concert halls know their own part perfectly, in rehearsal they of the music or in the simple act of summoning conductor of enabling his players to “lead and TV broadcasts give the audience a player’s eye have to learn the ego-busting art of listening, sound out of silence. Whether you agree with Talgam from any chair”. view of the conductor, and of the gestures, expressions turning outward. It’s sometimes thought that that conductors get the very best performance from and moments of connection in the music-making. the result moves to the opposite extreme, the musicians they treat as creative partners, it is worth I had been conducting for nearly twenty years A conductor’s eyebrows can be as important as the musician blending in, submerging his or her ego reflecting how, as a leader, you combine giving when it suddenly dawned on me that the baton! in a larger whole. But sheer homogeneity is no direction and opening a space for contributions in how conductor of an orchestra does not make a recipe for making music together – or rather, you lead. sound. His picture may appear on the cover a very dull recipe. Musical character appears of the CD in various dramatic poses, but his Points for reflection instead through little dramas of deference true power derives from his ability to make • What are the “conducting styles” of your and assertion; in chamber music, particularly, Conductors: directive and enabling other people powerful. I began to ask myself organisation’s leaders? How do the “players” we need to hear individuals speaking in questions like “What makes a group lively and In a fascinating and engaging 2009 TED talk, respond? different voices which sometimes conflict, as engaged?” instead of “How good am I?” […] Lead like the great conductors, Itay Talgam in bowing or string colour. Weaving together I began to shift my attention to how effective • As a leader, what is your conducting style? describes the leadership styles of five well- these differences is like conducting a rich I was at enabling the musicians to play each How do you combine giving direction with known conductors. Talgam argues for the conversation. phrase as beautifully as they were capable. opening a space for people to contribute? importance of enabling and engaging the • Is your conducting style authentic to you? People in organisations have the same players as creative partners, not simply giving Zander found this approach led to better Does it get the best possible performance challenge: how to combine their individual them instructions. He compares: performance. Leaders in other fields often from your teams? skills and expertise in a way that creates • Riccardo Muti, impassively commanding, something greater than the sum of the parts, ask themselves “How good am I?” We might • How are you going to enable team members treating the players as “instruments, not encouraging creativity and not imposing also want to reflect on how well we are to perform at their best? partners”; enabling those we lead to contribute to the homogeneity. • What type of conductor of teams are you • Richard Strauss, composer and conductor, organisation’s performance. We might get going to be in the future? demanding strict execution of the detailed better results from a more lively and engaged instructions in his scores, with little room team. • If an audience could see you “conduct” your When it works, chamber playing creates a special for individual creativity; organisation, what would they learn about experience for players and listeners alike. Each player you as a leader? • Herbert von Karajan, his eyes closed, his is a voice in a dialogue: sometimes leading, sometimes Conductors, and other leaders, need to give direction gestures deliberately imprecise, demanding supporting, sometimes challenging or contrasting, in order to set standards, maintain focus and ensure that his players read his mind to discover sometimes commenting. The whole is greater than the results. To get the best results, they also need to his vision of the music; 4. Self-organising teams and chamber music sum of the parts. engage those they lead, rather than simply requiring • Carlos Kleiber, “opening a space for them to obey. Often, leadership involves creating and working Can we learn something about leadership from how skilled, autonomous players to add a layer in small, self-organising teams: for example, to that special quality of experience emerges from the From this combination, leaders and conductors create of interpretation” so that “control is no generate ideas, make decisions or work to bring about individual contributions in chamber music? the conditions in which those they lead can bring longer a zero-sum game”; together their knowledge and skills to create something 62 2015 Knowing the Score The Praesta Insight Pieces 63
Teamwork can be creative, not just people open to each other’s ideas on how to improve and, individual players have sufficiently mastered their key passages, or on establishing the tempo and mood mechanically “playing their parts”. Even for musicians together, create something not possible by working instruments and their parts, rehearsal and performance for each movement. They may deliberately leave who know each other well, playing a piece they’ve alone. may well take the music to a new level. If not, the some passages alone, so that they will be fresh in played dozens of times before, each time is a new players might benefit from practice: rehearsal and performance. co-creation. Like the script of a play, the notes on the performance may hold them back. Similarly, other teams may decide, as they prepare to page are not themselves the music; they are the bones Points for reflection: There are parallels in other work. We should be perform, what they want to commit to in advance and of the music, fleshed out anew by each performance. • In the work you lead, what can people do as confident about the part we shall play so that we where they want to be able to respond to events and In other fields of work, similar tasks and projects come a team, that they cannot on their own? contribute well as the team prepares to perform. We each other as the work unfolds. round again. Leaders can help those playing their parts should prepare together to perform well: “rehearse, • How are decisions taken in teams you work A good rehearsal builds rapport and understanding to come to each performance afresh. rehearse, rehearse”. in or lead? between conductor and players, and among players. All teamwork needs communication and co-ordination • When does the team’s work feel creative, What can other teams learn from what musicians do Together they seek to bring the music alive. In a good among the team players. Good chamber-music playing when repetitive? in rehearsal? Once again, it seems that listening is rehearsal, the musicians are challenged and engaged takes this to a high level. Though musicians discuss as important as playing. By listening in rehearsal, through clarity of instruction and creative dialogue. the music and its interpretation as they prepare their • How do members of the team communicate musicians find and develop relationships among their They feel valued and want to give of their best. performance, communication in the act of performing as they work together at their best? parts: who will take the lead and who will follow. They feel part of something bigger and are ready to is mostly non-verbal. Studying string quartets, • How might you enable, influence and support Not all orchestral co-ordination comes from the tip perform to a wider audience. They are mindful of the psychologists Vivienne Young and Andrew Colman team members, including yourself, to bring of the conductor’s baton. Ensemble emerges from the contribution of their colleagues and how each depends observed that the players’ “mode of interaction the best out of each other? understanding the musicians develop in rehearsal of on the others. involves a degree of intimacy and subtlety possibly how their part interacts with others in a larger whole. For musicians working well together, rehearsal is more not equaled by any other kind of group.” Similarly in other work, watching and listening is than technical preparation. It can be fulfilling in itself, This kind of non-verbal communication, the ability to as important as what we say and do. In preparing creating the sense of being part of a skilled, creative respond almost instinctively to what others are doing, 5. Rehearsal and performance teams to perform well, leaders are not simply issuing team in pursuit of a shared vision. Leaders can aspire marks high-performing teams in other kinds of work. instructions; they are helping team members find how to create the same experience for those they lead, as Leaders can look to develop this skill themselves, Rehearsal is different from practice, and from best to fit their contributions to each other. they prepare to perform. and in others. performance. This is as true for leaders and organisations as for musicians; we can perform better Teamwork is enhanced when team members respect Points for reflection with good preparation, and we can learn from how Listening well each other’s contributions and are open to others’ musicians prepare to perform. • As a leader, how do you ensure that people ideas and feedback. As the author and playwright Alan The sociologist and musician Richard Sennett acquire the skills they need in order to play Practice helps musicians learn new skills and keep Bennett observed of chamber musicians, “it results in on rehearsing: their part well as members of a team? them doing a better job”. them up to the mark. Where practice is solitary work on technique, rehearsal is collective and co-creative: Rehearsals are the foundation for making music; • How do you prepare teams to perform: that it is the work the team does in order to be ready to when rehearsing music, listening skills become is, how do you rehearse? perform for an audience. “… it results in them doing a better job.” vitally important, and in listening well, the • As they prepare to perform, how do you Alan Bennett writes in his diary of the musician becomes a more cooperative creature. ensure that people listen to each other, as well as have their say? experience of working with a string quartet “Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.” on incidental music for a film: • How do you create and share a sense of Martin Elliot is Co-Medical Director at Great Striking about the musicians is their total vision and purpose for those preparing to Ormond Street Hospital and one of the Leaders do more than co-ordinate activity. They create absence of self-importance. They play a perform? world’s leading paediatric cardiothoracic a sense of shared vision and purpose. Again, leaders passage, listen to it back, then give each surgeons. He is a musician, and has can learn from how musicians do the same. • Do you ensure your team or organisation other notes, and run over sections again […] operated with Mozart or Miles Davis playing makes the best use of preparation time? And the musicians nod and listen, try out a in the operating theatre. He brings to life his Most musicians come to a rehearsal already knowing • Does preparation time build rapport? Do few bars here and there, then settle down presentations on leadership and improvement the notes. Professionals will usually have played the people enjoy it? and have another go. Now one could never in surgical teams by showing how they have piece dozens of times before. Conductors and players do this with actors. No actor would tolerate learned from other high-performing teams use the rehearsal to create the music anew together, • Why would anyone want to rehearse with a fellow performer who ventured to comment whose work demands speed, accuracy and developing a shared vision of how they want it to you? on what he or she was doing – comment of co-ordination: Formula 1 racing teams, the sound, what impression they want it to leave and what that sort coming solely from the director, and Red Arrows and the dancers of the Royal feelings they want it to evoke. No two performances even then it has to be carefully packaged are the same. Ballet. He sums up much of this learning in a 6. The part played by the audience and seasoned with plenty of love and single phrase: “rehearse, rehearse, rehearse”. Orchestral musicians value the skill of a good appreciation. Whereas these players, all of Few of us, musicians or not, do our work without an conductor in making rehearsals creative, purposeful them first-class, seem happy to listen to the audience of some kind, whether in the room or further and engaging. By communicating a vision of the views of anyone if it results in them doing a afield. For most of us there are many audiences. Our performance to the players, a conductor helps them better job. work is influenced by and acquires meaning from its What effect does rehearsal have on people in a think differently about the music. It might be done relationship with those for whom we perform. team? Having observed string quartets and others in by describing technical effects or details of speed action, psychologists Vivienne Young and Andrew and dynamics; or it might be done through imagery, Musicians play before many audiences, in the Leaders can learn from chamber musicians how Colman suggest that the presence of other players or inviting a creative response from the players. concert hall and beyond. The paying customers have to create the conditions for good teamwork: teams an audience enhances the execution of well-learned committed time and money to be present. They want that organise themselves well, reach good decisions, Rehearsal time is usually limited, and needs to be skills, but holds back the learning of new skills and to be uplifted and entertained. They want to go away communicate and co-ordinate as they perform, are used well. The musicians may decide to focus on the execution of imperfectly learned skills. If the having felt their time and money has been well spent. 64 2015 Knowing the Score The Praesta Insight Pieces 65
“A performance cannot take place Creating rapport Sometimes, distractions can be removed or avoided. Learning, development and growth without an audience.” At other times, musicians need to be able to filter out Reflecting further on the relationship between Musicians may be used to a way of playing that works the background noise, to maintain the quality of their In A Musician’s Alphabet, the concert pianist musicians and audience, Susan Tomes for them. They have built up a repertoire and can play concentration and their performance. Musicians who Susan Tomes devotes the letter A to the describes how she creates rapport with the pieces well without undue effort. Everyday life and the learn their craft in front of noisy crowds, or busking Audience. She writes about the relationship audience even before stepping onto the demands of performance crowd in on time for practice, in the street, or in noisy blocks of practice rooms, between performers and those who come to concert platform. reflection and development, but there is always more develop strong powers of attention and focus. They hear them: to learn: new repertoire, better technique, deeper I sometimes sit in the dressing room between can communicate and influence through the interpretation. Musicians need to ensure that they A performance cannot take place without rehearsal and concert and make myself background noise. continue to learn and develop, combining command an audience, and to make the performance think about our listeners hurrying to finish up of what they already know with stretch and growth; feel like an event depends on the willing work, ironing clothes, instructing babysitters, Dealing with background noise neither over-reaching their abilities nor accepting self- collaboration of the listeners […] though preparing early or late suppers, making limiting beliefs about what is possible for them. listeners don’t participate in the performance, arrangements for transport and parking, how • Can you recognise distractions and remove their close attention certainly contributes to meet friends. Imagining all this makes me them or learn to block them out? For musicians and for leaders, learning and development may come from working on new to, indeed largely brings about, a shared realise how much care the audience puts • Can you develop ways of engaging people’s challenges or with new colleagues. It also comes from concentration which enables transcendental into a concert. They think they are coming to attention whatever may be happening in the self-awareness and reflection on the journey of the things to happen. spend an evening listening to me, but equally, background? I am preparing to spend an evening in their musician or the leader: where am I now, what brought Similarly, commercial organisations perform to company. • How could you practice communicating me here, what possibilities lie ahead? their customers; governments to their citizens; with and influencing others in “noisy” charities to their members and clients; and Taking the time to put ourselves in the shoes environments? so on. of those who experience our performance Growing through our leadership helps create rapport and a good relationship • Do you take time to reflect on how you with the audience for our work. It may also Being present continue to learn and develop as a leader, help us discern what we can learn from what Preparing to perform, musicians tune more than their recognising what you and others do well Musicians will be anticipating where an audience will might feel like indifferent or hostile responses instruments: they tune in to their own mood and and being willing to travel further? be coming from and what is likely to “strike a chord” from our audiences. readiness and those of their colleagues. with them. They will be judging the mood in an • Do you identify and seek out those whose auditorium and deciding how best to respond. They may be conscious of conditions in the encouragement and challenge can enable auditorium. Often, the arrival of the audience changes you to extend your capabilities? Similarly, those involved in customer relations and the room’s acoustics and the temperature—emotionally Points for reflection: marketing gauge the mood and views of the audience as well as physically. • Are you honest with yourself about self- for other kinds of performance. • What audiences are interested in what we do limiting beliefs and how they might be They will be mindful of the work they did in rehearsal as leaders and in organisations? holding you back? The very presence of an audience can enhance the and how to bring it to bear on the performance to musicians’ performance, or give them nerves and • How do our audiences affect and shape our come. They will be aware of the audience’s expectation stage-fright, or even do both at the same time. work? of a satisfying, perhaps outstanding, performance. They Relationships Among the audience in the hall may be music • How do we combine pushing ourselves and prepare to engage with the musicians around them. Musicians are human. Inevitably, differences and critics with a column to fill. They bring assumptions taking risks with protecting and enhancing Musicians develop the ability to be mindful of inner tensions arise in their relationships with their and expectations about what makes a good “live” our reputation? and outer states in preparing both musically and performance, something with a bit more in-the-moment colleagues. • What work do we want to do, for which emotionally. They may develop routines to help them edge and excitement than a studio recording; yet their Sometimes, these can be creative and generative, audiences? be, like athletes, “in the zone”. These may include reviews will be read and repeated well beyond the concert-day rituals and reflective or meditative techniques. opening up new possibilities for individuals and moment of the concert. The critical audience demands • How can we best create rapport with those the group; at other times, they can be corrosive. Being in touch with one’s self and one’s surroundings of performers that they balance risk and spontaneity who experience our work? Individual and “tribe” preferences can lead to conflict. before a performance – for example, a speech, or an with longer-term reputation. Critics demand much the As in any group of people working together, there important meeting – can be useful for leaders, as for same of organisations and their leaders. can be rivalries and conflict as well as collaboration. musicians. For both, even a few deep breaths before Relationships within the orchestra and between Organisations and their leaders have a relationship with performing can make a big difference. their critics, too. As for musicians, the relationship can 7. “Wrong notes”: things that get in the way of the players and the conductor are subject to many be a challenging one. performing well pressures. There may be a growing feeling that some This section explores five challenges musicians face Being present players, even though they are trying hard, are holding Musicians play for other musicians. What will attract back the ensemble as a whole. the best players to join this orchestra, or the best and how they respond. The same challenges arise in • As a leader, do you take time to tune in to soloists to perform with it? How can performing with work contexts beyond music. your surroundings and to other people? Part of leadership, for musicians and in other contexts, others enable musicians to develop their capabilities is to surface and discuss different expectations Background noise • Are you mindful of your own thoughts, and reputation? Similarly, one audience for an and intentions early so that they don’t harden into feelings and physical state and how they organisation’s work is those people who might be Musicians are inevitably sensitive to background noise. resentment. affect your performance? attracted, or not, to work for it. Passing traffic, the gurgle of heating pipes, even the hum of lights, disturb the still of the music-room • Do you have, or might you develop, routines and the calm of the musicians. Distractions outside to help bring relaxed focus to how you can produce inner tension and erode concentration. A perform? musician’s practice can affect others, as anyone who has lived with a trumpeter or a drummer will know! 66 2015 Knowing the Score 67 The Praesta Insight Pieces 67
Getting the best from relationships We hope the material here has helped you reflect 2017 • Do you encourage openness about on parallels between the work you lead and how expectations and differences in work musicians engage each other and their work, and that The Resilient Team relationships? your reflection stimulates you to lead, engage and influence others in fresh ways. We wish you well as • In your work, do you and others name issues you embark on future performances, ready to lead and expect people to talk about them in a creatively and “knowing the score”. grown-up way? • Do your work relationships create space for both competition and cooperation in pursuit Reflecting on work and music: by Hilary Douglas and Peter Shaw of a shared purpose? • What skills are you developing through competence to excellence? praesta insights • How well do you combine your skills and Performance appraisal and feedback creativity with those of others? If the last performance went well, the players can be • As a leader, how do you provide direction “on a high” and might be a little complacent entering and create space for others to work well Introduction the next performance. If the last performance went less together? At Praesta we focus on helping organisations to We notice that teams which stay resilient: well, the players may carry some unease, frustration • What in your work speaks to a wider achieve sustainable change. Ideally, that means a or even a desire to blame and recriminate. After a audience? sequence of indifferent performances, players may partnership approach, including work with leadership 1 Know what the team is for, and feel stuck in a rut, and a loss of energy and a sense • Are you part of something bigger, teams. Concerted senior team effort has the potential what can only be done by the of creative adventure. When musicians carry their contributing your leadership to a higher to influence motivation, performance and culture for team acting together emotional reactions around with them, it can inhibit purpose? the longer term, whilst the impact of individual leaders them from being at their best in future performances. risks fading with their departure. 2 Balance planning the longer term and dealing with the here and now It can take an act of leadership – from any of the In this Insight document we share observations from players, not necessarily the conductor or the person working with executive and senior teams over many 3 Work together to turn plans “in charge” – to recognise what a group is carrying years and through changing contexts. We set out ten into reality and persuade, inspire or cajole its members to shift characteristics we notice in teams that stay resilient. to a different way of thinking, feeling or being. Our suggested factors for success are not intended to 4 Are proactive in response to be comprehensive: our aim is to stretch team thinking a changing environment about what is possible. Learning from performances 5 Pay attention to values and • In your work, are you able to assess each The Changing Context behaviours performance, learn from it, then draw a line Engage effectively with stakeholders and move on? Expectations on leadership teams in all sectors 6 are heavier than ever. There are stakeholders and • Are you mindful of your emotional reaction to Build capability for sustainable regulators to be satisfied, reputations to be protected 7 your last performance and aware that these change in the organization and always the finances to be watched. The pace of feelings can stay with us, sometimes without events is such that there is constant pressure to make us realising? Understand and apply effective rapid judgments and deliver at speed. There is a 8 governance • How might you be less captured by premium on a leader’s ability to anticipate what may emotional reactions of frustration and be coming down the track. Transformational change Maintain momentum as team disappointment? becomes a way of life rather than a once- a-decade 9 members change event. Resilient teams have a crucial role to play • Do you stay aware of the risk of - particularly at the top of organisations, but also complacency after success, and 10 Look after their own well-being. at any level where teams carry significant levels of dissatisfaction and a feeling of being stuck responsibility. when things have not been so good?
8. Music, work and leadership We look at each of these characteristics in more detail below, and conclude with a linked list of Introducing these reflections, we suggested that music ten questions for teams to ask themselves. is what work can be: a challenge to be competent and then excellent; to combine our efforts with those of others; to create something together that we could not do alone; to contribute and get something back; to communicate with our audiences; and to feel part of something bigger. 68 2017 The Resilient Team The Praesta Insight Pieces 69
- lack of strategic direction 1 Know what the team is for, and what 3 Work together to turn plans into reality 5 Pay attention to values and behaviours can only be done by the team acting - team members operate in silos. together Good planning amounts to little if it is not followed Teams are made up of a set of successful individuals, When we start working with a senior team, we 2 Balance planning the longer term and through. Resilient teams commission detailed planning each with their own personalities and each with their often ask each member how they would describe the dealing with the here and now and assure themselves that resources are in the right own strengths and weaknesses. They will not naturally team’s purpose, and whether they think those above place, roles and accountabilities are explicit, and form a collaborative group; indeed they may each interdependencies are mapped. They define what instinctively prefer to do their own thing. Yet if asked and below them would recognise the description. Successful teams know their reputation depends on success will look like, choose their performance about great teams they have been part of in the past, We sometimes find there has been no collective effective day to day delivery, but they also know indicators, and decide how to monitor progress. most will say they enjoyed being part of something discussion about the team’s purpose, because team the risks of being in constant fire-fighting mode. bigger that everybody cared about. Time and again members are too busy reacting to the pressures and Whatever the pressures, they insist on making time Team members care about the collective goals, and put they identify the importance of mutual trust - or at deadlines of everyday business. Resilient teams for reflection on the longer-term expectations which effort into joint problem-solving and cross-boundary least enough trust to air their differences and take a discuss what the organisation and the wider world others have of them, and the capabilities they will working. They take collective responsibility and don’t constructive approach to resolving conflict. needs them to do, to fulfil the trust vested in them. need to get there. If they set aside time to stand shirk difficult decisions. These behaviours run through They see teamwork as a route to high performance, back, they can, for example, think into a future every interaction, whether in or outside of the team Trust does not happen overnight. Team members need not an end in itself. where strategic goals have not been achieved and meetings. Each discussion includes clear next steps, to work at it, knowing they will be more effective as a review what the derailers might have been. Answers accountability for actions and defined expectations result. Key ingredients include: These teams ask themselves: “What is important and often include an inability to read the environment, about progress before the next meeting. can be done only if we act together, as a group or a failure to manage key relationships, or a delay in - acknowledging the risks of groupthink, or subgroups?” developing and motivating key people. Warning signs: domination by the loudest voices When they address this question, they usually It may emerge that the goals are far more challenging - decisions are not owned by the team - being open to challenge and taking strength from conclude that they are the only people who, by than anticipated, and require the team to reframe - the team is not clear about the management each others’ input working together, can: their approach. The discussion allows the team to information it needs - listening with curiosity to what others have to say, plan proactively for a better outcome, explore how - the team feels battered by external events and and acknowledging when others have better ideas - set strategic direction for the organisation or their to manage risk, and review where their collective unable to move forward. - showing genuine interest in where others are area within it attention needs to be. coming from and how to get the best out of each - work out and resource a forward plan, and other. actively manage risks to its success Occasionally, teams run the risk that they enjoy 4 Are proactive in response to a changing - working with the preferences of different - manage key relationships, upwards, sideways and ‘blue sky’ thinking so much that it detracts from environment personality types to get best results: for example, externally managing the here and now well. Addressing current ensuring that the more expressive members of the - build the capability of teams below them, so they reality head on will always be critical for an effective Resilient teams constantly scan the horizon and team give the quieter personalities space to share can take delegated responsibility with confidence team. The balance between strategic planning and ensure they have the capability to change course if the their ideas. operational delivery will vary over time, but it will situation requires. They ask the difficult questions of - ensure that as a team they draw on their collective always be ‘both and’ and not ‘either or’. - being self-aware and welcoming feedback on how abilities and learn from each other. themselves, learn from mistakes and move on. They others experience them face into difficult issues and do not ignore them or Warning signs - learning together and coaching each other in a Team members may go on to articulate what is run away from them. They help each other to think culture of continuous improvement important and can only be done by their leader - little sign of grip on day to day events things through calmly and to judge whether rapid action or a more measured response will win the day. - living by a set of shared values or behaviour norms, - which will probably include coaching them - lack of time for horizon-scanning and modelling these to others individually and in a group, and ensuring that time There is an old Army saying: “plans are worthless but - failure to anticipate risks, and lack of contingency - giving each other authority to challenge in group together is focused on their priorities. The team planning is everything.” When the unexpected happens, planning. discussions, according to the agreed values. are also likely to look to the leader to judge when you have to be ready to adapt to the new reality. The discussion has to stop, and a decision must be taken. original plan may have to be dropped or amended, but the process of planning will have provided a good To summarise, these team members are committed to understanding of what levers can be pulled, and how each others’ success, because this commitment gives Resilient teams are ruthless about asking if the The team were overseeing a complex project team is adding value on a particular issue. They do fast. the team as a whole the best chance of succeeding. which was constantly in the public eye. not spend their time doing things which could be They combine the humility to learn from others with a Tight delivery deadlines and a multiplicity done by others, given the right guidance. If they Effective teams accept that a change of plan clear sense of personal responsibility. are uncertain about others’ capability, they focus of stakeholders meant they risked spending requires more than a new set of tasks. People in too little time looking ahead together. Their the organisation need to understand why something on the motivation and performance management Warning signs: challenge. If decisions have to be taken about poor leader insisted on putting regular reflection different is now being asked of them. External performance, they support each other in having the time in the diary. On one occasion, the commentators need to be persuaded of the reasons for - negative gossip and backbiting difficult conversations. Even in a crisis, they are very team imagined a future where they had not a change of direction. Good communications are as - absence of mutual trust essential in this context as on a battlefield. clear about where their input is most needed, and been successful, and brainstormed what the - unwillingness to share when things don’t go well. when they are at risk of getting in the way. They problems were most likely to have been. recognise when it is best to act jointly and when Some serious risks emerged, which they Warning signs: individually. would not otherwise have thought of. The - plans are rigid and inviolate team agreed action to reduce those risks, - external commentators are ignored and dismissed Warning signs: and kept them on the agenda from then on. - hints of complacency are evident. - vagueness about the purpose of the team 70 2017 The Resilient Team The Praesta Insight Pieces 71
Two senior teams from different organisations in effective coaching and performance management. Warning signs: needed to work more effectively together. This may involve team members recognising a 8 Understand and apply effective - teams revert to silo working whilst waiting for Trust was at a low ebb. They came to a need for refresher training in managing difficult governance vacancies to be filled facilitated session with a huge degree of conversations, so that they can coach others. Effective governance is necessary for senior teams to - new team members feel their views are unwelcome scepticism. The breakthrough came when ensure they comply with their legal duties, but it goes - too much harking back to the ‘good old days’ - or they were asked to describe their hopes and When seeking to motivate others, senior team members need to recognise that individuals’ much further than that. Accountabilities are written too much rubbishing of the past. frustrations - and discovered these were drivers and views about success may be different down and are unambiguous. A well-planned forward almost identical. They realised they were more from theirs. Some people care most about career agenda encourages focus on the team’s priorities, and likely to succeed if they collaborated on the progression, while others want to develop new skills. ensures that less important decisions are not delayed 10 Look after their own well-being shared challenges. They began to work on a Most want to feel valued at work and to know by being referred upwards. An agreed format for joint agenda, building trust along the way. that their managers see them as people, not task written papers supports good decision-making. Fit-for- Teams in demanding situations are under constant machines. Achievements need to be celebrated, not purpose processes and policies mean teams can avoid pressure. They need to sustain the physical and mental taken for granted. wasting effort on returning to first principles on every well-being of all their members, for the sake of the 6 Engage effectively with stakeholders issue. Decision-making and monitoring is supported whole organisation. Exhaustion and stress in a senior Expectations on individuals and teams must be clear by the right data, in usable form. The chair brings all team are a drain on everyone’s vitality and rarely lead to everyone, and result from open discussion about discussions to a conclusion with recorded actions, and to good decision-making. It is not enough for the team to work well together. priorities and resources. They should be reviewed everyone abides by the decision outside of the meeting. To achieve their goals, they need to influence others, regularly in the light of new developments. All teams need a conscious strategy for recharging whether commissioners, funders, shareholders, Members of effective teams regard their meetings as batteries as a team and as individuals. Team members customers or regulators. Each team member may When there are changes in prospect, nearly everyone productive, because they are focused on the things that watch out for each other to ensure each member gets work with their own set of relationships, but at the feels apprehensive. They want to know about the only they can do. These teams are not afraid to invite downtime. They look for danger signals, such as strategic level there is value in taking a systematic big picture and the reasons for change, but they also scrutiny from time to time from independent observers frequent 4am emails, or emotional outbursts. Team look at the key stakeholders together. want to know what it means for them as individuals. - indeed they value the insights this can bring. success matters so much to them that they instinctively They need to be assured that managers are not hiding move to support a colleague in difficulty. Team members pool their insights into the drivers anything, that there will be opportunities to share in Team members expect their own performance to be and success factors for each stakeholder, and what shaping the future, and that people will be treated judged by their contribution to team success, and by it would take to build good collaboration with that Warning signs: fairly. their leadership of the teams supporting them. person or organisation. They recognise it may not - there is competition about who works the longest be enough to have a compelling logical argument An effective team develops the narrative, speaks Warning signs: hours or takes the shortest holidays in order to win some stakeholders over. It may be with one voice, and devotes time to answering - instant reactions prevail over considered responses more important, for example, to offer an organisation - papers and meetings are unplanned people’s questions through every available means something that enhances their external reputation, - time for team reflection is given low priority. of communication. They recognise the shadow they - external scrutiny is seen as an unnecessary diversion or to give a group of customers the satisfaction of cast as a team and that others will be mirroring their - governance and oversight is seen as mere knowing they have been heard. approach and behaviours. Trust is again the key bureaucracy. Team members agree who will take the lead in each word. People will go a long way for leaders they trust. of the relationships, how others can contribute, and which relationships can be delegated. They ensure Warning signs: that if there are multiple interactions with the same 9 Maintain momentum as team members stakeholder, the message remains consistent, and - expectations are vague and not communicated change everyone is kept informed. clearly - training and coaching are not embedded in the It is not unusual for a strong team to lose momentum Warning signs: team’s approach when one or two key players leave. There can be a - succession planning is given a low priority. sense that everyone has to start again, and even that - lack of consistency in external messaging there is no point in starting until the gaps are filled. - a haphazard approach to stakeholders Resilient teams spot the trap. They keep their good - the customer is tolerated and not embraced. The senior team led an organisation of practices going because they cannot let performance technical experts. In a fast changing stall. environment, the business needed to change its traditional ways of working, but the team The continuing members give even more attention to 7 Build capability for sustainable change supporting each other through the transition. Their in the organization knew they would meet passive resistance. They took time out, and imagined what values and ways of working are a critical part of the It goes without saying that successful organisations it would feel like to be different groups induction of new arrivals - whilst welcoming the fresh perspectives that new colleagues can bring. Dynamics, need highly motivated employees, with the mix of of employees and managers: what would insights and ways of working change with different skills to match future challenges. If the leadership motivate each group, what would they be personalities but the underlying purpose remains. team do not pay attention to this, no one else will. worried about, and what might they most need from the leadership? The exercise Building capability requires understanding current felt strange a first, but was helped by team strengths and development needs, and predicting as members who had once worked further down far as possible what future requirements may be. the hierarchy. It led to some big changes in Recruitment, training and succession strategies follow - with the team members expected to set an example their engagement strategy. 72 2017 TheResilient Team Key questionsforteamstoaskthemselves 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
consequences ifweare not? success andwellbeing?Whatare the Are wetrulycommittedtoeachothers’ and notdiminished? we ensure thatmomentumisenhanced When teammemberschange,howdo us effectively? arrangementsserve Do ourgovernance and buildfuture capability? How dowebestengageourpeople, how weengagewithstakeholders? Do weneedtotakeastrategiclookat and behaviours? Are weexplicitenough about ourvalues when circumstances change? Are weflexiblein responding quickly, collective ownershipofdecisions? on deliverytogether, andtaking Does theorganizationseeusfocussed challenges? about thefuture, alongside thisweek’s Are wetakingenoughtime tothink collective attention? for andwhere weneedtofocusour Do weallagree onwhat theteamis
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