Are your Management Team and Executives ‘fit for purpose’ in the new Coronavirus era?

We have seen in 2020 a dramatic turnaround of our lives.

So many issues and tangibles that we have always taken for certainties (we get up, commute, work at an office, go out to buy a sandwich, return to work, leave at 6pm, socialise, return home etc…) overnight changed and potentially disappeared for ever (such a possibility being suggested by house buying outside London almost exactly correlated with an overhang of properties for sale in the capital).

The same is true for decision making.

Previously we had teams of accountants and data engineers bringing the management and executives 100% of the information they required to make a decision, but now?

Now we have no idea.

Will we go back into lockdown tomorrow?

Will some of our employees on holiday in the EU be able to return to work without a 14 day quarantine?

Will our suppliers go bust?

Will our customers with 30-60 day credit suddenly disappear under a mountain of debt?

Will we be hit tomorrow by another Demand/Supply Shock?

From being a great business one day we went to seeing tumbleweed rolling through our factories and warehouses the next and with that as a backdrop, how do we reopen and how do we even plan and budget for the next 12 months?

At times like these you will never have the full picture. If you have people in your management team who cannot make a decision, who are caught like the proverbial Rabbit in the headlamps without 100% of the facts, then sadly they will be holding you back and possibly destroying your business in an age when the need to be agile and nimble has been forced upon every business overnight.

With ‘certainties’ changing day by day, when nothing can be 100% sure, when businesses and supplies you had come to rely upon are going bust with no warning, you need a different type of leadership within your management. Businesses that can adapt will survive and thrive, those determined to crawl and scape their way back to the old ways of doing business and running companies, will go bust.

You need management that can make decisions without all of the facts, that can, as a street fighter go with the punches, make decisions and take responsibility. Not latter day Generals sitting many miles behind the war demanding yet 'more facts, facts, facts' before making any decisions and bogged down by 'analysis paralysis'.

Procrastination in the name of reducing risk actually increases risk, this is never more true than now. Time to wake up and smell the Coffee!

To adjust quickly you should look to mavericks in the middle management area, those who perhaps have struggled in their business or private lives. Who are not afraid to say ‘No’, who have not played the political game and have watched as others have overtaken them in the race to the top. Who, more often than not have been the bearer of bad news, if only because their colleagues were unwilling and for them it was simply bringing of the information to your attention to find a solution. Who are very willing to learn from people they respect (whilst ignoring those they don't) - ok they may have a few rough edges that for more senior management will need to be smoothed out!

I am not saying they are perfect, but bring them into your inner circle and replace those ‘Yes’ men. These mavericks are prepared to not only take responsibility, but to make decisions for the good of the company, are willing to make fools of themselves by asking the stupid questions (which although 'stupid' seem to catch out many), even it is at the expense of their own political capital. These are the people you need with you.

Following this, you as CEO need to give more, not less empowerment to your management team. Micromanagement which has always been and always will be business and soul destroying, although for some may seem to be the obvious knee-jerk reaction to these dark times, must be avoided at all costs.

Allow mistakes, we are all human so allow your team to learn from these; celebrate the small wins, and take responsibility yourself for ideas and areas that fail (no point blaming others, that is a one way trip to business failure in these times as your workforce will simply stop taking any responsibility). Use errors as ways for your team to learn through these mistakes.

Ultimately, remember Colin Powell’s P = 40 to 70 equation:

Part I: "Use the formula P = 40 to 70, in which P stands for the probability of success and the numbers indicate the percentage of information acquired." 

Part II: "Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut.”

You need people in your management team who recognise that if you wait for 100% of the information, you will have missed the opportunity. Just as in war, so now in business, missed opportunities while you or your management team were stuck as Rabbits in the Headlamps, could mean death and cost you your business and many employees their jobs.

Time to look again at your management team before it is too late.

Do it now, time is not your friend.

#Leadership #Management #Coronavirus #DecisionMaking