Executive brand in the techonology age

“The single biggest problem in communication
is the illusion that it has taken place.”
- George Bernard Shaw

Adoption of technology is critical for senior executives, many senior managers are simply ‘too busy’ or ‘just not interested’ in understanding the value and the mediums of the modern technological age; here are a few stats on senior leaders adoption of technology:

- Only 5% of all Fortune 500 CEOs are on Twitter
- 64% of CEOs are NOT engaged on company or social websites
- Only 13 Fortune 500 CEOs have active Twitter accounts
- Only 4% of global CEOs have a profile on Facebook or LinkedIn

This is in comparison to the growth of social networking from a society perspective.  Facebook alone has:

- More than 750 million active users
- 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
- Average user has 130 friends
- People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

The reality of the modern technological age is that for many non executives, the technology and the medium that sits within it: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn are a wholly consuming experience, there is a vast proportion of society that quite literally don’t go a day, or at the least a morning or afternoon, without ‘referencing, connecting and engaging’ in some way through their PC or Smartphone.

This is both a good thing for the senior exec as well as a potential danger, often the exec who thinks they are ‘very amusing’ is managed in their fantasy through being limited to the annual conference and thus damage limitation exists through them being limited to 30 mins, “no really you only have 30 minutes!”. All of a sudden they have a vehicle for their ‘wit and humor’ that can land them in huge trouble if they don’t receive honest council. Which is why many execs stay away from things such as Twitter, “if I am not on it, I can’t do something dumb”, as I was recently told, is probably quite an astute and profound statement.

However we are in a time of less pay, more work and greater expectations and to ‘touch and engage’ with the the business at a real level requires connecting with people ‘at a real level’ Facebook and Twitter are now a realistic expectation for senior managers to understand and manage.

Top Tips for managing your brand online:

• Let someone else do it for you
  Be that a brand consultant or internal comms, perhaps it might be a good idea to let a professional do it, and then you contribute in the margins.
• Consolidate your medium
  Keep the message constant and the same across the medium, that way you reduce the time involved and appear constant as different people connect to the message through different touchpoints.
• Control your personality
  Let it appear, but you aren’t a hollywood star, this is business with a character, not the personality with some business.

Leadership Talent Strategy – Keep an eye on the edges

“there are a lot of interesting
things that happen on the edges of
a business”
- Executive Coaching Guru

Many leaders have their plate full with the BAU stuff, you know the simple things like running the company, so it is hardly a surprise that this monopolises a leaders thoughts and thus a teams focus. In my role as an executive coach and leadership developer I have come to witness the leaders that are able to focus on the centre (BAU), whilst at the same time keeping an eye to the outer regions, the edges of the company.

I don’t mean the geographical edge, but the edge of peoples thoughts and thinking, the stuff that people think is not ’board room’ compatible, and thus in that moment many great ideas get lost and nullified, I agree that not everything needs to be a presentation to the board, but the proposition I put to you is:

• Scenario
  Presume that there are a huge amount of great ideas out there, that are lost in the ‘filtering’ that occurs to get to your heady heights.
• Challenge
  What are you go to do to find the one that you should know about?

I am a great believer in the hidden talent that never gets spotted, forget the 9 box talent grid in this context, still use it, but what about the people that never make it onto the grid, the ones that perhaps have been there a little too long, have lost the faith, the ones that if approached could ‘tell you how things really are’, the ones that if given a new line manager would flourish…..How are you going to find them? Or are you only after the talent that can make it up in the template. Nothing wrong with that, there is much excellence there.

But I wonder if there are enough weirdo’s in your company? Not trouble makers, but the people that might see the next curve, the ones that have a sense of the market and it’s direction from a perspective that you might never see in the often ‘soften and rounded’ data that is presented to you.

A few years ago I was facilitating an away day for a very successful company that had a strong focus on direct mail and cold calling and had built a very successful business. They had a researcher come in from a well known organisations that went onto the explain that if people kept signing up to Telephone Preference (I centralised site that makes it illegal to call that number), then within 6-8 years the pool of people to call would be minuscule.

The reaction, “well there wasn’t one, it was ignored completely”, what became apparent very quickly was that there was no room for ‘left of centre’ thinking, one person actually said, “why did we get someone in that doesn’t understand our model” (I don’t have to explain the blinkers on that statement do I?). Of course as you then looked at their Talent Process, it existed, but it only found and developed people that “understood their model”.

So what is the thinking? For me as an Executive Coach, it is to challenge the habits that we get into, the fact that we put in the process to find the talent and then years later we are in a ‘happy rut’. Sir John Harvey Jones was reported as having listened to his HRD on the topic of talent management, Sir Harvey (with his only qualification being a ‘signalling’ qualification from when he was in the Navy), asked (paraphrased), “would this programme have found me, if I was applying now”…..apparently not! So that was the end of that!

More importantly when you look to the fringe of peoples thinking and ideas, as a leader you are seen as being a very different animal to the ones that don’t (which will be nearly everyone else!)

Look to the edge!

Leadership delegation Top Tips

As senior partners go, this individual is a classic leader, very astute, highly emotionally intelligent and able to really sense the reality and need of the moment in any given conversation.

People looked around the room and then said, “Yes, we trust you……(pause)……..but” and then he held up his hand and said, “Do you really trust me?”, again there was a pause a few nervous laughs amongst the 30 people in front of him followed by lots of “nods and yes we do’s”. He simply said, “Good, I was banking on you all saying that, thank you”; and that ladies and gentlemen was that, everyone stood up and went back to work.

Over the next 2 months the Senior Partner increased the workload of the newly promoted manager, to breaking point, giving him every bit of new work that could possibly be aligned to that role. The new manager, burnt the midnight oil, worked through the night and the weekends and then finally snapped, walking into the Senior Partners office he let loose with the statement, “For gods sake I’m doing the work of 20 people!”

The Senior Partner, looked up at him and asked him to take a seat, called through to his PA and asked her to gather the new managers team together immediately; five minutes later everyone was in a meeting room, the Senior Partner turned and said, “I count 30 thirty people”.

Now I’m not advocating the style or methodology of anyone here, because it was the style of one individual that worked well for them, but I think you get can get the point of the story.

Now if this story is you take a moment and think about it; you have to trust people to delegate to them trust means ‘relationship and engagement’ to understand a persons capabilities. Delegation means the people are capable of carrying out the task, that they are positioned to succeed by a license to operate and that you are there to learn from them as much as to develop and coach.

Don’t make the fatal error of jumping to task and think the harder you work, the more likely it is you will succeed, the contrary may even be true and always remember that managers control resources, leaders motivate people, the Executive Coaching Guru agrees with Marshall Goldsmith that success though often happening because of you, may well also sometimes happen ‘in spite of you!’

Top Tips for Delegation

• Be absolutely sure you need it doing, people hate doing irrelevant work.
• Choose the right person to do it, this isn’t always the most capable. Consider those that would benefit from the experience.
• Ensure people understand the context of the delegated task, so they understand the value of their work.
• Be sure to follow through on the task and be seen to do something with it.
• Show people how this has/is/will make a difference.
• It’s an old story but set SMART objectives, so people understand the whole deliverable.
• Check back occasionally to demonstrate interest in the the individual and the activity.
• Be sure to consider the individuals need in relation to the task, this means you are considering whether you are Delegating, Coaching, Directing or Supporting them in this endeavour.
• Say “Thank you”, it goes a long way!

Sooner you start, the sooner you’ll get there

Director Job – Careful what you ask for! You just might get it!

I get this a great deal, “I want to be on the board, I want to be a director!”

Normally at this point I pause (generally for cinematic effect) and then ask, “Why in heaven’s name would you want that?”

It appears to be a complicated answer generally wrapped up in the validation of  ego, pay and a feeling that it’s the pinnacle of achievement. Many people feel that being a company director marks them out as being a senior person, often placing them ahead of others who may have MBA’s and maybe even bigger salaries.

But remember, if you are a statutory director then you are legally liable and that’s not a small thing, in fact it’s a really big thing. Not interested in Health & Safety? Well you better get interested! Working in the financial services industry in an FSA (Financial Services Authority) regulated business then you are really going to love becoming an FSA approved person (Oh yes! You’ll love that). You see once you are a statutory director you can’t plead ignorance when they coming knocking reference: corporate manslaughter, insolvency etc… “Didn’t know what was going on”, won’t cut the mustard, not in this day and age.

• Why do you want to be on the board?
• Are you prepared to think about the business as a whole, rather than in your area of vertical expertise?
• Have you developed the competence and capability to function in the boardroom?
• If you are a statutory director are you truly operating as a statutory director or just a very senior manager?

Counter this with the knowledge that ‘you can be the MD of a fish and chip shop if you want”. One of my most memorable moments happened on a workshop I attended with the Institute of Management Studies. I was sat between two senior managers, enquiring about each others roles, the one saying he was a Regional Manager, the other an Area Manager.

The Regional Manager thought she’d won the exchange as in her world a regional role is a larger role than an area role, after a few minutes of chat you could suddenly see that something was wrong:

• Regional Manager with a little smile of self congratulation: “Yes I look after the South, so as you can imagine it’s quite a big role!”
• Area Manager with complete transparency: “Gosh yes, sounds a big job”
• Regional Manager: “So what about your area?”
• Area Manager (slight hesitation, just before the landing of the Top Trump): “Asia and Europe”
• Regional Manager (Modelling a goldfish look): “Oh”

The position you hold is not a validation of who you are or what you have achieved, it’s always relative and very often is only as impressive as the size of the pool you are swimming in.

Yes indeed, be careful what you wish for!

Top Read: The Fish Rots From the Head: The Crisis in Our Boardrooms – Developing the Crucial Skills of the Competent Director - Bob Garratt