Archive for April, 2009

In week 4 of The Apprentice, the teams were tasked with developing, producing and selling two natural beauty products.

The teams were mixed up again, with Noorul leading what turned out to be the winning team and Paula leading the losing team.  The big learning point from this week was that it is often the most basic of mistakes that can be the most costly.

So let’s compare both of the teams.  As a team leader, Noorul was clearly not leading and any time where a decision needed to be made he looked like a rabbit in the headlights.  There was absolutely nothing in the way of creativity and the product, particularly the soap was awful.  When it came to selling he just could not do it, despite the fact that in one of the clips he would rate himself 10 out 10 when it came to selling.  Yet despite all of this he and his team delivered a profit of just under £500.

Paula by contrast was a great team leader.  She took decisions, made things happen, a good example being the sale of the remaining stock as a single batch.  She was creative and pretty dynamic on the whole.  So what was the big mistake that was made?  Choosing a hugely expensive fragrance and not considering the financial consequences.

So what in summary are the leadership lessons can we learn form this week’s show?

1. A great product, with good marketing and selling is not enough
2. Crunching the numbers might be dull but essential to running any successful organisation
3. Delegation need to be clear and unambiguous
4. It is important to be self aware
5. When in a situation of conflict, choose your tactics wisely
6. Not being an expert in something is not a defence.  If you are the leader, the buck stops with you.

You can watch The Apprentice in the UK every Wednesday evening at 9pm or on the BBCiplayer

A team as a collective can deliver much greater results than any one individual could.  A key component in any team is the leadership of the team.  So what are my 4 key tips when it comes to leading teams?

Tip 1:  Have a clear vision

If you don’t know where you are heading, how will you know when you have got to the destination?  Put differently, it is essential that you create a clear vision of what you want the team to achieve so that it can be understood by everyone.

Tip 2: Learn to be a great listener

You are the leader and have many ideas, views, opinions and solutions.  Your team know that this but also want to be able to offer their views and feel like they have been heard. A good leader recognises this and focuses most of their communication on listening.

Tip 3:  Be someone who takes decisions

As a leader you need to weigh up the upside and downside of any particular option and then decide.  Team members may not always support your decisions 100% or may not have taken the exactly the same decision.  On they other hand they will respect you for not procrastinating.

Tip 4:  Empower your team 

One of the big advantages of a team is the range and variety of skills and experience that is available.  You know what you are good at and not so good at, so empower those to do what they do best.

Some teams seem to just keep delivering great results while others never seem to get out of the starting blocks.  So what is it that sets the successful teams apart from the less successful?

Hallmark 1: Challenging Objectives

A successful team thrives on challenge and setting them challenging objectives is a great way to motivate them.  Challenging objectives are those that will require significant effort, creativity and imagination to achieve, and at the same time are not so demanding that they feel impossible.

As a leader of a team, the skill you need to master is to set challenging but at the same time achievable objectives.

Hallmark 2: Common Purpose

Why does the team exist in the first place?  Does everyone in the team totally understand the purpose and are they really committed to it?
To achieve success a team needs to fully understand the team purpose and collectively get behind achieving the purpose. 

Making the time to clearly define the team purpose is absolutely essential.  For example, eliminating wasted capacity might not be a great motivator for some.  On the other hand, serving more customers or service users is more than likely to motivate most.

Hallmark 3: Use Resources Smartly

In truth most teams will find themselves short of some resources.  It might be financial resources such a budget or an intangible like a specific skill.  Successful teams know that constraints or limitations will always exist so they focus on using their resources smartly.

Hallmark 4: Mutual Trust

Trust is one of the most essential things in any successful teams and in truth is often one of the most difficult things to achieve.  It takes time, commitment and a willingness to rely on others to deliver.  In many cases it takes a major shift in mindset to achieve.

Hallmark 5: Taking the Rough with the Smooth

No team has it easy all of the time.  There will be periods of amazing progress and periods where the team just feels stuck.  Successful teams understand this and learn to keep focus on the purpose through the good and not so good times.

Bottom Line – Teams success is never guaranteed but keeping your attention on these hallmarks of successful teams can help you to achieve results.

Effective teams and groups deliver more results quicker than any individual ever could.  So what do you need to do as a manager or leader to bring out the best in teams?

1. Give them a clear purpose

The best teams know why they exist and what issue or issues they are tackling.  In other words they have a very clear purpose.  If you want to get the best from teams give them a clear and unambiguous purpose.

2. Get the right people on the team

If teams are to prosper they need to have people on the team with the right mix of skills, knowledge and personal attributes to deliver results.  Ask yourself what’s missing on a team and then look for ways of getting people on the team to address these gaps.

3. Set expectations

You don’t want to micro manage teams but at the same time you need to be willing to set some expectations of the team.  These expectations will include areas such as what is to be delivered, ways of behaving and ways of interacting to name just a few.

4. Encourage innovation

Have you ever noticed that when you get a group of people together, whole range of ideas and possibilities are created?  Encourage teams to innovate and translate these ideas and possibilities into solutions that result in a step change in performance and results achieved.

5. Support risk taking

When teams are taking risk they are more than likely moving towards action.  Encourage and support teams to take balanced risks having weighed up the benefits and drawbacks.

Bottom Line – Bringing out the best in teams can lead to significant change in organisational performance.  So what do you need to do differently to bring out the best in your teams?

One of the biggest challenges you will face as a team leader is dealing with teams that are poorly performing or are considered to be low performance.  Low performance teams are often stuck, not delivering on key outcomes, operating in a culture of blame and may even be in denial.  So if you are the leader of a low performance team, what can you do about it?

Tip 1: Acknowledge performance issues

Too often, performance issues are swept under the carpet in the belief that they will go away.  The first step of addressing performance issues is to get them out in the open.  Create the opportunity for people to get all of their issues out in the open in a non judgemental way.

Tip 2: Identify some successes

No matter how it might seem to those in the team, there are likely to be successes being achieved day after day.  Get the team to start to recognise and write down the successes that has been achieved collectively.

Tip 3: Get the team to identify improvement ideas

If you have a team that is regarded as being low performance there is little benefit in trying to impose solutions on the team and expecting them to all of a sudden change.  Focus attention on getting the team to identify improvement ideas.

Tip 4: Create a space to deal with conflicts

Low performance teams can often have conflicts and as the team leader you need create space to deal with conflicts.  It can also be helpful to have a way of recognising when conflict is showing up.

Tip 5: Take small steps

If a team is low performance and wants to improve, it is important not to be over optimistic about the speed or way in which change can be made.  Get the team to take small steps and recognise the achievements and successes.

Bottom line- low performance teams can be tough to deal with and require a sensitive and structured approach from you as the leader.  So what will you start doing differently?

So we reached week 3 of The Apprentice here in the UK last night.  The task was to design a new piece of gym equipment that could be retailed under £30.  It was quite a challenge for both teams to come up with something different from what was already out in the market.

The piece I wanted to focus on in this blog post was the leadership of the teams.  There were two very different styles of leadership demonstrated in this task.  James the team leader of Empire (the predominantly male team) adopted quite a light touch approach to leading and trusted his people.  Debra the team leader of Ignite (the predominantly female team) adopted much more of an autocratic style.

At the end of the day, Ignite were the team that won the task.  On one hand this might have been down to good leadership or it might have been down to the team members.  What was more interesting to observe was the behaviours.  On the winning team, the team leader because of the style adopted demonstrated a number of behaviours

Indecision

There was a huge amount of indecision and procrastination going on about what the product should be and it appeared that the team leader was procrastinating and avoiding decisions.

Ignoring non verbal communication

On more than one instance the team leader was completely oblivious to body language and expressions that gave clear clues of discontent in the team.

Control freak

It was crystal clear that as team leader, Debra needed to be in control of everything, micro managing others and appearing to completely ignore what others had to offer.  A great example of this was dictating to one of the team members how to take a photograph of the product.

Undermining others

A good example was the way that she continually put down the person making the pitch.  Rather than saying something constructive to improve the pitch, the focus seemed to be in undermining Lorraine.

On the losing team, Sir Alan Sugar told James that he came within a whisker of being fired.  Ultimately what appeared to save him was the comment from Margaret who was observing the teams that he was not reasonably okay as a manager.  While it would be easy to say that as team leader he should be fired, there were some things he did well.

Empowerment

In complete contrast to Debra, he did not try to micro managing people and gave them space to execute.

Judgement

There was good and bad on this point in my view.  The bad was that he did not get involved in the product design.  The good was that even though he was less than impressed by the product, he made the call to say nothing and avoid de-motivating the team.

At the end of the day, his passion, fighting spirit and emotion in the boardroom, along with the chink of light on his management capability were what probably saved him.

Each of the leadership styles had merit. From my own perspective I would question whether the style adopted by Debra on this task, whilst producing a winning result, would work long term if working in Sir Alan’s organisation.

What’s your take?

You can watch The Apprentice on BBC One at 9pm every Wednesday or on the BBCiplayer.

Working with clients, one of the things that continually surprises me is that many people in leadership and management roles lack clarity on how they are measured.  If you are a leader or manager, are you really clear on what determines whether you are viewed as successful in your role? 

Why it is important to be clear on your success criteria

Determines your rewards

Most organisations have some form of performance appraisal process.  During your appraisal you present your views on what you have contributed to the business and have the opportunity to get feedback.  The results of this process will have a significant influence on your salary increase and potential bonuses that you receive.  If you are not clear on what your success will be measured you are less likely to maximise rewards.  Take the time to get clear on what your performance will be measured by asking your boss directly.

Helps you focus

One of the most common challenges facing many leaders and managers is a perceived lack of time.  When they review how they are spending their time they often discover that the bulk of their time is spent on activities that do not directly contribute to their success.  If you have not measured how you are spending your time recently start doing it for a 4 working week period.

Helps you to plan

Your success as a manager or leader is significantly influenced by your ability to inspire and get results through others.  Getting maximum benefit from others is all about planning.  You need to know where people perform best and then allocate work to them that plays to their strengths.  It also stops you from doing things that you are not the best at.  Make the time to plan so that you get the best results from yourself and others.

3 steps to determining your success criteria

1. Review your job description

2. Determine your key results through discussion with your boss

3. Have objectives and the basis of measurement clearly defined

Bottom line – If you want to achieve success as a leader, you need to be clear on your success criteria.

In the second week of The Apprentice, the teams were tasked with providing a catering service aimed at people in the City of London.

Unlike the first week, there were two obvious people to lead the teams.  Both had direct experience in the catering industry.

As always there were plenty of learning points.  So what were the key learning points:

1. Know the customer and understand that what you offer needs to equate to their expectations
2. If you fail to keep control of your costs you are destined for problems
3. Don’t promise one level of quality and then deliver something completely different
4. If you put yourself forward as being the person to lead because of your expertise, make sure you deliver
5. Sometimes it is easier to offer less choice but better quality
6. Dissatisfied customers will let you know.  In this task the boys team only received about half of the originally agreed fee for their evening reception and the girls also had a significant reduction in their fee

You can watch The Apprentice every Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One or on the BBCiplayer

In the first week of series 5 of The Apprentice in the UK, we were introduced to the teams.  As usual, many candidates made bold claims about what they could and would do.

The first week task was to set up a cleaning service.  We saw the teams go through the initial forming stage, pitch for contracts and then deliver the service.  So what were the learning points from the first week:

1. Planning is so vital, especially when a result has to be delivered quickly
2. Cost of delivering a service is a key component in any decision making process around service provision
3. An unwillingness for people to take responsibility in one team led to a leader by default rather than choice on one of the teams
4. It is all too easy to underestimate the time it will take to deliver a service
5. When people act in individual interests rather than those of the teams, people do not work together
6. A de-briefing is only effective if people are willing to listen

You can watch The Apprentice UK every Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One or on the BBC iPlayer

Business plans set out the overall direction for the organisation and can be used as a yardstick to track performance.  On the other hand there is a real risk that business plans become nothing more than glossy documents that gather dust.  So what are 5 mistakes you must avoid when it comes to developing a business plan?

Mistake 1: Devoid of any challenge

No successful organisation stands still.  The best organisations, including those regarded as leaders in their field seek to stay ahead of the game.  They do this by ensuring that they continue to set themselves new and bigger challenges around growth, service innovation and product quality to name just a few.  Those who do not set challenging plans muddle along.

Solution: Make sure that business planning encourages those around the organisation to set challenging targets for improvement.

Mistake 2: Nice words but no substance

We have all probably come across business plans which have lots of words that have no substance.  You might recognise some of the following:

• Be known for being highly efficient

• Being the most effective at x

• Encourage employee engagement

• Listen more to our customers and stakeholders

Solution:  Make sure that business plans focus on the results to be achieved.

Mistake 3: Produced in the ivory tower

What do I mean when I say that business plans are produced in the ivory tower?  Basically what I am talking about is business plans produced centrally in the organisation’s HQ by a bunch of people in corporate planning who are totally divorced from service or product delivery.

Solution: Set some overall guidelines at the top and get people closest to the point of delivery to develop the detailed plans for their part of the business.   Keep the role of the HQ team to consolidating and checking for consistency.

Mistake 4: Not used as a business management tool

Ever come across an organisation where a ton of effort goes into the business planning but the document is never looked at from one year to the next?  This is a huge waste of time and resources.

Solution: Develop a system of performance measurement system alongside the business planning so that the business plan becomes a live document.

Mistake 5: Too many goals

In a twelve month period, even the best run organisation can only do so much.  Organisations often fall into the trap of just having too many goals and as a result the whole process becomes unwieldy.

Solution: Focus on identifying a small number of critical goals that the organisation wants or needs to achieve.

Bottom Line – Business planning can be an asset or just a waste of effort.  So what steps do you need to take to make your business planning more valuable?