What Makes a Good Salesperson?

 

I was asked this exact question by a high-profile CEO last week, and it made me smile. Having been one in my younger days and now working with sales directors for over twenty years it is still a great question. From hiring the right people at the start, to supporting them throughout their role as it evolves, what makes a good salesperson really has not changed. Let me explain why. 

 

Recruiting Good Salespeople

Recruiting the right people is still a hugely challenging issue. What is a good fit not just to the role but to the business strategy and the culture of the business? This simple question is really a minefield for any director recruiting a salesperson.  What is a good fit, depends upon what you are looking for? What is a good fit? Is that someone who comes across well at interview or a person with an excellent track record?  In the 1980’s the lone wolf salesperson was the ideal role model, the high energy go getter, who won at any cost. That changed to the team player who positively responded to direction and management and was a predictable and reliably consistent.    

The fact that sales candidates have personality characteristics and skills that are difficult to evaluate adds a level of complexity which makes it hard to identify the ideal candidate. Companies want someone who can sell, but they are assessed either on who they know within the market or the last company they worked for. Either of these is not a good basis for who is going to be the right person for this company and this role.

Many are highly skilled at making a great first impression, but getting the right salesperson requires attitude skills which are not about first impressions. Hopefully every salesperson can make a great first impression, but can they build trust and credibility over the longer with clients? How do you assess that within an hour’s assessment? 

 

Evaluating potential salespeople is challenging  

Too often recruiting salespeople becomes a continual process as the revolving door as the wrong people enter and leave on a regular basis.  One recent report identified that 1 is 3 salespeople does not last a year in the role. This leaves companies with a continual open door for new salespeople. Carrying deadwood and with open vacancies in place becomes the normal situation in many companies.  An eternally evolving team which leaders cannot rely upon and develop.  

The solutions I most often seen tried range from trying different recruitment companies, to swinging the personality selection criteria by 180 degrees from the previous failed salesperson. While both seem attractive ways to overcome a previous failure, neither get the root cause of the issues a sales director must resolve. 

The key issues always start by understanding the strategy you are trying to deploy. Where do we want to be in five years’ time, is always a good place begin? Stop trying to look for a quick fix. Recruitment is a slow and expensive business, made more so by getting it wrong. Not only missed opportunities in sales but in morale and credibility with customers and other stakeholders. 

  

Sales Start with Sales Strategy 

To resolve these key issues, I always recommend identifying the importance of the long-term goal over the quick fix in finding the right salespeople. The right strategy defines the nature of the sales process, market, customer profile, and above all the key traits that they are looking for. Who do you want to have as customers in 5 years’ time is the first question I always ask? That should define the type of relationship you will need to achieve those goals. 

Secondly what are the key traits of existing good salespeople. What does good look like inside the team and company? Identifying that persona as the optimum salesperson profile, from background to adaptiveness and above all the right attitude.  Attitude is a major challenge is finding the right salespeople. It is difficult to tease out in an interview and even harder using crude sales personality tests. Like all tests some people are good at them and with frequency can pass them without revealing their true personality traits.  

For a salesperson in any sales role, B2B or B2C to succeed they must have the right environment. That is one where they have the support, structure and systems in place to support them succeed. 

 

 

Good Salespeople have the right Attitude.

Ask 5 sales directors what are the most important skills criteria that a salesperson needs to have, and you will get a shopping list a mile long. From problem solving to team player through to advanced role specific skills in negotiation and critical thinking soft skills. They, and many other role specific skills are all genuine skills, but none are as important as attitude. 

Attitude Is an approach that all good salespeople always seem to demonstrate. It is a consistent metric of success in selling roles.  But it I hard to pull out in an interview.  Skills you can train but attitude is hard wired into people’s DNA. Attitude is how people approach and undertake their role. For example, a good attitude enables people to self-start in the morning, bounce-back from a major set-back and remember to do the hard groundwork rather than just chasing the quick wins.

A good attitude is seen not in someone being perfect on day 1, but someone who will learn, adapt to become a team player within the culture of that business today and will develop themselves to be ready for the next stage of the business.  A good attitude is someone who learns from others and mistakes. They bounce back from setbacks rather than complain.  Attitude is the single most important factor in a successful salesperson. It comes across in actions and outcomes, someone seen as possessing grit in selling.

 

 

Attitude is Everything in Sales

What does a great attitude bring in sales behaviours. A person with a positive attitude is that they learn from the high achievers. They learn the products and the sales process and often challenge existing assumptions. They ask the annoying questions to sales managers like why do we do it like that?  Good salespeople quickly learn enough to be able to represent the brand, but they do not hide behind needing to know everything before they get out here. They are not perfectionists.

Good salespeople recognise that their real value is spend in-front of customers. They do the grunt work. Getting out and knocking on doors. The groundwork of any good salesperson is the unseen and unvalued work of learning the territory, meeting with existing and target customers. They have a plan, and they work the plan every day.  

Positive attitude is not just about having a sale and celebrating it. It is about continually building a multileveled pipeline of real opportunities. With a positive sales attitude good salespeople are always forward looking and don’t sit back on their laurels. The old saying you are only as good as your next sale, is their mantra. 

 

Growth Mindset

With the right attitude a company has salespeople who do not need to be micromanaged, or having their hands held through every sale. They have and own their plan ad they live their plan every day.   They focus on their goals and every step to get there they undertake builds towards their goals. They don’t short-circuit the process they know and trust.

A growth mindset is also one that stretches themselves to go the extra mile. Always looking for new possibilities and feeding back new ideas and product / service suggestions. A growth mindset is one that starts with an approach that says why not that customer, and how do I get into that target customer? Rather than the approach that says, I’m doing alright, I’m not at the bottom, I won’t win that customer.  A growth mindset, I can grow, is a great attitude compared to the fixed mindset, which limits the salespersons horizon.

 

Build the Customer Base

Great salespeople focus on their target customers. Many salespeople spend time in the office, being seen. Others spend too much time on email or their phone. The best salespeople spend their time in-front of customers. The prioritise getting in-front of existing and target customers. Focusing on time in-front of customer, with well worked out journey and engagement planning is the solid foundation of any successful salesperson growth mindset. 

They spend time building trust and understanding of the customers business. Relationship building with customers is the most valuable way to open value-added business with a customer. From pre-research to adding value to the customer which develops a win/win/win relationship with the customer, great salespeople focus on building their customer base’s width and depth.   

Build Lifetime Customers 

Great salespeople build customers who value their input into their business. They move from the transactional, need based relationship to one of mutual respect and long-term partnership.  They get to know the business, its people and its culture.

 

So, what makes a great salesperson?

Great salespeople are not great on their own, it takes a company culture that values people for the long-term and leadership that has a clear strategy to succeed. It takes clear achievable goals with the support resources in place to enable a salesperson that allows a salesperson to operate with freedom and trust. 

A great salesperson is one who understands that no matter the pressures, that there are no shortcuts to success. An average person can make a sale, but a good salesperson builds a lifetime customer. Not in one visit wonder but a trusted partner.

Like to learn more about developing the right sales culture then contact me.

 

 

In Business Growth is not always Good Growth!

Advice for business owners and leaders by Richard Gourlay

In Business Growth is not always Good Growth!

Business Growth is not always Good Growth, it can be Bad!

For every business owner growth is the ultimate measure of success, except it isn’t! Not all growth is good growth, and bad growth can have significant negative consequences. 

Growth is seen as THE measure of success in business. Leaders are measured by what they deliver in results, and growth is the simplest measurement to communicate. Headline results of increased turnover are always eye-catching news but may not be good growth.  Turnover, for turnovers sake, is often the most dangerous result a leader can deliver.  Growth sounds like a good result but not all growth is good. 

When growth at any cost becomes the sole focus, then leaders open the pandora’s box for the wrong types of growth.  Growth for growth’s sake is a high-risk business move. It sounds great as a headline but often masks what is really going on. The short-term benefits of rapid growth often come with long term consequences for any business. This is the difference between good growth and bad growth, which need to be clearly understood by owners and directors.

So, what is Bad Growth?

Bad growth is unsustainable. It’s a short-term grab that looks good but does significant long-term damage.  Bad growth comes in many shapes such as:-

1. In grabbing market share: buying a low value contract to win a new customer, which reduces margin sets a trend to lower margins.
2. In opening the wrong type of customer: which pulls the business to somewhere outside its marketplace, stretching the brand into different unprofitable places.
3. Over rapid growth by buying market share: with a low-cost entry offer or product which stretches the company’s resources, from financial causing unnecessary debt, to brand stretch damaging brand value to customer and channel trust breakdown.

The outcome of bad growth is that it stretches and pulls the company in wrong direction. Pulling a company in a wrong direction, is short-term thinking. If it is recoverable will take time, money are human resources to correct short-term bad growth. But here’s the other key problem that bad growth creates. If we incentives and measure only the growth, then we reward the people who created that bad growth. By giving them rewards and incentives to do more of the same, feeding the bad behaviour.  That creates an empowerment and acceleration off driving growth at any cost and at all costs.    

Growth at any Cost

That growth at any, and all cost, becomes a mantra which often overriders all other business and brand metrics. The first casualty is margins which become eroded, followed by key areas such as investment in new innovative product is sacrificed for cash cows. That in turn leads to brand position erosion as the brand moves from where it was. Which is where its existing valuable customers want it to be. To a new market position, which results in its former customers moving away to new brands. 

Causes and Solutions of Bad Growth

Bad growth is an outcome of poor leadership decision making. When directors, press the green button to go for growth at any cost they are the fundamental root cause of bad growth. Instead they should be developing a clear strategic plan for the business. Identifying a company’s its true value and long-term aspiration must to be laid out by its leadership team.  

Clear guidelines of what the business and brand stand for is a must be defined. and protected Growth has impacts and good assessment of the full impact should always be made. If a business outgrows a market growth rate, then how is that being achieved, and what is the long-term impact on the company must be fully understood.  

Bad growth is often cheap and easy, but destructive and expensive in the long-term. The classic phrase ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’ should always be at the forefront of leaders minds. Bad growth takes the company in the wrong direction, moving it away from its market position, and most importantly away its existing loyal and valued customers.

Bad Growth Business Impact

As well as driving the company into wrong markets or short-term grab growth, bad growth often also has severe and significant internal impacts. Firstly, on the company’s values and its people motivators. Bad growth does not feel right to employees, demotivating good people and putting strains and stresses on systems and people as they are pulled in the wrong direction. 

Often bad growth creates internal conflict as people and systems are set up for good growth in product development, operating systems and customer focused activities. Challenging these, or short circuiting them to override them for bad growth goals creates tension and disappointment, demoting and demotivating even the most loyal employees.

Growth is a complicated goal and rarely one where there is easy low hanging fruit. It’s not just about increasing sales or market size; it’s about building a resilient, sustainable, and innovative enterprise. 

So What is Good Growth?

In business good growth is inextricably linked to a sustainable expansion strategy. It must be beneficial to all stakeholders within the business and to its external stakeholders especially its customers and channel partners. This holistic approach that considers the long-term impacts on the company, its employees, and customers. Good growth is led by a clear long-term strategy planning. It creates a steady increase in turnover and profit reflected in market impact of new product and brand position retention and enhancement.

Defining Good Growth

We can all see good growth after it has happened. We see more of the right type of customer for the business. They are spending more and are happy to buy more and more frequently. Happy customers come back and want more of both the same but also products and services which they want to a company to supply. 

Good growth is where: –

1. Alignment is strong between all stakeholders: with shared values and brand perceptions work hand in hand in growth planning and delivery.
2. Good growth is sustainable: it is both manageable and self-sufficient in generating products and services which sustain the growth of the business.
3. Ultimately it creates long-term profitability: throughout the business, not short-term growth but long-term profits, such as shareholder value.      

The signature of good growth are therefore sustainability, profitability, and alignment with the company’s core values and mission. Good growth reflects the inter-relationship of all these three factors. It’s a type of growth that supports and is supported by the company’s overall strategic plan.

Benefits of Good Growth

Good growth benefits the whole business. Not only does it support long-term sustainability It supports brand reputation, builds and develops customer loyalty, and motivates employees. Good growth is enhancing the businesses whole value as it fits within the brand values and adds to the whole of the business offering. Each off these three elements protects the business from bad growth drivers and practices.  

Strategic Thinking

All decision making starts with leaders focusing on long-term strategic positioning, which comes from a clear vision and strategy.  Good growth requires good leadership decision making skills, focused on looking at the whole picture and incentivising and motivating people on long-term strategic thinking. Typically, this is thinking out the business over timescales such as 3 to 5 years, depending upon market rate changes. 

This contrast with short-term grab thinking, which is often led by short-term grab bad growth habits of one year or less with motivators that reward or override big picture thinking.  

Leaders who foster good growth are adaptable and responsive to market changes. Good growth leaders are open to innovation and learning. In bad growth situations, leadership are often rigid, do not listen to feedback from customers and employees that could prevent negative outcomes. The outcome is more important than how they got there.

Conclusion

Good growth balances opportunities with threats to the business. It focuses on the three key elements of alignment, sustainability and profitability. A good growth culture ensures it is aligned with all stakeholder and company needs. It is sustainable so it can be replicated without damage to the brand, its customers and its future and finally it makes money for the business and enhances shareholder value.  

Don’t be led by people who over promise to grow your business, especially if they come from outside your sector or culture. If they don’t understand the sector and your market, they don’t understand good growth. 

Richard Gourlay, experienced management consultant, leadership development and strategic advisor, director and NED to high growth companies. Author of book:- Strategy: The Leader’s Role by Richard Gourlay builds the skills which makes leaders successful in their business. #cowden #mentor, #mentoringleaders, #leadershipskills, #NED, #Director.

What Makes A Good Business Mentor?

Business mentoring supports people at all levels of a business. It used to be seen as supporting people in need or going through dramatic transition, but is now recognised as a key support element in people development throughout progressive companies. Business leaders benefit from mentoring programmes in a number of ways, as do the company's they work for. 

key benefits from mentoring include:

• Confident motivated leaders

• Reduced churn of senior staff

• Higher employee engagement 

• Succession planning  

• Increased productivity  

 

Being mentor is about more than just having some experience in the field, although that helps, as does being genuinely interested in the people and the challenges they are facing today and likely to face in the future within their role. 

Mentors have to bring more than just experience and know-how, they need to have energy and be able to transfer that energy and enthusiasm to their mentees.  Mentoring requires a positive attitude to enable mentees to grow and develop faster than they would organically in their role. 

Mentoring Value

Mentoring adds value to companies through a whole range of added value reasons, often unseen on the profit and loss account, but scoring highly on the balance sheet. The above list of key benefits is a good place to start with do not show up on a P&L spreadsheet, but do when you look deeper at the balance sheet. 

Confident leaders are essential in business today. People who make the right, often tough calls at the right time on where and when a business should be going. Likewise reducing staff churn, and especially senior staff churn is vital for a business to be able to succeed, with replacement times and costs impacting upon corporate capability. That itself links directly to levels of staff engagement, for example high churn reduces confidence and engagement levels as rapid unplanned change unsettles entire working environments and ecosystems with customs and suppliers. That also connects a direct link which uncertainty brings to the lack of planned succession planning and its impact on increased people churn also damages productivity as well as purpose and accountability.  

This cascade effect impacts upon a company's culture. For many leaders and senior people within a company todays' workplace can be an isolated one. Work from home, delayering, global disparate teams where connection is via email, text, business call or online meeting and the odd and infrequent face to face meeting leaves many senior people emotionally alone. Mental health and team culture are an important element for leaders to be engaged with people.   

Mentoring Supports Positive Growth Mindsets

Mentors provide several great assets to a company, one of the least appreciated is the outside view. That is the non aligned, impartial neutral viewpoint. This provides the rationale voice to someone who is being mentored, removing or at least balancing up internal company or personal biases which might exist in the decision making process.  

When leaders look for growth, often it is through an internal prism which is not reflective of reality. The external mentor should be able to provide insight, balance and motivation to the individual as to how they can grow as a leader within their business. 

Good mentors should look to deliver a positive mindset in supporting their mentees grow and develop. Being realistic with them on timescale by setting horizon goals rather than sprint finishes.  

 

People grow over time, so good mentors develop a clear understanding of how to support that growth and supporting it into new areas, enabling mentees to succeed outside their comfort zone by taking on new challenges, developing new skills with enthusiastic and measured support of a good mentor.  

Creating a 'can do' attitude encourages mentees to develop the complete set of skills rather than just reenforcing their existing skill base. That enthusiasm is about developing and supporting people with a purposeful plan of support.  

Mentors must be able to communicate clearly 

Good mentors are real listeners, not only listing for what is being said but also what is not being said. Growth of people requires mentors to focus on the whole picture not just the good bits. Learning from failure is an essential part of knowledge transfer, so good mentors don't brush that under the carpet.

Leading mentees to the answer is where they learn, but that only happens when mentors are good listeners. If all they do is regale stories of their successes or agree with their mentees, they maybe great people to have beer with but are they going to grow their mentee into an even more successful leader? Good mentoring is all about listening, qualifying and then leading their mentees to the answers they need.

It's not about telling or selling, but about supporting leaders learning. The best mentors can break complex situations down into simple decisions, pulling out the critical from the noise and irrelevant, helping mentees learn how to distill situations down through objective analysis so that hey discover the solutions by themselves. For experienced business people to mentor it is always too easy just to give them the answer but without the learning their is no lasting value in just the answer if they have not learnt how to achieve that outcome themselves.

Honest is at the Heart of Good Mentoring

It's easy to be nice, but better to be honest with people.  Even when it is phrased in a positive sandwich, good, could have done better, but that part was good. Good mentors should not be trying to be popular, they should be shaping their mentees understanding of what is good and what is not. 

When a mentee makes a mistake, a good mentee will draw out the thinking process and the decision making rationale and identify the consequences, while the average mentor will want to draw a veil over the topic as quick as possible and move on. But there is no learning in moving on. The learning comes form the self assessment, not being told, but the self analysis of the whole process not just the outcome. It is the thinking process that the mentee went through which they need to review if they are going to learn and not just repeat (or avoid) the situation next time.  

Good mentors ask good questions, not just he obvious ones. They get to know their mentees and and get them thinking outside their usual thought process patterns and challenging them to look at themselves and others through different lenses.

Mentoring Shapes Leaders

Good mentors bring their skills and knowledge to the table. They share insights and do background research on their mentees. They are there to share and shape the mentee through positive engagement, providing a sounding board and a springboard for the mentee. Somewhere the mentee is safe to discuss key issues them without judgement and who they can develop a positive relationship with that grows the mentee successfully.

For a mentor making a difference to how someone approaches and deals with their workplace issues is the outcome from their work, developing a new approach, or a different viewpoint moves a mentee into a new place which they would not have got to without the mentor.  

Good Mentoring 

Good mentoring grows people to succeed. I hope this article shows you what and how good mentoring delivers to people, the mentees and to the business who supports and champions mentoring ship within the company. Like to know more about mentoring by Richard Gourlay then get in touch for an informal first discussion: Richard Gourlay 

What is a Good Leader?

When people talk about leadership they are often talking about the title or the personality of a leader. But real leadership is about a set of behaviours which we see and value in others, and can exhibit ourselves.  Real leaders lead not because of their title, but because of the authority they develop in others.  So, what is a good leader in business today? 

Lead Yourself to Lead Others

Leaders today are selected not from the oldest or those ‘in favour’, but from those whose behaviours reflect the values the business believes in. Successful leaders exhibit their leadership traits through their behaviours and actions which people chose to follow. These behaviours are seen as a set of value-based leadership skills. True leadership is therefore earned authority from your peers. 

What people stand for and how they behave therefore matters in assessing people’s leadership skills. 

Doing the right thing even when no-one is looking, is an excellent first place to start when looking at a leader living their values. How you lead yourself is the first and most valuable assessment any leader can make.  If you cannot lead yourself, how can you lead others?  

How you lead others therefore often starts by looking at how you lead yourself, with self-reflection. Do you as a leader look to find multiple viewpoints from across the organisation, or do you bunker-down with a few trusted voices?  Bringing in balance and inclusion is the most successful way to gain a complete understanding of potential outcomes of any critical decisions. It is also the most effective way to carry people with you as a leader, especially in today’s flat, diverse and skill centred organisations.  

Confidence and Humility 

Demonstrating your self-confidence in your abilities while simultaneously recognising and confronting your limitations through mentoring and coaching in developing those additional needed skills as well as counterbalancing them through a balanced team skillset is also vital for successful leadership. Leaders must be seen as human and recognise what being human means in their leadership.

This humility factor in acknowledging the whole team contribution in everything you do, is seen as a vital leadership skill in todays’ workplace.  Leaders who genuinely value their team create a positive team culture build stronger organisations, which both trust and enable people to dream, do and become more. In cultures such as these the leader becomes invisible as the culture becomes the defining driver of success. 

Successful Leaders Create Leaders

Successful leaders develop people who follow them, not obey them. In many of the most successful cultures leaders want people to challenge them as this makes decision making more robust and sustainable.  Inside positive leadership cultures there are often many leaders, leaders are trusted and respected, and often sit in various roles within the organisation.  

Leaders must also create collaboration and cohesion within their team to build in all the skills the leader will need to succeed within their role. Finding and pulling together the right group of people to create a winning team requires creating a common vision of where they are going that brings together the 3C’s of cohesion co-operation and ultimately collaboration.  

The process of collaboration maturity recognises the need of co-ordination of disparate people who must co-operate for mutual benefit and then will actively collaborate to achieve a shared outcome they could not achieve without each other. Collaboration maturity occurs as the team embeds this relationship into a single operation respecting and valuing each elements valuable contribution.

 

Leadership Model

 

Strategic Responsibility

Ultimately leaders are responsible for everything that happens within a company.  They are solely responsible for setting the direction, the strategy, and the prevailing culture within the organisation. That ultimate responsibility leaders must develop and own. They may take advice but they cannot look elsewhere for responsibility for the strategic decision making.   

 

Leadership Behaviours 

Leadership is a set of personal attributes which inspire others to behave. While leaders need to remember their humility, they do also need to adapt their leadership style to respond (or drive) situations. Leadership styles must also adapt to whom they are leading. Different people respond to different situations.  The idea that one style of leadership will work in all situations, is not true. 

Leaders also need to flex their leadership style based upon situations. While the humble leader is the ideal, it will not work with all people in all situations. So, leaders need to be able to create and deliver influence across all their spheres of influence. Leaders must adapt their leadership style both to influence diverse audiences but also to deal with the situations they face. 

Situational leadership is as much an art as a science. Predicting and reading situations is a learnt skill which leaders need to develop over time and through situations. Either through shadowing roles or through scenario planning being able to stay objective and understand what situational leadership skill you need to deploy to achieve the required outcome takes time to learn.   While each leader has their natural style they must also be able to adapt to motivate different types of people and different situations, moving from reflective / humble leadership styles to directional and pacesetting when needed.

Leading People 

Creating and leading teams of people takes time and effort. Team building was often seen as the occasional activity to bonding, recognising, and rewarding.  Today team development is on ongoing exercise, not the once-a-year review, but a continual mentoring approach supporting people develop and evolve into their role and through their role as it evolves over time. 

What used to be called Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing function of team building has been replaced by the view of continual team development. It is a supportive process that supports everyone as individuals, small cohorts as well as whole units to excel within their environment. Leaders today must now focus on barrier removal and building resilience within their people and teams to enable them to achieve their goals. 

The focus today for leaders is on outcomes not outputs. It’s easy to be busy, but to achieve planned and desired outcomes as bottom-line results teams require leaders they can trust, who are accountable, provide commitment and remove conflict. 

 

Successful Leadership 

Leadership is like any skillset, it can be learnt and developed. It is best developed within the culture of the organisation within which that leader will emerge as a leader within. But it does not have to, and often bringing skills learnt elsewhere is a great way to develop new leadership skills within an organisation. Becoming a leader should not be the end of someone’s development, but the start of their leadership development. 

If you would like to know more about how we help leaders lead, then get in contact with us here Richard@cowden   

 

The Skills Needed In Being a Company Director 

The Skills Needed In Being a Company Director

Having director in your job title is highly desired, but few people thing about what it really means. Apart from the legal responsibilities and added pressure of running a business, it is also a difficult role, often with little or no training or support. Suddenly you are in charge of everything, where the buck really stops, and everything you do is observed, judged and analysed. The decisions you make dramatically effect the whole business, and often or not not making a decision has the biggest impact upon the success of otherwise of a business.     

Directors have many roles to take on board, from leading the whole operation, the big picture of where the business is going, through to working with other senior people and ultimately taking ownership of achieving results. Directors are also responsible for taking charge of staff, developing and implementing succession planning and being seen as the public face of the company, directing is an all encompassing role requiring new skills to ensure success.            

Directors are ultimately responsible for all elements the business, not just the bit you like and know well. Being a director is about owning the whole operation. 

Director 100 Day Challenge 

Directors and owners of business are also responsible for taking ownership of where the business is going. This often overlooked role is vital, the 100 day challenge often determines success in publicly quoted companies (FTSE 100+) but is true in virtually every company. The director 100 day challenge is where a new leader has their business honeymoon. But it is not the time they get to settle in but the time they get to come up with the future of their department, their team and ultimately the business.

This is the window of opportunity directors and new senior people get to start to lay down where they are going and to turn their promise into a tangible vision of where they are going to take the their division or business during their tenure.  During this small window they have to connect and built their leadership team, secure existing roles and outcomes, meet the stakeholders to reassure and listen to them, as well as start to formulate where they are going. 

That window of 100 days is given to them to allow them the space to take ownership of the role. It allows leaders to get their feet under the table, assess what is really going on and who is whom within their organisation before making any real changes. The need for change has already been explained to them, that's why they are there, but what, how and when is left up to the new leader to assess and implement.  

Directing is a Difficult Job

Directing is a difficult Job, rarely supported or understood. It is very different from being a manager, yet the most common people promoted up to direct companies are good managers. Yet the roles are very different, directors create and direct the plan, managers manage the delivery of the plan.  

The key questions every director needs to answer and keep asking and answering are: 

1. Where are we going?
2. Why? and finally 
3. What is my plan to get us there?    

For every business, for every department having a well thought out detailed and deliverable vision is the single biggest role anybody in a leadership position must have and be able to create and deliver effectively. Knowing where you are going is the key role people look at leaders to deliver.   

For a director it is about making change happen to deliver tomorrow's results.  Directors must lead the organisation of where they are going. That means making tough decisions about what to focus on, who is going to do what, or even stay in the organisation should that be needed. Some decisions are therefore tough job in making change happen.

Director's Vision 

If a director has no vision for their business, how are they and the people they lead going to find their way?

Determining the direction of a business with a clear vision is down to the director to achieve developing and being able to communicate and convince people of where and why they are going in that direction. people like Steve Jobs developed his clear vision of the future in the same way as Graham Honeyman who turned Sheffield Forgemasters around in 6 months from a loss making business into one the world's finest high-value steel makers and went on to grow it through his clear vision and leadership. 

  

It is difficult to lead successfully with a clear vision, supported by a demonstrable plan to turn its into reality, fail to plan and you are left with a dream of what might have been. Fundamentally it is up to leaders to make things happen and lead from the front towards that goal.  

"If you don’t make things happen, things will happen to you". Lanes Company

For Directors Standing Still is NOT an Option

If anything happens it is you who is being viewed as to your response, assessed and judged. A do nothing approach to the directing role is seen as abdication, while the Don't Panic Carry On approach leaves everyone wondering what your role is. 

In every sector of every business the only certainty is CHANGE. Are you at the forefront of that change or follow that change, but you cannot ignore it. Someone, the person in charge, has to move that business forward.       

"Every time we've moved ahead in IBM, it was because someone was willing to take a chance, put his head on the block and try something new."

Thomas J. Watson, executive

To make change happen, you need to plan it out and engage with everyone so they know not only what they are doing differently and how, but most importantly of all why. 

Why standing BACK is vital for Director Success

To go forward successfully then firstly step back and give yourself some space and time to  see the big picture of where your markets are going and where you want to take your business. You need to remove yourself from the fighting in the trenches role of day-to-day business so you can start to evaluate where you want your business to go. 

Use appropriate planning tools to assess your position, your options and the opportunities available to the business. If you need to know more about planning tools, then drop us a line (click here) and we will be delighted to discuss your needs.  

Good planning does not only see what's in front of you but also sees beyond the horizon of where your markets and industry are going, so you can start to see the foreseeable future, with various degrees of confidence. Turning dreams into reality, from Steve Jobs to Graham Honeyman you have to have a dream and create a workable plan to turn it into the reality you can deliver.

"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable."

-- Christopher Reeve, Actor

Looking to learn how to take the guess work out of your business success? Then get in touch to discuss your development programme, click here: www.cowden.com 

Directors role documents from Business link 

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