Any self-respecting person in management should be familiar with common terms like accountability, responsibility, risk and governance. However how deep does that familiarity go? Have they a deep understanding, working knowledge and practical experience (painful or otherwise) or have they just read it in a book.
We can’t escape the reality that the Coronavirus pandemic has exposed the frailties of most organisations across the globe. Many of those can be traced to the poor quality of leadership. Indeed, some famous names on the high street have paid the ultimate price and have disappeared from sight because of ignoring or slowly reacting to customer behaviour. When your income is totally dependent on customers, where was the risk analysis? Where was leadership?
Their solution, if they were being thorough, forensic and honest would be to build a complete risk matrix for each failure, or if still surviving, they need to clearly identify and fix the fundamental flaws. However, that’s for them and the existing management or insolvency teams if lessons are to be learned and shareholders and stakeholders are to be respected. In my career I’ve done this many times but obviously for real benefit you do this as part of a project risk programme or preferably before any new project starts.
Enough of today’s leadership. What about tomorrow’s?
Today’s Education System
Tomorrow’s leaders are simply the students of today, whether they are at school, college or university. There’s no doubt that education works, otherwise why would governments provide it for “free”? But what are we teaching in education? Maths, English, Languages and Sciences are all useful groundwork but we don’t study Risk, Leadership or even Communication in the education system. In fact, the question I ask - and it’s because the business community wants to know – is “What’s the purpose of education?”
We seem to be developing a supply chain of young people that are focused on passing exams, but lack the interpersonal soft skills and the right work ethic (attitude).
Leaders are made not born
The nature v nurture debate is still ongoing but we do have general agreement in HR that you can develop leadership qualities irrespective of birthplace. In fact, some recruitment campaigns use this in their advertising when they engage with you and they want to entertain your thinking brain. (“I was born in Sunderland, but made in the Royal Navy.”) Did that make you think?
That was just to make the point that leaders are made. Let’s face it the $billions spent annually on leadership needs to show some improvement or why do it? Right?
Solving tomorrow’s problem
Like it or not, today’s education systems are deficient in building tomorrow’s leaders. That may be hard to take, but check for yourself and google what the CBI, Chambers of Commerce, FSB and other respected and well represented business bodies have been saying for years.
So, unless you delve deeper and wider, we are back to the status quo being today’s organisations, or more specifically today’s management, are left to build tomorrow’s leaders.
I always ask CEOs this question: “You believe in giving people a second chance so if you had two bad meals in a restaurant, would you make a third reservation if the management hadn’t changed?” Not surprisingly they all say, emphatically, “NO! I won’t take the risk” .
If you believe in mitigating risks and building tomorrow’s leaders that are better than today’s, there’s always an option if you think outside your box. But one thing I believe we can’t afford to do as the cost is too high a price to pay, and that’s leave it to chance.
The choice is yours. Do nothing or take action.
What’s your choice?
Neville Gaunt has had a long career as a finance professional in FTSE 250 companies, at both strategic and operational levels. His international corporate and commercial finance background is gained over 30 years in international businesses mainly in the oil and gas industry, dealing with large and small businesses and complex supply chains. He has an accomplished track record of negotiating the business maze of short and long term commercial, political and environmental forces that influence all decisions.