In an age when directors are supposed to “hit the ground running” it is no surprise that directors are under increased pressure to know all the answers. Our business culture is more driven by directors’ results than ever before. 

Nigel Bishop, director of BrainXchange, argues that business needs to look again at offering the support and assistance directors require.

Sometimes asking for help in a business setting is seen as being weak or not knowing your job as well as you should. Yet, the problems that confront director-level staff are far from straightforward. 

The sensitivity and confidential nature of issues director-level staff deal with mean that they regularly solve problems alone. Is this the best way to help directors achieve the results every business expects?

In a recent meeting of BrainXchange, a highly intelligent, resourceful and successful operations director explained a problem at work that was putting him under considerable pressure. 

He is a operations director in a large scale electronics company. He has worked conscientiously for a number of years in the company. He has never received any complaints of note about his work and being still in his thirties he has ambitions and the capability of fulfilling his aims.

A little while ago the chief executive officer decided for good reasons to create a new division in the company. Running the division would be no small job, but choosing a managing director it transpired would be. 

The role would need the talents of a man with knowledge of the industry, one that understood the company and one that had the talent to perform the role to a high standard. The operations director ticked every box.

However, it was not as simple as that; the situation was loaded with some dangerous possibilities. There was a rival for the job in the form of an established sales director in the company. 

Moreover, the chief executive officer had decided that a difficult decision is less difficult to make if you choose not to make it at all. Instead of being up front about the situation he had decided to simply let the two candidates fight it out.

As our operations director explained the situation the case became more complex.  The chief executive officer had not given any guidance on selection procedures nor had he been open about the situation with both candidates. 

What would happen to the loser in this managerial contest? Could the winner and loser work together after the appointment was made or would one have to leave the company? Was the chief executive officer looking for an external candidate and both internal candidates did not have a chance anyway?

Our fellow member did not only have to cope with the very real pressures of his current role but he had the added stress of the saga as it was unfolding. 

What is more he felt compelled to do extra work and take on further responsibilities as the stakes were being upped for the role and the candidates jockeyed for position. And this is against the background of his first priority – looking after his young family.

Take director training seriously

It is not an unusual case – one of my fellow directors had been through the exact same situation.  In his case he won the role but he had to tell his opponent that he had not won the job and then had to try and work with him. The losing candidate left the company within six months. So careers are at stake.

The point is that directors and indeed many professional people are not viewed as people with strengths and weaknesses. Realistic views of our human frailties and strengths, our knowledge and limits, often bare partial relation to our businesses’ expectations on our actual ability to do the role unaided from the offset.

In our culture you are expected to know everything. Are you trained, mentored or inducted properly when taking a key career-changing role? Often not, even though the company views the role as crucial to their progress as well as yours. The wishful thinking brief is to hit the ground running.

Training can be seen as peripheral to the success of the role. An employee has to pressure the boss for inclusion on a course rather than being asked what courses would help him or her to perform their role more effectively. 

For many businesses training is seen as a costly diversion. Another of those management speak phrases comes to the fore – “hands-on training”. Another term for evading a real issue, but one we accept with a whine and nothing more.

I have been a management consultant for many years. I have had to rely on my mettle. And through my hard work and business brain have built up enterprises. I can show impressive returns - tangible results in terms of turnover and profit. 

We have to move away from some fundamental and ingrained views we hold on business mentoring and support for our senior professionals. We need to match business needs with appropriate courses. 

We must recognise that many senior staff need advice and support that cannot often be sought in their organisations because of the sensitivity and confidentiality of the issues before them. We also need to give lifelong learning the respect this much-banded about term really deserves.

And so back to the story

The operations director explained his problem to the other members, all directors.  I believe in some ways he knew the answer to the problem but the reassurance of his peers helped clarify his position.

•    A plan was drawn up with the following recommendations given by the fellow directors:

•    The chief executive to be pressed to be open and honest about his views and his method of selection.

•    Chief executive to confront the situation rather than avoid it.

•    Competing directors to communicate their plans and objectives 

•    Establish some rules to avoid nasty situations. Directors to offer each other backing whoever wins the role

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By Nigel Bishop  on   Jul 07,2008

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Keywords

director training    management consultancy    leadership   

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