The business development journey for B2B leaders

By Adrienne McLean MIML

 

Understanding the business building journey is vital for B2B leaders whether they are the business owner or involved in sales and marketing. The more the whole process is understood, the better it is for everyone involved in helping the business grow.

However, there can be quite a perspective gap between the marketing team and the sales team. Primarily because marketing sees the process in a different way to the sales team. When understanding the business development process and their part to play, the truth is that they are closely dependent on each other. In fact, they are interdependent on each other for making the sale happen.

The three most significant, umbrella parts to understand about the process are:

 

1. Setting the stage

Marketing sets the stage for the business. The truth is that the marketing doesn’t get the clients, it is what happens next that books the business. The marketing defines how to introduce products, creates visibility and awareness of the products and importantly keeps the product front of mind for when prospects are ready to buy.

The role of marketing is to build a strong foundation for the identity of the product, the brand and the connection between the brand and the target market. Clearly detailing the problems that the target market will be facing and then detailing the solutions and the benefits that the product brings.

Marketing is an overriding title to cover:

  1. Lead generation
  2. Setting a fundamental understanding of products and services
  3. How the business builds trust and credibility
  4. How the business stays “front of mind”
  5. Define the channels to distribute messages
  6. Define the strategies to raise awareness of the business

 

2. Building credibility

This is an often-overlooked section when it comes to building the business. Professionals must remember that the right mindset has a major part to play in creating strategy and seeing the bigger picture. How open minded are you to change? How ambitious are you with thinking through bold plans for growth? How confident are you to action those plans? These are leadership and management skills can influence business success.

Because personal selling is about mindset and personal promotion, it can be uncomfortable for some. Service professionals are excellent at selling their product, but when it comes to promoting themselves, it’s another matter.

Skills like presenting, speaking to groups, communicating, speaking to camera and creating video, speaking on radio, creating podcasts, speaking with clients and prospects on the phone – all these have an impact when it comes to connecting and promoting yourself and your brand or organisation.

For leaders, developing these skills in for both themselves and their staff will help the business grow. These skills are learnt skills and building their employee’s confidence in these skills will deliver huge benefits. Developing communication and leadership skills empowers individuals, giving them life skills and building their confidence.

 

3. Closing the sale

Now, this is the stage of the business development process where the sales team takes the prospect from the building of trust and credibility to closing the sale. The marketing team has set the stage then hands over the prospect to the sales team to get the sale over the line.

To do this, the sales team will need to find out:

  • What are the problems they are experiencing?
  • What are their desired outcomes?
  • What products or services can the business offer to help them?

 

Only when the sales team can respond positively to these questions do they stand a chance of getting the prospect sold. This will require regular communication to ascertain whether your organisation can provide the suitable solution.
In the B2B business world, the sales team coordinate with marketing who hold a list of prospects in the pipeline. By presenting a credible persona and connecting with the prospects, the sales team could get the sale across the line.

Ideally, for the business development system to work, the marketing and sales teams are integrated working together to build the business. For B2B business leaders, building the connections with the marketing and sales teams is ideal for a coordinated approach with the vision focused on growing the business.

Adrienne McLean MIML is the founder and principal marketing and speaking coach for The Speaker’s Practice – which runs workshops, coaching and events that help professionals to improve their marketing and communications.

IML ANZ Members in Sydney are invited to join Adrienne at the Professional Services Marketing Conference on August 17th, 2019. This information conference takes delegates on the business development journey starting with marketing and digital marketing, going through to sales topics with mindset topics covered throughout the day. IML ANZ Members who book by July 17th enjoy a 15% discount when they use the code IMLEB. To book or find out more, visit www.professional-services-marketing-conference.com.

Champions of Change

By Anthony O’Brien

Our leadership community is privileged to have two leaders who exemplify excellence and integrity and who encourage the highest ethical standards: noted humanitarian Professor Shirley Randell AO FIML and Dr Donna Odegaard AM, CEO of Aboriginal Broadcasting Australia. They share some inspiring leadership insights with Leadership Matters.

Dr Donna Odegaard AMTHEIR LONG ROADS TO LEADERSHIP

A long-time public servant including stints in the Department of the Prime Minister and the Public Service Commission, Randell was one of Australia’s 100 Inaugural Women of Influence in 2012. She is also a big supporter of International Women’s Day, which is fast approaching on 8 March. Prior to her public service, Randell taught Aboriginal children in remote schools in Western Australia before moving to Papua New Guinea to lecture at teachers’ colleges operated by the Uniting Church.

After her first retirement, Randell owned and operated consultancy businesses in Sydney, Rwanda, and Vanuatu. She also worked in a consulting role in Bangladesh in 2004–5 and 2014–15.

Darwin-based Odegaard is the founder and CEO of Darwin-based Aboriginal Broadcasting Australia, which is seeking to establish free-to-air television operations in every capital city. Currently, her unique television licences are regulated to broadcast nationally. As a result, the busy Odegaard is collecting frequent flyer miles taking her vision for her businesses to boardrooms across Australia.

It’s an impressive result for Odegaard who started her business career selling handmade clothes to support her family. She is recognised as one of Darwin’s most respected businesswomen and has strong views on what it takes to be a leader and manager today. Odegaard also has robust opinions about how business leadership has changed for women since the 1970s. She explains, “I’ve seen some massive changes in the past 30 years for women leaders, especially Indigenous women. We were breaking some ground in the 1970s but mostly in the areas of activism, politics, education and the arts.

“Today, young women are trailblazing in areas such as business, economics or they are entrepreneurial and are looking at global markets.”

Professor Shirley Randell AOWOMEN HAVE COME A LONG WAY

There were very few women in leadership roles when Randell joined the Commonwealth workforce in the mid-1960s. “I’m pleased to see that we now have many more women leaders,” says Randell who cites former Victorian Premier Joan Kirner and philosopher Jean Blackburn as inspirational female leaders.

“There’s more individual support for women today from other women, and we have more men who are fighting for women’s rights. In regard to whether we are better off, of course, we are.”

However, there is no reason for complacency, counselled Randell, “because, in reality, for example, we’re still a tiny percentage of engineers, surgeons, and parliamentarians in the Liberal/National party coalition.”

Odegaard, who earned her PhD from NSW’s University of Newcastle, agrees and even as recently as the early 2000s discovered there were still gender roadblocks for female entrepreneurs. “I very carefully ventured into the media and had a lot of pushback from males in the industry. But I just kept quietly chipping away to try and get more of a voice not just for women but for Indigenous people.”

Randell warns that when female leaders earn some successes, there can be a backlash. “When countries, for example, are taken over by fundamentalism, which we are now seeing, women’s rights are one of the first things to go.”

MEN’S VIEWS ARE CHANGING TOO

With a working résumé stretching over 60 years, Randell says she took her first significant leadership role in 1984 when she was appointed Director of Programs ACT Schools Authority in Canberra. She then honed her management skills when she was named CEO of the Council of Adult Education, in Melbourne from 1991–94. In this challenging role, Randell was responsible for 1,000 teachers and 50,000 students. When she first retired in 1996, she was CEO of the City of Whitehorse, the second-largest city in Victoria.

Men’s view of leadership had to change too over the past 30–40 years to help open doors for female leaders, opines Randell. “Quotas for women in leadership roles are important. Men had to change as well, and we’ve had these champions for change in Australia who are doing tremendous work in supporting women such as Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. Things are changing to help us achieve gender parity.”

Having more women on public and private sector boards is a must to promote gender diversity, argues Randell. “On those boards and in those executive suites where men are welcoming women, the fact that women are there is a considerable incentive to other people. However, in my opinion, quotas need to be there to achieve balanced leadership across the boards.

“We haven’t yet done this with business, but Elizabeth Proust who has just retired as Chair of the Australian Institute of Company Directors has been talking publicly about the importance of targets if we want to change the position of women on business boards.”

Randell recognises the success of diversity targets in the European Union and the United Kingdom to illustrate the effectiveness of getting more women and minorities onto boards. “We need to do the same in Australia. However, for this to be effectual, you need men welcoming women.”

ADVICE FOR YOUNG LEADERS

Randell advises young leaders to pursue the routine actions involved in climbing the leadership ladder such as:

  • Working hard
  • Completing academic qualifications
  • Getting published
  • Attending conferences

She adds, “When you make mistakes you don’t stop.

“I’m a great believer that in every setback there’s an opportunity. That’s happened to me. I’ve had disappointments in my career, but there’s always a silver lining. In every loss, there’s always an opportunity.”

Odegaard advises aspiring women leaders to harness the power of social media. “Through social media women can connect to other support groups, and to networks such as IML ANZ.

“Those of us who were doing business in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s were doing it basically on the smell of an oily rag. We were doing it out of our homes, we were poor, but we had a lot of creativity, but back then we didn’t connect as a community of women because we just didn’t do that. You couldn’t even think about doing things like that.”

The roles of women in business are changing, continues Odegaard, who is confident the younger brigade “are strong, confident and are sort of quietly changing things”. The television executive is fond of asking young aspiring female leaders, “What do you want to do?”

“If they have dreams and aspirations, I advise young leaders to stick close to good people and networks such as IML ANZ.

“The Institute can also provide valuable mentoring services, and certainly good advice and experience. Get as much out of it as you possibly can.”

Resilient Porters seizes its opportunity

By Lachlan Colquhoun

 

If only he could know it, Charles Porter would be delighted that a sixth generation of his family is now working in the hardware stores which bear his name in Mackay.

Porter’s business was born of necessity and then opportunity. He arrived in the North Queensland town in the early 1880s to build a hotel and found there were virtually no building products available.

So he transported what he needed from Europe, Brisbane and Sydney by boat, and once the hotel was built he stayed behind and founded the Porter’s hardware supply business.

135 years later, Porters Hardware and Building Supplies is a fixture in Mackay but despite its longevity and strong local roots, it hasn’t always been easy for the business to thrive.

 

A BOOMING SECTOR

In fact, as Managing Director Gavan Porter (Senior) Corporate member of IML ANZ puts it, the business is only now coming out of a “perfect storm” of a volatile boom and bust cycle which severely tested its resilience.

“We’ve been through two World Wars, the Great Depression and credit squeezes, but the past four years we had a big contraction with the resource sector downturn. It was brutal,” says Gavan (Senior).

“Most of the contractions have historically been 12 to 18 months. This one went on for four years.”

However, back in the early 2000s Mackay was growing rapidly as a service centre for the resources industry. Multinational companies set up business in the city for the first time and the population increased sharply.

It created a building boom that was good news for the Porter business, where trade comprises 80% of turnover, including the company’s manufacturing divisions, which fabricate aluminium and glass products as well as roof trusses and wall frames.

The boom in Mackay also attracted the attention of bigger national hardware players. Woolworths’ failed Masters chain opened up a store, and market leader Bunnings added a second Mackay store in response.

Porters were also not the only independent operator. They had for decades been in competition with another Mackay family, the Woodmans, who had allied themselves with the Mitre 10 buying and marketing group and had a strong retail and trade presence.

“We went from one ‘big box’ store operated by Bunnings to three in total including Masters, and Woodmans had the advantage of being part of Mitre 10 with their resources,” says Gavan Porter (Junior) CMgr AFIML, who is the company’s CFO.

“There might have been room for everyone during this extraordinary growth period, but then the downturn hit.”

 

SURVIVING THE DOWNTURN

As the economy ground to a halt, the mines made employment cuts and 9,000 jobs were lost across the resources sector supply chain.

With people now leaving Mackay to find work elsewhere, new home building approvals slumped by 90%.

“This was all very new to us, because Mackay had always been a steady growth sugar and coal town,” says Gavan (Senior).

“But after all that growth, the market collapsed, and Mackay collapsed with it. It went off a cliff.”

For the first time, Porters was forced to downsize and initiate staff redundancies; a difficult process for a company where the family ethos often extended to employees.

Out of the downturn, however, an opportunity presented itself.

 

ENDING THE FAMILY FEUD

“With our external advisors we created a strategic plan in 2015 and one of the parts of that was the option of regional consolidation,” says Gavan (Junior).

“In the downturn it was clear that there were too many players in the market and the only way to survive was consolidation.”

A conversation was “struck up” with the Woodman family about a “way forward” for both family businesses, and an amicable deal was made for the Woodmans to exit the hardware supply market in Mackay and sell their retail stores to the Porters.

“It was great for two such staunch independent competitors, who had been competing in the same market against each other for decades, to come to an agreement,” says Gavan (Senior).

“It was clear that the market was very tough and there had to be an exit of one of us and they agreed to exit.”

The deal worked for both companies, and families.

The Woodmans kept other manufacturing businesses in Mackay such as aluminium and glass fabrication, roofing, and roof truss and wall frame manufacturing, where they still compete with the Porters.

That deal gave the Porters a network of stores that spanned not only Mackay and its surrounds but also extended to the Whitsunday region.

The acquisition gave Porters more stores and removed a longstanding competitor, but also introduced them to a new, and powerful, partner in the Mitre 10 group. A new licensing agreement was reached, and the company now trades as Porter’s Mitre 10.

“Mitre 10 was also a good move for us,” says Gavan (Senior). “They are a strong buying group and we needed to buy better to compete against bigger players.”

 

STRIKING UP A GOOD PARTNERSHIP

Just as timing played a role in the severity of the downturn, so it worked in the Porter’s favour in terms of Mitre 10’s own competitive position.

With the demise of Masters, Woolworths also put its wholesale hardware distribution business up for sale, and it was purchased by Mitre 10.

The move transformed the national market and made Mitre 10 Australia’s second biggest player in the hardware sector next to Bunnings.

Such was the timing that Porters went from being an independent player in an overcrowded market to being a strong second placed rival to Bunnings, with the advantage of being able to leverage Mitre 10’s brand name, buying power and marketing.

“They are the strongest partner you can have if you are an independent owner,” says Gavan (Senior). “We have always been strong in trade, but Mitre 10 is a powerhouse brand which has helped us continue to reach a retail target audience.

“And going forward we are able to use some of their benchmarking capabilities to understand where we are compared with our peers, and we’ve already been out to have a look at some of the bigger stores in the group, and this is something they encourage.”

Eight months after the deal, the acquisition is still being bedded down just as the market conditions are showing signs of improvement.

To prepare for the expansion, the Porters created an implementation plan across eight different areas of the business, from facilities management to IT and HR. Focus groups of employees, the number of which has increased by 25% to 250 across the group, were held to review and reset the firm’s culture.

The result has been the definition of five key criteria which will be ingredients of the culture moving forward: focusing on performance delivery, being driven by customer outcomes, valuing relationships, keeping everyone safe, and having fun at work. “We’ve got a way to go but we believe we are on the right track,” says Gavan (Senior).

“We’ve broadened our base, increased our trade and retail presence, and expanded our geographic footprint.

“As the economy improves we believe this will give us a solid platform.”

 

BUSINESS WITH A FAMILY FLAVOUR

The resilience of the Porter’s business, says Gavan Porter (Senior), has come from the company’s financial and management discipline which has helped it adapt to change.

A key to this has been to adopt many public company structures and processes into the way things are done, including the longstanding addition of independent directors onto the company board.

“It was my father who initiated this when he was running the company,” says Gavan (Senior).

“He understood that it had to be about the business, and not the family, and for that we needed that outside and independent perspective.”

Gavan (Senior) has been a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors for many years, and many AICD practices are implemented at board level to create a structure and a discipline.

The company has a relationship with a firm of advisors, with extensive experience in larger family businesses, who played a significant role in creating the strategic plan which identified the consolidation opportunity and led to the Woodman’s acquisition.

“We have all the structures of a listed public company, but with a family flavour,” says Gavan (Senior).

The Porters joined the Institute of Managers and Leaders Australia and New Zealand in 1956, as they sought to keep up with changes and trends to incorporate into their business.

Gavan (Junior) has been on the local IML ANZ committee for the past five years and has pursued a qualification as a Chartered Manager. “Leadership and management is very important to me, and we have such a large staff now that I find it invaluable to share current ideas and thinking,” he says.

Kicking Goals On and Off the Field

By Lisa Calautti

 

Sport, community and professional life have always been intrinsically linked for Canberra-based Dixon Advisory associate director Genevieve Bond AFIML.

As the youngest of five children who all loved sport, some of Bond’s earliest memories were watching her siblings from the sidelines, inspiring her to have a go at most sports from a young age. As a teen she played touch footy at state level and as the famous adage goes – the rest is history. “I have just never stopped playing,” she says. “There is something about sport, it’s more than just the physical workout. It’s an opportunity to de-stress and provides a strong sense of community.”

Sport has played a significant role in Bond’s life, personally and professionally. “Most of my closest friends are those who I have met through sport, I even met my husband on the touch football field,” she says.

Professionally, experiences in sport have taught her several important life lessons – many of which have translated to the workplace. “Every person on the field has an important role to play,” she concludes. “And this absolutely relates to business, when everyone works together to achieve something, there’s a shared sense of knowing that your contribution matters.”

As if the demands of touch footy weren’t enough, Bond started playing Women’s AFL as part of Canberra club team, the Belconnen Magpies. For a long time, Bond balanced her career and love for sport; progressing professionally, playing in representative teams across both sports; and still managing to find time to volunteer across both codes. “It’s important to give back, it ensures longevity for these local clubs – who can then have a positive impact on the lives of others,” she says. Now a mum of three children, Bond has scaled back her sporting commitments, but continues to play social touch footy weekly.

It was Bond’s AFL connections that led her to becoming a member of the GIANT Hearts Canberra, a women’s business coterie linked to the GWS Giants. “It’s a group of senior women in business affiliated with the sport, and it allows us to share our love for the game and benefit from each other’s support and networks. It has formed the loveliest little community bringing women together from all disciplines; from public through to private,” Bond says.

The camaraderie between the women has been rewarding on both a personal and a professional level, helping Bond develop as a person and as a leader in her career.

“I think for me my sporting connections and experiences have been incredibly valuable from a professional perspective. I’m a strong believer that you as an individual are responsible for your development, so it’s important to do things in your own time that help you improve professionally and personally. That’s what I have always done through sport, through memberships such as IML ANZ and now through the GIANT Hearts.”

Genevieve will be speaking on the impact of financial wellness on individuals in the workplace. IML ANZ Members enjoy free entry to this event to be held in Canberra on Tuesday, 14th May. Book now to attend a Focusing on Financial Wellness session in Canberra, Sydney or Adelaide.

Harmony at Heart

By Lisa Calautti

 

Preventing heart disease and improving the heart health and quality of life of all Australians is at the core of the National Heart Foundation ACT’s mission. For its CEO Tony Stubbs, a vital element in ensuring this quest is a success depends on a united team of staff focused on this mission.

 

PEOPLE AND PROCESS

Stubbs, who has been at the helm of the foundation for a decade, manages a mixed team of 12 staff, comprising of part-time and full-time employees, as well as some volunteers and contractors. Respect for each team member is crucial to ensuring everyone works as a team, he says. “Regardless of whether they are a volunteer or a leader of a major project, it’s about listening to them and also empowering and supporting them,” Stubbs explains. “But generally giving people your respect and giving them the opportunity to grow and develop and do the best they can in the particular role they’ve been given is vital.”

That doesn’t mean that achieving team nirvana is easy for Stubbs. Quite simply, he explains it all comes back to process. It is remembering the foundation’s mission, key strategy areas and work plans so people can see how their role fits into the broader picture. Once this is set in motion, bringing all team members together to deliver a strategy is possible. “Once that’s at play, then people get on board and actually start to deliver in their programs as they are clear what they need to achieve,” he says. Once a collaborative effort is put in place, a sense of unity ensues, and a sense of accomplishment is achieved, he explains.

 

GUIDING MISSION

Keeping the foundation’s mission of reducing the impact of cardiovascular disease in the community at the fore of employees across all departments from finance, to marketing to health is vital. “Importantly, it’s about saying to them, ‘What are you doing to ensure you are working towards the mission?’” Stubbs says. “It’s also them being aware of the key strategies and what they are doing to link to the mission and support them to develop their work plans that are linked to these, so they can see what they are actually doing that ultimately goes towards achieving the mission but also the impact it has on individuals in the community.”

For Stubbs, good teamwork comes back to staff understanding how they fit into a ‘bigger team’. “Teams fall apart when there is a lack of clarity around what they are trying to achieve,” he believes. “It’s having that clear process around roles and responsibilities.” Regular performance reviews, staff meetings of all employees and frequent internal communications help foster and maintain a united workforce, Stubbs believes.

 

ONE NEW HEART

Educating the public about heart disease, its warning signs and the services available to those living with a heart condition, has helped inform the organisation’s new One Heart Strategy. “We all work in very different areas,” Stubbs notes. “For example, marketing and health program areas are different parts of the business that do different bits. But, if you allow them to go ahead and do their work alone, they’ll end up doing it solo.”

The key to achieving the strategy is ensuring all teams are working collaboratively together to develop the best possible product and be clear who is leading each process, Stubbs says.

 

PERSONAL CONNECTION

On a personal level, the values of the foundation strongly align with Stubbs. His aunt died of a heart attack on the doorstep of her GP’s practice and the effect her death had on his family was something that had a lasting impact. “She didn’t know the warning signs of a heart attack or that heart disease was an issue for women,” Stubbs says.

While the foundation’s work can be seasonal, with National Heart Week in April and May being a particularly busy period, 2019 has a steady program of events, where Stubbs concedes staff will be quite busy with little breaks between campaigns.

Major campaigns this year will include a ‘warning signs’ campaign and another targeted at people aged 45-plus to educate them about the importance of getting a heart risk assessment with their GP.

The impact the foundation’s programs has on the community, and the feel-good factor of helping others is a shared passion among the foundation’s team, says Stubbs. “In most jobs unfortunately, people get caught up in the day-to-day operations and forget what is at the heart of their work,”

Stubbs says. “For us, it’s really getting back to what are the key things we want to do to achieve our mission.”

Regularly reviewing projects and campaigns and seeing data on how many members of the wider public have benefited, in addition to hearing about specific case studies, is a rewarding aspect for all of the team. “We focus on impact not output, and it’s more about what impact our projects are having on the community,” Stubbs notes.

Why you need to re-engage demotivated employees

There’s no denying that motivation drives performance. So when employees lose their drive to succeed how can managers help them? More importantly, should managers try to salvage motivation?

Motivation is the force that leads to success. In fact without the willingness, persistence and mental effort that result from high-motivation, 60% of team projects fail. High-performance cannot be achieved without motivation.

Employees, however, lose this drive for various reasons. They may no longer feel positively challenged in their role or perhaps they are dealing with a difficult situation. They could also be feeling that they are not rewarded fairly for their work.

It’s therefore prudent for leaders to be supportive when good employees lose their motivation. You don’t want them to be demotivated to the point of leaving. IML ANZ’s National Salary Survey found that on average, it costs A$23,410 to replace staff who leave. Not to mention the invaluable cost of losing the knowledge and understanding those employees have of your organisation and customers.

What can managers do to re-engage demotivated employees? Here are some ways:

 

Reward for extrinsic motivation

This includes external or tangible rewards such as salary, benefits, the conditions of work and even the physical work environment.

Managers must be cautious not to assume that extrinsic motivation is the quick fix. There could be a number of factors that influence de-motivation. Instead, use extrinsic motivation as just one of the ways to re-engage your employee.

 

Support their intrinsic motivations

Here is an area where leadership skills can truly make an impact – boosting an employee’s intrinsic motivation. Unlike extrinsic motivation, this takes time, effort and commitment to build within employees.

An intrinsically motivated worker is one who feels confident in their capability, enjoys a healthy sense of challenge in their work feels appreciated by workmates and displays care and consideration for those around them.

There is also no silver bullet for boosting intrinsic motivation. Much will depend on ensuring that you value the achievements of employees in a fair and visible way. It also helps to work on communications skills so that you can be a source of reassurance for employees who may be waning in their motivation.

Middle managers: The key layer for influencing performance

You might have heard that between senior management and front-line employees there’s an idiomatic ‘30,000 ft drop’ – a gaping chasm of information, insight and inspiration lost between the two layers. However, middle managers exist within that space and are therefore in a key position to bridge the gap and influence performance.

It seems like a challenging place to be and research confirms that to be true. According to a study conducted among CMI members, 80% of middle managers recognise that they are important in building trust within the workplace but only 31% feel that those around them share that view.

 

Trust impacts performance

That’s a difficult fact to ignore considering trust influences performance. One study found that managerial activities can effectively improve performance, in particular, those of teams. To promote high team performance, managers, especially those directly in charge of teams, need to actively engage in fostering trust. This includes monitoring the level of trust in teams, managing team members’ perceptions of threat and initiating trust-building activities. All of which fall within the responsibility of middle managers.

 

Middle managers hold the key to unlocking trust

Research also identifies that the role middle managers take in strategic decision making put them in a key position to influence the rest of the organisation. These roles include:

  • Synthesising information. They have a unique view of the organisation that allows them to interpret and evaluate information in a way that senior management can’t.
  • Championing alternatives. This unique perspective means they are able to see alternative options and present these to upper management.
  • Facilitating adaptability. Being ‘on the ground’ and seeing first hand the challenges and obstacles that staff experience, middle managers are best placed to foster flexible organisational arrangements when it comes to executing the strategy.
  • Implementing strategy with intent. Middle managers are also best-placed to handle interventions that align organisational activities with the overall strategic intention.

 

Support middle managers to improve employee performance

What can organisations, senior leaders and managers themselves do to optimise the strategic role of middle managers?

  • Organisations can invest in developing middle managers in their leadership skills
  • Senior leaders can support middle managers through active involvement, coaching or mentoring. Keep them informed and display trust towards this layer of management.
  • Middle managers can proactively seek out ways to improve their influencing (upwards, downwards and laterally), communications and decision-making skills.

Sources (articles available to IML ANZ members via Leadership Direct):

Optimising performance while adapting to change

Change is the only constant in today’s business environment. Beyond companies merging and being acquired, there are system changes, team restructures and everything in between. As handling the flux while still delivering on business outcomes can often be too much to ask, what can leaders do to ensure employees can do both?

Even a team whose morale is high will have their performance suffer if they feel they need to juggle too much. Your high-morale team might find that managing change and delivering results pushes them to their limit.

Therefore, resilient employees – those who are flexible, adaptive and can optimistically learn from experiences – are a positive influence during times of change. Similarly, businesses also need resilient teams to thrive and survive. They are living testimony that change need not be a bad thing.

But as with any turbulence, you need deliberate tactics to navigate successfully. Here are some ways leaders can encourage top-performance amid change:

 

Strong leadership

Good leaders earn respect. Be trustworthy and give clear direction. Your teams will look to you for stability during uncertainty.

It’s also a good idea to be visible. Spend time with your team and hear them out. It doesn’t need to be a formal appointment. In fact, your employees might feel more comfortable to open up in an informal setting.

 

Provide perspective

It’s important to walk your people through the change. If you’ve ever been on a long drive to a new destination, you normally look for landmarks. These give you a sense that you are headed in the right direction.

Provide your teams with clear landmarks so they can mark progress and feel a sense of achievement. There may need to be detours but talk them through those as well. It will increase their sense of security that they are not on the change journey alone. And don’t forget to celebrate when key milestones are reached.

 

Develop soft skills

Inevitably people experiencing change will need to develop new skills to adapt. Instead of focusing on developing technical skills, look at enhancing your employees’ ‘soft skills’. That way you’ll help them improve how they make decisions, solve problems and deal with difficult situations.

How analytics tools help boost team and business performance

There is no shortage of data. The way we harvest information is also many and varied. But for leaders who are faced with the daily challenge of making informed decisions, collecting data is no longer enough. What makes it valuable are the insights it provides.

One way to use data to your advantage is when you need to address performance weaknesses – whether that’s within the team or your entire organisation.

Before you dive into the millions of bytes of information available to you, consider the following limitations:

  • Effective data analysis requires specialised skills and training. That’s why the role of data scientist is of high demand in today’s workplace.
  • While leaders might be highly skilled in business analytics, to boost team and organizational performance, talent analytics mustn’t be overlooked.

So this is where effective analytics tools can help turn mere data into powerful knowledge.

To benefit from a robust analysis of data, ask yourself the following:

 

What are you doing with the data available to you?

To be clear, launching into a fact-finding mission to improve business results doesn’t always mean putting in place new methods to collect data. What you have at hand is often sufficient. For example, data analytics company Humanyze uses RFID badges (that employees use to enter work premises) and digital data (such as email, meeting and phone call information) to analyse how people work.

 

What performance challenges are you trying to solve?

The challenge to solve will dictate the type of information you need to analyse. It’s therefore a vital step to clearly identify that challenge. Are you looking to improve team performance? Are you looking to find areas of competitive advantage? Do your managers need to raise their emotional intelligence? All of these will inform where you go to source the data that then needs analysis.

 

What analytics tools can you use to make decisions?

Once you’ve identified an objective it’s time to look at the most effective analytics model. Of course, this requires more than a simple round-up of huge data sets. A myriad of statistics that reveal submerged patterns is of little benefit if managers can’t effectively use the correlations to enhance business performance.

Creating custom analysis models can be one way to make sense of data. Another way is to use established analytics models targeted at determining how to improve specific areas of performance.

How are you gaining insights and boosting results from your data?