How asking for help enables the best leaders to succeed
For some, admitting that they need help is a sign of failure, a weakness that executives shouldn’t demonstrate because it undermines their credibility and their ability. In which case, asking an external consultant to come into your business and highlight areas where improvements can be made is the ultimate shame. For others, it makes perfect sense to have a third party come in and provide a completely objective view of your business. It will be discrete, so there is no shame, and it will enable you to have an objective perspective of your company. Is that a failed leader’s actions, or one that recognises that we all have limitations and are all influenced by biases that make spotting problems almost impossible? The failure comes by employing a consultancy that speaks in a strange language, what we call management garbage, that introduces complex models that no one understands, and talks to managers and staff as if they are hopeless fools who the consultant has saved.
How to Start Understanding your Business
- Look at the numbers
- Understand high-level problems, focus on not singling out individuals
- Avoid the ‘Sunny Day’ planning pitfall- actively understand all possibilities, not just a best case scenario
- Relate back to YOUR strategy
These 4 tips are easily said and are difficult to execute properly. This is especially true when you’re attempting to identify problems and solutions while running your business profitably. Having external perspectives and solutions to examine solutions and execute ideas is critical in implementing sustainable, long-term solutions.
Why do Identify Action Believe this to be Important?
Here at Identify Action we believe in three core reasons why getting an external analysis is a great way for any leader or manager to take their organisation to the next level.
Independence.
Check out the video below. How many times do the players in white pass the basketball?
More than likely, you’ve experienced other videos like this selective attention test. It illustrates exactly how a tunnel focus can impact our ability to see the other elements in the situation.
For years psychologists have blamed inattention blindness or confirmation bias; we don’t see the obvious because we are focussed on something else, or we only see what we want or are expecting to see. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that we can often miss the blindingly obvious! And guess what? It is unavoidable! We all do it because our brains are wired to save energy and take shortcuts. In many ways, it helps us succeed. However, it can also work against us and our judgement. That is why we need an independent observer to come in and bring fresh eyes to problems and underlying causes.
For example, we were recently working with a client looking for a fantastic system to help better utilise their warehouse.
When we walked around the warehouse with the management team, we spotted several items placed in significant footfall areas causing vehicles and people to massively circumvent. We asked them what the block was and whether it needed to be where it was? They hadn’t even spotted it, and their warehouse staff had got used to having to go around the obstacle and use other lanes.
Similarly, we have been shown around organisations by the Senior Management and been told how excited the staff were to be working for that company. However, the sad faces, lack of conversation, and the general feel of a miserable working environment was plain to see. We observed these occurrences and provided simple, inexpensive, but effective solutions. At Identify Action, we believe in providing a common-sense approach, an approach that is grounded in simplicity, not complexity.
We use simple language because we believe that works best for everyone. However, our consultants have a wealth of experience underpinned by doctorate-level academic qualifications so we can talk complexly should it be required; we just don’t believe that jargon and obscure terminology is necessary to solve most business problems.
An independent observer, experienced in observing people, will quickly spot the signs that business owners, leaders and managers often miss and can offer business saving advice and consultation. The key skill here is to choose a consultant with the skills to observe and understand.
Expertise.
To accurately observe, analyse, and provide appropriate solutions, a consultant needs experience. Likewise, consider the background of your consultants. Will you focus on people? Processes? Are there support systems to help with both? This is because it enables individuals to use their contextual, lived understanding to help the business. At Identify Action, we have a wealth of proven experience. Helena has amassed considerable experience within the hospitality, logistics and strategy field.
Her work identifying simple solutions to complex processes is always impactful, for example, she is currently implementing the complete automation and digitised recording of a major logistics company in the UAE. Her work with a major coffee shop chain saw her reduce many complex systems into more simple and effective processes while reducing the need for intricate SOPs. This meant that employees actually engaged with the business and were able to focus on the experience of customers.
David cut his leadership teeth as a Senior Officer in the British military, flying helicopters and leading high-performance specialist teams. David has led a specialist team that was highly complex, challenging, and operated at the strategic national level, so he knows what makes a good team. For example, David was instrumental in introducing a new training scheme for a local company that ensured their training was highly effective and complied with all government regulations.
However, David’s key talent is his ability to understand people; indeed, his research doctorate focused on culture and intercultural relationships. This means that he can enter an organisation and identify signs of behaviour that many others would miss. His cultural understanding means that when he chats with people, he can get to the heart of the matter because he knows what is essential to individuals. He demonstrated that the communication within an organisation was ineffective and was causing some workers to enter work silos.
Depending on what assistance you require, be that a focus on your people or processes, you’ll require different individuals to enable your success. Helena and David unite the components of people and processes to support technical and people level change in organisations.
Helena and David’s expertise enables them to tackle the third core reason requiring external support, that of decision-making in complex and challenging situations.
Difficult Decision Making.
Change management and transformation activities are all demanding and energy-absorbing activities that draw a managers attention away from the daily function of managing the team. However, these mundane activities can be eased by understanding our processes and our people. Process mapping and identification remove a significant part of the mystique surrounding transformation activities by providing the required clarity needed to make decisions more difficult. By identifying process pinch points and areas of concern, the decision-making process is made all the easier. Identify Action has addressed this challenge often and used process mapping to make difficult decisions easier to make, as they recently demonstrated during a business change activity that a client wanted that had stalled because the problem seemed too complex and challenging.
Having identified the process and procedure change requirements, we now have to get our people to understand the needs for change and implement it.
Many organisations fail because they do not understand their people or attempt to apply an overly complicated leadership style or model that is inappropriate due to cultural implications. David recently intervened with an organisation trying to introduce a feedback system that had proven highly effective in America. However, David highlighted that the cultural differences between American workers and the regional workers would cause significant harm to the business. He suggested an alternative approach that was introduced and proved highly effective.
Should I Ask for Help?
Do you accept that you are not perfect and that you are often guilty of making assumptions? Do you accept that asking for help is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength? Understanding the limitations of your vision is an imperative towards growth and success.
We all need help. We all need advice. We would all benefit from a third party observing our business and identifying areas where improvements can be made, be that to the processes we use or to our people’s morale and performance.
If you think you could benefit from having an expert team of consultants that speak a common language, seek a simplistic solution openly and honestly, then get in touch with our team.
To discuss people and processes further, get in touch via action@identifyaction.com.
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