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Attitude Adjustment Part 2 - New Manager Edition

phillb@vizibble.com (Phill Battersby) — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 09:44:53 GMT

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Attitude Adjustment Part 2: New Manager Edition

How to Navigate the 'Acquired vs Hired' Workplace Scenario, Part 2

Starting in a new management role, whether in your existing firm, or with a new company is an incredibly exciting time. But it is also one tinged with the weight of new expectations, anticipation and that nagging voice, in the back of your mind, that is constantly trying to make you worry about how the future will shake out and if you’ll be able to make the impact expected of you.

Well, if you are thinking and feeling all these things, I want you to magnify that 3 times and know that’s exactly how your new team are feeling ahead of your arrival. They bear the brunt of uncertainty, not knowing if they’ll have a job in 12 months or whether you will value their skills more than those you already trust from people you’ve worked with in the past and might bring with you later. This is the first stage of what I call the 'acquired vs hired' scenario.

In part one of this blog series, we looked at this topic through the eyes of those team members. I described the world of football and how Manchester United’s new manager Ruben Amorim, swept away the incumbent support team before he even started. He probably let go highly skilled, very talented people. Professionals with years of experience, steeped in the culture of the club; top performers in their field. But Amorim already had people outside of Man Utd that he trusted more; people he wanted to bring with him. In the blink of an eye, those support teams and even club legends like Van Nistelrooy are paid off, let go, and now looking for new jobs.

This is ‘acquired vs hired’ at its most brutal – an instant change of management made in one swift movement. And this is what your new team are most concerned about before you even arrive.

Of course, for most of us, this scenario plays out in slow-motion. Your new team will be incredibly welcoming, and you’ll spend the next 90 days putting your immediate impact plan into play. In this time, you’ll be looking at the team, your objectives, and thinking about how the two might best come together quickly and successfully.

Your employees know this too and it’s during these first three months that you need to work hardest at alleviating as much of that in-team stress and anxiety as possible.

Here are eight things to think about as you prepare for your new role.

Manager’s Perspective: It’s all about people.

1. Communicate Your Vision Early

The one thing all your new team members (and depending on your new position), the wider business will want to know, is WHY you are there. That’s because they want to anticipate WHAT you will do, need or focus on and, HOW exactly you’ll want to go about doing what you do. This leads to WHEN you might make decisions or start something and of course, WHO you’ll want to do that with.

It’s the ‘WHO’ that everyone is most concerned with, because it is human nature for your new team (or any other impacted employees) to want to feel SAFE. Right now, on day one, that is the last thing they feel.

Until you are ready to share your goals, vision, and management style there will be this state of limbo, causing stress, making people unproductive and the longer it goes on, the more chance they’ll start making their own theories, initiate gossip and leave the mind to conjure up worst-case scenarios, all of which can become very disruptive if left unchecked.

As a manager, you’ll want to get on the front-foot right away and start to communicate as much as is prudent, as soon as possible. Being transparent about the future helps reduce uncertainty, stops gossip, realigns everyone toward common objectives and lowers stress levels. Do what you can, as soon as you can.

2. Listen and Learn

Most managers, when appointed, are hired with some form of change in mind. To make change happen, one of the first things you’ll likely do is evaluate the past to build for the future. Your own manager and your new team will help you with this. Apart from learning the obvious company history lesson, what you really need to look for are ‘attitudinal triggers’ within the team.

There will be some members who look to the past as being problematic and are passionate and positive about the change you and they can make in the months ahead. There will also be those who are passionate about the past, and either nervous, resistant or (worst case) disappointed about the changes to come. Some may even try to disrupt your efforts behind the scenes too.

In the initial weeks, this is not an issue, but what listening for attitudinal triggers does, is help you understand where the stresses in your team are most acute. That’s going to help you triage where to make your best efforts to allay those fears.

Contextually, this means it’s all about winning hearts and minds. Building trust and bringing people around to your way of thinking is the key, and the best way is taking time to understand the team's past, their points of view and work beliefs, team dynamics, strengths and of course, challenges. Want to go one step further? Hold 360 reviews outside of your team to get a range of other people’s opinion of your organization. But make sure to have your team return the favour, to avoid one-sided bias.

3. Acknowledge Achievements

Motivating your new team in these early weeks is crucial. Take time to understand where each person has made impact. Talking about specific things both individually and as a team will help uncover best practice and build initial trust. It will also show you are approachable, sincere and interested in them and their success.

This is not only a morale booster, but it is a way of alleviating an individual’s stress level too. If each team member feels you have a good understanding of where they are strong, where they make impact and (most importantly) how they can help you, then they will start to feel part of the future and not an unwanted legacy of the past.

4. Foster an Inclusive Environment

There really is nothing worse for an employee who is fearful of change, of not being able to help shape the changes that will come, leaving them feeling exposed, cold and isolated from your bright, bold new future.

It’s here you need to be conscious of people dynamics, because there will be extroverts and introverts (and people in between) across your team. Consider building processes or initiatives that actively encourage each member to engage in open dialogue, participate, give ideas in ways they individually feel comfortable. Don’t let the extroverts take all your time and attention. Help everyone to be part of the process of the change, rather than feel like a victim of it.

When it’s clear that each team member’s opinion and ideas are valued, their sense of inclusivity in the future will promote a sense of warm belonging and psychological safety.

5. Set Clear Expectations and Empower People.

Where possible, and continually through your initial months, try to give as much context to the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and HOW that surrounds your vision and changes to come. Establish clear expectations as early as you can. This helps prevent misunderstandings and ensures that everyone is aware of their responsibilities and objectives.

Here’s your readiness test. Create and then ask yourself a bunch of open-ended questions – think about the type of questions your team will ask; for instance:

- What do we want to achieve from change?

- Who is likely to be affected by changes to (structures/processes/finances etc.)

- When will change take place?

- How will change be managed? Who will lead?

- How do I or does (insert a person’s name) fit in?

- Where will I find help and support for managing change?

You get the idea right? If you create such a list and can answer each sincerely, with rigor and depth, you’ll help your team adjust to your changes rapidly and successfully.

6. Provide a Safe Room

As you set out your management style and ways of working with your new team, consider how you can build trust early, so to have open candid conversations.

I create safe rooms. It’s something I always do, and I espouse it at every opportunity I can - especially when helping brand new managers start their first leadership role.

For me, a safe room can be a place, a person, a time, a meeting, or just the way team members interact together. It’s really a metaphor, or philosophy that helps team members feel empowered to constructively and respectfully say what needs to be said to each other, without fear of reprisal or negative career impact. It’s also the managers’ vehicle for giving teams and members candid feedback as soon as it is needed.

Safe rooms are open 24/7, and they don’t need you to always be there. In doing so, they allow your teams to have the necessary conversations together, when the situation demands it. This way there is no procrastination, no waiting for an issue to grow and get worse, or so big that it has severe career limiting consequences later.

If your team are new to the safe room concept, it might need a little explaining. Top tips are to be very clear about its purpose, the boundaries and rules – all of which are in your gift to set. But make sure team members realize it’s how you empower them to express themselves without fear or risk of damage to their career.

7. Encourage Collaboration

As the incoming manager, you can do all the usual team-building activities. You can encourage cross-functional team cooperation. These are all good things to do. You might even want to change your team’s compensation plans to focus on this noble goal.

But an individual’s stress level can significantly reduce when they feel active in making and shaping their future. So, devise some cunningly collaborative team exercises where you can plant the seed of your idea, in a way where your team creates the detail that moves your agenda forward.

Here’s something practical to try:

a) Review your answers from point five in this blog, now think of the many different initiatives you might start based on what you are planning to do.

b) Divide your team (if you can) into smaller groups and task each group with one of your change-related initiatives.

c) Get them to make a start and solidify an idea, build out the detail but have them stop just before you think it’s ready for execution.

d) Next, swap the teams around, so each picks-up another groups’ project.

e) The new task is to build on the ideas of others, but not reinvent the wheel.

f) Once done, have each group present their enhanced plan back to the original group for safe-room critique and feedback.

As the manager, you can then add your own flavour and experience to the mix (as desired), then assign each initiative for actual execution or repeat for further enhancement. Importantly, your team will now have brought-in to the change, because they feel they invented and own it. Stress levels reduce because they know what is coming and you’ll be in an ideal place to justify those changes in their new compensation plans that newly focus of collaboration and building on the ideas of others.

8. Be Patient and Compassionate

Human nature has four acute stress reactions: Fight, Flight, Freeze and Fawn.

During your initial months and as you progress with leading your new team, you’ll see all four in action. Your priority is to move them to a place of safety where they can be 100% productive and impactful, which as we’ve already discovered, will take time. Therefore, both employees and manager needs be patient during this period.

It can be a tough journey. It can take time, and some will make it, but others won’t. There will be times where you need to be ruthlessly compassionate. You’ll also discover which of your team are likely to be flight or fight risks and you might need to release or let-go good people, because they can’t buy into what you are doing. This is tough, but it is normal. As a manager though, be as compassionate and supportive about it as you can. The way people exit under your watch is highly visible and it sets a tone with those who remain. Be professional, always calm, help them use the mechanisms available to them within the company to secure a new role. If that’s not possible, be sincere and offer your support as they exit the business. Make sure to follow-through with anything suggest or agree to help with.

Now for those that do make the grade, don’t be opaque about it. They’ve worked hard before you arrived, they continued to impress now you’re here. They’re working harder still to maintain that good opinion. So where and when it is right to do so, make sure you tell them. Tell them regularly and often. Praise the little things, not just the big or visible things.

Make sure your own leadership knows what individuals in your team are working on, what they accomplish and the impact they make. Encourage your leaders to reach out and give their thanks for a job well done too.

Lastly remember this, there is nothing more motivating for an employee than knowing they’re not ‘the acquired’ anymore. It’s amazing to be trusted, valued and appreciated enough to be ‘hired’ by the new guy.

Conclusion

Stepping into a new management role is both an exciting and challenging journey. It requires a focused approached to achieving the goals and mandate you’ve just been set by those who hired you, combined with a delicate balance of understanding your new team's dynamics, alleviating their anxieties (see this blog’s part 1), and fostering an inclusive and collaborative environment.

By communicating your vision early, listening and learning from your team, acknowledging their achievements, and setting clear expectations, you can build a foundation of trust and mutual respect. Remember, patience and compassion are key as you navigate through the initial months. By creating a safe space for open dialogue and encouraging collaboration designed to bring them on the change-train you’ll reduce stress and make your team super-productive, all of which ensures you have as smooth a transition as you could hope for, into your new role. Good luck!

- End

What is fractional leadership and support?

A fractional leader is a highly capable, proven, results orientated person, who has significant experience in their line of work. Usually independent, they offer part-time or fixed-term contracts to help their clients deliver specific objectives and outcomes. Phill, brings top-tier marketing leadership and enablement expertise, helping clients drive growth, leverage innovation, and deliver efficiency through tailor-made leadership, execution and that drives innovation-focused change.

Fractional services are perfect for large businesses needing more leadership support, and especially for an SME’s first CxO hire, when cost-sensitivity or risk of a full-time hire are key considerations.

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Attitude Adjustment Part 1 - Team Member Edition

phillb@vizibble.com (Phill Battersby) — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 08:32:51 GMT

Please subscribe, comment and get involved. Visit Merv & Mindy today.

Attitude Adjustment Part 1: Team Member Edition

How to Navigate the 'Acquired vs Hired' Workplace Scenario, Part 1

Having a new manager can either feel like the dawn of a new era or the start of an uneasy journey of semi-unwelcome change for office employees. The uncertainty of whether the new leader will value their skills and keep them on the team, or decide to make sweeping changes, places employees into what I call an 'acquired vs hired' scenario.

Outside of the office, such scenarios are most publicly seen in the world of football (or ‘soccer’ to our American friends). In football, ‘hired vs acquired’ changes can happen almost immediately. Take Manchester United and their sacking of Erik Ten Hag, followed by the new appointment of Ruben Amorim. Imagine for a moment you are not actually Ten Hag, but a member of his backroom team, on his coaching staff. You work brilliantly with Erik. He trusts you. Your career has been going places under his leadership. You also know Erik has been working hard, but plans have not worked out as hoped and the writing is on the wall. You think he'll be gone soon. You, yourself, have become a top performer and have done everything possible to make the team, Erik, and Man Utd successful.

In any other scenario, given your performance, you’d think a new manager coming in would be fine. You think they will look to you as their trusted advisor, help them get started, with everything positively moving forward from there. Only it doesn’t. Amorim already has people outside of Man Utd that he trusts, people he wants to bring with him.

And in the blink of an eye, you are paid off, let go, and looking for a new job. Amorim brings in his own team and will succeed or fall accordingly, but on his own terms. This is ‘acquired vs hired’ at its most brutal - a change of management made in one swift movement, where Amorim ‘hires’ or brings the people he wants, and the company lets go those whom he would have acquired.

Yet in real life, back in the office, this scenario plays out in slow motion. The new manager comes in, spends a few months looking at the team, the objectives, and thinking about how the two might best come together quickly and successfully. But even in that circumstance, the reality is that new managers will (secretly or not) probably want a few of their former trusted partners with them through this new journey. Employees know this too and will often be stressed about whether and how they can become part of that journey too.

This two-part blog aims to address this stressful phase from both the employees' and new managers' perspectives, providing coping strategies and tips for both employee and manager, with the aim of trying to smooth the transition that comes from a change of leadership.

In part one, we’ll look at the topic from the ‘acquired’ employee perspective. But new managers should pay heed too, as it gives you an appreciation of the stresses prevalent in your new team.

Employee Perspective: Coping Strategies

1. Embrace Change with an Open Mind and Heart

Change, while intimidating, often brings new opportunities. Try to view the new manager as a potential ally who can offer fresh insights and perspectives that might enhance your career. If the manager’s agenda is to drive change, try to understand that change better. Don’t jump into the relationship by clinging to past idioms, practices or being protective of them. Understand that if senior management have hired the person to drive this change, there is little point in being argumentative, disruptive or resistant. So keep an open mind and an open heart to what the future holds, if you want to be a part of it.

2. Communicate Clearly and Professionally

From the outset, be proactive in communicating with the new manager. Introduce yourself, highlight your roles and responsibilities, and express your willingness to support the transition. A good manager will likely arrange this first meeting, but if not, suggest a “history meets future” meeting. This is where you can help them understand the past so that they can plan a route into the future. Explaining why and how things were done in a certain way gives context to best practice, problems, challenges and how to overcome them. Ask for their opinions on this and how they see the future. Then interject with your own thoughts and ideas to help build on their vision. This will help better connect you with their thinking and show that you want to be part of the solution and not the historical problem.

3. Showcase Your Value and Learnings

This is not about starring in your own beauty parade - this is about helping your new manager understand where you’ve positively impacted the business in the past and what projects or initiatives you are working on right now.

Know that each manager may approach this differently, depending on their style and the culture you work in. For some it could be a formal sit-down in a one-to-one meeting to introduce yourself. For others (like me) it could be a much more informal get-to-know-you coffee meeting. And of course, you’ll have to join team sessions with your new manager as well.

What is constant in all of this is to make sure you can tell your story in any way, shape or size and at any time. So that could be as a formal presentation, a PDF you can send in email, or simply to tell your story in 30 seconds during an elevator ride. Or my preference, more anecdotally, through stories over coffee. What’s important is to focus on outcomes, show dedication, passion and most importantly, how you enable and help others in your team to be successful too.

4. Stay Positive and Flexible

Maintain a positive attitude and be flexible to new ways of working. Managers are often hired for a specific operational, process or transformational capability. Your level of adaptability can set a positive tone and demonstrate your readiness to support new initiatives or ways of doing things. If associated with transformation and especially when actual change starts, remember the old phrase ‘the train has left the building’. It is best to be on the manager’s train and not left standing at the station.

5. Seek Feedback and Act on It

A long time ago I was told that ‘feedback is a gift’. If I recall, it was tough feedback, and I certainly didn’t appreciate it in the heat of the moment. But over time, I came to realize the wisdom in those words. I also realized that if I had been proactive in seeking feedback earlier, then my manager would have probably been a lot more positive.

So understand we are all given feedback from time to time. But my advice is not to wait passively to get it. Be proactive. Request feedback on your performance regularly. Be open to constructive criticism. This shows your new manager you have resilience, and that you have commitment to personal growth. Importantly it also showcases your willingness to align with the new manager's vision.

6. Build Relationships

No one expects you to be best buddies with your new manager. Indeed, for the ‘acquired’ employee, you’ll likely be much closer to your former manager, and right now feel a bit cut-off and out of the loop. It’s time to build a new relationship. But how?

Some managers don’t like having personal out-of-work type conversations, so be careful about that. Also don’t expect to have a ‘love-at-first-sight’ work relationship on your first meeting. It’s best to focus on the professional stuff. Use coffee (or other types of) meetings as a place to debate the big topics in your team, the business, or the things your new manager has been brought in to help improve. Using such an approach will help build an early rapport with your new manager.

Whilst you’ll need to align with the direction they are headed, it’s important not to pander to everything they say. Good managers appreciate different perspectives to theirs, especially if delivered positively and collaboratively.

Debating tough situations, presenting options, ideas, concepts that might be different to that of your manager will also help you to understand their approach, management style, expectations, and preferences.

7. Manage Stress Effectively

Everyone manages stress differently, but being in the ‘acquired’ category does and will heighten your stress levels. It’s important to not let those feelings overwhelm you.

The four things you can do that I’ve found most helpful are:

• Talk to others about why you are feeling stressed. You can do that in a myriad of different ways too - with your family, friends, partner, therapist, in-work counsellor, HR. It doesn’t matter who, the point is to not keep your stress bottled up where the mind can turn it to negativity, paranoia or poor decision making.

• Be brave and talk to your new manager about what worries you. Your new manager is not just a person who manages processes. They manage people too which means they have an active interest in helping you become the best version of yourself. Always keep in mind they can’t help fix something if they don’t know there is a problem, so good managers will respect your candour and bravery about opening up to them. This level of trust on your part is usually retuned by them offering more help through additional context, insight, and understanding, which will help ease your worries or concerns wherever possible.

• Not ready to talk? Then engage in stress-reducing activities such as exercise, meditation, or hobbies. Even bite-sized mindfulness in the office can give significant results. Take 30mins to step away from the desk. Calm your mind and come back with a fresh or new perspective.

• Make sure you maintain a healthy work-life balance. What is a problem at 5pm on Thursday, will still be a problem at 9am Friday. There is little point overcooking yourself and your family relations. Choose which is better: Staying late at work until 9pm, trying to fix something with an over-tired mind, failing, then going home worried to a grumpy family OR, being home with a happy family by 6pm, then spending 20minutes of clear thinking in the morning to achieve a better result that actually works and delivers a solution.

8. Don’t Make Rash Decisions

Let’s be perfectly honest. Sometimes the business or a new manager’s vision will not be something you can honestly believe in - it’s just not for you. It’s at times like this that you need to make a tough career decision. But don’t be rash. Be your most professional and patient person. Many employees fall foul and ruin perfectly good careers or business relationships by making quick, knee-jerk reactions or poor decisions that can haunt them for years to come. If the new manager or direction is not for you, take a breath and step back from the edge to re-evaluate WHY you think that way. Here’s a framework you might use. I call it ‘Ask Me’:

• A / Absolute: Ask yourself, ‘am I absolutely 100% sure this manager or new direction is not for me’? Write down your answer and WHY in detail. Then run through the rest of this framework to see if you can resolve any issues or see if you can create a little bit of self-doubt regarding your own opinion on the matter. After all, things might not be as bad as you think.

• S / Skills: Are you thinking it is not for you because you don’t have the right skills for this new direction? Yes? Great! This is not a reason to do something rash. It’s a confidence problem. Identify your weaknesses, then put in place a skills-based training plan and share with your new manager – they’ll love that you are being proactive, and you’ll be the better for all the training too.

• K / Knowledge: Are you thinking it is not for you because you don’t have the right knowledge? Like with a tangible skill, work out what it is you think you don’t know, then go and search for the right insights to help you acquire the knowledge you need. Again, this is a confidence issue, rather than a directional or people issue.

• M / Myself: Ask what you want from your own career and from the people around you. Does the new direction AND the manager align to this? Can YOU work with them? We’re all human and sometimes we just don’t like the direction of travel or click with certain people. Now’s the time to be honest with yourself; can you do your new job professionally, non-disruptively, with 100% commitment, even if you don’t like the manager or agree with how things might now work? Yes? Great. Jump in, allow yourself to be pleasantly surprised and take all the learnings you can from the experience. No? Then sorry, but it’s probably time to move on to a new role or company. And that brings us nicely to…

• E / Exit: Lastly, appreciate and know the following will happen from day 1. New managers when they arrive will start to assess the team and your own personal skills, capabilities and experience, in line with the needs of the business and direction of travel. Skills can be learned. Capabilities developed, experiences gained. These are all things that can be fixed with training and time. What is most important in the managers assessment though, is how they feel about your ATTITUDE to change.

The Exit review is really key. If you found that you failed the ASKME test because you are diametrically opposed to the direction of travel or the new person, it’s going to be pretty obvious to your new manager too. You’re going to need to make an exit plan. It’s best to do that quickly and if you can, with the support of the new manager. Ideally, you’ll want to exit your team to a new role in the company, but many also find a new company to work for.

I raise this point, because many disgruntled ‘acquired’ employees end up staying another year in role, doing something they hate, with growing negativity that ultimately leads to active disruption of the team or business. The new manager, during this time will likely make the decision for you. Don’t be that person. The one who ends up being fired, leaving without references or good opinions from other colleagues.

Conclusion

The transition from working with the manager who hired you to working well with a new manager who acquires you, can be a challenging period for employees, filled with uncertainty and stress. However, by embracing change with an open mind, communicating clearly, showcasing your value, staying positive, seeking feedback, building relationships, managing stress effectively, and making thoughtful career decisions, all employees can navigate this phase successfully.

Alternatively, it can also be a period for evaluating if and whether the new management changes are for you. 90% of the time they will be, but for the occasion when not, the key is to ensure you take positive action that helps move your career forward, without risk of negativity disrupting it.

This two-part blog aims to provide both employees and new managers with strategies and insights to smooth management transition and foster a collaborative and productive work environment. By understanding each other's perspectives and working together, both parties can achieve their goals and contribute to the overall success of the organization.

- End

What is fractional leadership and support?

A fractional leader is a highly capable, proven, results orientated person, who has significant experience in their line of work. Usually independent, they offer part-time or fixed-term contracts to help their clients deliver specific objectives and outcomes. Phill, brings top-tier marketing leadershipnd enablement expertise, helping clients drive growth, leverage innovation, and deliver efficiency through tailor-made leadership, execution and that drives innovation-focused change.

Click the icons below to share this post with your favourite network!

The Innovation Pathway

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 17:25:02 GMT

Please subscribe, comment and get involved. Visit Merv & Mindy today.

Like 99.9% of companies, you’re probably seeking ways to stay competitive, innovate, optimize expenditure and find ways to relieve over-burdened teams without increasing headcount. Large corporates often turn to consulting firms to help them. Smaller firms not, as costs are prohibitive and hiring full-time equivalent leadership expertise out of reach.

But one strategy that has gained significant traction in recent years is fractional leadership. This approach involves engaging highly experienced leaders on a part-time or project basis, rather than committing to a full-time executive role or long-term, highly expensive consulting gig.

What is a fractional leader? Most typically, a fractional leader is an experienced, senior executive who works independently, on a part-time or project basis, providing their expertise to organizations without the long-term commitment of a full-time position. Most fractional leaders start their careers in traditional corporate roles, gaining extensive experience and expertise in their respective fields. They often will have held senior positions such as CEO, CFO, CMO, or other executive roles.

Successful fractional leaders typically identify with a specific area of expertise where they excel. This could be operational turnarounds, deep industry knowledge in a high-growth sector, or a proven track record of developing high-performing teams. In my own case, I’ve followed a similar path, holding both CMO and regional VP marketing roles in tech firms such as Microsoft Inc. and SAP AG.

More importantly, my niche, (or expertise) focuses on global transformation and even more specifically, in the field of marketing centralisation and sales and marketing enablement. W hilst each fractional leader will bring you something unique and differentiating, all of us will help you achieve some common benefits.

Cost Efficiency

One of the most compelling advantages of fractional marketing leadership is cost efficiency. For large global businesses, this means accessing top-tier marketing talent without the financial burden of a full-time executive salary. This approach allows companies to allocate their resources more effectively, investing in other critical areas of the business. For SMEs, the cost savings are even more pronounced. Many smaller companies simply cannot afford to hire a full-time Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Fractional leadership provides a solution by offering high-level expertise at a fraction of the cost.

It doesn’t mean fractional leaders come cheap, but it does mean you have no recruitment cost, no costs of employment, bonuses, share-options, large pension commitments, car allowances and the rest. Most importantly you can determine how long you need them so working to a fixed budget and timeframe is a normal practice.

Flexibility and scalability

Fractional leaders offer unparalleled flexibility. They can be brought in for specific projects, transformations, campaigns, or to cover periods of employee transition or absence.

This adaptability is particularly beneficial for large global businesses that may need specialized expertise for a particular project, transformation or to cover long absence gaps with senior personnel (e.g. maternity leave / whilst waiting for new exec to start). SMEs, on the other hand, can scale their marketing efforts up or down based on their current needs and budget constraints. This flexibility ensures access to individuals normally outside of their natural reach, or simply being able to respond quickly to market changes and opportunities without the long-term commitment and risk of a full-time hire.

Fresh perspectives and specialisms

As mentioned, fractional marketing leaders often bring a wealth of experience from various industries and markets. This diverse background allows them to provide fresh perspectives and innovative solutions that might not be available internally. For large global businesses, this means gaining insights into new trends and best practices that can drive growth and innovation. Whilst SMEs benefit from the specialized expertise that fractional leaders bring, helping them to compete more effectively with larger competitors. And don’t forget, it is in your gift to hire two or more fractional executives at the same time (for the price of one full-time hire) to really bring in a wide range of diverse knowledge and capability!

Fractional guidance and unfiltered opinion.

Internal employees (rightly or wrongly) are often fearful of voicing too strong an opinion, wanting to be ‘nice’. Often, you’ll get the watered-down, politically sanitized versions of events, which can be dangerous to growth and hamper making hard decisions. Fractional leaders are ‘kind’. We’re the people who will give you the most honest, unfiltered of perspective. Firstly, we’ve not only been in your shoes (and know such frustrations), but as we have only a short time to help you, we don’t try to make hard messages ‘fluffy’. We’ll tell you as it is, unfiltered and without bias.

It’s the difference between being nice or kind. Sometimes the hardest things to hear are kindest words you’ll ever be given.

Advisors and executors

Fractional leaders are not just advisors; they are also hands-on executors. They adopt the role they are hired for, in the same way as a permanent member of staff. That means not just fulfilling the leadership advising role, but getting stuff done too - especially important for smaller, less resource-blessed work environments.

Conclusion 

Fractional, hands-on leadership, which is different from typical arms-length consulting advisory services offer a new range of benefits for both large global businesses and subject matter experts (SMEs).

Cost efficient access to the industry’s top leaders and experts in their field, blended with flexibility, fresh perspectives, and world-class strategic guidance, fractional leaders are helping more and more companies achieve their goals without them making the long-term commitment to hiring a full-time executive.

As your business continues to adapt to an ever-changing landscape, consider fractional leadership as a new way of driving growth and success.

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What is fractional leadership and support?

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Good times. Bad times. When to transform?

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 11:05:10 GMT

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OK, a problem I am often asked about is how to transform and scale a business in a world of limited means.
You might have the same challenge? Don't worry, you're not the only one.

Let's think about this from a marketing lens for a moment. Your sales are growing strongly (lets say 40% YoY). The business is increasing market-share over the competition. Operationally, COGs is managed well, your P&L is healthy. Looking good? Feeling good? So if everything is fine, the question becomes WHY transform?

Here's the problem. Marketing's contribution to the business seems to be stagnating and your budget is fully utilized. You are stuck covering only 30% of the pipeline and your conversion of marketing generated (or contributed) pipeline to billed revenue is low (say 15%). To cap it off, the year-end is approaching; next year's targets are pushing the sales budget up by 50%. Your leadership is demanding that marketing improve contribution to business, but given your average performance YTD, you are told you need to do that with flat budget and you'll see no increase in FTE. Oh and remember, your demand generation targets must increase by 20% on top of the planned 50% sales growth that will come in next year's budget. Lastly (yes there's more!) is the real impact this has on your teams. They think they are doing great vs their plan, but are now being kicked by sales and commercial leaders for not being realistic. So you also have a team that is likely becoming disillusioned and thinking 'why do I bother'....

Well, its a situation that many marketing leaders face at one time or other in their career and one that leads many to toward change and transformation. Now I don't even pretend to try and tackle every permutation of transformation in this blog. It would be silly to try. But what I hope to show is that if you take a step back from the dance-floor of day-to-day work and watch the show from the balcony, you'll have time to start transformation in the best way. That starting-point is to break transformation down into bite-sized chunks, because it's a big plate of food to get through. Planning the meal ahead really is the first critical success factor.

Starters - Inspire a vision.
With the above example in mind, much of the immediate problem is likely to center around your current vision, the way you plan, manage stakeholders, set expectations and organize your team. Why? If your performance is 'on-plan' but the leadership are wondering why you can't improve the team performance, it is probably because you set the bar too low to start with. That means you need to re-evaluate your starting point - your vision. If you establish a new transformative vision that goes above and beyond the next three years business expectation, then you'll be setting yourself up for success. It's all about having a clear view of your destination - as Steve Covey says - start with the end in mind.

Fish Course
With a clear vision in place, you can work backwards and build a staged and clearly timed plan that gets you to your destination in iterative steps of business, organisation, team capability and knowledge, resources and performance development. Each part of that plan needs to run as a parallel course to the other as you'll have dependencies and common critical success factors to manage as you go.

Main Course
As you get into the meat of things, you'll quickly realize that it is hard to envision in isolation. To truly find the ideas that help you scale, you need to have a pool of best practices, stories, business models, processes and inspiration at your finger tips. The great thing is that there are so many places to go for help - hew are a few of my favourites:

Innovation from within - Dragons Den. This is one area you can quickly, easily and freely exploit. Set-up a Dragons Den type approach to uncover great new ideas. Crowd-source ideas from your own teams and invest in those ideas that hold weight. Test them out, fail fast, learn and find the next that works. It's an inspiring way for your team to get involved in your transformation. Talk with us if you'd like us to facilitate a program for you!

Innovation from outside - Attend conferences - especially those that deal with change and transformation. You can be inspired by networking with others going through similar change and hear from industry experts all at the same time. One of the worlds top 10 conferences dedicated to this is in C
anada, called C2. You can check it out here .

Forced innovation - Look at your competition . It's always advisable to know what your competitors are doing, how they work and the experiences they give customers. Be careful not to be drawn into being a 'me-too' though. See what they do, learn from it but think how you can leap-frog the competition. A good book to read on leap-frog economics 'Making Breakthrough Innovation Happen' by Porus Munshi.

Leverage Trends - Ask Consultants. Using external consultants (like Vizibble) can help shorten your time to understanding the latest trends, insights and direction the market will go. Consultants can act as a fresh set of eyes to assess or help you navigate each stage of your transformation.

Use What's Online - A wealth of information. If you want something really straight forward, go online and check out ChiefMartec . Their view on marketing technology transformation is astounding.

Clearly there are many sources of support to help you envision and find ways to innovate. The key thing is that none of this advice matters, nor is applicable until it lines up with your vision and your destination .

Dessert Course
As you move from planning to the execution of your transformation strategy, the key thing to remember is to work the plan, stay on track and time, completing each task in order. Don't be tempted to short-circuit the processes you've put in place or compromise when tough decisions are required. Excellence in execution is what it is all about. Clearly, as you execute, all the prep-work about measuring the state of your transformation comes into play. To get the most out of that, its critical to have a clear rhythm of business in place to regularly check progress of all key milestones and measure the impact of the changes you are are making through leading and lagging indicators.

Coffee
Don't be fooled to think that is it though. Internal-comms play a strategically important part. Having an editorial desk set-up to write regular updates, promote success and progress, as well as inform the leadership and wider business on your transformation progress is critical. As a leader try to put equal weight into making the transformation happen AND being the the very visible focal point for that transformation within the business.

Of course, this sounds fine in a blog, but we all know in real-life there so many things can disrupt transformation. So our last thought of the day is to talk about building a coalition of the willing. If you've just one person trying to drive transformation you will likely fail. Success comes from leveraging the network of capabilities inside your organisation - those who are fully brought into the reason 'why', who help build process, project-manage change and influence others.

I said earlier that we'd in no way cover every aspect of transformation - only give a starting framework of how to think about the road ahead. However we've some bonus content and a new 'Digestive' course to offer in the vlog version of this post! Join your hosts, Merv and Mindy to hear their own take on the topic today.

If you'd like to reach out and talk more about how business leaders can manage periods of transformation and change, I'd be delighted to hear from you directly.

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What is fractional leadership and support?

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