Round the Table
Expert tips on building a great leadership team
This week’s post marks something of a new chapter. I want to keep Moving Tribes free to read, not least because I love the way many of you circulate the posts to colleagues and friends. To achieve that, I have decided partner from time to time with a range of technology, advisory and other sponsor businesses. The content will always be written by me, though, and I will only work with businesses I admire and respect.
I’m delighted, then, that my first partnership is with Barracuda, the executive search firm led by an old friend and colleague, Justin Linger, who is probably the best networked person in UK retail and no doubt already known to many of you. Most of the posts will be my usual weekly musings on commercial and leadership topics, but I couldn’t resist by inaugurating this new arrangement by picking Justin’s brain on a topic close to all our hearts – what makes a great retail or hospitality leadership team:
IS: Welcome to Moving Tribes, Justin. Let’s start with an easy question – just what are the core ingredients of a leadership team that really works?
JL: I think when a management team is really working, when the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, it means that everyone involved – the Chair, the NEDs and the management team – are aligned, share common values and have the right mix of mutual support but also challenging each other.
That is often born out of crisis. Something goes wrong in a business and then either a new Chair or new CEO arrives with a remit to put things right. They assemble a team around themselves and if they get that mix of people right, terrific things happen. Just look at the journey that M&S, Tesco and Sainsbury have been on as great examples of strong performance under revitalised teams.
IS: Interesting, and great examples, but the $64k bit of that answer is ‘if they get that mix of people right’ which is often harder than it looks. What are your observations about how to do that?
JL: I think a lot of the secret is assembling a team of people with not just the right aptitude but the right attitude, who share core values and a belief in a commonly held mission. They should also have complementary skills and be willing to stretch each other. I worked with one great CEO, for example, who was very keen that senior people he hired had had experience of working in more than one functional area, so that they would genuinely respect what other people around the team were bringing to the table.
The challenge part is also key, though. It is a big mistake for a leader to hire people only in their own image – you just end up with a team that doesn’t bring a diverse enough set of skills and perspectives to the table.
IS: What other pitfalls should someone assembling a leadership team watch out for?
JL: I think there are two other dangers. One is another instance of the point about challenge – if a leader doesn’t bring in senior enough people to their team, there is a danger that the whole business becomes a ‘one man show’. That might work for a while, and indeed there are some very successful UK retail businesses which are dominated by one or two individual leaders, but it doesn’t make for a sustainable model and can come unstuck quickly.
The second thing I see leadership teams wrestling with is how to bring in new ideas. If a team has worked together for a while and things have gone well it can be easy to assume that the job is done but the world keeps changing and teams need to be refreshed. Just look at the challenge that the retail sector has had bringing real digital or data analytics skills to their top tables, for example. That’s often a really difficult hire, as you need someone with genuine external experience, but also someone with the EQ to be able to bring those new perspectives to a business without alienating the people already in it. It is no accident that this is an area where many retailers have had to try several times to get it right.
IS: I was also interested that right up top when you described a leadership team you included the Chair and the NEDs as well as the full time management team. How important are the ‘part timers’ around the Board table and what role should they play?
JL: I think they play a huge role. Obviously they are the checks and balances there to ensure that the business is properly run but they should also be mentors and guides to the CEO and other senior leaders in the business. I’ve seen businesses, for example, where each NED is ‘buddied’ with a functional leader with the objective of sharing their ideas and outside experiences.
IS: Let’s finish with another easy question – what are the characteristics of a great leader?
JL: I think there is an obvious list of characteristics every leader needs to have, including the ability to listen, EQ, and high standards of personal behaviour and manner alongside the commercial focus, detail orientation and work ethic that are necessary to get the job done.
If I had to pick one thing, though, which really separates out the truly great retail and hospitality leaders it is a relentless focus on talent. Look at any business that is being seen to succeed and you’ll find that the most senior leaders there care a lot about talent management and spend a lot of time both internally on people development and succession planning and also externally on recruitment, making sure they get every senior hiring decision right.
IS: Many thanks for all of that, Justin, tonnes to chew over there and we’ll revisit some of it in a few weeks’ time, but in the meantime thanks again.
PS Thanks again to Justin and the Barracuda team. I meant what I said right up front, though - one of the many great things I get back from the Moving Tribes audience is seeing posts get circulated around to colleagues and friends - that’s as easy as forwarding the email if you are reading this that way, or hitting the button below and choosing your preferred social media. Every share helps, so thanks in advance.