Category: Blog

What does the Manchester Utd saga tell us about leadership?

Posted on by Nailia Tasseel

It was just over a week ago that David Moyes was unceremoniously dismissed from his post as the manager of Manchester United FC. He’d endured a rough ride at the helm of a club that had never finished a season in worse than third place since the early 90s. Fans, players, the media were, perhaps excessively, obsessed with the club’s travails simply because it was doing something no one could remember them ever doing: losing.

It’s hard to say what exactly went wrong, but the weekend following Moyes’s departure saw United beat Norwich City by a resounding score of 4 to nil. The performance could have been seen as a protest on the part of the players to the notion that the club had irrevocably lost its power.

Or the victory could be seen as a players’ tribute to a manager whose sacking irked many who thought the dismissal tarnished United’s reputation as much as the match results did (the announcement was made via Twitter).

As the Mail on Sunday’s Patrick Collins put it yesterday on the Today programme, “Man United stands for things. It’s always had relatively decent values in fairly difficult world. People feel sorry for Moyes and the way he was mistreated.”

Perhaps Moyes simply wasn’t up to the job, which seems all the more evident given the success attributed to his predecessor, the almost mythical figure of Sir Alex Ferguson. But it begs the question of whether Moyes’s failure to match Ferguson’s success was in the cards from the very beginning. Success can cast a long shadow, particularly if that success is down to the leadership of just one person.

There are certainly cases of business that have survived, and thrived, upon the departure of remarkable leaders. Apple, whose share price has risen more than 50 percent since Jobs's death, is one example. Lou Gerstner, who shifted IBM from a cumbersome mainframe computer manufacturer to an enduringly successful IT services company, is another.

But, punctuated by Moyes's woes, United's success under Ferguson highlights a kind of paradox of success. As this week's Economist points out, there are similar questions surrounding Berkshire Hathaway's succession plans. Could anyone really succeed Warren Buffett's astounding and unrivaled success after he retires on May 3? Buffett and Ferguson each presided over long, turmoil-transcending periods of excellence in their respective fields. If indeed Berkshire suffers a fate similar to United's, the downfall of the two great leaders would both highlight their own exceptional leadership as well as reveal a fatal, final flaw – their failure to give life to an institution larger and stronger than themselves.

Perhaps we should withhold the final evaluation of apparently great leaders until after they have moved on. Surely the ability to build enduring and dynamic institutions – replete with compelling and living stories of their history, their values and where they are going – should be an important criterion for successful leadership.

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Storytelling and the Scottish independence referendum

Posted on by Nailia Tasseel

A conversation with a Glasgow taxi driver today got me thinking again about the Scottish independence referendum, looming close now in September. I'd been interested a couple of months ago by the very different types of message each side of the debate were putting out.

It seemed to me that Alex Salmond and the Yes campaign were seeking to tell a compelling story of an independent Scotland free from the constraints of Westminster, looking to stir nationalist pride and give voters confidence in this image of the future. The response from the No campaign was centring around the rather drier, and less inspiring, legalities of keeping the pound and remaining a member of the European Union.

Chris Deerin, of the Scottish Daily Mail, says it well: “Those seeking to save the UK have spent too much time pointing out the pitfalls of independence, and not enough creating a compelling, optimistic case for staying in the Union.”

This isn't to say that those tangible issues aren't at the very heart of the debate. My taxi driver worried about the businesses that would move their HQs to England, the cost of building 27 border checkpoints and the 20 years of debt the whole process would create. But rational arguments on their own rarely win the day. People defer to their emotions and instincts when it comes to making decisions, and there's nothing like a compelling story to stir those emotions. Polls seem to be support this point, with the Yes campaign rising steadily 7 points since the start of 2014.

So this vote isn't being won on the relative strength of each side of the rational debate. Rather it's about the power of the stories that can be crafted, and the vigour with which they're told. Chris Deerin in his article congratulates the Yes campaign for casting the referendum as a “battle of values – the caring vs the selfish”, while longing for the No team to remind us that “we inhabitants of these islands are the same people.”

The Storytellers wouldn't want to enter the debate, of course, but for the sake of balance we do look forward to hearing the stories that the No campaign can tell of benefits of the Union. Roll on 18th September!

Leading Change Through Storytelling

Posted on by Nailia Tasseel

We are delighted to be hosting the Change Management Institute's April event at The Storytellers, on 2 April 2014.

The event will take the form of a lively panel discussion, featuring Andrew Powell (former COO, Colt), Alison Young (Management Development Director, Pearson) and Marcus Hayes (Joint MD, The Storytellers). The discussion will focus on why storytelling is so effective as part of a change or transformation programme, and how it can influence and change beliefs and behaviours in business. We'll be looking at the critical success factors for change that make storytelling a must-have skill for leaders. And we'll be discussing how to use narrative and storytelling techniques that will enable leaders to unite their organisation behind a common purpose, engaging and involving employees in the changes they need to make, including examples of best practice.

The panel discussion will be followed by drinks and canapés, with an opportunity to network with your peers and hear about the extraordinary history of society painter Sir John Lavery, whose studio will be the venue for the panel discussion.

For details of the event, please click here

Richie McCaw’s winning story

Posted on by Nailia Tasseel

The look on Richie McCaw’s face at the end of the All Blacks’ epic match against Ireland said it all. With an overtime try and conversion, they had just overcome an almost certain defeat. Most players in that situation would be leaping with joy, fuelled with the adrenaline you get when you’ve just returned from a very scary place.

But not Richie. He just walked around, congratulating his teammates as if they’d completed a good training session. What was going on in his head? An interview with the Daily Telegraph revealed something of his mindset and an insight into his teams incredible ‘winning ways’.

“When I was a young player and first started in the provincial game our captain taught me something pretty important,” he said.
“We were down by a similar margin, 29 to very little. I thought the game was over and he said 'believe', and we got home in that game.”

That story became part of Richie’s own story. A story that has shaped his belief that you should never give up. That you can always turn things around, and as captain it is his job to inspire his team with the same belief.

You can see that narrative has shaped the way the whole team now performs. The strength of their story has resulted in several challenging matches where mind over matter has saved the day.

It’s a great example of how a strong collective story can translate into exceptional, winning performance.

Loose words and corporate reputations

Posted on by Nailia Tasseel

I was sitting opposite a young man on the train the other day. One of those loud, 'I-don't-care-who-hears-what-I-have-to-say' types. I got the impression he was rather pleased with himself. Anyway, by all accounts he was some kind of software developer in his early 20s working on behalf of a major tech company, judging by the very loud conversation he was having with his colleague. His colleague, too, was loud enough for me to hear what was being said the other end of the phone.

The conversation was long and boring, but consisted mostly of this young man having a go at the tech company which had employed him. And bringing in two other major players into the conversation too, each of which received a thorough lambasting in turn. How they could behave in such a way, with their disgraceful systems, bureaucracy and appalling decision-making was enough to prompt anyone with shares in these tech giants to sell their stock with immediate effect. The rest of my fellow passengers had pricked up their ears by now. What else could we learn about these monsters? Name and shame them he did, dutifully informing the carriage of the injustices and stupidity of certain (named) people, who, quite frankly, didn't deserve to be in gainful employment. Anyone on the phone wishing their little ones good-night had by now hung up, shifting rather uncomfortably in their seats as the rant went on. And on. And on.

You never know who you are going to be sitting next to in a public place, nor what influence they might have. I've been in a train carriage with an HR Director who let the whole lot of us know that her company was about to announce a series of job cuts (confidential of course). The same week we heard a story about an innocent, private comment made in a restaurant by a consultant about a piece of work with one of the banks that was looking very promising. The next day, thanks to the journalist who'd been eavesdropping, the story had broke and was in print. Consultancy X was going to sort Bank X out. In this case it was the consultant who suffered; needless to say they won't be working with Bank X in the immediate future.They would have done a brilliant job too.

Loose words can cause reputational damage to companies and individuals at the drop of a hat. Next time I'm on the train I will remind these loud-mouths to keep it zipped. Not only do we want to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet during our commute home, but indiscrete commentary can create all sorts of problems. Walls have ears: we may not be at war, but a damaged reputation costs companies and brands millions. And none of us, as Tiger Woods I'm sure would agree, would want that.

The Missing Chapter: Why Emotional Buy-In Is Critical For Successful M&A

Posted on by Nailia Tasseel

The integration of people and culture has been rated as one of the most important factors in making an M&A deal a success. So says a report we launched today. The report goes on to show that the poor management of this aspect of M&A – and the lack of emotional buy-in by employees – has been highlighted as one of the leading reasons why many M&A deals are unsuccessful.

The report is timely. Recent reports show that the cash on corporate balance sheets has reached over $5.5 trillion, which will put a lot of companies under pressure to activate their M&A strategies. Global M&A activity is growing by a fifth every quarter, with Britain and Ireland seen as the major dealmakers in Europe. We may still be feeling a sense of caution and lack of confidence in the M&A arena, due to the compexities of cross-border regulation, but shareholders are likely to want to see a return on this cash.

Secondly, corporate culture is changing. Gen X and Y are unlikely to stick around in organisations where the contribution they make is not valued. A company's people are its best asset, so inspiring, motivating and engaging them in the future ambition of the business is vital. And in an M&A scenario, where the risk of losing your best talent is relatively high, this has never been so important.

So it's depressing to see that almost a third of respondents had experienced a deal that failed because of poor cultural integration. If the people engagement and cultural element is deemed so important in a transaction, why then do so many fail on this count? Is it because the reality is that it's hard to quantify and measure? Let's face it, an M&A team operates on the basis of analytics, data and numbers. Emotion and engagement are intangible. They can be dealt with tomorrow. Is it because it requires so much resource (the stats show that it's the second highest area of resource deployment in M&A)?

The research, carried out by Mergermarket, also illuminates the financial and operational cost of getting the cultural aspect of integration wrong, revealing that senior and middle management are most likely to leave an organisation, exactly when strong leadership and commitment is needed the most. And almost half of respondents who had experienced difficulties during the M&A process said that getting it wrong impacted negatively on the firm’s share price, with a reduction in productivity, lower-than-expected synergies, low levels of employee engagement and high levels of employee resistance being major consequences.

Highlights of the report include:

  • Integrating people and culture is seen as the second most important factor in making an M&A deal a success, behind integrating systems and processes. It was also the factor rated as requiring the second largest quantity of resources.
  • 60% of respondents list integrating people and culture as one of the most common reasons that M&A deals are unsuccessful.
  • 93% of respondents say that the time taken for an employee to feel emotionally attached to their new organisation has a significant or very significant impact on the ease of integration and level of synergies.
  • Early and continuous communication was seen as the most important step to encourage employees to connect emotionally to the new entity.
  • Almost half (45%) of respondents that had been involved in a deal that got the cultural integration wrong said that it had a negative impact on share price.
  • For an organisation of 1,000 employees, a takeover is likely to result in a cost of £1.3m from unwanted employee turnover, with this cost rising to £6.5m for an organisation with 5,000 employees.

Our attitudes and beliefs dramatically influence our actions and behaviours, so it’s no surprise that the human aspect of integration can make a huge impact either positively or negatively on the success of an M&A transaction. We’ve found that leaders from those organisations which invest time and effort in planning early on how to bring two ‘tribes’ together have reaped the rewards in terms of productivity, engagement and minimising resistance to change. All the rational reasons for bringing two businesses together may stack up, but failing to engage people emotionally in the purpose of the deal, what success might look and the part they can play in achieving that success, can be a major barrier to the rational factors playing out. The ultimate consequences – poor employee engagement, a fall in revenue and share value – make this a critical success factor.

The power to turn your life around

Posted on by Nailia Tasseel

We met Clive today.

Clive is an ex-offender, released a few weeks ago after a six-year prison sentence. He was entertaining, self-deprecating, humble, honest and open about his past, and he made a real impact on us.

Before I go any further I should explain that in a month's time Scott, Penny, Roger and I will cycle from London to Paris in three days. In doing so we are raising money for an amazing charity, Aspire, which is based in Oxford. Aspire creates work placements and social enterprises for severely disadvantaged people like Clive: ex-offenders, ex-substance-misusers and homeless people. They give them valuable skills such as painting and decorating, recycling, textiles, property maintenance and landscaping before sending them out as teams, contracted to local authorities, social housing and corporate organisations. The idea is that they gradually build their confidence as they take on the responsibility of work, eventually gaining paid employment and independence. Often these trainees have lost contact with their family, friends and support network, have no money, no stability nor place to live – those things that many of us take for granted when we go through tough times. The fragility of their personal circumstances is greatly magnified beyond the lack of a job prospect. Life is indeed, very, very tough.

Aspire's work means that everyone gains. For the contracting organisations they are taking on truly dedicated people and at the same time helping them to build a sense of pride and value in their work. This is real, meaningful CSR. Aspire saves the public purse over £1m annually, and is three times more successful in securing employment for their trainees than the UK Work Programme average. Most remarkable of all are some of their statistics: in 2011 87% of trainees sustained their recovery from addiction, and 94% did not re-offend.

Back to Clive. Now living in a hostel, he talked of the frustrating days immediately after leaving prison when he had no money to cater for himself (in self-catering accommodation) nor even some soap powder to wash his clothes. But he saw Aspire's posters, signed up, and is now part of a team of trainee painters and decorators. He's really gone for it, and his renewed sense of purpose and determination was palpable.

The Storytellers is an organisation which exists to help create meaning at work; to get the best out of people in the workplace. It seems only natural that we should support Aspire, and as we roll up the Champs Elysees on 22 June we will spare a thought for those who haven't been so lucky in life, but, with the help of Aspire, are finding it within themselves to turn their lives around.

If you'd like to donate to Aspire before our London-to-Paris ride, please visit my Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/alison-esse . We would be very grateful.

The most important document to come out of Silicon Valley

Posted on by Nailia Tasseel

Sandy Sandberg (Facebook's COO) called it “the most important document to come out of Silicon Valley”. It's Netflix's cultural manifesto and we. love. it.

Read it for yourself here.

Who wouldn’t want to work there? It’s an environment where people can be great. Give people a clear idea of the context: what you want to achieve and what you value and leave the rest to them. Pay them top rate and tell them not to worry about short-term fluctuations in fortune so they can focus on the work that really matters.

When you read the deck it all seems to make so much sense and what’s more you believe it’s true – so why isn’t the company you work for more like this?

A tradition is just an innovation we keep

Posted on by Nailia Tasseel

Claridges.  A heavyweight in the London psyche, steeped in royalty and glamour, conjuring up stories in our mind of the world’s most privileged having fanciful wishes taken care of with no more than the raise of a perfectly arched eyebrow.  Glimpse around the door left ajar by the BBC’s behind-the-scenes-documentary and the reality is even more exceptional…

After each visit, guest rooms are photographed so that should that person return, their bedsheets can be turned down at exactly the angle they prefer.  ‘Do we have a room with a Jacuzzi?’ ‘Yes of course’ the plumber is onto it now… Patrons are made to feel that they themselves are the hotel’s raison d'être.  One elderly couple who have celebrated their wedding anniversary each year for the last 40 years with a night at Claridges are even given staff keys on arrival; a symbolic gesture of their being so integral to the fabric of the building.

With that kind of service, there is little wonder that those who can afford it keep coming back for more.  But on their 200th anniversary Claridges faces considerable challenges. Their history is unshakeable, they lay claim to royal connections like no other, providing a unique competitive advantage as each guest revels in having a little piece of it.  As well as appealing to paying guests, the singular history is an enormous source of pride to the staff.  So much so that Roman, the doorman (and internal ‘face of Claridges’), has respectfully guided guests into the Claridges fairytale from the mortal world outside for nearly four decades, and many more have worked there for at least ten years. 

The slick service rests upon this impressive shared identity, each individual acutely aware of the institute they represent and prepared to serve it first and foremost.  This identity not only defines the group but serves to ensure that the impeccable standards are replicated with military position, creating the quality of service that differentiates Claridges. In a hotel where you want to feel remembered, consistency is king. Each waiter has to know that knives and forks must be exactly one inch from the table edge… and care enough about this to actually do it.

Yet these qualities alone will not suffice. Today’s elite travellers expect the very latest technology and innovations to be available at the touch of a button.  The services available have to evolve to stay relevant. As Claridges’ General Manager so eloquently put it; ‘What is a tradition? It is just an innovation that we decided to keep’. And therein lies the dilemma, how to keep a group of employees so tightly bound by their pride in history and keeping things as they always have, delivering a consistent service that is fresh and modern enough to avoid Claridges becoming a stuffy caricature?

This is where stories come into their own.  Sharing the stories of the successes and mishaps of the last services reinforce the principles, values and nitty gritty behaviours fundamental to delivering on Claridges’ promises but also airs the inevitable, if minute, deviations from the norm. What have the latest guests asked for? What worked? How does it fit with existing practice? Stories provide the richness for everyone to stay on the same page but engage in a process of social reality testing.  What will be fascinating is to see how new ‘traditions‘ are selected and then embedded.  With a changing clientele only time will tell what Claridges will become…