Apex Leadership » Antidotes to Austerity

Better leadership skill training – key to combating recession

apex — Thu, 09 May 2013 10:20:52 +0000

There is growing evidence that better leadership skill training is needed and needed urgently. Evidence from a Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) report suggests that up to 75% of UK companies report a leadership skills deficit. We have developed a series of workshops called “Antidotes to Austerity”, to work with SME’s and large firms responding to the recession. The workshops build on current BIS policy in response to the recession. In particular, the idea for a response to austerity brings the findings from three BIS reports together.

They highlight 3 important factors:

It’s compelling – There is a compelling need for leadership and management development
There’s a clear way forward – There are strategies organisation can adapt to combat the recession
It’s timely – There is a growing sense that switching toward growth is a timely response.

Fighting Austerity with Leadership Skill Training

Firstly there is a recognised deficit in leadership and management development both in large and small firms^{^[1]} and the deficit has an important impact on growth.^{^[2]}

There is a compelling argument to fight austerity with better leadership skill training.

The need is evident:

Only a third of SME’s in the UK reported providing managers with some management and leadership training. The figure is no better across all organisations, with only 34% of all employers providing management training.
Good management practices impact on performance
Ineffective management is estimated to be costing UK businesses over £19billion per year in lost working hours.
Nearly three quarters of organisations in England reported a deficit of management and leadership skills in 2012. This deficit is contributing to our productivity gap with countries like the US, Germany and Japan.

Secondly, there are growth strategies relevant to responding to a recession.^{^[3]}

Potential leadership skill training solutions are available. There are good leadership and management practices which are not widely adopted. There are also a range of recession-beating strategies that organisation can adapt.

Some changes are wholly within the power and remit of leaders and managers to make them happen. What’s more they cost little or nothing and despite offering a competitive advantage don’t have a patent or copyright protection preventing their use. Too good to be true – or just uncommon common sense?
There are strategies to tackle a recession, although one answer certainly does not fit all there are a range of possibilities for organisations to assess and adapt to their context.

Thirdly and crucially there is an identified willingness and ambition within SME’s to grow out of the recession.^{^[4]}

A focus on antidotes to Austerity is timely.

There is a willingness particularly amongst the resilient SME sector to find ways to grow out of a recession. More and more SME’s are reporting an ambition to grow out of the recession.

It is however not sufficient for leadership skill training to take place, it must focus on dealing with the reality of the situation every organisation faces. That is why Antidotes to Austerity focuses on leadership skill training to combat the recession.

[1] Small Business Survey, BIS (2010)

[2] Leadership and management in the UK – the key to sustainable growth BIS (2012)

[3] Business strategies and performance during difficult economic conditions Kitching, J. Blackburn, R. Dixon, S. BIS (2009)

[4] Business growth, access to finance, and performance outcomes in the recession Cowling, M. Liu, W BIS (2011)

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Workplace Motivation: 7 tips for Challenging Situations

apex — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 09:26:51 +0000

Workplace motivation can be a challenge at the best of times, but how do you stay motivated when things are difficult? We can respond very differently to change, it might be that we think we can influence change or alternatively we can feel unable to affect change. And how we think about change may make all the difference for workplace motivation. Even when change may seem out of our control the first thing to remember in difficult circumstances is: how we think and act is up to us.

To influence workplace motivation in challenging situations we need to start with ourselves. It makes sense for your self, and for those who work with you, to choose to maintain as positive an attitude as possible, even in challenging situations.

Workplace Motivation: Choose your Attitude

How can you choose to respond to a situation? Four common ways to respond are to:

Change the situation – do something about it, be proactive.
Change yourself – examine your own attitudes, behaviour, skills, and decide to change them as appropriate.
Accept the situation – that is, come to terms with and live with it.
Leave the situation – find a constructive way of moving on. Can you avoid the situation, is it possible to move within your organisation. Exhaust all avenues within your own organisation before thinking further afield.

How do you maintain workplace motivation in difficult or changing situations?

Here are 7 tips:

Seek opportunities – even in difficult change there are opportunities and positives. What makes work interesting and what makes it manageable.
Be a supportive manager and try to work for one! All the evidence suggest that relationships with your immediate manager matters more than what is happening in the wider organisation. Workplace motivation is made easier when people feel supported and valued by their manager.
Be credible; find a pragmatic optimism that is tempered with realism
Help others to cope
Start where they are and help them to see how they can choose to respond to the situation. Help them to think through the 4 choices above.
Be an example in how you respond
Make sure you have your own support network

You can find out more about our Antidotes to Austerity series where our session on motivation in the workplace will help you to re-think motivation when times are tough.

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5 Types of Leadership for Tough Times

apex — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:21:54 +0000

What types of leadership might be helpful during tough times? Are there particular types of leadership that can be helpful during a recession?

To answer the question “what types of leadership might be needed?” it’s helpful to first ask another question. What are some of the key issues and difficulties that organisation face during a recession? Here we highlight five issues:

Difficult to know the way forward. Does the direction that the organisation chose in good times remain valid in a recession?
What needs to change? What things can turn around our fortunes in a recession?
How can we make good ideas to combat a recession become a part of what we do? How do we create opportunities in a recession?
When morale can dip and motivation waver, how do we maintain enthusiasm in a recession?
We need everybody to pull together to get out of this recession. How can we realise the potential of individuals within the organisation, when it is most needed?

5 Types of Leadership for Tough Times

That is a tough list of issues and we think that 5 types of leadership are needed to respond to these pressures.

Pathfinder – leading with vision

Pathfinders find a way through difficult times. When vision can become blurred or obscured, pathfinder leaders find ways to clarify what needs to be done. It is very easy to become distracted in a recession with the immediate pressures. A pathfinder leader seeks out ways forward in difficult situations. That may involve pragmatism, the art of the possible because that is sometimes all that can be done. Alternatively it may involve a leap of faith, when carrying on as usual is not an option and a more radical way forward is required

Game changer – leading with action

Game changers are resourceful leaders. They craft creative solutions by thinking differently about the resources they do have, rather than wishing for more resources that they don’t. They see the potential when resources are re-purposed to achieve outcomes beyond what was thought possible. As the phrase suggests game changers change the rules or turn the “table on its head” to think differently about the services/products you deliver. Often this is done by seeing things from a customer’s perspective.

Rain maker – leading with purpose

Rain maker leaders create opportunities. They make great ideas and excellent service fruitful. They find opportunities with customers and connect to the products and services that fulfill the opportunity. When order might be drying up rain makers find opportunities and connect the innovations of the game changer to customers. One of the critical types of leadership needed in a recession is to creatively work with customers.

Bridge builder – leading with service

Bridge builder leaders are able to build trust and support amongst colleagues especially when insecurities mount amongst colleagues. Morale and motivation are often first in line to suffer when times are tough. Bridge builder leaders demonstrate a commitment to serve their colleagues and customers.

Play maker – leading with others

Play makers get the best out of others. They are adept at helping others to use their strengths to help bring the business out of a recession. To succeed in a recession all the talent in an organisation needs to be harnessed. Play maker leaders know that leadership needs to be spread more widely, and are great at giving responsibility and encouraging others to take a lead.

5 types of leadership for tough times can help businesses to gain clarity (vision) and act resourcefully (action), so that they are able to realise opportunity (purpose), by building momentum amongst colleagues (service) and unlocking their talent and potential (lead with others).

You can find more about the 5 types of leadership in our article: uncommon characteristics of a good leader.

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What is Leadership? An Uncommon Practice?

apex — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:40:06 +0000

What is leadership? What if we take a different view of leadership and ask the question: what might be common to good leadership which is all to often uncommon in practice? How does uncommon leadership help to make a difference during times of austerity?

What is Leadership? Uncommon Leadership in the crucible of need

Uncommon Leadership is often best seen in the crucible of need – when compelling reasons clash with implacable constraints. It is characterised by:

Sensemaking in difficult circumstances
A refusal to leave underlying assumptions untested
A willingness to think differently
A resourcefulness
Optimism tempered with realism
Galvanising the strengths and commitment of those around them

In difficult circumstances it becomes a struggle translating neat leadership theory into the messy world of the workplace. In a difficult work environment with tough decisions to be made leaders are facing unpredictable circumstances. Those leaders are expected to show the way forward, often by thinking differently.

What is Leadership – holding tensions, releasing resources, unlocking potential

Uncommon Leadership answers the question “what is leadership?” differently. Here are 5 uncommon ways leaders can make an impact

What is leadership: holding the tension

Sometimes holding competing and often conflicting tensions can seem just too difficult. Something has to give … or does it? Holding tensions is crucial in difficult times, delaying the temptation to compromise. It is when leaders hold onto the challenge to find a third way that the possibility of seeing things differently emerges. All to often innovations are missed because we default to compromise and don’t hold competing tensions to find a better way forward.

What is leadership: releasing resources

How can you stop jumping to predictable (though understandable) resource cuts, when budgets are under pressure? In the face of fierce pressure on resources a bricolage approach is needed. Bricolage is a French word meaning: “to make creative and resourceful use of whatever materials are at hand (regardless of their original purpose).” Bricolage leadership means taking the lead in tough circumstances by crafting solutions out of what is available. Finding different uses for scarce resources and releasing trapped resources, or ineffective resources. “Life is not a matter of having good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.” Robert Louis Stevenson

What is leadership: resilience and optimism

Holding on to optimism is crucial in difficult circumstances, but this needs to be tempered with realism, otherwise a leaders optimism will not seem credible. Optimism encourages everyone to look for solutions to work out difficult situations. “The key requirements for leaders at this time is resilience and optimism – an ability to get people to think about what they can do with the resources we have at our disposal – rather than mourning the loss of the resources that have now gone”(Changing the shape of children’s services)

What is leadership: the common touch

When the pressure is on it is all too easy for leaders to be consumed by the problems at hand. In doing so the power of noticing the small things can often be lost. Find the small things that can have big impact. Firstly leaders who demonstrate that they care and notice by paying attention to what might seem small things, can make a big impression on those around them. Secondly, look out for the small things that could have a big impact on the business. What small changes might improve you service/product in a way that makes a big impression on your customers?

What is leadership: unlocking other people’s strengths

Why did a US basketball team dare to discard all the conventional measures of success and buy an “average” player? What did they know that others didn’t, and what is the powerful, often forgotten, leadership lesson it illustrates? In a nut shell they found an average player who whenever he was on the court the team played better. In difficult conditions leaders need to get others focused on using their strengths, and in particular be good at helping other to play to their strengths.

What is leadership? Perhaps it’s doing the uncommon things uncommonly well: Uncommon Leadership!

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Austerity Leadership Qualities

apex — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:42:11 +0000

What are the austerity leadership qualities that will help us to weather the recession? No doubt the list could be a long one, here we’ll focus on the importance of getting the balance right. Leadership has always been a balancing act, but perhaps more than ever getting the balance right matters during austerity, for example do you:

plan for growth or prepare for recession
invest in new ideas or cut products or services

To help explore these dilemas we’ll consider austerity leadership qualities associated with balancing maintenance with mission.

Maintenance is about ensuring that what you currently do is done well
Mission is about the future and direction – finding the new, extending and growing.

Austerity Leadership Qualities – 5 P’s

The austerity leadership qualities of pruning and protecting are maintenance activities.

Pruning means cutting back when things grow out of proportion or things are added to what you do without thought of the complexity or effectiveness. Pruning is an activity that should be done periodically, but in a recession it can be particularly helpful to think about where activities need to be cut back. This is not the same as making cuts across the board, which is a frequent course of action. Across-the-board cuts are indiscrimate and hit parts of the business which need support and could be key to helping an organisation grow out of a recession. Pruning is targetted and focuses on areas wher unnessary complexity or reduced effectiveness is apparent.
Protecting is about keeping a close eye on your processes that they do what they are supposed to do. Spotting problems early and protecting the people and processes you manage from their impact. In a recession concentrate on your key value adding processes, the parts of the business that really make a difference for your customers.

Transitioning from maintenance to mission

Preserving represents a transition between maintenance and mission. Preserving is about keeping the essence of what makes you distinctive, you need to preserve this in the current way you work, and you need to preserve it in any changes you plan to make. It is easy to lose what makes you distinctive as an organisation. Cuts to staffing levels, re-organisations and re-structures all carry the very real risk of losing or damaging the engagement of staff and the culture of the organisation. In times of change leaders need to work hard at preserving the distinctiveness of the organisation.

The austerity leadership qualities of planting and pioneering are about mission. There can be a tendency to spend much more time in a recession focusing on maintenance activities. However, to challenge asuterity leaders need to balance the necessary focus on maintenance with mission. Mission can be seem as a luxury during a recession, yet really it is one of the key to challenging austerity.

Planting is the most familiar kind of change and improvement. It is about building and expanding on what you currently do to offer new services/products. Planting is about growing based on your strengths, building your capability.
Pioneering is a more radical view of the future. It is about finding new opportunities that could take the organisation in new directions. There are always opportunities in difficult circumstances. One area to think about more speciifcally in recession is how your business saves your customers money or makes them money.

Think through your response to austerity:

Review your service or processes in the context of the 5P’s.
Then think about how you might plan to build the 5P’s in to the activities in the coming year or next period.
Both maintenance and mission are crucial austerity leadership qualities, but have you got the balance right?
There is tendency to focus on maintenance activities during a recession, so deliberately spend more time thinking about the mission activities.

Join the conversation about antidotes to austerity. What leadership qualities would you put top of your list?

To find out more about challenging austerity see our new workshops designed to help organisations find antidotes to austerity.

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Essential Leadership Skills for a Tough Recession

apex — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:09:27 +0000

What are some of the essential leadership skills for coping with a recession? A tough recession can make you question what matters in your business. And that is not a bad question to ask. It also leads to questions about where you focus your energies.

In answer to these questions it is useful to note that what is often required is perseverence, to remind yourself to keep at it!

Leadership Skills to Keep Going

So here are some key leadership skills to help you keep going during tough times:

1 Keep in touch – the simple secret behind good leadership is to regularly spend time with your colleagues. A distant leader too often feels like an absent leader. You should also more than ever think about how you keep in touch with your customers. How can you keep listening and engaged with your customers?

2 Keep it simple – simple takes a lot of effort. Complexity leads to frustration and an unhappy workplace or worse unhappy customers. A recession is a good time to check that you keep what you do simple. Most things in business tend towards complexity if left alone. To keep things simple you need to be vigilant.

3 Keep it real – sometimes a healthy dose of pragmatism is needed in the workplace. Some things can’t easily be changed and, whilst they may cause you angst or some frustration, they don’t seem to go away. In such situations use a sense of pragmatism to help you keep things in perspective.

4 Keep up to date – your knowledge and expertise will always need updating. It needs refreshing, renewing and replacing, as and when new ideas make some of the old obselete. A recession is a good time to think about what areas of your knowedge you need to update. Are there new areas in which you need to develop expertise?

5 Keep it fresh – take a look at how you do business. Do you have the same enthusiasm as when you started? What motivates you at work? Think about what energises you? What things/people are sources of energy for you? Spend time doing more of the things that are sources of energy for you.

6 Keep on track - in a recesssion its easy to lose track of what you are doing. In trying to balance conflicting demands or coping with budgetary and resource cuts, you can easily lose focus. With so much going on, it’s easy to be knocked off course.

So our final “keep” keeps all the others in place!

You can find out more about our our approach to the recession with our service: antidotes to austerity.

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