In my 39 years of business life I have learnt a great deal. My first 25 years was in corporate life where I had some great managers and some real idiots. I quickly realised I could learn from both of them. The good manager I copied; the idiots I realised the negative effect they had on me and just did the opposite of what they did!
Here are the 6 pieces of advice I received that have led me to whatever success I enjoy today.
1. 'Son, just do a good job, then everyone will want you'
When I started my first job my father gave me a great bit of advice. He said “Son, don’t get involved in company politics. To get on in life just focus on doing a good job and then everyone will want you….” This held me in good stead as I climbed the corporate ladder and then when I started Beyond Philosophy, one of the world’s first dedicated Customer Experience consultancies, from home some 11 years ago. That was probably the most daunting time for me. I gave up a highly paid job to start up on my own. At that time no one had really heard of ‘Customer Experience’ as a concept until I wrote my first book, Building Great Customer Experiences, Palgrave Macmillan 2002 . They certainly hadn’t heard of me or my new company, Beyond Philosophy. But I quickly understood this advice still held true. By ‘doing a good job’ for clients I quickly built a successful business. For example, we helped Maersk Line, the world’s leading container shipping company, improve their Net promoter score by 40 points in 30 months. I think my Father would class that as ‘doing a good job’, certainly Maersk Line did. Take a look at the case study here.
2. 'None of us are as clever as all of us'
One of the fundamental bits of advice I was given by an old boss. Practically, this means if we use the collective brain power of the team then that is better than any one person’s thoughts. At the beginning of my career I thought that being the manager/leader meant I needed to know everything and make all the decisions. How wrong I was! What I learnt was that I need to be a good leader for people who know things. I need to get the most out of my people by inspiring them; creating the environment for them to work in and give them space to flourish. Therefore, I learnt the irony of leadership is that you have to ‘let go’ and trust people. These tie into another piece of advice I was given ...
3. Employ people who are smarter than you
Many leaders are worried about employing people who are more intelligent than themselves. They see it as a threat to their leadership. It’s not a threat, it’s an incredible advantage. I am blessed at Beyond Philosophy that all the people that work with me are smarter than I. I encourage people to challenge me and show me a better way. I encourage them to take the lead in different situations. This is not a threat to my leadership; this shows the strength of our organization. How I lead the organization then becomes the most important thing. This brings me to the next piece of advice I was given: how to operate different leadership styles…
4. Democracy and Republican
The best manager I ever had was a guy called Neil Hobbs. Neil taught me many things and I still admire the way he leads his teams. Neil used a phrase that I still use today. In fact I was coaching one of the Beyond Philosophy team on this only the other day. Neil used to tell me there is a difference between ‘Democracy and Republican’ modes of leadership. He would say to get the most from people they need to feel motivated; they need to buy into what you are doing; they need to feel inspired to work hard and go above and beyond the call of duty. To do this you need to operate a democracy style of leadership. I now do this. I involve people in decisions, we debate things, argue our points and ideally we will reach a consensus. In doing so, we are all more committed to this outcome.
Neil used to tell me that human nature is such that this doesn’t always work 100% of the time. Sometimes the team can’t agree, or the debate is just going on for too long. When this happens you need to move into Republican mode. Republican mode is when I make the decision and tell people what to do. The reality is, I rarely use this mode, but the team know that I reserve the right to do this. What I have found is that as people know you normally work in a democratic way they respect it when you switch modes to republican. I see too many businesses with ‘macho’ management. They think by shouting and scaring people you get the most from them. You don’t. This is just a power trip for that person. The irony is many of them are just insecure in themselves. In my view it takes a more mature form of leadership to operate democracy. You have to be comfortable in your own skin. But this only works if you then operate the next principle Neil told me about…
5. 'Once we agree, we do'
When everyone has had the opportunity to put their case forward, we have debated it and we have agreed an approach, either through democracy or republican, we do. We implement. No excuses. No more debate. Now is the time for action. Debate is over and collective responsibility now kicks in….
6. 'Do as you would be done by'
Finally, the advice I have given myself throughout my life is ‘do as you would be done by’. In a leadership environment this means I lead by example. I never ask one of my team to do something that I am not prepared to do myself. We are all equals, we just do different jobs. Everyone’s opinion is valid and should be treated with respect. I don’t stay at better hotels than my team. What’s good for me is good for them, I am no better than them and I believe I have built a better committed team because I ‘do as I would be done by’…
These philosophies have held me in good stead over the years. Today we have a great team that are all motivated and committed and are all respected for their thought leadership inCustomer Experience. That’s something that I’m proud off…
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