ARTICLE 12
THE BIZ article to be published THE EDGE magazine

David Freemantle, author of the new book THE BIZ and an international expert on leadership and motivation asserts that “The best bosses are MAD!  They Make A Difference by getting the little things right.”

THE LITTLE THINGS THAT

MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE TO

TEAM MOTIVATION AND LEADERSHIP

By

David Freemantle

Doing the biz

The best leaders do the biz. They go MAD!  They go and Make A Difference rather than merely apply rules and procedures.  They think differently and behave differently.  Rather than wait for the HR Department to come along with the latest fashion to motivate staff they find their own innovate little ways of  motivating their teams to perform exceptionally well and achieve the required results.  They Make  A Difference  on a daily basis as well as in the longer term. This is the biz.

These local bosses understand what the biz is all about and so do their teams.  They are focused and they have flair. Furthermore they have fun in fighting hard to deliver the goods. That’s the biz.  It’s all about delivery and making things happen – for customers, for team-members, for the company and of course for themselves.

It is not just a matter of implementing grand strategies and pursuing long-term visions.  Nor is it matter of intellectual debate as to the values to be applied in the way the organisation is managed and customers are dealt with.

It is a matter of daily operation, of the little things the best bosses do and think on a minute-by-minute basis which have such a big impact on the teams they manage.  This is the biz.

The best leaders do the biz when they step through the door at 8.00 a.m. on a Monday morning.   That’s because they choose to step through that door at 8.00 a.m. as opposed to 9.00 a.m. or 10.00 a.m.  Every little choice they make, even as to what time they start work, will have a big impact on the motivation of the team.

Whatever they do first thing will be observed and have an impact on the team’s motivation.  Thus  their decision at 8.00 a.m. whether to pick up the phone, or check the e-mail,  or read a newspaper, or grab a coffee, or go and see the Director, or  chat to the secretary or walk around saying ‘Hi!’ to every team member and asking about their weekend will have an impact.  The worst bosses get these small behaviours wrong and the best bosses excel at them. This is the biz.

One key premise

There is no theory behind the biz no more than there can be a theory behind marriage.  However there is one premise that is important and that is  “that motivated people perform more effectively in delivering  results than demotivated people”.  This is almost a truism but even so it is worth  stating because it begs the corollary that “to achieve results a leader must focus on how he or she motivates people”.  It is amazing how many companies and managers ignore this simple premise.

Putting people first

My  first management job was as a Production Manager with the American chocolate manufacturer Mars Ltd.  It was then and still is an excellent company. I learnt many valuable management lessons at Mars and one of them was  that to excel in business you have to invest an inordinate amount of time, energy and effort in getting the people thing right.  That principle has stayed with me throughout my career – which included a post on the board of an airline.  With the hindsight of wisdom and all my experiences with a multitude of companies around the world, some good and some not so good, I believed in the principle then and I believe in it now.  If you don’t focus your leadership energies on people then they won’t focus their energies on creating a leading competitive edge for  the company.” David Freemantle

The Mars approach is rare.  It is all too common to visit companies to find demoralised people who moan and grown about their big bad bosses.  These employees do not feel valued and complain that their bosses walk all over them, demanding too much from them and giving too little in return. Whilst most people accept the premise that “To be successful in management you must put people first” it is all too clear from a proliferation of reports and newspaper cases that this rarely happens.   In their pursuit of short term profit too many managers neglect the essential people factor in the business equation.

To do the biz you have to devote a large proportion of your time and thinking to getting the people thing right and that means assigning top priority to motivation.

Choosing positive behaviours

This means choosing  positive behaviours and attitudes which will  maximise the chance of stimulating the positive motivational choices of others.  Thus if your own boss shouts at you loudly and rebukes you when something has gone wrong then you have a choice. You can choose to be demotivated (by getting defensive and becoming negative) or you can choose to be motivated (by learning the lessons and applying them).  These little minute-by-minute behavioural choices can make a big difference to morale.    When leaders  make effective behavioural choices they effectively do the biz – they achieve the desired results because the people in their teams are motivated to do so.

Taking a genuine interest in team-members

To quote Nanz Chong-Komo previously  Chief Executive of the chain of ONE.99 Shops in Singapore “I get insights into people’s lives.  Fifty percent of motivation is asking people how they are.  Be interested in people first.”  

When a boss is genuinely interested in team-members and their welfare and care they are much more likely to do the biz than if they feel there boss is only interested in his own thing.

Apply the stimulus factor

The best bosses experiment frequently with new motivational stimuli.  They do not make the naïve assumption that the routine repetition of the ‘employee of the month’ award will actually motivate people.  The best service provider in Sri Lanka,  ODEL retailers, has daily ten minute motivation sessions for its teams.  One of the best companies in South Africa,  RandAir does a similar thing. They have ‘eight minute motivational sessions’ at 8.00 a.m every morning.   How many companies do you know that put the accent on motivation and devote ten precious minutes every day to this?

Self-awareness

The worst bosses are not aware of how they are perceived by the teams.  They develop a highly sanitised perception of their own capability without realising that behind their backs their teams are always moaning and groaning about them.  Conversely the best bosses have very sensitive antennae and encourage feedback from their teams no matter how critical.  Thus Henry Stewart, Chief Executive of the award winning UK company Happy Computers regularly hands all his staff a blank piece of papers and invites them to write down what they think of him.  “Don’t flatter me,” he advises them, “because I can’t learn from flattery.  I really want to know what you think of me so that I can learn from this.”   Henry Stewart also carries out regular ‘happiness checks’ to find out how his staff feel.

Curiosity and learning

Speaking in London in May 2002  Michael Dell was asked what motivated him, given that he is one of the richest 40 year olds in the USA.  His answer was simple.  “Curiosity.  There is always a better way and I am curious about how to find it.”  Michael Dell found a better way to make computers. He found a better way to sell computers.

The best bosses are always learning. They aim to push back the boundaries and explore new territory.  As Sir Chay Blythe says  ““The challenge for any leader is to see beyond their natural horizons and to

encourage their people to see that way too.”  Any cursory study will reveal that the current international  icons of business leadership (for example Sir Richard Branson,  Jack Welch and Tony Tan Caktiong) are those who ‘Made A Difference’. They moved away from convention, they innovated and they took their people with them.  That’s the BIZ!

Dr David Freemantle is the founder of the company Superboss Ltd  and is based in Windsor, UK. He is one of the world’s leading experts on leadership, motivation and customer service and is highly respected around the world for his thought-provoking seminars on these subjects.  He has written 14 business books many of which have been best-sellers.  His two new books THE BIZ and THE BUZZ have just been published by Nicholas Brealey Publishers.  He can be contact through his website: www.superboss.co.uk 

ARTICLE COPYRIGHT © Dr David Freemantle