Opener
Never before has business leadership style shown its true face more emphatically than during this Covid – 19 pandemic. Being in the financial services industry has certainly highlighted the seriously questionable and oft times “broken” service experiences of our dealings with corporates and businesses alike. This, whilst trying to maintain top standards of advice and administrative delivery and other expectations to our loyal client base. Clients expect nothing less! After all, they pay to have us “keep on track” and “get things done” professionally.
The Problem
So, for starters, wow. Just about everybody is forcibly working off- site! This should not be too much of a problem, or is it? I would assume that the financial services sector must employ a high number of digitally astute teams of employees as a sector. Probably does. People however are not processes and the problem as experienced (that none of our Clients would ever want to know or care about), is that:
1. Generally, things do not get done efficiently by our external business partners.
2. Knowledge and skills without on-site managerial and go-to presence is seriously lacking when other needed businesses people and their teams are “out there”
3. The word escalate must be the most common business-used term for every service delivery issue. And, trust me, most of the escalations could well be assigned to oblivion or Mars! That is how long things generally take in this new order of work. Seamless businesses have become rather disconnected offsite.
I do not write about this to excuse us, as hopefully little has changed here at TWPG, and the Client experience still rules the relationship and completion of our duties to those who pay our bills. We sincerely understand this, so why this article? It’s general and NB!
The Challenge
Our business will not put police-like control systems into place to measure the actions, productivity, and movements of our people off site and 60% of them are always out there. Why? People are not numbers and they are not robotic two-legged beings measured on a payroll identity. So, as never before, business culture and values, not spoken about as a fashion, but delivered consistently over a long period, now proves the leadership mettle or fabric of every business large and small during Covid-19. It is revelation time!! We truly have enjoyed a continued and respected relationship with our Clients. Thank You.
Whether you are in the C Suite, managerial or supervisory role, each of us has to reflect on the truth of our current business experiences and the way we deal with our people and teams. It even questions employment parameters, systems, and management relationships with the way we do business, which frankly is still driven by people first and systems, robotics and AI thereafter!!
Let nobody be confused by the brilliance of general, systematic and well-intended software that “tells you everything” you need to know regarding leadership and human resources. By pure experience and the current situation unfolding, never before have more basic and human leadership traits become the definitive measure of our futures.
Simplicity Unveiled
1. Leadership and management, by example, should engage. Making sure that teams, through consistent communication, identify, understand and know that your own and personal business energy will always win, not grand company strategy and ideals
2. Teams/employees should be positioned for full ownership of their duties. They own their careers/jobs/duty and accountability. Especially off-site, they own their space!
3. Nobody is paid by anybody but by the client or customer! Every bit of work done is completed for a client, even if it’s way further down the pipeline through a process, other people etc. Every business’ employee is the team’s internal client or customer to their colleagues!
4. A salary is paid automatically assuming all the work gets done with the least amount of intervention. (After all, that was the CV for the post.) Accountability is a CV structure or “manufacture” and is now an Internet science for everybody to qualify with, regardless of ability, pretty sad….
5. Besides company intervention and improvement, a person’s voluntarily driven self-development is the only career highway to the future – investing time and money!!
The Truth Conclusion
1. Your business becomes a true and utter reflection of your leadership over time.
2. Your team’s accountability reflects the culture and values of that same leadership
3. For team members, opportunity reigns, employment is lead; lead appropriately
4. Results, short of being fear-driven, will never beat self-imposed development drive
5. Leadership balancing perfection, stewardship, humility, boldness, and dignity, has finally taken hold and does not compromise results if we are all “on the same page”
6. Business and services for Clients is personal, very personal and more emotionally charged than ever before; there is no end in sight on this, even as the world recovers.
I feel, with the strongest conviction, that there never has been a more important time in our financial services business history to stubbornly maintain core human values and ensure service delivery to Clients as trusted and skillful businesses and teams. We must uphold our business integrity in a future melting pot of dangerous digressions and influences which disrupts trust, expectations, and business continuity. We will ensure that we can uphold the trusted business experience expected of our identity, whether it’s in our character, knowledge, support or understanding.
All the above is shared fully recognizing that future leadership and team compatibility is based on totally different needs and standards – the home office has fast-forwarded. It is probably high time to rewrite the leadership roles we all have respecting the changing landscape of how we lead, behave, do business, and effectively bond with our own people.
Stay Strong
& ’til next time
Tom