My hard-earned lessons in how to build a team — and motivate them - Sunday Times

The wonderful tributes last month from footballers who played under the late Terry Venables described how he made everyone feel like a leader, encouraged to outperform by his guidance.

It was a skill I wish all leaders could learn. Whether you are the chief executive of a company, the head of a department, or the manager of a football squad, you have to create a culture where everyone in your team feels trusted and empowered to realise their potential.

It’s no use just working like Hercules yourself and hoping others will follow your example.

According to the management consultancy McKinsey, about half of chief executives fail to add value to their organisations partly because, obsessed by personal legacies, they don’t get the best out of their teams. The strategy the boss sets is crucial, of course, but it’s people and execution that make a business successful.

As the chairman and an investor in several companies, I have hired many managers and chief executives. I’ve made some fantastic appointments and, if I’m honest, a few mistakes. But along the way, I think I’ve learnt some lessons about getting the best out of managers — and how they can get the best out of me.

Hopefully, these lessons can help some of you get the best out of your leadership teams.

First off, set your expectations and goals for them as soon as you have hired them; I don’t even wait until their first day. Ideally, they will have outlined their 30, 60 and 90-day plans at their final interview, so encourage them to build these more fully while they are working out their notice period prior to joining you. That way, you will have them immersing themselves in your business even before you have started paying them!

I recently appointed Jambu Palaniappan as Checkatrade.com's new chief executive. With him, as with every new #leader who starts working for me, we shared a two-page discussion document called “Working together — some thoughts”. This outlines quite clearly how the pair of us think we can best form a working alliance. So: what do I expect them to achieve? How do they feel I can get the best out of them? How do I feel they can get the best out of me? What motivates and demotivates each of us?

Finally, we clearly outline their role as chief executive and mine as chairman.

For Jambu and me, this approach has helped our working relationship in that the expectations of both sides have been set from the very beginning. As a chairman, it’s important to discuss and establish with the leader how they are going to achieve the targets (key performance indicators) set out in their exciting five-year plan. That means sharing and discussing monthly data covering our profit and loss performance, our customer growth and customer satisfaction.

I expect them to recruit a talented team from within the organisation and externally.

I like regular catch-ups as well as board meetings, for which I expect my leaders to set the agenda and send me “pre-read” material in advance to stimulate great discussions — no long PowerPoint presentations.

My chief executives should also never be afraid to ask for my time — to help open doors to potential new clients, to discuss ideas at strategy sessions, or to request that I send congratulatory or thank-you messages to any of their team.

By the way, I’m trying harder than ever to be empathetic with my chief executives, too, asking how they are feeling and how was their weekend — before getting into the nitty gritty of their agendas. Likewise, I’m making sure I listen attentively.

It’s important to give your leaders regular feedback, and not just wait for the formal half-year performance review. I’m a fan of The One-Minute Manager series of books from Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, in which they talk about feedback being “the breakfast of champions”. They recommend keeping it short and frequent, and aimed at building people up rather than knocking them down. If there is some negative feedback, let them know but don’t dwell on it — and reaffirm your confidence in them.

Before you know it, you will have been working with your new recruit for six months — and it will be time for that first formal performance review. I will talk to their direct reports, review the financial and operational performance, and decide if it’s going really well or is a bit disappointing. If the latter, it’s better to part company sooner rather than later. Looking back, I have never acted too hastily in saying goodbye; instead, I have always left it too long. Mistakes get made in recruitment, and there will be times when it’s the headhunter’s fault, so make sure the contract includes a clause that says it’s incumbent on them to find a swift replacement.

My best senior recruits have always been more talented than me, and have shown me how to be better and how I can adapt, particularly in reining in my entrepreneurial instinct to “do too much”. Because as Venables demonstrated brilliantly, no matter how good you think you are, you need to give your top team the freedom to play.