The Red Rose Turning Over a New Leaf

When choosing new team members, one of the leading considerations is, without a doubt, the alignment of the individual to the core beliefs and values of your organisation. Whether the role is for a junior or senior position, this is relevant and becomes increasingly so as the person progresses through the organisation, responding to new demands and taking on more responsibilities.

Sometimes though, bringing in new blood creates an opportunity to consolidate and realign an organisation’s brand values, where simply singing from the same hymn sheet and following the accepted way in which the company must progress just won’t cut it. Take the example of a manager who is recruited to work under an MD who wishes to bring about a change or realignment in the organisation and therefore selects a second-in-command which many may view as controversial. A new manager with explicitly alternative methods can, in this case, provide a breath of fresh air, reinvigorating and reinventing what the company stands for.

The case of England Rugby Union’s new captain is a perfect example of such rebranding. Dogged by poor performances which were preventing the team from achieving the success which their potential suggested they should, the coach and his staff made a controversial decision to elect Dylan Hartley – a man with a year’s worth of suspensions due to a raft of disciplinary offences – as the captain and the leader of the team in practice on the field. In so doing, the coaching team (SMT) has ‘screamed from the rooftops’ that England will now look to play through a specific style of rugby that the hard-nosed Hartley epitomises. Such decisions are never easy ones, embroiled in risk as many criticise the unorthodoxy of following a new course, yet for success to be achieved, Eddie Jones et al feel there is a necessity for a change to the perception of English Rugby, which Hartley represents.

It is a shift in brand values that many will disagree with and find uncomfortable; a captain and therefore a team who are praised by the very fact that they have been selected, despite poor discipline. One consequence of such a change is that, whether it breeds success for the team or not, this new England Rugby brand could be perceived as advocating foul play and ill discipline and may lose many supporters in the process. Perhaps for Eddie Jones, this is a necessary evil in order to achieve his objectives, but nevertheless the change of brand values will have a profound effect on the reputation and popularity of the team. This begs the question what is the ultimate goal for English rugby? To win, or to establish role models for young people to aspire towards?

The recruitment of an individual outside of the company’s core beliefs and values can change the brand perception drastically, particularly when that person occupies a significant role. It is the job of the employer to establish their priorities, and weigh up whether the company’s new path for success is worth the change in perception which may come with it.

A Manager's Greatest Compliment

As a leader in the boardroom or in sport, there will inevitably be times when someone just doesn’t quite fit the team. Such scenarios often become obvious quite quickly, in which case the decision to let the individual leave is a simple one. But what if it isn’t so clear cut? Such decision making becomes far more ambiguous once one or more of the following factors come into play:

* Perhaps the company went out of their way to recruit this individual
* Their experience provided the perfect background for the role with you
* There may be a personal relationship that has been built up over time

Such cases often lead to procrastination on the part of the leader, as no decision is perhaps seen as a better way to avert criticism than a wrong decision. The final choice, in such situations, should always include what is best for the employee themselves. For certain, as business managers and owners, our first priority will always be the success of the company, yet if a member of the team is unhappy in your environment, regardless of their ability, they are less likely to achieve their potential, and as managers, surely unlocking that potential is the fundamental goal. Using a sport analogy, a player at a smaller club may have the ability to achieve greater things, but to do this they must transfer to a larger club. Gareth Bale, the ‘Welsh Wizard’, epitomised this with a transfer from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid, a club at which he now thrives. Those of you with any level of interest in sport could list dozens of similar examples. It is not necessarily the case that the employee is any better than anyone else within the company, just that a change of environment is required for them, and for the rest of your team.

It goes without saying that letting an employee go should be seen only ever as a last resort. Before taking such a decision, all alternatives should be exhausted to see if you can reach an understanding of why there is an issue, and if it can be resolved. However if the issue is beyond repair, perhaps cutting across beliefs and values of the organisation or your management style, it is probably time to part company.

Such decisions are hardly easy, but they allow the individual to excel personally even if that requires leaving your team, providing them with the platform to move onto better things. It also relieves the rest of your team of any tension or stress that having the individual on board may have caused, allowing them to deliver an improved performance. Fundamentally, when we look beyond our selfish interests, is this not a manager’s greatest accolade - the encouragement and facilitation of success for employees in whatever way possible, even if that means letting them go?

Their failure to thrive in your environment may present the opportunity for them to succeed in someone else’s.

Keep Calm and Build Rapport

I was asked recently to run a training session at a company that was going through a great deal of change. Many of the delegates had been told they would have to reapply for their jobs and most had been told they had to attend the training session. Morale was low and looking at the body language and facial expressions of those sitting in front of me, it was clear that learning was the last thing on their minds. What options were open to me to turn things around, to make the session I had planned into a positive and beneficial one for those attending?

We all face difficult conversations at times, whether with our children, parents, or partners at home at work with colleagues, employees or customers at work. Conversations don’t always go as we’d like, or reach the best outcome and that’s because often the conversation happens before rapport is in place.

Rapport is a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned intuitively understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well.  It’s that feeling of ‘getting on’ or ‘hitting it off’ with someone which sometimes comes naturally but more often than not has to be built. The good news is that it can be built quite quickly once you know how

1. Match the mood
Watch and consciously match the other person’s posture and movements; listen and match the speed, pace and volume of their speech to increase rapport. Back in my training room, I simply acknowledged that I was aware that there was a degree of uncertainty in the business and that some of the delegates might be feeling less than enthusiastic about the day.

2. Ask questions that are positive, non-specific and easy to agree with
An example I might have used would be, “I know some of you are wondering how much you’ll learn from this training, aren’t you?”

3. Use metaphors and stories
Anecdotes and metaphorical stories that have a similar structure as the message you want to convey, but a different content, are a great way to communicate a similar point in a way that allows the other person to make sense of it using their own images, experiences and ideas.

Rapport means being able to relate to others in a way that creates a climate of trust and understanding, and that’s a great place to influence positive change in any context.