This article is for the leader of each functional unit within a business, but to get it truly right as with most business imperatives, it starts at the top. The very top (that’s you Mr CEO).
In business, doing things simply is often the most complex of tasks. Unless it becomes part of the company culture and in my experience, driving culture regarding working as a cohesive leadership team is lacking. In spades.
By a cohesive leadership team, I don’t mean back slapping, team building Ra-Ra Kumbaya (although that too is important. The sense of succeeding and failing together as a unit builds excellent team dynamics). What I’m referring to, is knowing and acting upon the fact that no matter the role, be it the leader in Sales, Finance, IT, Marketing, HR, Operations functions etc. that the function is only one cog in the business machine. And alone, division cannot turn the business profitability mechanic.
But boy do we behave like we can. It may be because leaders often drive themselves extremely hard to perform, it may be because of all the glory that comes with standing out head and shoulders or it could be the fear of failure that drives us so hard to succeed.
Either way, business is truly an ecosystem (and you don’t have to believe me, Google knows a lot about business as an ecosystem), where all parts affect and are affected by each other. If this is true, why is silioistic heroism allowed in our organisations? Why is it ok for some business units not to show up? Why are voices of specialists and the various specialisms muffled (there’s that siloistic heroism again)? Why does Finance drive Marketing and HR drive Operations?
Unless every day, there is an effort to talk to the other functional leaders in the business about how to drive the business forward as a combined unit, then arguably, we’re just managers. Not leaders.
In fairness, this is mostly occurs in medium to large business. Small business tends to get it right, because there is no ‘safe zone’ to run to. The likelihood of hiding behind the veil of a business function is low because the need to collaborate and to have the right minds on a challenging issue is critical to business growth. In the value chain, opportunities and problems need to be looked at with a variety of different lenses to truly grasp the concept at hand and how it should play out for the customer. Smaller businesses also seem to do it better because there isn’t enough money to employ the different functions required in a medium sized business. Everybody is wearing many hats. And everybody cares so deeply about the success of the outcome, that it doesn’t matter where the ideas come from, as long as they come.
Instead of the Operations Director thinking “nobody is as important as Operations because we are the business and nobody knows it like we do’, instead of the Finance Director thinking ‘I can do marketing and sales in my sleep’ perhaps acknowledgment that being a functional leader, and doing a dam good job at it, is actually only half the job.
The other half, is being sufficiently humble in the knowledge that functional cogs cannot move on their own.
Get out of your office (this goes for the team too) and genuinely understand other parts of the organisation, respecting that what each team brings to the party as a combined and cohesive force. By acknowledging the technical skills that come with each function and acting collaboratively instantaneously moves the business ahead of the majority of competition, and isn’t this what being in business is all about? Delivering better than anybody else, your unique purpose for being in business?
Like I said. Its complex, but can be done simply.
The Summary.
Sitting behind the veil of a business function is taking the business backwards, not forwards.
Get out of your office (this goes for your team too) and genuinely understand other parts of the organisation, respecting that what other teams bring to the party as a combined and cohesive force, acknowledging the technical skills that come with each function instantaneously moves the business ahead of the majority of the competition
- Your department is not the most important department (you know, that theory around the sum of all the parts…)
- Innovation comes easier when there are different perspectives tackling the same opportunity, together
- Siloistic heroism is over. Yawn.
- Be that driver of change that is often so needed in businesses that run on status quo…that is if your business is to survive
- Act like a big company, think like a small one