CRISIS MANAGEMENT – Do you know any Leaders who are “Adrenaline Junkies”
Michael I have a problem – do you know anyone who can help me?
Maybe – what exactly is the problem?
I have run out of cash!
I have very low income currently!
I have had a bad inspection report!
I am not able to pay the tax bill!
These are typical of the problems we encounter from businesses who are not managing themselves properly but instead are running themselves by the “seat of their pants”.
Does that mean they are bad businesses?
No not necessarily –in fact they are often good businesses, who have become sloppy with their management discipline.
I think Michael Heseltine was once quoted as saying “There is no such thing as a bad business –but there are lots of perfectly good businesses with bad leaders.”
Leaders who have become complacent, or who have such arrogance that they are too proud to take advice. The number of times I have made recommendations to businesses to change the way they work, only to have those recommendations ignored, until those “leaders” are forced to ask for help – sometimes when it is too late.
This is where it is so important to distinguish between leadership and management. In my opinion we often see good managers suffering from a lack of good leadership.
It is the “leaders”job to describe the vision, to set the goals, and to motivate the team to follow the leader to achieve the vision.
To do so, the leader must encourage and motivate the management to work out “How” to plan and achieve milestones. However the planning and implementation is often “abdicated” rather than “delegated” properly and those businesses end up focused on activity “doing it, doing it, doing it,etc”, rather than focused on results.
This means they lose sight of why they are doing what they do and they run out of cash or get into similar serious problems, that sometimes become too difficult to solve, and management and leadership have destroyed their credibility.
How about you?
What should your business look like at 31 December 2015?
How much money will be needed in the bank? Do you really know?
If not, how will you know if your business has been successful? Or are you a leader who is an “adrenaline junkie” who trusts your business to the vagaries of life, to be blown wherever the currents of business are blowing, only to react at the time to whatever issues face you at that time.
If so, make a note of my telephone number, because you will probably need to be calling soon.
Michael Ogilvie – OBC The Accountants 0044 1323 720555