When it comes to effective leadership, sometimes you’ve got to go back to basics. That’s what ‘Ben’, our fourth anonymous leader, believes most of all.
Ben works for a homecare company, operating in supported living, caregiving and home assistance. The business is far-reaching, with lots of care to go around. When he first started, in a managerial role, the company was half its current size. Now, Ben is an important figure in his department.
As Ben explains, he went from helping “the business standardise systems and processes”, to “managing the largest digital transformation project in social care”.
As Head of IT Projects, Ben is most definitely leader material: “I am very fortunate to have a fantastic team behind me”.
“I’m directly responsible for 8 leaders, with a 45 strong project team underneath the leadership team to help deliver the project.”
The Scenario: Balancing Projects and Staff
The digital transformation project had been steaming along for a few years – no years extra than expected for a large-scale change, but a long time, nonetheless.
The majority of Ben’s team had stayed the same, but not everything fell into place so easily…
Ben admits that “the role and life of a project implementer is not easy… long hours, high risk, high pressure”. Most of the team worked away from home, on the road for the majority of the year.
With the project still ongoing, the company doubling in size and integrating new acquisitions, “the team was slipping”.
Simply put, “the salary and benefits we offered weren’t competitive enough to be able to retain good staff”.
So, Ben and his company faced the fallout: “high turnover of staff, exhaustion, poaching from competitors, implementations not going to plan, and a general feeling of instability within the team”.
“The reality of the situation was that we were going too fast; we got into a really good drumbeat in the project that, in essence, made us become complacent and not look after the team’s welfare”.
Seeing as project delays were a costly problem, in terms of both welfare and expenses, something had to change. Just as his company puts care first, Ben had to do the same.
The First Step Towards Solution: The BIG Meeting
A mini-break in the large-scale project was approaching, so Ben took the opportunity to care for his team. They held “a week-long team meeting to gather all issues, concerns, and general feedback”.
That’s right – one week dedicated to discussions and collaborative growth. Seven days whole spent letting every member of the team be heard.
For Ben, transparency was key. “We all know a week-long team meeting can’t fix everything […] the objective was to be transparent, allow the team to be heard, set plans in place… and stick to them”.
“Transparency is my number one rule in management”.
Even when being too honest has backfired for Ben, he still believes in telling his team the truth, including any challenges being faced. “There are too many managers that carry all of the problems on their shoulders. Your team is there to help you”.
During their week of sharing, the team talked about industry-wide issues and business direction; they chatted about the pressures of perfection, failure, and timescales.
What Concerns Were Raised? How Were They Tackled?
All issues were addressed one by one, so everyone could feel heard by the department’s leadership team. Here’s what they mentioned:
- Pay
We all know that money talk is a bit taboo in business. But, for Ben’s team, salary “was a big topic of conversation”. Better pay was being offered elsewhere, and the current pay “didn’t warrant the sacrifices” of their intensive roles. To be a proactive listener, Ben gave the company evidence: “the importance of the role, delay impacts (costs), competitive analysis of similar roles”. Trust was built and “the business agreed to uplift the salary of the team to a more competitive structure”. Also, to go hand in hand with the new competitive salary, Ben “delivered a better benefits package to the team – expenses, bonus scheme, and external training”.
- Training and Career Pathways
As another confidence building technique, Ben discussed career pathways with each team member individually, as well as any “gaps they felt they had in their role, both internally and externally”. Each person could then receive a personalised training plan and mapped out career pathway, to be fully equipped to deliver their role and grow – a benefit for themselves and the company. “We helped shape their thinking”.
- Group Away Days
With a remote team, always on the road, away days had been partially neglected. So, four away days were scheduled and more virtual team meetings were planned, “to ensure this action list got discussed and to allow the team a forum to further express any concerns or issues”.
- Less Time Away From Home
Even if working away from home was unavoidable for the team’s job, it could certainly be handled with more care. Ben explains that “we started to align the programme more smartly, to have certain staff members do certain implementations closer to home”. Ben also received some more funding to grow his team: “this extra resource allowed a little more flexibility in the programme, to help give the implementers a break before jumping straight into the next [implementation]”.
- Team Presence
It seemed the team were lacking some important one-to-ones, which Ben was keen to reinstate… “and when we say one-to-ones, it’s not always about objectives and development, sometimes it’s just a chat and a cup of coffee”. These relaxed chats helped everyone open up, leading the team to some honest solutions. Having the leaders get out and about on-site also showed support and guidance, and Ben “mandated that the leadership team be out of the road at least 50% of the time”.
Back to Basics… and Doing Them Well
Ben knows that, as a leader, his style covers all the basics of leadership: “listening, training, one-to-ones…”
“But the key”, Ben explains, “is actually doing something with it”.
All that chat needs to be put into action. “We treated the actions out of the meeting as its own project for the leadership team. Everything was documented, with due dates and owners etc.”.
The leadership team held themselves accountable. “We would update the team, weekly, on progress and what was changing”.
“Since we started to go back to basics, the team morale got better, retention significantly reduced, performance was better”.
There were now “fewer errors, more organisation, good branch feedback… and most importantly, the team were enjoying their job”.
Any Final Words of Advice?
“The lessons learnt here is we can’t be complacent. I went from a team of 15 to a team of over 40 in the space of 12 months!”
To be a proactive leader, try to learn from your team. And, most of all…
“Leadership is about listening to your team, but more importantly taking their feedback away and doing something with it”.