| | There are very few
upsides to recessions,
but tough times do help
us focus on what’s
really important in
companies. Something
that quickly emerges is
that while all companies
will have somebody at
the top, whether that
person has the
leadership skills
necessary to bring the
company through is
another matter. In a
prolonged period of easy
growth leaders can
afford to be reactive.
But as we’ve seen in
recent weeks, in a
crisis a reactive
approach only makes
matters worse – it’s
amazing what a little
bit of leadership can
do.
Unfortunately, this
doesn’t necessarily mean
that companies will
invest in their leaders
at the moment they need
them most, as Dominic
Turnbull, managing
director of leadership
consultancy the McLane
Group points out.
“When we started | |
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| | there were an awful lot
of models around about
leadership,” he says.
“But we quickly realised
that for a lot of
companies this sort of
work was merely
aspirational – they saw
it as a luxury.”
The firm was born in
the mid-1990s out of a
collaboration with
American consultant
Charles E. Smith, author
of the Merlin Factor,
whose views on
leadership have been
developed into the
approaches and models
the McLane Group now
uses with clients.
“When you’re facing a
really difficult time
there are different ways
to counter this,” says
Turnbull. “You can play
on the back foot and try
to avoid losing, or you
can be on the front foot
and play to win. You can
take strong conscious
strides forward rather
than take reactive
decisions that affect
the business in a
negative way.”
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Turnbull says the
work he does “helps
leaders choose” and
understand the different
ways in which they
affect people.
“One of the many
great qualities of
leadership is
vulnerability,” he says.
“You can make a great
impact with a question.
Leaders create a space
for other people’s
opinions and input.”
Turnbull is clear
that McLane staff are
neither trainers nor
coaches but consultants.
“We get labelled as
coaches but we don’t
coach; we’re about
organisational change
and transformation,” he
says. “One client had
the view that we would
come in and ‘do stuff’
to his people while he
sat in his office and
did nothing. We said you
have to realise this is
your company and your
vision – we are not
trainers who have our
own context; we stay in
your context.”
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Many leaders, says
Turnbull, “are happy to
talk about the
organisation but
underestimate what they
need to do to develop
themselves”. The firm’s
programmes are therefore
not off-the shelf, but
tailor-made to each
leader’s requirements.
Although the company
is not into
“raft-building”
exercises, it does take
people out of the work
context, sometimes
offsite to a hotel,
sometimes even further.
“We’ve done work
inside the Arctic
Circle, in the hills of
Romania, and in the
centre of India,” he
says. “Our philosophy is
that learning happens
when you’ve gone to your
edge – we don’t drag
people to uncomfortable
areas, we challenge
people to get to the
uncomfortable areas – as
soon as they can create
a space where that can
happen.”
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After an initial
period of steady growth
in the 1990s, McLane
decided on a more
aggressive expansion
programme, and now has a
“collaborative network”
of between 50 and 60
consultants, preferring
to engage with other
networks. This approach,
Turnbull says, makes
growth less predictable
– McLane is currently in
discussion with a
similarly sized-network
– but allows the group
to take on projects
knowing it has a trusted
resource at hand.
And demand for the
group’s services is
stronger than ever,
according to Turnbull:
the leadership message
is coming across loud
and clear.
“Given the difficult
times, we have to invest
in good quality
leadership rather than
reorganising and
restructuring or trying
to manage our way out.” | |
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