“The bank’s on the phone and the manager wants you to go in today.” It’s not what you expect to hear on the first day of your first job as a CEO. Maybe they wanted to give me some sage advice (it was a very well-established organisation and an even more established bank after all), however, that wasn’t it.
I’d known that after the very long notice period given by my predecessor, there’d been a loss of urgency in tackling problems. What I, and it turned out many of the board, didn’t know was that the debts were growing, the investments were running out and the organisation was on a rapid path to failure. The bank was going to call in the loans if there wasn’t a clear turn-around plan.
After digging down through the depths of the problems I realised we were an organisation that didn’t know how to say ‘no’. We kept identifying new needs and finding ways to meet them without knowing how to prioritise. We had a culture of growth and of grasping opportunities without considering capability and capacity. I also learned that Boards can leave it far too late to act on the worries that they have about performance.
What I had to do was get a grip, show leadership, come up with a plan, build a team to implement it, and engage with stakeholders (including the bank) to make sure they kept their nerve – it worked. Such was the strength of the organisation that it was able, some years later, to take on a similar company that was facing some life-threatening financial challenges and now, it is still thriving.
Since then there have been many tough times. I’ve dealt with restructuring and closures as well as investment and growth. I’ve refocused organisations that were facing major changes in their markets, operating environment, policy, regulation and financial frameworks. And I’ve learned some important lessons along the way.
The first is ‘get a grip’. Situations, as we know, happen and the first thing to do as a leader is get a grip and let others know you – with their help and support – will find a way through. It does not mean that everything can be saved, but, rather, that there will be a way forward.
One of the vital qualities of leadership is the capacity to project optimism. Not false optimism but the realistic, grounded optimism that there will be a way through based on established values and behaviours. Once you’ve projected that sense of control – shared control in many cases – you need to get on with the obvious tasks of creating the recovery plan and the stakeholder engagement.
What ever you do though, make sure your actions are based on the vision and values that you put into place in ‘the good times’. And if you omitted to do that beforehand, get on with it with pace, focus and in line with the culture you want to build. You’ll almost certainly need to change your thinking, welcome new viewpoints, and gather the resources to be brave.
As you get a grip you’ll soon find you also need grit and determination because creating major change and taking people with you is hard work. It demands every part of your intellectual and emotional intelligence. You’ll need to be clear about the vision and have a plan, that others are signed up to, of how you are going to achieve it. You’ll need to be tenacious and you’ll need to exercise that most important of talents, the talent for hard work. It’s something you can learn and practice. Alongside grip, it’s grit that will get you and your teams successfully through the toughest of times.
About the author
Lynne Berry OBE is chair of Breast Cancer Now, deputy chair of the Canal and River Trust (formerly British Waterways), chair of Glandŵr Cymru (the Canal and River Trust in Wales), vice-chair of Cumberland Lodge, a trustee of Pro Bono Economics and a visiting Professor at Cass Business School, City University.
Lynne has received a number of national and academic awards and Cranfield University named her as one of the UK’s 100 women to watch. She is a member of the Financial Times Non Executive Directors’ Advisory Board.
