Bearing in mind how much bad publicity
Bankers and certain Newspaper Press are getting at the moment, it isn’t
surprising that all of a sudden these two industries have become dirty words in
this country. Whether we are talking about bonuses or excessive risk taking; both
have become mired in controversy.
Just this week the banking
industry has been hit by yet another big scandal, this time involving Barclays
and the fixing of the LIBOR rates. I’m sure Barclays won’t be the only banks
who get into hot water over this. In fact I’m willing to predict that this may
go all the way up the chain of command to the Bank of England and may lead to
resignations in Parliament itself.
At the same time the practices of
certain sections of our press have come into question. Their total disregard
for the human being they are writing about is in my opinion immoral. When did
it become ok to forsake everything for the latest scoop?
Currently all the focus is on
these two industries, but I’m willing to bet that what we are currently seeing
is just the tip of a very large iceberg and I’m sure that the very same
practices are happening length and breath of this country in companies of all
shapes and sizes. .
Before we can see lasting changes
as those I’m about to propose, we will need to see a seismic shift in the
thinking of every company MD/Owner. (Personally I can’t see that happening any
time soon but I’m ever the optimist.)
So what is going wrong and more
importantly how do we correct it?
When looking to resolve issues, my
philosophy is very simple, look at the route cause and then try to plot a
course to the ideal solution. In the two cases highlighted the issues seem to
be threefold. 1. under trained staff. 2 Lack of leadership in middle
management. 3 An insatiable appetite of the MD/Owner for profits.
There is nothing wrong with
making profit, in fact that is the whole reason for being in business in the first
place, but at what cost?
For a few years I worked at a
large corporation and during that time, I was fortunate enough to work my way
up to bottom run of the middle management ladder and the following are from my
personal experience.
Staff Training.
My first job for this corporation
was inbound telesales. We were taught product knowledge for a couple of weeks. Then
we were shown to our desks, told our targets and then warned of the consequences
of not hitting them (I’m making this sound a lot more draconian than it
actually was, in fact it was very subtle but the reality was as described). We
had a vast array of product portfolio and to fully understand all the products
and services we sold should have taken at least three months to train (But who
has that kind of budget to waste on new recruits right?) During our initial two
week induction we were given only half a day of actual sales techniques
training. Bearing in mind we were expected to sell products we had very little
knowledge off, with little to no sales skills, is it any wonder that some
resorted to unethical selling practices simply to keep their jobs? (This
practice was a lot more widespread than the management would ever care to admit).
I wasn’t prepared to go down this route and spent a lot of my spare time
reading books, listening to tapes and checking the web for ways to improve my sales
techniques. It wasn’t long before my approach made me one of the top sales
people in our sector. Could you imagine if everyone had had my training? How
many more units would they have sold? How much more profit would the company
have made? How much more satisfied customers would they now have?
Could
this be what is happening at these organisations? The frontline staff have had
very little or no training, unachievable targets and the threat of the sack if
they fail. Surely targets should only be set based on the individuals ability
to achieve them, if you want to achieve more, then the simply answer must be to
train more.
Management Training.
When I was first promoted to the position
of a manager the same cycle was repeated but this time the consequences of failure
were even more draconian. I was given a team of individuals to manage, given my
run rates and told where to sit. That was all the training I got! I was
expected to learn all the different company procedures in my own time. It soon
became apparent to everyone in the office that I was out of my depth, but once
again I decided to learn all of these processes in my own time and thus was
able to manage one of the best teams in the organisation. My success was based
on actual sales training, and regular coaching. This got me into hot water on a
number of occasions as I was missing one of my targeted run rates but as I
pointed out to my then very understanding
manager (Alas he was soon to move on) that his bonus depended on the
units we sold and not on this particular run rate. The problem most frontline manager’s
face is that they are responsible to manage teams who have little to no sales
knowledge and they themselves have little to no management training. With the
odds so heavily stacked against them is it any wonder that some may choose to
look the other way when an individual/s in their team is/are achieving their
results fraudulently? Wouldn’t it be a lot similar if managers were actually
trained to do the job that they were asked to do? Could you imagine how much
extra revenue you could achieve?
Middle Management Training.
I was only in this post for a
short time before I left to pursue my new career. However, I can tell you that
this was probably the most job I have ever done. My bonus depended on managers
who couldn’t manage and on sales teams who couldn’t sell! On top of this the
pressure from upon high to ensure success was unbearable. Maybe given time I
would have learnt new skills to help me achieve my targets, but as I say I wasn’t
there long enough. However before I left I saw first hand how little regard my peers
had for their teams or each other. Office politics was the order of the day.
Again I’m sure this stems from a lack of knowledge of what was expected of them
in their role. (Why spend time doing your job when you can spend just as much
time getting a colleague into deep dodo?) It was very evident that there were
only two real styles of managing at this level which were both fear and intimidation
or overly friendly. Surely a few weeks of leadership training would have
resulted in increased productivity and thus greater profits
MD/Owners.
The buck must stop here! The
vision, direction, and the company ethos most come from the very top. Surely it’s
very simple, invest in your entire workforce and the rewards will be increased productivity,
increased profits and greater customer satisfaction. However if your only
concern is the bottom line and you have little or no regard for your employees
or your customers then be prepared to answer awkward question ala Bob Diamond
or Rupert Murdock.
Ammo
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