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Business owners and entrepreneurs
with a growth and scale mindset absolutely get
the need for systems.
They don't always want to take the time and effort
that's involved in putting them in place,
but they absolutely get that systems are going
to give you consistency.
That if you train your team to be consistent,
to follow systems,
that you're going to have a better operation
and easier life.
The big piece of the puzzle, though,
that's often missing is that second line management.
And that's really what I want to talk to you about today
on this gloriously sunny day.
I've probably chosen the hottest place I've could've done
to talk to you from, but anyway, here we go.
So, this whole idea of a second line,
this whole idea of having somebody
who's at the helm when you're not there,
who's the leader on the day.
It's like the, you being the manager of a football team.
You're the Gareth Southgate,
let's be topical,
you're the Gareth Southgate of your team,
and you need somebody to be your Harry Kane,
to be your leader,
to be your person on the field who,
when you aren't there,
when you can't get the messages through
to the team, they're there.
They're the person that's going to be your voice
on the field of play.
And, what normally happens is that a business
will start to grow organically.
I've seen it so many times,
that really successful small business have grown
from a really tight-knit, small hub of people.
Maybe three or four people who've been incredibly successful
in growing a business,
and as a result of their success,
the business grows, and they bring in more people.
And, as we've discussed in many of these videos,
you then need one right way of doing everything
in your business,
but you also need somebody to manage
those additional people.
I've seen business owners having 10, 12, 15 direct reports.
That's just impossible.
It's not sustainable.
It means that they aren't getting the input,
and the feedback, and the development they need,
and if they are getting that,
then the business owner isn't doing
what the business owner is there to do,
which is to run the business,
to work on the business, not in it.
All successful small businesses need a second line.
Even if it's just one person.
So, what normally happens is that there'll
be this sudden realisation,
and occasionally it's after I've been talking to them,
or whatever it is,
but they get this sudden realisation,
and there's this knee-jerk reaction,
and we do one of two things.
The, well, the one thing that they do
that is my worst nightmare is that they go,
"Oh, right, I'll throw money at it.
"I need an operations manager.
"Oh, crikey, what's going to get me
the sort of person I need?
50,000 pounds."
I was having this conversation with somebody just last week.
50,000 pounds, for 50,000 pounds I'm going to get somebody
who's really experienced,
who knows what they're doing,
who's been around the block.
And, do you know what?
You might get that person.
They might have been around the block,
but the temptation will be
to throw out all your hiring process,
to throw out your,
"Let's hire to our values, not to our CV,"
and go straight for the best CV,
to go for the person that has the best CV,
that has the most experience on paper.
The trouble is with that CV it doesn't tell you
how good they were at their job,
it just tells you that they had that experience.
It doesn't tell you whether they share your values.
It doesn't tell you whether they're going to
be a good fit, therefore, for your business,
and it doesn't say whether they're a good people manager.
And, really what we're talking about here
is somebody who's going to get the best
out of your people.
That's what you want in your business.
That's what you want for your second line.
You want somebody who's going to get
the best out of your team,
who's going to build the best team,
who's going to make sure
that every individual fulfils their potential.
So, yes, absolutely, you might get lucky.
You throw your 50,000 pounds at, or more,
at a marketing manager, or an operations manager,
or whatever manager you deem fit for your business,
and you might get lucky.
On the other hand,
you might bring somebody in
for that enormous amount of money,
for a small business that is an enormous amount of money,
you bring somebody in,
and within three months,
either you've worked out that they really
are not a good fit,
or they've worked out that you're not a good fit,
and you part company,
and all that money in recruitment wasted,
potentially a lot of your time
that you've invested in them wasted.
As I keep saying,
it does work, it can work,
but not all the time.
So, that's the first,
a knee-jerk reaction, go out and throw money at it.
Bring somebody in everything,
oh, all my problems will be solved.
The second option that a lot of businesses take,
and maybe in your position,
the position you're in now,
is that they take their very best person from their team,
a person who is really good at their job,
who is conscientious, turns up every day,
turns up on time every day,
maybe stays a bit later,
really committed to their work,
really good at what they do,
and they yank them out of that position
that they really know, and love,
and perform to a fantastically high standard,
and they put them into a role of manager,
and they say, "You're the best on our team,
"manage the rest now.
"Show them how it's done."
And, again, the thinking is sound,
but it doesn't always follow through
that the person who's best at their job,
the person who dots every i, crosses every t,
is going to be the person who's a great leader,
who inspires respect,
who can get the best out of the rest of the team.
Maybe they just loved doing what they did.
And, what's worse in that situation
is that very often the business owner doesn't take the time,
hasn't got the time, more often than not,
hasn't got the time to develop that individual
as a manager, to teach them what it takes
to be a great manager, a great leader.
And, let's face it, this is almost,
quite often, how are self-taught.
They don't necessarily have the,
actually enough, don't actually have the skills
of good people manager's themselves,
and I mean that with all due respect,
'cause they're bloody good business owners,
but they've achieved successful businesses,
but they're not necessarily good at managing the team.
That small team that they had,
that little tight unit,
they were probably all quite self-managing.
They all knew what they were doin'g
and they just got on and did it,
and as this team grows,
the business owner quite often finds out
that they are the one
who isn't very good at people management.
So, that's, they're the, usually the people that go,
"Oh, I'll pay 50,000 pounds.
"I'll bring in the management experience."
But, if they are the person that goes,
"I promote so and so.
"I've got to take all of that people stuff off me.
"They'll be the block.
"They'll be the barrier between me and the team."
They're actually just creating
a bigger problem for themselves.
They're putting somebody in place
who doesn't know what they're doing.
And, again, great example of this business
that I worked with for quite some time now,
when I first went to them,
exactly that had happened.
It was a very successful professional practise,
and they had promoted three of their best professionals
to be managers within the business.
Now, it's sunny,
I'm actually beginning to sweat here.
(laughing)
They promoted three of their best professionals
to be managers.
One of the guys felt that everybody that was in the team
should be able to work as hard,
and as fast, and as accurately as he did,
forgetting that he had started in a very different place,
forgetting that he'd had to grow and develop.
And, he would take work off these individuals, go,
"Oh, I'll just do it myself."
Take work off the individuals in the team,
and work really long hours, to do their work.
And, of course, what the team did there was go,
"Okay, if you're going to do our work, fine.
"We'll do the bare minimum.
"We'll give it to you.
"You'll go, 'Oh, that's not good enough,'
"and do it for us."
Not great for the manager,
and not great for the business,
and certainly not great for the development of the team.
One of the other managers was just really soft and lovely.
This sort of, "Oh, bless them," sort of person.
The sort of person that the team would call mum.
No real, a lot of like of liking there for this individual,
but not real respect.
And, it's really difficult to go from a situation
where the team would just completely disrespecting,
not in an aggressive way,
but just disrespecting mangers because the managers
were just getting on and doing their job
without actually developing the team,
without understanding what the role of a manager is,
without understanding what the role of a leader is.
They were just doing the best they could,
but they didn't have the skills.
They didn't have the mindset to be a manager.
There was a lot of that,
"Oh, they won't do this," sort of language.
"I've asked them to do it,
"but they won't do it."
Talking about the group of the team as they,
and not even individuals within it.
So, there was an awful lot of work that had to be done
to give those managers the skills that they needed.
No, it's not easy being a manager.
You, some people take to it like a duck to water.
We're all, we've all met those people.
They're really good at relationship building.
They're really good at building respect,
because they're very straight,
they're very direct, but also they're kind with it.
They're very good at what they do.
They're very good at teaching other people
to do what they do.
Those sort of people are naturals,
but not many people start out as naturals.
Not many individuals who are promoted
into a managing position have the confidence immediately
to do what's needed to be done.
And as I've worked with businesses
over the past several years,
looking at developing their systems,
their planning, their customer experience system,
their people systems, hiring, and training,
and performance management,
the big missing piece of the puzzle
is management development,
and that's really where
the Managers' Development Programme came from
that we put in place last year.
We've had two groups of people go through it now,
and they've absolutely loved it,
and if I tell you why they've loved it.
They've loved it because they,
Well, one, it's the timing of the sessions
is it's first thing in the morning,
8:30 'til 10 for the training sessions,
and 8:30 'til 9:30 for the mentoring Q & A sessions.
So, about two and half hours in a month, that's great.
It's great.
It doesn't get in the way of the day,
so the boss is happy,
the managers are happy,
the team can all work around it, it works.
So, timing wise it's great.
Content wise, biggest thing that
the managers absolutely love,
when they see it on the curriculum for the programme,
they go, "Oh God, I can't wait for the feedback session,"
because, sorry, there's a big bee.
The feedback session,
we've talked about feedback in the past.
There's something about feedback.
People hate giving feedback.
They fear the reaction that they're going to get
from giving their feedback.
So, as soon as we give these managers the,
"This is how you give non-confrontational feedback.
"This is how you receive feedback,
"and this is how you act off the feedback you've received,"
it's like the weight of the world is lifted
off their should...
Off their shoulders.
If we just taught them feedback,
they would be, they'd go away happy.
They'd walk out even more confident
than they walked in.
But, we don't stop there.
Obviously, we talk about how to delegate.
Not enough of the business owners don't know
how to delegate,
so how can they teach their managers to delegate
if they don't know how to do it?
We teach them about the customer journey.
We talk to them about performance management.
We talk to them about training,
and that one right way to do everything in your business,
and how to get everybody to do it.
That's all part of being a great manager.
And, we teach them the mindset that's necessary
for being a good manager.
It's not about, people often used to talk about
all the difference between a manager and a leader
is that you, leaders are born, and managers are made.
That's just not true, in my opinion.
I really believe that you can develop somebody
to be a really good leader if you give them the tools
and the confidence to do it,
and these days, you can't afford to just be a manager.
You'll just look after the logistics of the day,
just look after the operation,
just make sure that everybody's following the systems.
You have to inspire and motivate.
You have, that's part of what we teach about feedback,
every bit of feedback should inspire and motive somebody
to do a better job.
Employees these days,
maybe employees going back hundreds of years,
want to be led by somebody who believes in them,
who believes that they have potential,
who understands that they want to add value to their day,
who understands that they don't want to be bored
when they come to work,
who engages them, who treats them as adults,
who involves them in the plans for this business.
This is where we're going.
This is where we're going.
We're gonna, it's gonna be great, look,
and this is your role in it.
It's g--
Those sort of skills really are a mindset skills,
and somebody can learn them.
So, yes, you absolutely want your managers
to be very good at organising,
and making sure that things happen
when they're meant to happen,
but you also want them to lead your team.
Going back to our football analogy,
you want them to be the Harry Kane.
You want them to lead by example.
You want them to *** the goal in the net
when it's required.
That's what you want,
and you as a business owner,
if you want your managers to be like that
then you either have,
well, you have two choices.
You either invest the time,
and hopefully, if you haven't got the skills,
then you'll find the skills.
You'll read up on it.
You'll watch videos.
You'll come and talk to us.
So, you either invest the time
in developing them yourselves,
or you send them to me.
It's, the development of managers is one
of the greatest joys of what I do now,
because I see how it fits, fills that void,
between the business owner and their people
who are following their systems.
It's so essential.
Now, we've got a programme starting on July the 6th.
It's starting at 8:30, and it'll run through 'til 10,
that first session.
How about you send somebody that you know
is going to be a good manager?
How about you send somebody that's
in a management position already,
or even, how about you come yourself,
and learn how to be the manager
that you would love to have on your team?
Learn how to pass on those skills
to the people coming through,
because the best way to,
really, the best way to have a,
to build a manager team is to grown your own.
Is to have your planning system that,
how good at planning systems are you?
Planning system and planning cycle,
90 day cycle of goals and plans.
Part of that is having a really good people plan,
so that you know in 12 months time,
we're going to double in size.
We're going to need a manager.
We're going to need another manager.
We're gonna need three managers.
Whatever it might be,
but you plan for that,
and then you look at the team that you've got in place
and go, "Who's got those skills?
"Who's already got the respect of the team?
"Who's really personable?"
They may not be the star in terms of how they perform
in their individual role,
but, oh my life, they really have the ear
of the rest of the team.
They really good progress and develop
into a really good manager.
So, it's not always the star.
Again, look at football.
It's not always the star of the show who's captain.
Quite often it's just that person
who can bring the rest of the team together.
Have you got that person in place now?
Could you develop them within a year?
I really am melting now.
So, that's really what I wanted to say.
Having that really strong second line
is so important if you want to scale your business.
You can't scale your business without a strong second line.
It has to be there.
The choice then is how are you going
to build that second line?
Are you going to hire it in, take that risk?
(laughing)
Sorry, I can't get over this.
I am absolutely, oh dear.
Are you going to do that,
or are you going to grow your own?
Are you going to give them the development,
and the encouragement, and the support they need
to be the manager that you need them to be?
So, you've got a really good choice to make.
You've got just over a week to make the choice
to send somebody on to the Managers' Development Programme.
Give them the opportunity.
It's a six month programme.
It's two and a half hours commitment every month,
plus we talk to you before they start,
and say, "What is it you're hoping',
"what are their big areas?
"What do you want them to focus on?
"What do you want to get out of them?"
We talk to you again at halfway through,
and say, "How are they doing?
"Are you noticing a chance?
"Are you noticing an improvement?
"What areas do you want us to focus on
"for the second half of the programme?"
And then we talk to you at the end, again,
and give our recommendations for how
they can improve and develop.
What we've seen in terms of the change in them.
They get the support of a community
through the Managers' Club.
It's the Facebook group.
They get to ask questions and put their challenges forward
at any point that they have one.
It's a really comprehensive programme.
It's designed to be that way.
So, have a look at the brochure that I'm going
to put in the chat box.
Have a look at it.
Have a read through it.
If you've got any questions,
obviously get in touch with me.
That's me@mariannepage.co.uk.
Get in touch.
Get them booked on.
Let us take that pain away from you.
Let us develop your managers to be the managers
that you need them to be.
That's all I have to say for now.
I am now going to go and have (laughing)
a very cold shower,
and I will probably not talk to you again
from this very hot space,
but it has been lovely,
don't think it hasn't.
Anyway, speak soon.
Have a great afternoon,
and a great rest of your week.
(kisses)