I wish my team was more entrepreneurial...

"So what do you think should be your strategy to take this forward?" A leading business consultant concludes his presentation and looks questioningly at the team of 20 odd leadership team members sitting around the table.

Silence!

While a few looked at each other, others fiddled with their pens and a few others started scribbling furiously on their notepads. The consultant looked on expectantly into the awkward silence and everybody shifted uncomfortably looking towards one person in the room. The consultant spoke up "Dev, would you like to go first?"

And Dev, the CEO, started speaking......he brought out a lot of intelligent and valuable points clearly outlining the pros and cons of the presentation made by the consultant. Warming further to the subject (with a willing audience nodding their heads), Dev goes on to outline the entire strategy step by step that his company should take. And then he finishes with "Anything else?"

While some chose to remain silent and gently nod their heads, others went on to excitedly commend Dev on the excellent clarity of thought and how what he had just outlined will change the face of the organization. One by one, each went on to agree with Dev and thump him on the back (verbally) "What Dev just said is absolutely right and....." and so on and so forth.

How many such meetings have you been to?

And then Dev says to his coach in the comfort of his own office “I wish my executives would take more initiative. I have got an excited bunch but I wish they would be more entrepreneurial.” Well, Dev is not a CEO who wears a mask - he tells the very same thing to his executives in their internal meetings “I want each one of us to be more entrepreneurial” and everybody would nod their heads and then go back to their teams and repeat the same “We need to be more entrepreneurial in our approach”. And thus, the message goes to the bottom of the ladder “We need to be more entrepreneurial”.

So, does the company become more entrepreneurial? What do you think?

Well, what do you notice about the messaging from top to bottom?

When each employee is asked “What is it that the company needs to change in order to achieve the vision of 2020?” each employee goes “We need to be more entrepreneurial”. Great, that message has consistently gone through and when asked “What does it mean to be more entrepreneurial?” a few goes “Be more proactive” or “Be more agile” or “Do things differently” and some plainly struggled with “Well, I have no idea what my boss means when he drives us nuts with ‘Let’s be more entrepreneurial’ “.

What do you notice? There is no single consistent message of what it means to be more entrepreneurial and many people just make their own assumptions and many simply resort to nodding their heads to tide over the moment. Result? Inaction, inconsistency and confusion.

So, let’s go back right to the top.

Dev was asked what he meant when he said “I wish my executives would take more initiative. I wish they would be more entrepreneurial”, clear thinking leader that he is, it still took quite some digging to come down to brass tacks – he does not see his executives speak up, his executives seem to be waiting for him to make all the decisions and his executives donot want to take accountability. While they excitedly executed all that was given to them, he felt they did not own up and take risks and responsibilities with their decisions. Good, now we were getting somewhere.

And then let’s look at the actions that Dev consistently takes to encourage this behavior in his executives? And the answer is “Well, I do wait for them to take charge. But I donot have the time or patience to draw out a discussion beyond a given time frame. After all, I would be wasting so many hours of my leadership team and their time is really valuable, you know.”

And the assumption here is that unless Dev takes charge, it becomes time consuming.

So, how would the culture of his organization change, when Dev is building a culture of impatience and central decision making? “So, what can I do, given my constraints?”

The question for Dev to consider is “What do you value more? The major amount of time spent now building with your leadership team or the little amount of time spent ruining your leadership team?”

What actions of Dev’s ensured that his team became more entrepreneurial? None.

If Dev’s team started taking risks and decisions, how tolerant was he towards mistakes? None. After all, his is a public listed company – you cannot afford to make mistakes or risks that might not pay off.

Was Dev taking risks himself? Was he ‘entrepreneurial?’ A lot of inward exploring questions revealed some of the key aspects to Dev – while he was bold and challenging and not afraid to take risks himself, he was holding back in some areas where he thought the board might be intolerant. In other cases, he was ensuring he had control of all decisions inadvertently so he knew what risks were being taken. He himself was playing it safe all the time.

And in certain cases, Dev just thought that he knew better than his team and his team worked better taking instructions rather than giving instructions. Interesting.

And he expects his instruction-taking team to effectively instruct & lead their teams in turn. It almost seemed like he was tolerating a few of his team members just by virtue of lack of time or lack of resources or something else.

All in all there was inconsistency in the message to himself and in the message to his team. So, what did Dev really want? What was really important for Dev?

Well, slow and steady..... Dev worked on one message at a time and in 2.5 years he changed the organization culture where people were made more accountable for decisions, people felt empowered and hence people innovated more. Result? Motivated leaders and motivated employees, common goal. And cherry on the cake - better sales bookings and better customer satisfaction index.

Yes, it was a top down synchronized approach and not just something that Dev’s team had to do, it began right with him. After all, a leader leads from the front, doesn’t he?

So, what is it that you are tolerating in your organization / your team?

This article first appeared on MarketingBuzzar (www.marketingbuzzar.com) for whom I write regularly and also on my own blog page www.6point14.blogspot.com

If you like what I write, please feel free to connect with me through LinkedIn / MarketingBuzzar / 6point14 blog. Otherwise I can be reached on [email protected]

As an executive coach, I am lucky to be working with leaders and top notch sales professionals and I enjoy the regular exchange of ideas - do connect with me with your thoughts as well