The chemistry has to be right - Blair McPherson

Appoint a good manager and the results will improve. Appoint a great manager and success is guaranteed. Well that's the theory in practice past success doesn't guarantee future success. A good manager, even a great manager needs the right set of circumstances and the chemistry has to be right.

You can have a great story that captures the mood of the times, a lavish budget, creaking dialogue, amazing special effects and two world class actors but if there is no on screen chemistry between them then your film will disappoint. We all know chemistry when we see it but Hollywood knows its very difficult to predict which relationships will produce it.

The leading actors in a local authority are the chief executive and the leader of the council and all to often the relationship lacks the chemistry that will turn an effective working relationship into something special that will inspire those around them. Sometimes sparks will fly, disagreements will be fiery, but strong emotions are necessary to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. The new super authorities, the  devo max local authorities require the extraordinary. 

When the chemistry is right there is a special connection, an effortless rapport , shared values, the same sense of humour and most significantly complementary personalities who accentuate each others good parts and masks each others flaws. 

The recruitment of a chief executive is more dating agency than recruitment agency. The recruitment consultants can put together a short list of suitably experienced candidates but the usual senior management process of interview by panel,presentation and trial by sherry is like speed dating, too short a time to get to know the interesting candidates and too long with the boring one's. The traditional approach doesn't provide the opportunity to identify if the chemistry is right. 

 

Hollywood uses a screen test to establish whether there is a special rapport. The equivalent would be to set candidate and leader a task to complete together and observe the interaction. A task with a bit of stress where there is mutual dependency the equivalent of a abseiling off a cliff where the chief executive is holding the rope as the leader goes over the edge! May be its a one day crash course in rally driving where the chief executive is the driver and the leader is the navigator or should that be the other way round? Or may be they both should just list their favourite films and draw up a mutually agreed top three, that may tell  us more about shared interests,common values a similar sense of humour and of course how they negotiate and deal with conflict. 

Now that's got me thinking about a few relationships and what films they would identify.

 

Blair McPherson author , blogger and former director www.blairmcpherson.co.uk