How to eat a bacon sandwich and lead an organisation
This is not about the best way to avoid having greasy fingers , tomato sauce smeared over your face or simply looking very unattractive as you masticate with your mouth open. This is about whether to use streaky or back bacon, whether to grill it or fry it, whether to have red sauce or brown source or any sauce, butter of course not any other spread but a sandwich or a roll? It is the same with how to lead an organisation it’s not about the style of leadership, how to avoid making embarrassing off the cuff remarks or sartorial gaffs. It is about whether to transform (make more agile) or merge the organisation, whether to put the emphasis on people or technology, whether to outsource support services or bring them back in house, getting the culture right of course but with this leadership team?
I prefer back bacon , less likely to curl up and I fry it , it seems a bit pointless to argue that grilling would be healthier, this isn’t about healthy eating. I prefer to make an organisation more agile rather than merge with another the process of merging can be very distracting the benefits along way down the line and too often not fully realised. When it comes to where to put the emphasis the technocrats get very excited about the potential of AI but it’s your people who are the organisation so recruiting and retaining the right people is very important and to do that you need managers who are good people managers. How good your managers are at people management will be greatly dependent on the skills of the HR team. Ensuring employees are engaged, and energised will help establish the desired cultured. All that remains is to build a high performance leadership team, one that works well together , one where individuals bring out the best in each other like tomato/brown source on a bacon sandwich.
Blair McPherson former Director author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
