It’s Lonely at the Top
BLINK advisor Lucy Unger offers some pearls of wisdom from the top.
At no other time in our professional lives will strong, decisive leadership be more important and quite possibly the differentiator between the success and failure of your business.
In our industry, teamwork has always been the norm. But once you’re an MD the rules change. Someone has to lead the charge – be part of the team while also exercising the authority and decision-making powers that every business needs.
If you’re running a complex business reliant on human capital you will quickly discover that managing people is simultaneously the hardest and most important thing you’ll do, as well as the most rewarding.
You can’t be everyone’s friend and there are many competing needs: you have to be approachable in order to gauge the business’ temperature; be candid in order to be respected; listening, processing, advising to optimise decision making and performance. But you’ve also got to stand up and be counted as the person who makes the decisions and is ultimately responsible for everyone’s actions.
It can be lonely at the top.
So how do you build empathy and retain control? Where do you get your strength from?
Here are some principles I’ve learnt from experience:
Accept that this will be hard - you need to learn behaviours that help you walk the fine line between teamwork and leadership
Trust your instincts - if you’re feeling it, it’s probably true - so be prepared to call it like it is and act, making informed decisions as the leader
Be authentic - find your voice - it’s exhausting not to be who you are - so bring what you do distinctively to the table and make yourself heard
Don’t compromise on your standards: be prepared to be flexible but don’t sell yourself or the business out
Find a balance with staff - treat them with respect in order to gain theirs back
Have a great FD - a real strategic partner who can see the bigger picture, share the load and allow you to shine at what you do best
Choose your Management Team carefully - you need people who are ready to be empowered, energetic and accountable not just managers and practioners
Keep your hand in - it keeps you in touch with your people, real world experience and examples
Information is key - learn to appreciate and leverage it - it’s the ultimate means of ensuring you’re in control
Make time to cultivate the things that you personally love - switching off from work brings much needed respite and will make you better at what you do
Read more about Lucy Unger here.
And look out for more on agency leadership in future posts both here and on LinkedIn.
