BLOCKERS
April 7th, 2010The “Hat Trick”
As a follow on from my last blog, I will deal with each one of the Blockers in the following weeks.
The first blocker, and often the most difficult to control, is the Hat Trick.
One of the greatest difficulties that entrepreneurs, owners or managing directors of companies have is to separate their roles and responsibilities; they wear many hats. These hats include:
• Shareholder (owner)
• Non-Executive Director (superannuation or trust fund)
• Executive Director (of the company)
• Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director (CEO/MD)
• Key executive team member
• Leadership team member
• Workforce (task performance)
Let’s discuss these roles.
Shareholder (owner)
Shareholders are the owners of the companies. They can often misuse their influential and powerful position and assume authority to get their own way. They may also not have clarity in their own objectives. This is a particular problem when the shareholder is also an executive in his or her own organisation. They may have built the company from the ground up and are the entrepreneur or main driving force in the organisation. However, misuse of their ownership status, often to get their own way, can be a complete shut-off for team member engagement. It can also lead to company stagnation when the owner reaches the limit of their capability.
Non-Executive Director
Owners are often non-Executive Directors of one or more companies in a sometimes-complex structure. These non-Executive Directors may have arisen through a recommendation by their external accountant or solicitor. Such entities include superannuation and trust funds. The main drivers for these structures are often tax minimisation and protection of personal assets. Continuous review, reform and change in the tax and company laws can lead to ineffective and costly structures, with the owner of the business being a non-Executive Director in one or more companies in the structure. The role of a non-Executive Director is very different to that of an Executive Director, and lack of understanding can lead to inappropriate behaviour or unrecognised risks.
Executive Director
Any Director of a company has statutory obligations and a duty of care and responsibility to ensure that the company is effectively delivering the shareholders’ expectations. Directors often become involved in management issues, and this can be most confusing for everyone within the organisation.
Key Executive
Key executives are members of the executive team, and are charged with the responsibility of taking the company in the direction of, and towards the achievement of, the goals that have been set in conjunction with the Directors, who act on behalf of the shareholders’ requirements.
Leadership Team
Members of the leadership team may not necessarily be key executives in authority terms, but are vitally important in ensuring that communication is effective within the organisation, and that the workforce is able to move in the right direction. All research and recognised surveys show that the people in the organisation relate most to their immediate team leader; the person to whom they report.
Workforce
The workforce is the people who deliver the products and services to the customer, or manufacture the products and create the services. Essentially, they are the “horse power” of the organisation. Many times I have seen owners being workers and actually doing the jobs that they have employed people to do for them. This is a natural tendency because people are operationally focused. When you become a Key Executive or a Director, you should be spending substantial amounts of time in Strategic Planning and thinking about the future of the organisation, not in looking after yesterday’s problems or doing the work. Easier said than done!
In my next blog I will discuss the next blocker – Strategic, Operational and Financial – the Three Legged Stool.







