Last Friday I got to sit with Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Haji Syed Zainal Abidin bin Syed Mohamed Tahir for almost two hours in a CEO Masterclass Transformation Series session with Titan Circle++ entrepreneurs and their Key Leaders, organised by @RichWorks Consulting Group (RCG).
Who doesn’t know Tan Sri Syed Zainal, the former Group Managing Director of Proton, who also held senior leadership roles at Perodua and Petronas Dagangan. So when he speaks about transformation, people and culture, it comes from real experience leading large organisations.
One reality he shared that is very close to home for SMEs: a business can grow faster than the people inside it.
Today it may be five staff doing RM100,000 a month in sales. Two years later, sales are RM1 million a month and the team has grown to 30 people.
But when the business changes, not everyone changes at the same pace.
Someone who is good at managing five people may not be able to lead 50.
Someone who is good at executing instructions may not be able to build strategy.
That doesn’t mean he isn’t good. He may be good, just for a different level.
The hardest challenge is when that person has been with us a long time. He was there when the company was still small, when money was tight and not many people believed yet. When we see he can no longer carry the same responsibility, we choose to stay quiet because we feel we owe him. In the end, we confuse gratitude with suitability.
We must appreciate the sacrifices and contributions of the people who were with us from the start. But gratitude is not the same as fit. Loyalty doesn’t automatically make someone suitable to lead the organisation at the next level.
But Founders also can’t use this as a reason to keep blaming people or throwing them out.
Before saying someone is no longer suitable, ask:
Are the expectations and KPIs clear?
Have we given feedback, training, coaching, tools and systems?
Or is it actually us who failed to lead his development?
One of the strongest points from Tan Sri’s sharing was how important it is for leaders to go down to the ground and see the real situation.
Don’t just trust beautiful slides, green dashboards or reports where everything looks fine.
Go down. Talk to people. Watch the process. Listen to the things that never reach the meeting room.
Sometimes the Founder thinks the problem is with the junior staff, when the real problem sits in the middle layer of leadership.
Middle leaders don’t translate strategy into action. Managers don’t build teams. In the end, good strategy stops inside the meeting room.
When this happens, build their capability first. Give training, coaching and mentoring. If needed, bring in more experienced leaders or move them into a role that fits better.
If clarity, help and opportunity have been given and still nothing changes, have the courage to make the decision.
Being firm doesn’t mean being cruel.
Protecting feelings doesn’t mean the whole organisation has to carry one person’s weakness with no end in sight.
And Founders need to remember this too…
The Founder himself can fall behind his own company’s growth.
If you want to build a RM10 million or RM100 million company, you can’t keep leading the way you did when you only had five staff.
When the business changes, the people inside it have to change too.
Including the person leading the business itself.
Who has seen the same situation?
— Datuk Wira Dr Azizan Osman
If you are building a business and facing a particular challenge, my team at RichWorks and I want to help you get clearer and see the real state of your business through a free report — the Business Diagnostic Report (BDR), made for you.
Identify where your business stands, and see the gaps or ‘weaknesses’ that are causing those challenges. Click the button below now.