Our March Masterclass in Sheffield this week was delivered by our Entrepreneur in Residence David Grey MBE a former Master Cutler and one of Sheffield’s best known business people. David revealed that he had recently become Chair of Sheffield City Trust with a mission to make it self-funding. The Trust owns many of the big venues in Sheffield.
The Message
Leadership is different to Management and requires entirely different skills.
Leaders must never panic, must always look confident and optimistic. If a problem arises say let’s analyse it and find a solution.
It is easy to take people along with you in a benign environment but more difficult when the going is tough. You need to have built up Trust. And this usually comes from success.
Collegiate approach to the vision thing shows you are not a leader. Where are we going is the leadership thing. What we need to do to get there is the management task.
If you can get your message into one sentence, especially in bad times, then you have a vision.
In 2007 OSL made a major acquisition which they had funded by a big bank loan. The business they had acquired lost its major customer not long after the acquisition and in 2008/9 the recession hit them with no orders for 3 months. OSL took £1.5m out of the wages bill, never missed a capital or interest payment and never went back to the bank. By 2010 matters were improving and David felt able to go back to acquiring and disposing of companies.
The team at OSL trusted David to lead them through the difficult times.
Conclusion
Most of our members have to be leaders and managers but it is useful for owners to distinguish what they are doing at any one time-setting the vision or managing.
