Trustee Perspective - Effective Conversations

The author, Craig Carey, reflects on his career experience and how communication in any organisation, and particularly an employee owned business, can underpin success and achieve sustainable impact.

The 28 years spent working in a wide range of sectors as a coach and consultant – financial services, small business, international development, charity, social enterprise and employee-owned businesses - have led me to the conclusion that behind all the best decisions lies a clarity of purpose and values.

This means always focusing on defining the why – not just of the organisation but also how that relates to the purpose of the particular situation. Then once this is agreed, applying a clear set of behaviours or values to every conversation. It offers a consistent framework for all debate, improves decision making and saves so much time and energy wasted over confusion and disagreement.

  

A clear purpose and set of values are especially helpful when facilitating the relationship between employee owners and the leadership actively looking to engage employees in the ongoing sustainable growth of their business. 

As an example, my approach as an independent trustee will always be grounded in my purpose to enable leaders to have the clarity they need to achieve sustainable impact and 4 fundamental values that drive my own business and its decision making – passion, challenge, collaboration and creativity. 

• Passion – for its leaders and people to make a real difference and impact 
• Challenge – to maximise the positive potential of the situation for all 
• Collaboration – firmly believing that businesses are more effective when they collaborate 
• Creativity – to work hard to remain open to different ideas and commit to take personal responsibility to finding new effective solutions to problems 

As a business coach and trained mediator, I very much believe in the quote from the American Author Gary Smalley: 

This means that rather than seeing organisations through a traditional organisational chart, I picture them as an active network of hundreds of relationships between people. Put simply, the more positive and productive those relationships, the more value they create for both parties, as well as the organisation. 

On that basis my approach to being a trustee focuses more on how to enable people to have better, more effective, conversations than perhaps someone who comes from more traditional corporate background.  

Fundamental to all of this is developing and applying the principle of ‘understand first’ … spending time to focus on the needs of the employees in the context of the strategic plan before challenging or seeking to be understood.

This is especially important when it comes to highlighting the sources of conflict that it is crucial to resolve, and even transforming them into value for an organisation. Coupled with my role as a trained mediator, I support organisations either directly or training people to manage and resolve conflict when it occurs. Conflict can be big or small – but always comes down to this definition of conflict when - “people perceive, correctly or not, that something they care about is being threatened or denied.”

At an employee owned organisation this can be due to big things such as the move to EO, or founders not letting go, or something small (dare I say it, a lack of biscuits!). Regardless, apply the tools that can get to the source of it and teaching others to do so, can be invaluable within the arsenal of a Trust Board and an employee owned business.

As an independent trustee I believe that alongside ensuring compliance of the EOT, my role is to support/challenge 3 key sets of relationships that can often cause unhelpful friction in any new or existing EO organisation: 

1. Between an owner selling and the new leadership
2. Leadership engaging employees effectively in an EO culture
3. Building an effective relationship between the Trust and the Company Board 

All three will benefit from every party being able to build strong relationships by having constructive and effective conversations. To understand the “other”, to be able to challenge that understanding without judgement and conflict, and be able to feel understood with ease.

That’s where a conscious focus on learning and applying the skills of Effective Conversation can be so beneficial and effective. Creating a dialogue between the transitioning owners and the new leadership, highlighting how to focus on the needs of employees can be more productive than simply broadcasting to them and, finally, building the confidence of employees to engage senior people on a one-to-one basis.