The most successful small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are run by ambitious, team-oriented younger entrepreneurs, according to a new report. What’s more, these successful SMEs are the biggest creators of UK employment.

Commissioned by Santander, The Breakthrough Growth Champions Report analysed 165,000 SMEs, each with a turnover of between £0.5 million and £10 million. It identified 4.5 per cent of these companies as ‘Growth Champions’, discovering that, as managementtoday.co.uk writes, they were among the ‘biggest movers and shakers in the UK economy’.

Growth Champions were found within a range of sectors, predominantly social work, complementary medicine, architecture and engineering. They were found to have created 173,000 jobs from 2007 and 2010, which accounts for two-thirds of all British employment.

For those perhaps thinking ‘I’m struggling to run my family business, what’s their secret?’ it is apparently age and determination. The common denominators between these successful SMEs included having a youthful leader at the helm and high levels of ambition, according to realbusiness.co.uk. They also promote strong team working values.

Company directors were found to have had a history of entrepreneurial success, thus sharing their knowledge. Additionally, a ‘proactive’ approach to the management of finances was a crucial factor to success.

Santander’s John Williams, who heads up the Breakthrough programme, said that the findings demonstrated how important it is for high-growth businesses to be recognised and supported early on: “This research shows a small group of businesses make an extraordinary contribution to the UK economy,” he said.

Leadership is always in demand, and even more so when faced with crises such as the one we now find ourselves in. Having previously looked at the consequences for value propositions, innovation and customers brought about by the downturn, it is now appropriate to examine exactly what is demanded of those who will lead these reinvented, adaptive and vibrant organisations. What are the characteristics and behaviours of those who are to lead ‘brilliantly’?

Noted management thinker Warren Bennis has been quoted as saying that leadership is about ‘managing’ Attention, Meaning, Self and Trust. This is a useful starting point from which to explore what needs to be done by the leader in these straitened times.

Managing Attention

• What is the focus for the business? Does it change week by week?

• How often do I and my team communicate the organisation’s key goals to staff?

• How many different media do we use to communicate our goals?

Sometimes vision and strategy are confused, leaders quickly forget that although they may have to adjust the ‘how to’ – the strategy – their vision can still be held. In tough times it is easy for a leader to lock themselves away and be just managing the numbers but is even more important for the leaders to be visible and to provide a clear direction for the business and to consistently communicate it to your people. The brilliant leader needs to let everyone know that, notwithstanding a few diversions, you intend reaching the intended destination.

Managing Meaning

• How do I demonstrate the connection between each employee’s work and our goals?

• How clear are me and my team in communicating the ‘why’ and not just the ‘how’ behind each decision?

It has been said that we can achieve any ‘what’ if we are given a big enough ‘why’. Brilliant leaders are brilliant communicators – not necessarily orators, there is a difference! They get out amongst the troops and show them how their work is connected and why it is important. They remind them what achieving the vision will mean for them and for other key stakeholders. They interpret current events and place them in a context that is meaningful, relevant and motivating. They don’t batten down the hatches they get out and communicate and inspire.

Managing Self

• What is the one thing I do that makes the biggest difference to this organisation?

• Am I holding myself and my team to high standards of behaviour in how we interact with staff, and in how we conduct business in spite of the current pressures we face? The brilliant leader needs to be aware of their choices in terms of behaviour. A leader demonstrates what they believe to be important by how they spend their time.

Time structuring is a critical behaviour for a leader as it unconsciously communicates to those around them what the priorities really are. Yet a leader can still be led astray by trying to live the priorities of each department or function. What is required is for the leader to model prioritisation and, having clearly articulated the vision and consistently reinforced it, focus on the area in which they can make the biggest difference to the organisation. The leader then structures their time around this focal point and asks the same discipline of those who report to them or her – cascading the behaviour throughout the organisation.

Managing Trust

• Are our reward systems fair and transparent as perceived by employees?

• Do our words and behaviour communicate that there is a desire for truth telling and that there is no punishment for honest mistakes?

The brilliant leader is always aware of the importance of relationships. Ultimately business performance is about what people do in relationship with one another. Getting the best from others involves them giving their best discretionary efforts. Trust based relationships throughout the organisation will provide the basis for these kinds of efforts. Brilliant leaders provide the platform for great performances from their people by developing trust through openness, fairness, reliability and by recognising the contributions – expected and discretionary– of those who work alongside them in pursuit of the vision.

Tough times call for Brilliant Leadership and Brilliant leadership calls for leaders who know how to manage Attention, Meaning, Self and Trust.

Guest blog by Vistage speaker Glen Daly, if you want to hear Glen Daly speak why not come along to our Open Day in Manchester 25th June at Manchester City Football Club. For more details and to register click here

• Take ownership
• Be responsible for your growth
• Let go of your old habits.
• Decrease your technology dependence.
• Capture your ideas in simple ways, for example carry some 3×5 index cards with you everywhere you go.
• Avoid micromanaging yourself
• Manage stress by facing it
• Take the work out of work, and make fun!
• Develop a strong Leadership Brand – What do you want to be known for? What results do you want to achieve in the next 12 months?
• Become familiar with emerging markets. Tomorrow’s Leaders need to identify, and seize new possibilities created as emerging markets take centre stage in the global economy.

Guest blog post from Vistage speaker Molly Harvey

According to an industry expert, businesses should consider using more innovative recruitment practices to save time, help attract talent and create competitive advantage, freshbusinessthinking.co.uk reports.

Walter Hueber, CEO of online interview provider, Cammio, is urging businesses to explore more up-to-date techniques to better equip them for recruiting high calibre candidates. It’s a message that’s particularly pertinent for a smaller firm or family business that might be struggling to compete for talent against bigger companies.

Cammio research revealed that recruiters could be wasting as much as ten working days a year in interviews – averaging 25 minutes each – when they have made up their minds to hire within the first five minutes, if not earlier. It also found that the majority of interviews take place in locations other than the office, to which recruiters are spending 16 per cent of their week reaching.

“With tough economic conditions, businesses are actively competing for talent and poor quality interview processes could put organisations at a disadvantage,” Mr Hueber told hrmagazine.co.uk: “With today’s technologies, an interview can take place anytime, in around 15 minutes, at any location with an internet connection.”

The poll also found that a quarter would like to interview more candidates, but simply did not have the time to do so. By using newer technologies and procedures, such as preliminary reasoning tests or video interviews, they might be able to make both cost and time savings.

Whether you are a member of the family or MD/Director of a family business, a family business brings its own speacial set of strategies, legal and ownership issues – over and above those found in every business. If you want a very practial road-map that takes you through some of the complexities and different challenges that a family business may face, that shows you how to correctly balance the business and family, then the Family Business Forum is for you. It will take place on 28 June at The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield and is a full day event

The emphasis will be on helping you understand how to solve tomorrow’s predictable problems today whether you are first to second generation or second to third generation family business. The Vistage Family Business Forum includes:

1. Family Business Self-Assessment

Assess your current position in key areas and assess your operation against best practice

2. One Day Family Business Forum Workshop

A step-by-step and highly practical look at how to achieve success in each of the 16 key areas including exploring your current situation, real world case study examples and illustrations from high-calibre family business experts

3. Family Business Forum Toolkit

Tools, templates and business guides to allow you to quickly implement what you have learned, plus follow-up activities to continue your route to world-class family business management.

The agenda for the day is as follows

The keynote speaker on the day is Peter Leach who is the Founder and Chairman of Peter Leach LLP, a boutique advisory firm set up to support and advise entrepreneurial families.

With over 30 years of experience as a business advisor, teacher and facilitator working with family business owners internationally, he is seen as the “founding father” of family business thinking in the UK. Peter has worked with hundreds of business families around the world, specialising in working with multi-generational family businesses on governance issues.

Peter is author of Family Businesses: The Essentials, published by Profile Books and has written a number of other books on the subject, some of which have been published in several languages. He is also frequently quoted in the UK national and international press and lectures at business schools and universities all over the world.

He currently sits on the Advisory Board of the UK Institute for Family Business, and is a Fellow of the Family Firm Institute of the USA, the international body for family business advisers. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, having previously been a senior partner at BDO, one of the worlds largest accountancy firms for 25 years.

In 2010, Peter was awarded the Family Business Place Red Ribbon Award for his outstanding contribution to the field of Family Business. In 2011 Peter was awarded the Richard Beckhard Award from the Family Firm Institute which recognises outstanding contribution to the field of family business practice.

Peter currently sits as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Pentland Group Plc, a well-known UK family business.

 If you would like to attend the Forum please register here

Unexpected departures at top level can have serious, trickle-down effects for a business, a new report has discovered.

Whether a CEO leaves a company in a blaze of publicity or for health reasons, it has been confirmed that the sudden departure of a leader can negatively affect staff and productivity – especially if a successor has not been appointed.

That’s according to SHL, the psychometric assessment expert, which conducted a study among 250 large companies. It found that sudden leadership changes had occurred within around 50 per cent of these companies, telegraph.co.uk confirmed and 32 per cent reported a decrease in employee morale as a result. 

Additionally, 19 per cent claimed the sudden lack of leadership – due to the lack of succession planning – had stalled company growth. The survey found that while succession planning did exist in most of the companies polled, it was concentrated on identifying and filling ‘critical roles’ across the workforce; exit strategies surrounding the CEO were largely overlooked.

In fact, two-thirds of businesses were found not to have any such high-level succession plans in place; an absurd fact, given that 28 per cent of those polled said it had taken them more than six months to recruit a new CEO.

SHL’s Melanie Long said that succession planning was crucial for innovation and growth, making it important for all businesses to know where their “future leaders will come from”.

She concluded on hrmagazine.co.uk: “In this competitive market for talent, it appears organisations are shifting their focus to succession planning for the ‘engine room’ of the company, those that are innovating, creating value and delivering results.

“However, given the negative effects of losing a leader, succession planning needs to focus on identifying potential leaders for critical roles regardless of whether they are at the tip or across the organisation.”

Half of business bosses believe that the responsibility for driving growth lays with the company CEO, according to new research by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM).

A survey of 1,000 managers revealed that the majority feel their organisation’s output will grow over the next 12 months, but that the CEO is accountable for initiating such improvements. However, a confidence-boosting 79 per cent believed in their leader’s ability to deliver.

The survey highlighted ‘an underlying sense of confidence’ in the economy, in which almost three quarters of respondents felt their company was well placed to capitalise on growth opportunities. 85 per cent asserted that growth was the number one business priority.

ILM chief executive, Charles Elvin highlighted that the response indicated the importance of “effective leadership and managerial skills” as key and that shortages of such skills were a huge challenge for businesses. Availability of support and development for all managers, he said, was critical for growth. 

The deficiency was recognised by respondents, a quarter of whom named the shortage of skilled staff as a barrier to growth. As such, 20 per cent believed more money should be spent on training.

Mr Elvin said: “With our faltering economic recovery and recent reports of a double dip recession, it is encouraging to see high levels of confidence and optimism amongst UK managers.

“Now, more than ever, it is important that business leaders equip employees with the skills they need for a better performing workforce in order to optimise organisational performance and move towards sustained growth.”

The work-life balance of UK workers is improving after figures noted a rise in happiness in workers since 2010.

That’s according to a new Work-Life Balance Index published by Regus, cited by freshbusinessthinking.com, which suggests that out of a survey of 2,500 UK professionals, 60 per cent are enjoying their jobs more while 58 per cent feel that they have enough personal time.

Furthermore, an impressive 69 per cent of workers believe they achieve more at work now than in 2010, while around a third say that employers are making efforts to shorten commute time.

Overall, getting workers to achieve a healthy work-life balance is key for a CEO as it can improve productivity and instill flexible working practices in a business – a characteristic that is becoming increasingly common in modern business. 

Dr Clare Kelliher, Professor of Work and Organisation at the Cranfield School of Management, commented on the figures, cited by dofonline.co.uk: “We know that a good work-life balance is essential for employees to live healthy, happy and productive lives.

“The results from this report lend weight to the idea that happier staff are also more productive. At a time when all businesses are striving for growth, this serves as a reminder that employers should review their policies and practices to ensure that staff have the flexibility to achieve balance in their lives,” she added.

The fixed, office-centric worker of yesteryear is being shunted in favour of ‘anywhere workers’ – staff that can work on the move, at home, in the office or elsewhere.

That’s according to a survey by Siemens Enterprise Communications, who asked for the opinions of 1,000 staff working in the UK. Around 85 per cent said that communication devices, such as smartphones and laptops, that are used for team collaboration are outside company property, reports hrmagazine.co.uk.

Furthermore, 40 per cent of firms have plans to deploy cloud strategies this year, which could have the potential to help workers address work/life balance issues. Cloud computing means that content can be accessed from any device as it is stored in an online space. Therefore, a CEO could access important work documents from home on a tablet instead of travelling to work to use a work computer.

Rob Keenan, head of UK portfolio management and deployment readiness management at Siemens Enterprise Communications, said: “The rise of the anywhere employee has meant the end of the office worker.

“Business tools, such as [unified communications], are reshaping the way organisations collaborate and are helping deliver on the previously-too-difficult promise of enhanced communication. More than ever, work isn’t where you go, it’s what you do,” he added.

Siemens’ survey follows comments made by business expert Fred Studer on forbes.com, who suggests that technology is the key for workers to provide ‘more flex in [their] lives’.

Managers need to take ‘a long look in the mirror’, according to an expert at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

That strongly worded advice has been dispensed by Ben Willmott, head of public policy at the CIPD, in regard to the results of its management skills survey – which revealed that managers do not know ‘how bad they are at handling people’, telegraph.co.uk reports.

It found a worrying disparity between managers’ perceptions of their abilities and the reality as confirmed by subordinates, highlighting the importance of effective leadership training. In fact, 58 per cent of employees were satisfied with their manager’s abilities, yet managers themselves believed the satisfaction rate to be at 80 per cent.

The survey also found that 90 per cent of managers said they coached new staff, yet just 40 per cent of employees said they had received such coaching. Additionally, 75 per cent of managers thought individual development was discussed in staff one-to-ones, but only 38 per cent of employees said these discussions took place.

With almost eight million people managers working in the UK at the moment, effective training is vital not only for employee engagement, but for business growth; particularly in times of austerity.

“Leadership and management capability continues to be an Achilles heel for UK plc, despite mounting evidence that these are ‘skills for growth’ essentials,” Mr Willmott said to peoplemanagement.co.uk.

“Too many people are promoted into people management roles because they have good technical skills, then receive inadequate training and have little idea of how their behaviour impacts on others.”