Managing the more predictable Alchemia business is no longer for him. “I will be exiting the Alchemia board but remain acting chief executive for six months,” he says. “There won’t be a huge amount of activity in Alchemia.” Smith’s energies will be focussed on Audeo Oncology, where he will become president.
Having the ability to let go, as Smith is doing, requires a degree of self-awareness, according to business coach Neil Posus, founder of the web site askacoach.com. He says executives should apply a balanced scorecard to themselves and to their staff when a business is undergoing a transition from being high risk to predictable. “You have to identify what has been learned,” he says. “Leaders have to do some important reflection. Did they get the result they wanted and is it really measurable? Do people acknowledge their own strengths and continue to use them, or are they exhausted from their efforts?”
The measures should be aligned with the company’s strategies, says Posus. These include, in sequence: financial targets, customer targets, business process metrics and growth metrics. He says it is important to pay attention to the cost of growth.
Executives often struggle to apply such examination to themselves. “Leaders can be self-aware but only if they act on it do they become self-actualised leaders,” says Posus adding that a decision to exit “could be very wise”. “If the person can articulate why they are making the move then it is likely to be sound.”
Martin Nally, managing director of hranywhere, says the psychology of entrepreneurial activity differs from managing a more conventional business. “If (managers) are attracted to that delivery of an outcome, then they have to ask themselves if they are the kind of person who can morph into a maintainer rather than an innovator, or whether their time is done. In a way we are fortunate that people no longer think of having a career for life.”
Nally says unless executives are prepared to “reinvest” themselves in the business at all its stages the business will not be operating at an optimal level. But he estimates that only the top fifth of executives possess the self-awareness to recognise when they aren’t as engaged.
“To advance yourself (effectively) you have to understand what your strengths are. I think the problem, more often than we realise, is that we are not outrageous enough to make the next step. You have to ask yourself whether you are really as satisfied as before. Often what people say is that it is just ‘that time in my career’ but that may not be good enough.”
Senior executives can be motivated by many different impulses, such as the desire for power, money or achievement. But when the main motive is to achieve, executives may have to look for new goals once one has been realised.
Deborah Rathjen is one such executive. The chief executive of Bionomics, she has had success in the scientific field, having developed the anti-cancer antibody Humira, and the business field. She compares scientific success to “climbing Mt Kilimanjaro” and business success to “climbing Mt Blanc”. “I live in the future; I’m not interested in the past.”
Drucker commented: “Work is an extension of personality. It is achievement. It is one of the ways in which a person measures his or her worth and humanity.” The implication is that when executives have achieved important goals, and are considering whether to move on, they have to understand how they derive their sense of self-worth. The transition will inevitably involve some deep reflection.
David James has been a business journalist for 25 years. He was editor of Management Today and is the author of Managing for the Twenty First Century and The Business Devil’s Dictionary. He has a PhD in English Literature from Monash University.
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