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Recently I had the privilege of chatting with Karim Nejaim, Director Converged Services Engineering for Singtel Optus. Our conversation centred around some of the challenges of his recent leadership transition from a team of 100 to 300 people. Here is a short summary of what I learned from Karim during our chat.
Many of the challenges to emerge from our discussions relate to leadership message - the message itself and the delivery of it. I began by asking Karim about his expectations prior to the transition. “I thought it would be difficult to get the message to 300 in the same way as you can to 100” he said. “But it isn’t harder to get the message to them - it’s just harder to get them to believe it”.
Karim was surprised by the difference in the collective attention span of a group of 300 versus 100. When it comes to a group of 300 he exclaimed, “You can’t hold them for more than 10 minutes”. He suggests that,more than ever, simplicity is the key to effective communication with 300 people - and that means no more than 3 messages at one time. “Regardless of the size of the team people need to know our plan - and their role in it” says Nejaim. “They need to know what I stand for - particularly as the new leader of the team - and they need to know why we do what we do”
Karim is very focused on his communication style. He is committed to making sure that the right message “cuts through the layers” of the organisation and is well understood by all members of the team. He designs his communication with dual objectives - no ambiguity and no wavering - in the message or in the delivery. He is very focused on ensuring that the team understands his expectations of them - both outcomes and behaviours. He has clearly asked the team for some big changes in both areas and recognizes that he needs to “make it safe” if he wants people to think (and act) differently. Simply – if you want innovation, you have to make it safe for people to make a few mistakes. He does this by creating a transparent decision framework to facilitate autonomy and reduce bureaucracy, in his words “here is what we do, here is what we don’t do….”.
The ability to interact is also an important element in the transition from a 100 to a 300-person team. With a 100-person team, Karim was able to meet with smaller groups of 10 people and engage in a dialogue about the issues at hand. Most of the time when you’re leading 300 this isn’t practical. This means that most of the communication is one-way, “from me to them, which means I need to be cleaner in my communication”, he said.
That said, he is committed to interacting with members of his team in a less structured and positive way. An advocate of Management by Walking Around, Karim is visible and accessible to his team. And he says “I am ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS in a good mood”. |
