How your role of director has evolved from ‘Strategy architect’ and ‘Opportunity driver’ to ‘Problem solver’ within a decade.

Most successful high ranked directors manage their days in 5 mins slots. Appointments are made by their secretary or themselves, as they note down open issues they need to address.

This works well when dealing with the ‘known issues’, even if it is extremely time consuming (Requiring a document of the issues, a review meeting and a follow-up workshop). The unexpected issues are communicated to them once occured. The role of the director is hence transformed from a risk control and opportunity driving force to one of problem filtering and solutioning.

Directors today are so occupied in sorting the never-ending pile of problems that they have little to no time to concentrate on how to prevent these problems from happening.

The main chains that bind directors to problem solving tasks are:
1) Accepting the idea that ‘there is no other way’.
2) The lack of time to even consider alternatives.
3) The missing time to map and analyse their business processes.
4) The fact that their software does not provide the analytics across departments to identify trends that lead to issues.

How does this impact the employees?

Whenever a problem arises, the employee simply passes it on to their departmental head, who in trun categorises it within two categories:
1) An operational problem that he/she can fix
2) A technical / strategic problem that requires director input.

The solution: Empower your directors so that they can focus on improving the company’s efficiency.

For this to happen, you need to:
1) Affirm the director’s role in the company.
2) Give her/him the time and consulting needed for a succesful transition.
3) Adopt the software that allows your directors and employees to greatly reduce risks, as well as easily identify problems before they occur.

The form of the solution does not come in a better use of your CRM, ERP and Bi software but requires the consulting services that will accompany your directors for a year or more.

About the author:
Dominique Staub has been assisting directors, deparmental heads and end-users in organising their work to reduce errors since the year 2000 and is available to help your people become the best they can be at work. Offer only valid in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.