Who are you?
What do you do?
Who do you report to?
What sort of team are you part of?
Does this make it easier or more difficult to drive change in your organisation?
So far in our Insight Roadmap series we have explored 3 territories – Insight Commerciality, Insight Strategy, and Insight Positioning. The next territory to investigate covers the recruitment, management and leadership of Insight teams.
At the March meeting of the Insight Management Forum, we looked at 2 of the 4 key aspects.
First, we looked at Insight leadership. What is it like to be an Insight leader? What is the range of activity we have to juggle?
Having spoken to many senior Insight leaders in advance of the event, we produced a short video to capture a day in the life – have a look and see if you recognise the picture it paints!
When you become an Insight leader, nobody gives you a manual to describe what you should do. Nobody provides you with an appropriate framework and explains the key tasks in each box.
Having heard personal case studies from the Insight leaders at Tesco, Barclays, Wilko and Molson Coors, the IMA proposed a framework for examining key leadership activity.
Second, we talked about teams, and the extent to which Insight teams behave as “true teams” as defined by Katzenbach & Smith in The Wisdom of Teams.
Does your team have an agreed mission? Do your team members sign up to common goals? Do they work together to solve business problems? Have they been recruited to provide the organisation with a wide range of talents and expertise?
All too often companies set out to recruit Insight professionals with very similar skills, and then ask them to undertake analysis projects or manage market research independently from the people all around them.
And nearly every organisation rewards individual performance rather than collective effectiveness.
The 3rd key area might not sound very exciting, but it makes a lot of difference. It’s the way we manage our headcount – the roles we define and the reporting structures we put in place. An effective Insight leader takes a progressive and creative approach to defining roles, actively looking for opportunities to re-shape their team to take advantage of changing circumstances.
Some years ago, Barclays Insight team wanted to improve their journalistic skills, increasing their ability to distil key stories and communicate them with real punch and appeal. A maternity leave provided an opportunity to recruit a professional journalist for a year, and his work during that time influenced the rest of the team’s focus on communication and their ability to communicate with impact.
The 4th key area is perhaps the most obvious. The ability of our people is key. How easily does your organisation attract, develop and retain researchers and analysts whose ability compares well with those in other organisations you know?
How much time are you able to give to personal development? How advanced is your view of best practice? How often do you meet fellow Insight professionals from other companies and talk about the skillsets you need to develop?
The IMA’s new best practice report, Insight Leadership and Team Excellence, will be published on Monday 19th June. If you would like to read this and other IMA reports, please contact us.
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