The Potential of British Management | Issue #28
The benefits of recognising your employees, an experiment in traditional marketing and the potential of British management - all in this latest Leadership Bulletin.
Welcome to the latest edition of The Leadership Bulletin.
This week saw some good news for the UK economy - and government - as self-employment tax receipts in January were much, much higher than anticipated. Whereas economists forecast a government deficit in January of £7.8bn, the government actually ran a surplus of £5.45bn. What’s more, public borrowing in the financial year is £30.6bn less than the OBR had predicted.
So the year is starting with some good news for the UK and our economy - let’s hope it keeps coming!
THE POTENTIAL OF BRITISH MANAGEMENT.
This recent article in The Economist - ‘For Britain to grow faster it needs better managers’ - really hit home with me. One of its most striking observations was how we think of management as something which is itself unproductive. It's as if we've maintained the idea of the Victorian factory: the front-line workers produce and the managers sit back and make the money. But in modern, dynamic, service economies, this couldn't be further from the truth. Good management makes companies more productive and staff happier - what’s more, it will ultimately will make our nation more prosperous.
So where are we at the moment? UK management starts with solid foundations - but there is enormous potential for the UK to do better. The below graph was included in the Economist article, summarising the World Management Survey findings over almost 20 years. Over that time, the UK has come sixth - above France, Australia and Italy. That's the good news. But we could be doing so much better if UK management was comparable with the United States, Japan, Germany, Sweden or Canada. And that's where the potential lies.
The challenge for the UK is threefold:
At the national level, what can we learn from other countries, especially those whose management skills and competencies have outpaced our own?
At the organisational level, how can we ensure our managers are continuing to grow in their skillset and we are creating the outstanding managers of tomorrow from within our workforce?
And at the individual level, what can we do - as managers - to ensure we’re playing our part in making UK businesses the most competently managed in the world?
If government, businesses and individual managers can find the right answers to those questions, we’ve got a very bright future ahead of us.
REGULAR REWARD & RECOGNITION - THE BENEFITS.
A recent study, included in the Harvard Business Review, shows there is a massive gap in employee engagement depending on how well leaders provide recognition. The top 10% of leaders for employee recognition had significantly higher staff engagement than those in the bottom 10% (70th percentile vs 27th percentile). So before this week is through, make sure you tell your team how much you appreciate what they do!
BACK TO TRADITIONAL MARKETING.
Write 'em, design 'em, order 'em, print 'em, top-and-tail 'em, fold 'em, stuff 'em, address 'em, stamp 'em, post 'em...
That’s been a big part of my week as my business, Edfolio, has sent out its first ever mailshot. It’s been a lot of effort, but it's helping me test out a theory: that the online world is now so crowded that you can get a better R.O.I. for many products with an old-fashioned, personalised letter through the post. If you have experience of these different types of marketing, I'd love to hear your thoughts! And in the coming weeks I'll share my experiences of R.O.I. from social media advertising, Google Ads and direct mail.
GOOD NEWS ABOUT UK START-UPS.
Want some reasons to be cheerful about the UK? Look at our start-up ecosystem. From 2011-2021, the amount invested in UK start-ups has increased from £1.6bn to an incredible £27.7bn. What’s more, London is by far and away the start-up capital of Europe - second placed Paris receives only half the investment London does.
So we have some amazing foundations - but, undoubtedly, more to do to keep the UK and its start-up businesses on top. Figures above are from the brilliant team at The Entrepreneurs Network who are currently writing a report on how we can better support UK start-ups.