Be consistent
If you own or run the business what you say counts and is important to the people you deal with. It can reassure employees, placate customers and appease lenders. Alternatively, it can irritate, confuse and disillusion all of these parties. The key must be consistency. You must repeat important messages and reinforce them by your behavior. It is little use berating someone for throwing away a paperclip, if you have just bought a helicopter for the use of senior managers only.
Avoid following every new business fashion which you read about in management magazines. If you follow fads, your message will be continually changing. If one week you are telling everyone that TQM is the future of the business, and next week it's re-engineering, no-one is going to take you or your initiatives seriously.
Be honest and realistic
People aren't stupid. If business is bad, the people who work for you will probably know before you do. There is little use in trying to put a brave face on things and give them good news rather than the bad news they can see all round them. They want the truth so they know where they stand. If you are blindly optimistic you will inevitably have created expectations. When your optimism is proved to be completely groundless you have a lot of explaining to do and a great deal of trust to earn. Good news is the preserve of politicians; reality is the only currency of business.
It is especially important to keep customers fully informed. If you are going to deliver something late you have to prepare them for the bad news. You could invent an excuse, but it is preferable to keep them informed throughout so that they know early on that you are going to be late and so they understand the reasons behind your lateness.
Be well prepared
Some people can get on their feet and make inspiring speeches filled with wit, information and inspiration. But for every brilliant speaker there are thousands of tongue-tied mortals. It is no use pretending that you have the oratorical gifts of Winston Churchill if you can barely string a coherent sentence together. Be realistic; instead of casually assuming you can bluff your way through, do your homework. Plan what you are going to say and pay attention to detail. Don't try to be clever.
Remember charisma isn't always what people want to see and poetry is not what they necessarily want to hear. One chief executive gave a speech to a group of employees which was full of information, but was essentially dull. One of the employees was asked what he thought about the chief executive: Terrible at speeches and presentations, but he seems careful and well-organized - I would rather he was running the company than someone who made great speeches.'
Tailor the message
Different people need to receive the same message in different ways. You must be able to change your presentational style to fit the audience's needs and to use the medium which suits them and your message best. Think what can help you get your message across. Do you really need 165 slides with complex diagrams or could you sum it up in a single diagram?
Venture capitalist, Robert Drummond, former chairman of Grosvenor Venture Managers, agrees: 'Intuition is all about flexibility - being tuned into what's going on and being prepared to change direction.' By its very nature, venture capital relies on hunches about whether a business is likely to succeed or fail. According to Robert Drummond, it is not simply a question of backing winners. 'It is no good following rigid rules in business. Successful people not only make the right decisions, they have a grasp of timing. Being a venture capitalist is all about being opportunistic, using your intuition to identify changes in society and to invest in areas which meet new needs.'
Some argue that intuition comes with experience. 'Very senior managers often appear to operate intuitively,' says psychologist Robert Sharrock of Young, Samuel, Chambers (YSC). They don't use the usual buzz-words or adhere to textbook models of management. It is like mastering a skill or craft -putting it into practice becomes automatic. A lot of intuition is, in fact, highly skilled.'
Less experienced, younger managers are therefore unlikely to have the necessary intuitive skills to make instant decisions. 'For managers who have a lot of experience and intelligence, intuitive judgments are probably reliable. Others need to be extremely cautious,' says Robert Sharrock.
With increasing emphasis on the speed of decision-making, intuition is likely to increase in importance. 'Uncertainty breeds intuition,' says Professor Colin Carnall of Henley Management College. 'Things now happen so fast that managers rarely have all the information they might need to make a decision. They have to rely on their intuition if they are to seize the opportunity.'
Professor Carnall believes intuitive managers, willing to back their judgments with immediate action, are the people who get to the top. 'Senior managers are not necessarily the most intelligent. Usually they are pragmatic and flexible, able to make intuitive decisions quickly and reliably, rather than waiting for exhaustive analysis.'
Intuition teetered on the edge of respectability in the 1980s. The image of the dashing entrepreneur was in part based on a dislike of the stereotypically dull accountant-manager. Who needs flow charts when running businesses is intuitive? Intuition was all about mobile phones, deals and continually hustling. A decade later, reality is dawning and intuition is increasingly seen as a skill which can be learned.
Intuition is the ability to learn from experience,' says Robert Drummond. 'Companies need intuitive people - not necessarily at the very top of the organization.' Indeed, some organizations, such as 3M. have built their reputation on encouraging people throughout the company to follow their intuition.
