Building business development cultures that thrive.
Hello S-Curvers,
If this was you, or your team, last financial year you may want to look at setting up a Team Agreement to create the right conditions in your team to support business development efforts this financial year.
What's the problem?
An urgency culture undermines business development, because when everything is defined as urgent nothing is. It leads to hyper-reactivity with little or no productive outcome.
Feeling like you are running around with your hair on fire is just a way to describe a false sense of urgency. Harvard Business Review (HBR) defines false urgency as ‘unproductive busyness that doesn’t lead to meaningful progress’. HBR goes on to say that much of the frenetic activity in organisations is false urgency. Further, the pandemic, increased connectivity, and the expectation for immediate responses has made feelings of false urgency a bigger problem than ever.
How does false urgency feel?
False urgency is when everything feels urgent. It feels chaotic, demanding and exhausting. You might feel dominated by your email or other people's demands. It can also feel like an invisible pressure that builds up inside your head. You can get to the end of the week and feel you haven’t achieved much despite all the energy you’ve burned.
“Goals are for people who care about winning once. Systems are for people who care about winning repeatedly”
- James Clear, author Atomic Habits
What’s the solution?
A Team Agreement can deliver benefits because it sets out a shared understanding of what business development behaviours are valued and prioritised by the team. If we accept that culture is ‘an agreed set of collective behaviours that everyone adheres to’ then we can foster the right business development culture by spending time to establish a Team Agreement.
Team Agreements
Team Agreements are an easy way to cultivate positive business development culture. They also provide a reference for leaders and team members to refer to when a false sense of urgency creeps in. In terms of your business development system, Team Agreements sit under strategy and above business development competency documents and checklists - see pyramid diagram far below.
Team Agreements should include some high-level guiding principles, such as:
Punctuality: being on time shows respect for others and demonstrates professional capability.
Purpose: understanding the importance of business development.
Mindfulness: recognising how a positive mindset enhances performance.
Reliability: acknowledging that trust evaporates if commitments are not met.
Other elements you might include in your Team Agreement are:
-Task Focus
Team members should focus on the right tasks, ensuring they are not just busy but busy with the right tasks, so they are achieving the best results for their practice and the firm.
-Time Allocation
Each team member should allocate specific time for business development every week and ensure it is scheduled into their diary and that they know what to do during that time. The leaders role is to ensure they have enough confidence in their ability to complete the tasks and not feel overwhelmed by them. (See my previous note on business development competencies if in doubt.)
Checking In
From time-to-time the Team Agreement needs to be surfaced and discussed at team meetings when business development is on the agenda. If individuals are having problems then a discussion in relation to the Team Agreement is a gentle place to start looking for improvements.
Set and forget?
Team Agreements are not a silver bullet, but they do set up a conversation around what's important and what's not important that everyone can understand. These types of documents contribute in a positive way to building the right culture, so when teams go off track they can find their way back.
The role of the team leader is to show team members the way to succeed and to create an environment where business development can thrive. Sometimes this needs to start with a Team Agreement that sets out expected collective behaviour.
THANK YOU
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