“INSPIRATION IS NOT A ONE-WAY STREET”

Ms Heitger, how important is the theme of inspiration for the success of a company?

Barbara Heitger That depends on what you mean by inspiration. It’s very important if it leads to a great commitment. So if it creates an inner willingness to keep working for something with full force. On the other hand, if inspiration is just a momentary thing, then it will only spark a flash in the pan – and that's clearly not enough. But in both cases it’s important to know that inspiration can’t be produced at the touch of a button.

How then?

Just like leadership, inspiration is always a “relational event”. It only works when there’s an interaction between someone who inspires and someone who wants to be inspired. It’s also important that inspiration is not a one-way street from the top down. In every company, there are also employees who can inspire their colleagues right up to the senior management.

Nevertheless, inspiration and motivation do need to come predominantly from the senior management.

Of course, any managers need to be able to motivate and inspire their teams. To do this, they first need to be able to convey the purpose of the company in a credible way. Why exactly does this company exist?

What are its goals? Why does it make sense to work hard to achieve these goals? And what role does the respective task and position play in this? How can processes and a culture of collaboration be designed so that they inspire? If the answers to these questions are positive and the employees can relate to these answers, then the foundation for inspiration and motivation has been laid. However, they’re only really achieved when a positive sense of community is created, there’s a sense of “we”, and when people also have the perception that they can make a positive contribution. One of these aspects on its own is not enough.

What do managers have to offer for their messages to be effective and for employees to show real commitment?

The present is always the link between the images of the company’s own history and its future. The picture of history shows who we are, what we’ve achieved and what we can build on. It needs to stand up to reality, otherwise it loses force. This is the only way to conjure up a picture of the future that is credible: with clear challenges, attractive goals, the steps needed to achieve them and the prospect of joint success and recognition of this.

But even the best picture will remain ineffective if the employees don’t engage with it. And it can fail quickly if the role from which the design comes has no clout. For example, the position of a sustainability expert in a company that regards this position merely as a fig leaf.

Let’s take Progroup as an example. Jürgen Heindl has always set himself very ambitious goals and he managed to generate a very high level of commitment among his employees. He succeeded in doing this because he was able to carry them along with him and persuade them to achieve something great together. He embodied a “we can do this” attitude and was 100% committed to this. In addition, he did not claim to know everything. On the contrary, he was always keen to find out from his employees exactly how something works. This interest, coupled with his empathy and great appreciation for his team, made him a real role model.

But not every company has a ­motivator and inspirational figure like this.

That’s true. And even with a company like Progroup, this is no longer enough once the company reaches a certain size. Responsibility is increasingly shifting to the management, leadership teams and the way they work together. The crucial factor is how they lead, how they make decisions and how they involve others. The step away from a leading figure to a systematic approach to goal and decision-making processes requires responsibility to be shared. This is challenging because all the parties involved need to realign themselves, cooperate with each other and, to a certain extent, enter into new contracts. There’s a need for guidance, control and leadership systems. And the people in positions of leadership then also have to be responsible for some of the empowerment. Progroup is also currently in this phase. The new management is tackling this change, which is made even more difficult by an uncertain market environment, with a very clear, focussed and prudent approach.

If the responsibility is to be borne on several shoulders, it’s also vital to find the right people. How do you achieve the right personnel policy?

It’s not just the senior management, but also the HR department that plays a key role here because mistakes in recruiting the wrong people to leadership positions will carry a very high price. That’s why it's not just the tasks and responsibility that come with a position that need to be jointly worked out to identify the right skills. It’s equally important to address the issue of assessing the suitability of applicants on a human level, to establish whether the person is a cultural “fit” for the specific corporate environment. If the person comes from outside the organisation, then careful onboarding is essential. The purpose of this is to ensure that the new employee contributes their experience in the best way possible, but also receives support to help them quickly understand the specific characteristics of the company and get on board so they can be productive. This is how you create real added value for both parties.

That sounds very complicated. Isn’t it better to keep developing your own employees?

There’s value in both. There are indeed studies showing that really successful companies have filled quite a large number of their management positions from within. The great advantage of this is that the people already know the company, its history and culture, its goals, tasks and people. But technical experts do not always make the best leaders. The candidates who are best suited to leadership roles are employees who act like a manager without being one. These are people who think like an entrepreneur and look and act beyond their own area of responsibility.

How can they be introduced to this new “leadership” task?

Workshops and seminars are a good start. But leadership is learned primarily from doing it in real life. Give people a task that makes them feel: This really matters. A level of responsibility that is big enough to be challenging and clear enough to make successes visible. A good balance between challenge, support and continuous feedback helps to enable people to grow into a leadership role step by step.

It’s also important to consciously define any change of role: becoming a boss rather than a colleague means that relationships will change, and this will be noticeable. If you underestimate this challenge, you risk creating tensions. But anyone who manages to use their knowledge and experience to assign tasks clearly and sensibly and get the best out of their team will be much stronger for it. They will have the level of acceptance and authority that external candidates have to work hard to acquire.