How Effective is Your Shared Services Leader?

Read the results of our 2013 "Boss Quality" survey here... Last summer, we invited you all to tell us what you really think about the leader of your shared services organisation. Our confidential survey asked a wide range of questions and we got some very interesting answers back, which we are sharing with you here. The survey provided a good benchmark of opinions across the global spectrum of shared services and we received viewpoints from practitioners in HR Shared Services (76.32% of respondents) Finance and Accounting (13.16%), Procurement (7.89 %) and IT (2.63%). Back in 2010 we ran a similar Boss Quality survey with similar questions (you can compare the results by clicking here). So what did you tell us about your Shared Services Leaders? Firstly we asked: How good is your boss at being an in-house "cheerleader for the cause"? That is, promoting the shared services organisation to your business customers? So a cheerleader not in the form of a short-skirted person waving pom-poms at the edge of the sports field (!), but a true leader for shared services, out on the field of play, speaking up at every opportunity to sell and market the benefits of the shared services offer to all customers. Good news: 44 % of you said your Shared Services leader is very effective as a Cheerleader, and another 38% felt this was evident to some extent. At the other end of the range of viewpoints, however 12% said their Shared Services Boss was "Not at all a Cheerleader" – more of a shrinking violet on the subject of sales and marketing of Shared Services, and certainly not a champion leading from the front. Success at selling the value of shared services is clearly key to shared services being trusted, respected and fully and effectively utilised within the business: 46% of shared services leaders are very effective at doing this according to our survey results. This correlates with Shared Services organisations that have built a strong reputation, gained recognition and reward, and have high levels of usage and customer satisfaction levels (above 95%). Overall, 80% of leaders are making progress in this area and the other 20% really need to improve their focus and do more proactive selling and marketing of their shared services function with their key stakeholders. Selling and marketing the Shared Services function is not just a PR job – you can demonstrate the true value of shared services to your customers. For this, you need senior managers and key clients to buy-in to the added value of shared services, particularly during launch and in the early stages of growth. A true measure of shared services’ effectiveness can be expressed in a formula that is based on getting the right balance between "cost efficiency" and a "fit-for-purpose" level of quality in the delivery of products and services to the customer. According to the survey results, 40% of shared services leaders are successful at doing this, yet 22% need to significantly improve in this area as they are not yet at the stage where they’ve gained the trust and conviction required to overcome resistance and enable a sustainable shared services organisation. So, how successful are shared services leaders at making effective decisions that improve the real and perceived value of the function within the company? Well, our survey says that 46 % of leaders are very effective and another 39 % are making good progress. And are Shared Services fully aligned with the business targets of the company they support? Yes, according to 83% of you No, according to 17% of you A good shared services leader will ensure that the objectives for their team are directly aligned with the business needs – clearly connected and cascading from them. All the arrows need to line up and point forward in the same direction. Leader as Career Coach Shared Services leaders often run large-scale shared services teams with several direct reports. All of you in those teams are, of course, interested in personal development opportunities, including a visible and realistic career path with the possibility of upward progression, or to other parallel roles within the organisation. So leaders have an important role to play in enabling growth and development for their team, whilst recognising that it is the individual who owns the responsibility for their career. We asked you: How important has your boss been in furthering your career? Your answers to this question ranged widely. On the positive side, over 65% of you say that your shared services leader has played an important role in helping you to further your career, and 32.65% indicate that your shared services boss has played a very important role in enabling you to grow and develop your career. The sad news is that over 12% of you say that your shared services leader has not played an important role at all in enabling your career development. Given that personal and career development support is a key motivator in attracting and retaining employees, Shared Services leaders certainly need to recognise this as part of their responsibility if they are serious about having a fully engaged and productive team. Motivating a Shared Services team also requires leaders to find other ways to interest and engage the team to provide that extra, discretionary effort and to go the extra mile to delight the customer. We found that 26.83% of you saw your shared services boss as a great motivator and another 56.10% saw your boss as reasonably good at motivating. That’s really encouraging to hear. But, again, it seems that at least 17% of respondents aren’t getting the level of motivation they need from their Shared Services leader. Top Leadership Characteristics needed for successful Shared Services leaders In our previous Boss Quality Survey of 2010 we established 4 Key Principles for Effective Shared Services Leaders (you can read about each of these here: Principle 1: Characteristics; Principle 2: Engage and Manage; Principle 3: Effective Boss; and Principle 4: Sustainable Energy). In this year’s survey, we asked you to list the top five most important characteristics for successful Shared Services leaders. The top answers were consistent with the themes we identified three years ago. The Top 5 Characteristics for Boss Quality are: "Provides a clear vision of where we are going and leads by example"; 75.6% of you viewed this as a "top 5" characteristic for a successful Shared Services leader "Drives for continuous improvement in all that we do"; 58.5% "Empowers us and trusts us"; 56.1% "Builds team work and employee engagement"; 51.2 % "Enables personal growth and career development for individuals and the team"; 41.5 % Interestingly, the next highest-rated characteristics related to how leaders work with their team to manage change effectively; offer support; provide regular coaching; stand up for the team when challenged by others; and demonstrate strong positive values that align with the culture and values of the organisation. So, for Shared Services teams "boss quality" is really about sharing a vision; setting clear and stretching targets; leveraging empowerment and engagement; and managing talent. Given that we always hear that "people are our greatest asset," it’s not surprising that good people skills for Shared Services leaders – often described as the "soft skills" – score more highly than technical skills based on systems, processes, SLAs, policies and procedures, and the ability to leverage data and technology. It could be argued that these hard skills are best delegated to the expert within the team, or the consultant you bring in to implement these for you. In my next articles, we will reveal some "deeper dive" views on the subject of Shared Services Leadership, including: How effective is your own boss? What do they do best? What could they do much better? In addition: 20 Shared Services Leaders will be sharing their best and their most embarrassing moments! Their anonymity will be protected but the details of what they did will not. Should make for really interesting reading … We are also pleased to announce the winners of 2 free conference tickets to Shared Services & Outsourcing Week anywhere in the world (a value of more than $2000) drawn from the list of survey respondents. The winners are: Paul Miller and Nicola Lavarino. Both will be receiving an email with further details. I look forward to catching up with you again in 2014. Simon Brown [inlinead] Other articles by Simon Brown: Changing Markets Demand Changing Roles

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