Character
I was recently working with a client, a board Director of a NHS trust which is in the running for Foundation Trust status. As part of the process, the board have to go and be grilled by the DoH.
The Director was worried about being put on the spot and letting the team down, and it got me thinking about many of our clients who have to pitch for business and want to be more effective at it.
In the NHS example, the DoH already have all the paperwork, accounts, operational targets etc. that they need to make a decision. So why grill the board? Is it to make sure the Finance Director is on top of the numbers? Or the Medical Director can tell water on the brain from a tap on the head?
No. They want to see how this group of people hangs together as a team. They know that people's real characters come out when you put them under pressure. And so they create a pressured environment to see what happens. Do the Directors talk over each other, answer each other's questions, contradict each other? Or do they play a team game, supporting each other?
When the judges ask a question, it's not because they need the factual answer. They want to see the position that the Director takes, and that position will tell them about that person's character. So asking about the impact of the financial targets on standards of patient care isn't to find out if the Director understands the cashflow forecast; it's to see what position she takes on it, to find out what her character is.
So, in these situations, your answer reveals your position which reveals your character.
And ultimately, what they want is to look these Directors in the eye and answer a simple question; "Are you really up to this? Are you really ready?"
So if you pitch for business, remember that it's less important to wheel in your best subject matter experts, and more important to bring in the people who demonstrate character. The people who actually present together rather than trying to outshine each other. Of course, they have to be on top of the facts and figures, but if we take that as read then you need to spend time rehearsing as a team.
When actors rehearse for a play, they don't rehearse by themselves and then just turn up on the night and read their lines. They rehearse together because the story or the experience isn't conveyed in an actor's lines, it's conveyed in the relationships between the characters.
So just pause for a moment and consider the story you're telling your customers when you pitch for business.
The Director was worried about being put on the spot and letting the team down, and it got me thinking about many of our clients who have to pitch for business and want to be more effective at it.
In the NHS example, the DoH already have all the paperwork, accounts, operational targets etc. that they need to make a decision. So why grill the board? Is it to make sure the Finance Director is on top of the numbers? Or the Medical Director can tell water on the brain from a tap on the head?
No. They want to see how this group of people hangs together as a team. They know that people's real characters come out when you put them under pressure. And so they create a pressured environment to see what happens. Do the Directors talk over each other, answer each other's questions, contradict each other? Or do they play a team game, supporting each other?
When the judges ask a question, it's not because they need the factual answer. They want to see the position that the Director takes, and that position will tell them about that person's character. So asking about the impact of the financial targets on standards of patient care isn't to find out if the Director understands the cashflow forecast; it's to see what position she takes on it, to find out what her character is.
So, in these situations, your answer reveals your position which reveals your character.
And ultimately, what they want is to look these Directors in the eye and answer a simple question; "Are you really up to this? Are you really ready?"
So if you pitch for business, remember that it's less important to wheel in your best subject matter experts, and more important to bring in the people who demonstrate character. The people who actually present together rather than trying to outshine each other. Of course, they have to be on top of the facts and figures, but if we take that as read then you need to spend time rehearsing as a team.
When actors rehearse for a play, they don't rehearse by themselves and then just turn up on the night and read their lines. They rehearse together because the story or the experience isn't conveyed in an actor's lines, it's conveyed in the relationships between the characters.
So just pause for a moment and consider the story you're telling your customers when you pitch for business.
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