Business sitting - it's on!
A few months back I posted about business sitting, an idea that came after I spent the entire Sept school holidays with my kids for the first time ever.
The insight behind the idea was that while only good can come from it many business leaders (myself included) don't feel they can step away from the business for an extended period of time. And, oftentimes it is not the day-to-day operations of the business that we worry about, but commercial and governance aspects and the possibility of projects or relationships going awry and the team not having the right capability or context to respond.
This was the pitch:
Could you do with some time out to focus on family, a personal project, or to step away from the day-to-day in order to gain a fresh perspective? If you feel you can’t leave the team without support, why not bring in a business-sitter to 'tend the plants and secure the perimeter'.
The universe (aka LinkedIn) has delivered up my first business sitting gig and it starts next month. I cannot tell you how excited and intrigued I am. The role is in primary health, a sector I have no experience in. For three months I will be acting CEO, while the current leader (experienced, sharp, and lovely) takes time away from the business.
How will the handover process work? How transferable will my experience and approach be? What don’t I know that I don’t know about this sector? Guess we will find out.
What I do know from my induction sessions to date is that the things that need ‘tending and securing’ are the same as other businesses I have held leadership roles in – the team, the customers (in this case patients), and the stakeholders - external partners, consultants, and shareholders. Plus, there are some key strategic decisions to be made and for this, the Board and leadership team needs to be leaning on good business and market information, strong strategic foundations, and good decision-making practises and the CEO role is key to ensuring these are at the table. Plus, at no point can the practice drop the ball on delivering excellent patient experience and outcomes for the 15,000+ registered patients.
Many people have shown interest in the idea of business sitting. Two conversations have stood out – one person challenged me with this – ‘I would only accept your offer to business-sit if you could demonstrate a robust and proven framework for how you do it safely and cleanly’. The second conversation was with someone from a consulting and transformation background and her advice was gold – ‘document the crap out of what you are doing, document your hypotheses going in, document your approach, write up all learnings and share them with widely in order to learn more from them'. So that’s what I will be doing.
