Simon Northrop

• Approachable: I am available. I ensure that I am easy to access. My door is always open. Supportive: I encourage people to express their opinion. I back them when their ideas are good. Forward-looking: I look for a wider perspective - not just what we do, but what we might do or what other people do.

• It is quite a contrast to work. At home I am quite laid-back and easy-going, and I follow family decisions and directions.

• A leader needs to be a very good listener. Often the best ideas come from the staff as they are close to customers or prospective customers. You need to listen to get feedback consistently. Next, a leader has to enjoy taking responsibility in terms of risks for the business, grasping the opportunity to make timely decisions. Lastly, a leader needs to create an environment where everybody recognises and takes responsibility and where people’s contributions are clear to see either on an individual or team basis.
  

• Don’t compromise your own commitment to get things done. Work hard to deliver the best you can do. Aim to be the best. If you start thinking second best is okay, you will at best be the third and looking over your shoulder.

• The difference is that leadership works “on business” rather than “in business”. If you work “on business” you cope with developing the future, but if you work “in business” you are pretty much dealing with the delivery or implementation of tasks. Also a leader has to realise that people are not the same. It’s not “one size fits all” so it’s not about pushing people into your style. A leader should try to coach rather than direct, nurture rather than steer.
  

• It’s easy, actually. The company, the job and the challenge constantly change. From the energy-consultant perspective, we like market uncertainty, complexity, volatility, for example, and that’s very motivating.

• You cannot do everything by predetermined design or you might not optimise the opportunity. If you are not taking risks, you are in danger of being overly conservative. You will find the competitors will pass you by. However, if something fails, you need to act fast. There’s nothing wrong with failure as long as you learn from it. But don’t keep persevering on the failed area – know when to move on.

• As part of our growth, we acquired a new business in Switzerland. We restructured, which meant we had to make some redundancies. Due to a new technologically changing environment, we could not create jobs that matched the original skills of the staff – the business needs and skill sets had moved on.

How did you cope with the situation, particularly people’s disappointments?

• There was mix of emotions – anger, shock. They hadn’t done anything wrong. I could see the shock in their eyes. But it made me think carefully how I might want to deliver the message. You can’t make it a nice message. The thing is, you have to be honest, straightforward about it, deliver the message quite fast, explain, listen to people’s concerns and see what you can do to ease the process as much as possible. You can’t skirt around the subject. You need to deal with the issue. I would never volunteer someone else to do that. That’s the responsibility of the leader of the business.

Do you have any advice on career transition?

• Discuss your achievements with your employers so they can provide a strong reference. Learn from the situation in terms of being flexible and adaptable. It’s good for people be be seen as adaptable to change, particularly in today’s changing world. If you keep improving yourself, extending your skills, you are less likely to find yourself in a trap.

If you could take six months off work, what would you likely be doing?

• Help people in slum areas. Direct action rather than giving money – building a school, providing the books, making sure that it happens physically and seeing the tangible results.