Small business leadership? A whole new level of vulnerability, accountability and speed

If you’re reading this, you’re probably growing a small business into a medium one, or a medium business into a bigger one. Here’s our CEO, Tony Danker, who’s moved in the opposite direction.

After several years heading up the strategy, business development and insight teams at Guardian News & Media he came to Be the Business, where there are just 38 of us.

As part of our content series on small business leadership, we asked Tony what it was like going from giant size to pint size, and how it’s changed his approach to being in charge.

Tony D: Going from big to small has been utterly invigorating. There’s a whole new level of vulnerability, accountability and speed that I had to get used to. On my first day, in my first meeting, a pretty crucial, urgent strategic decision was put in front of me. I remember looking around thinking “Right, who can help me decide? What’s the process? Where’s the set of people who can feed into this decision?” That was when it hit me: it’s just me. And I have to decide right now.

That realisation was both daunting and exciting. It won’t come as news to any of the small business owners in our network, but you cannot have a quiet day in a SME. In a big business, even as chief exec, you can get away with a day or so being off-grid, invisible. But a small business relies on you to give it forward momentum every day – otherwise it will stand still.

You built the Be the Business team around you from scratch and now we stand at 38 employees. What was it like going from being on your own to having a building full of people?

Tony: I hired every member of staff, I decided where we’d be located, I chose the carpets and the computers and the expenses system and everything! It was all in my image. I knew we needed to move away from that, and I knew we needed to be a genuine organisation with a leadership team. What it required me to do was to step back from decisions – small ones and big ones – and let other people take them. The hardest part was not just to relax about that, but to be excited by it, by how it matured and improved the company, rather than constantly fearing that it would not be per the vision. So I’ve had to let go.

How do you decide what to delegate? Are you ever tempted to delegate the things you don’t like doing and keep the bits you enjoy?

Tony: That is a real temptation. I think as leader you have to think carefully about the things that you can uniquely do. I’ve had to admit that there are things I love to do, but the truth is, there are other people who can do them – usually better. For example, to secure funding for Be the Business, I’ve been forming partnerships with large corporates, but I don’t really need to be involved in shaping them. All I need to do is establish them and other people can do a great job taking them forward. Similarly, I don’t always need to be the voice of strategy and vision – our senior management team is doing a great job of that. So I always try to focus on the things I can uniquely do.

Many SME bosses have come to leadership as a consequence of starting a business, not as a career path or active choice – and it might not be something they feel natural affinity for. Do you think you are a natural leader?

Tony: There are some leadership qualities that people can possess naturally, but that’s not the same as saying someone makes a natural leader. I’ve always been good at motivating people and communications, but you can’t get by on soft skills alone when you’re running a small business. This is my first time as CEO and I was more worried about some of the hard skills, managerial skills, like handling conflict, prioritising, making decisions. People don’t always associate those things with natural leadership skills, but they are central to successful leadership as a SME.

There are plenty of lists out there telling us what a good leadership style is. Do you think it’s important to have your own style or move between styles?

Tony: I don’t think leadership is a style choice. I think any style can work as long as it’s authentically you. The main thing is to know what you’re good at and not good at. If you have the luxury of being able to hire staff to do the things you’re not good at then do that. If you can’t hire staff, you just have to be honest about your strengths and weaknesses. All the other SME leaders I speak to focus on coming in every day and setting direction, keeping momentum going – and that isn’t about style. Whether you do that quietly or loudly, through consensus or conviction, whether you’re the expert-leader or the intellectual leader or the nurturing leader, you still have to do the same thing.

SME leaders tell us that it’s sometimes a lonely place to be. Even if you have a management team, you can’t always share problems with them. What support mechanisms do you find helpful?

Tony: I’m very lucky – at Be the Business we have a chairman, Sir Charlie Mayfield, and he knows the business inside out. He’s my go-to when I’m alone with a difficult decision and that’s a wonderful thing. If you don’t have a chairman, I would strongly recommend getting support from your peers. I talk to other CEOs – from any sector – as often as possible. I know that all the stuff that keeps me up at night keeps them up at night: people issues, worries about money, anything. And they’re great sharers too.

Another channel of support I find really helpful comes from a couple of old friends. They don’t know the business, but they know me. They hear me out and help guide me towards the right decision.

Most small businesses don’t have formal wellbeing resources in place so as a SME leader, you have to look out for yourself. Let’s look out for each other!

About Tony

Tony Danker is the CEO of the Be the Business. We’re a government-funded, not-for-profit organisation created to close the UK’s productivity gap. Previously Tony held chief strategy officer and international director roles at Guardian News & Media. Before that, he spent two years in public policy as special adviser to HM Treasury, and ten years at McKinsey & Company, with expertise in government and organisational consulting. He also shamelessly hogs the karaoke mic at all work social events, where he favours a Westlife-heavy playlist.

Interested in leadership skills? Helpful links…

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