Three top tips for leading change from Andy Parfitt
Andy Parfitt turned BBC Radio 1, the UK public broadcaster's youth radio station, into a huge hit when everyone thought it would flop. Pioneers Post caught up with him at the RBS SE100 Insight event, held for businesses featured on the RBS SE100 Index (the UK's social enterprise index).
When Andy Parfitt started as BBC Radio 1 station controller in 1998 there were predictions the audience might collapse to 4 million as young people lost interest in public radio. By the time he left, three years ago, Parfitt had engineered a dramatic turn-around. The network was enjoying all-time record ratings of nearly 12.8 million.
Pioneers Post found out how Parfitt earned his mantle as 'Radio 1's saviour', and got his top tips for leading change. Take note!
Three top tips for leading change from Andy Parfitt
1. Tell a very simple and compelling story of the future of your organisation. It sounds simple but what it means is you've thought through what your ideal end state should be, why you're doing what you're doing, how you're going to do it, what your values are going to be, and what your goals are. You need to be able to refine that into a simple story, and paint a picture.
2. Have the courage to show what you care about. Use your feelings to move other people, to get them to feel why your story and purpose is important in the world. It doesn't require corporate language or powerpoint, it requires you to be real and to be brave enough to access your feelings and use them.
3. Give feedback to someone as if it were a gift to them. If you can see someone, a colleague or a team member doing something that's not helping them or the business and you don't say, then what kind of leader does that make you? You need to think of the feedback as something that's going to help them, and give it, straight away. Say how you feel and what the facts are, and give it.