An interview with David Green: Founder and Director of The Charles Roc Group Limited
David Green is the CEO of the incredibly fast growing Charles Roc Group which consists of several companies providing services across a range of industries including Hotel Care, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering and IT Services.
From first meet I could see immediately why David is described by his team as someone who inspires, is down to earth, says it how it is and knows his stuff inside out. They say he has created a giant puzzle, with each member of the team fitting together to create the perfect vision.
It’s that vision that makes David not only a great entrepreneur but more importantly an incredible leader. David is the first to admit that he doesn’t need to know the ins and outs of the services he offers. His speciality isn’t in the sectors that his businesses are in but in understanding the people that run it and how to get those people to work well together.
It’s fair to say there is a lot we can learn from his success, so we picked his brain in order to provide you with some tips:
Make humans your speciality, not industries.
There is a real science behind what I do which is why it doesn’t matter what the business is to me. I don’t specialise in an industry, I specialise in people and in the end, your business would be nothing without the people who help you run it.
Let your team take ownership.
If you hired someone to deliver a job, then not only are they held accountable for that area of the business, but they are also trusted to deliver that job using the methods that work best for them. If I said to my in-house designer, I want that there, and I want that higher and so on, in that moment your designer is not doing anything that they believe in and they are certainly not doing what they understand their job is, they are effectively doing something I could do myself.
Ask your team what they would do and how they would do it.
Even if I had a good idea for something, I always start by saying to you ‘Listen, you are the expert you tell me how you want it done’ then if it turns out brilliantly because they’ve used all their knowledge, their creativity and skillset then ‘fantastic, what a great job you’ve done’. If it doesn’t turn out well, then we can easily have a conversation to brainstorm how to do it differently next time.
Let your team set their own targets
I had a guy recently join my company, he came from a sales background and one of the first things he asked me was ‘David - what are my targets?’ I turned around straight away and said, ‘hold on, I’ve hired you and you’re the expert here, you tell me - what are your targets?’ It’s all good and well as a manager to set your team a target, but that could have detrimental effects on the way that they work. It’s up to your team to set their own goals so that they know precisely what they want to achieve and where to concentrate their efforts. If they achieve their targets too easily, they will make their next goal harder. If it took too long to achieve, they can make the next a little easier, if they learnt something in the process that will influence their targets, change them.
Let your employee’s breath
The best thing you could ever do as a manager is get out of people’s way. If you have hired a team of people who understand your mission, your product, your services, your values, your ethos and are perfectly aligned with those things then remember why you hired them and let them get on with it in the way that works best for them.
Written by
Ashlee Bloom – Marketing Manager
If you had any questions or wanted some business or marketing advice, please contact our advisory team on advisory@raffingers.co.uk or 020 8551 7200.