Before a business hits real trouble, the signs are often there. A key leader leaves unexpectedly. A reliable customer becomes more difficult to close. Decisions take longer. Meetings become more about herding cats than creating direction.
Something smells.
However, too often, nothing happens at this point. Only later, when the proverbial has really hit the fan, the CEO almost always says the same thing. “I knew.”
So why didn’t you do anything?
In conversations with senior leaders, CROs and Interim Managers, this regularly comes up. It fascinates me because once you strip away the numbers and the narrative, you get down to something very male.
In the UK middle markets, 80%+ of CEOs are men. This means most strategic decisions – from growth to turnaround – are generated by male-dominated leadership teams. This matters, and not just because it is indicative that more needs to be done to close the gender divide. How people respond to pressure changes what gets done, and it isn’t hard to see a pattern that reflects something from an entirely different field – public health.
According to the Men’s Health Forum, nearly 40% of UK men say they ignore symptoms as long as possible. A third will only go to the doctor when they fear things are seriously wrong. Compared to women, men delay reporting issues, they under-participate in screening programmes, and they die at higher rates from treatable illnesses including cancer and heart disease.
The cost of speaking up late is measured in lives.
Business isn’t life or death, but it can feel that way. The same limiting traits – downplaying risk, avoiding perceived vulnerability, “toughing it out” alone – show up in boardrooms too. Are leaders failing to act in time not because of an absence of data, but because of who they are?
When I spoke recently with Milly Camley, CEO of The Institute for Turnaround (IFT), she made the observation that turnaround work has shifted “much further up the decline curve.” Where it once meant financial restructuring in a cash crisis, today it’s about stepping in early – when the issues are operational or strategic – to create space and control before real distress arrives.
That’s what should happen. How come it doesn’t?
The IFT’s latest research found that 77% of independent members cite “cultural and psychological resistance” as the top barrier to pressing the turnaround button. In plain terms, leaders don’t want to admit problems. Nearly 60% of CEOs claim they were unaware of the seriousness of their challenges until it was almost too late. Sometimes it’s incomplete information. Sometimes it’s fear. Most often, as Milly put it, “it’s a curiously British attitude” of silence and reluctance.
She could have equally called it a curiously male attitude.
If you look at who’s making those decisions, it’s overwhelmingly men over 50 – one of the most behaviourally consistent demographics when it comes to avoiding asking for help. (I should know!)
At Valtus, we work with boards, investors, owners and CEOs to provide interim executive support during ambitious transformation or high-pressure periods of change. Sometimes we get the call early, when a company is still in control and wants outside insight. More often we arrive mid-crisis, when there’s no time left to assess a range of solutions.
The success of the outcome is inextricably linked to how quickly leadership admitted the problem. The bigger (and more fragile) the egos in the room, the longer that can take. This isn’t because leaders are incapable, but because they feel responsible. They don’t want to look weak in front of colleagues or investors. They feel they should already have the answers.
In short, they want to appear strong, but the real strengths of a CEO aren’t omnipotence and omniscience. More often recognising when something is outflanking you, and acting, is the super-strength of the successful CEO. Whether that means bringing in a Turnaround Director during a performance slide, a CFO ahead of a refinancing round, or a COO with the playbook to integrate a recent acquisition, action beats avoidance.
If the parallel with healthcare holds any lesson, it’s this – catching something early makes everything easier. Acting later isn’t stronger, just riskier.
So, if you’re leading a business through complexity or change, and something smells, sniff harder. Make the call. Have the conversation.
It’s not weakness.
It’s leadership.
Steve
Valtus UK
At Valtus, we provide interim executives who don’t just perform under pressure, but who help reduce it. If your business could benefit from outside perspective, now is the moment to act. Contact us.
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