An interview with Maria Angelova
Keep people abreast of the progress towards the decision and the implications which will follow. Don’t hold them in the dark. Let them be part of that journey and bring them along with you.
As a leader, some things are just unavoidable. Being faced with hard choices is one of them. Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. What’s the best way to go about this? Is there a “toolkit” or a skill set to help leaders sort out their feelings and make the best possible decisions? As part of our series about “How Leaders Make Difficult Decisions,” we had the pleasure of interviewing Ben Gallagher.
Ben is the co-founder of B+A, the research and strategy partner to the worlds most ambitious leaders.
His career has been wide ranging and varied. From conceiving new political television programmes with Sir David Frost and making MTV News to leading Insight and Creative Strategy for the Nike Foundation and working in over 30 countries the consistent theme throughout Ben’s career has been understanding the truth of the human experience and using this to generate breakthrough ideas that make the world a better place.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
My name is Ben Gallagher and I am the founder and CEO of B+A. B+A is the research and strategy partner to the world’s most ambitious leaders, and we work with them to help them to make decisions that will push the world forward for everybody.
My backstory is very varied. I began my career as a journalist working at MTV and Al Jazeera International. I then took a big leap into advertising as a strategist and then went to work clientside at Nike in the U.K.
After that, I spent four years working in the Nike Foundation, which is primarily focused on creating behaviour change for and with teenage girls living in some of the most challenging parts of the world. Seeing the impact of this foundation is what led me to set up B+A.
And so, whilst my experience is very varied, there’s definitely a thread. For me, the interest lies in understanding human behaviour and using that to develop new ideas and strategies which make life and the world better.
None of us is able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
There have been many people. One thing that I’ve learned for sure is that you can never underestimate how generous people can be with their time, advice and guidance if you ask for it.
That said, Caroline Whaley is a person that’s helped me hugely. She was the General Manager of running at Nike when I was in the brand team in London. I remember wanting to take a leap into the Nike foundation, which in those days was not the role that people in my position did. Caroline gave me the confidence and the ambition to apply for the job.
And then, when I was lucky enough to get it, she was my new boss and manager. As I stepped into a pretty unknown world, she again coached and mentored me to believe in my own opinions, to be able to articulate myself appropriately in new and different scenarios and to fill me with the belief that huge things were possible if you bring the right people together and create the conditions for them to succeed.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion. Can you share with our readers a story from your own experience about how you lead your team during uncertain or difficult times?
The pandemic was a really challenging time for many businesses and organisations. B+A was doing a lot of global research work at the time. When the pandemic hit, we had to pivot our business very, very quickly. In partnership with my co-founder, we made a raft of very quick decisions to flip from delivering our work in person to virtually, and the choices we made did a number of things. They reassured the team that we had confidence in them and our ability to continue to do work, and reassured our clients that we could deliver for them.
It gave us a very clear path forward that would enable us to continue to succeed, despite very uncertain times.
Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the motivation to continue through challenges? What sustains your drive?
No, we didn’t consider giving up.
When you run a business, you carry with you the responsibility for the people that are part of your team, and those people have lives and families and responsibilities of their own.
My motivation is to ensure that I do everything that I can to help the people on my team to succeed; to help them have enriching experiences and to feel safe and trusted in a professional context. This spans setting a clear direction to being as transparent as you can be with how you run the business; reassuring them that you’ve taken everything into consideration when making decisions that affect them.
Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader?
This takes me back to B+A’s very first client.
We had had a period of time, when we first started, when we were finding it hard to land work. We were a new business with a new proposition, and we were cash-flowing the company ourselves. We got our first piece of work, and we set about running the first workshop with the client and his team.
During that first morning, we noticed that the way that the client treated his team was not appropriate. He was very challenging of them, disrespectful and didn’t really want to listen.
We knew we didn’t set up our business to work for people like that. We set up our business to work for those who put the interests of others around them first. And so we politely declined the work.
It was scary because we didn’t have any income at the time. But this decision set the tenor and the tone for how we do business and have done business from the very beginning.
Thankfully, by sticking to those principles, we’ve been able to work with some really incredible people and never sacrifice our morals or values.
What process or toolset can a leader use to make a choice between two difficult paths?
I think the most useful tool is actually your company vision and mission: Why you exist in the world and what you’re here to do.
That can be the most useful filter for any decision-making. So my advice would be to take your choices and look at them through the lens of why you exist and what you’re trying to do in the world.
One of the choices on the table will always come out as a stronger commitment to the overall ambition. And that is, of course, what a company’s vision and mission should do: It should be a management and decision-making tool.
Do you have a mentor or someone you can turn to for support and advice? How does this help? When can a mentor be helpful? When is this not helpful?
I have a large number of really amazing people around me that helped to guide me and give me some support and advice.
And in fact, I think the most important thing is to have a mix.
I have some close friends who don’t work in my business or even the industry, but they give me objective points of view and perspectives. They probably know me better than anybody else. I also have a professional coach who helps me to ensure that I’m able to work through and express my own thoughts in a clear and intentional way.
And then lastly, we have a non-executive director at B+A who’s able to give us advice on options available to us. Very often, this individual says: ‘Why don’t you try this?’ or ‘How would it feel if you tried that?’ This can be really, really valuable because it’s drawing on lived experience doing similar things.
What would you say is the most critical role of a leader when faced with a difficult decision?
The most critical role is to maintain clarity of thought, a calm state of mind and confidence in the decisions that you make.
Not every decision that you make will be right or correct, but what your people need is to know and see that you’ve thought through all of the options. They need to see the confidence you have in your conclusion; to know that you believe in your decision and that you’re able to communicate it clearly and in such a way that inspires them to trust and get behind the choice, too.
Do you ever look back at your decisions and wish you had done things differently? How can a leader remain positive and motivated despite past mistakes?
Leaders make mistakes all the time. Probably every day.
We’re only human, after all. But leaders can remain positive by knowing and understanding that they don’t have all the answers. They are there to create momentum towards a direction. They’re not, in fact, there to know all the answers.
And so, yes, I look back at many decisions and wish that I’d done things differently.
But if you treat every decision as a learning experience, it can help you to process and manage your own state of mind when the choices that you make don’t go to plan.
What is the best way to boost morale when the future seems uncertain? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team during uncertain times?
I believe that confidence is critical. Confidence to be moving forward towards something. That doesn’t mean every decision needs to be 100% perfect, but what people really need to do is feel confident in their leadership, keeping momentum and progressing.
We’re living in a time when leaders need to step up. We’ve had quite a period of what I see as a kind of devolved leadership, whereby we’ve tried to create the conditions for everybody to contribute to all decisions. Whilst listening to your teams is valuable, people ultimately want their leaders to step up and lead to take them somewhere — especially when things are uncertain.
And so, for me, boosting morale is about coming to the table with confidence, clarity and conviction and a healthy dose of optimism.
Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses or leaders make when faced with a hard decision? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?
First up is not taking ownership. We’ve seen a number of leaders not take ownership or responsibility for decisions; instead looking to blame it on other people or factors. It’s important that leaders hold their hands up and recognise when they have made the wrong choices.
And second; not sharing the implications of their decisions. With the recent tech layoffs, it’s very interesting how many CEOs have put their hands up to say they’re wrong but have not changed their compensation or pay. All while making huge numbers of people redundant. It creates a divide where leaders are immune from the implications of their decisions on a personal level; they’re not in it with the team.
Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a leader should do when making difficult decisions? Please share a story or an example for each.
1: Understand the decisions and their implications in totality. Look at it from every angle.
2: Clarify a clear point of view.
3: Have the confidence to believe in and follow through on that point of view.
4: Communicate it in ways everybody can understand and get behind.
5: Keep people abreast of the progress towards the decision and the implications which will follow. Don’t hold them in the dark. Let them be part of that journey and bring them along with you.
Can you please give us your favourite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I think it’s probably: Move through life with a straight back and an open heart. To me, this means don’t give up on your values but welcome everything and everyone with warmth and generosity.
How can our readers further follow your work?
www.wearebanda.com + LinkedIn and Instagram (@_wearebanda)
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.
Thank you for the amazing opportunity!
About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.
Ben Gallagher of B+A On How Leaders Make Difficult Decisions was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.