Episode 25: Business Acumen and the Business Acumen Gauge
June 28, 2021
This episode discusses the Business Acumen Gauge and the 11 categories that form part of that assessment. Business Acumen is well defined in the greater marketplace, leaving large gaps for interpretation and often a broader misunderstanding of the importance of Business Acumen in not only Leadership and Management positions, but in every role with an organisation.
Sarah is actually a qualified Business Acumen Gauge Practitioner and she really feels this is the missing link for Business Owners, AND those in Leadership positions within the corporate realm. Sarah and Trudi really break down this information for their listeners in this episode making the concept permeable for active understanding.
For more information check out here
Podcast Transcript Available Here
Duration: 35:38
Trudi Cowan: Hello and today we are joined by business acumen financial practitioner Sarah. Sarah Eifermann: You're an idiot. Hi everyone. That was my accountant friend's sense of humor coming to the forefront. Trudi Cowan: But the reason that I said that is because today we are going to have a chat about business acumen and Sarah is Sarah Eifermann: A business acumen gauge practitioner that is very true. So business acumen as a definition right. It's not very well known, people have a rough idea as to what it is but what really is it? Is it something, I don't know what it is. What is it? Trudi Cowan: Business acumen is the capability to both know and demonstrate the key attributes of your role that allow you to succeed in running your business. Sarah Eifermann: You're reading from my articles. Trudi Cowan: Yes, I am. Sarah Eifermann: I know. So yes, but business acumen for people in just the everyday space. Is perhaps one of the least defined concepts in history. And people have a rough idea of what it is, but they actually like, is there a clinical definition of what is business acumen? I mean, there are some ideas thrown around that, you know, having the skills in which to business. Yep. But it's hard to, it's a hard concept to define and I think it's also because a lot of those skills are soft skills that you innately know. We've talked about this, and other episodes Yeah, as opposed to being, you know they're known or they're developed through experience and not tangibly taught. Yeah, like what business acumen class can you go do. Trudi Cowan: I'm not sure there is one. Sarah Eifermann: There's not because it's so the skills of business acumen, often aren't even included in MBAs or Master of Leadership. So you know you've got a Bachelor of Commerce you wouldn't, you would have maybe glanced over business acumen, but you wouldn't have necessarily defined business acumen by its nature. So fortunately a couple of years ago I was introduced to amazing coach David Ryan, and he was one of the founders of the business acumen gauge, which was done through a business called Quad Assessments and he and Jim Grant set out to map the concept of what is business acumen. They dealt with a lot of people in leadership and organization roles. Oh, guys leadership roles I should say. And they wanted a way to be able to demonstrate that those people were acting with business acumen. Trudi Cowan: I mean business acumen really is a key criteria of, especially in an executive role. Oh yes, any key part of your role being able to have those. Sarah Eifermann: Yeah, so they came up with this definition, and it's based on capabilities as a comparison Wikipedia I grabbed this one because I thought it was quite funny. According to Wikipedia, business acumen, or business savvy and business sense, which are often used as synonyms, is the keenness and quickness in understanding and dealing with a business situation. The risks and opportunities in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome. Right, so it's a really interesting general definition because according to that business acumen, leads to better things. Trudi Cowan: Yes, so we would assume that successful entrepreneurs would probably have really good business acumen. Sarah Eifermann: Assumption, Trudi Cowan: I know, Sarah Eifermann: Right assumption, a lot of people don't, that's why I’ve always found. That's why I went on to become a business acumen gauge practitioner because I just find this so fascinating. Trudi Cowan: Okay, Sarah Eifermann: That business owner, or people that want to be entrepreneurs, don't invest any time, skills, or nouse into business acumen. Trudi Cowan: I said successful ones, not ones that want to be. Sarah Eifermann: True, true, true, true, but I think even the successful ones, might be doing it innately they don't realize that it's actually a tangible skill set. Trudi Cowan: Okay, so can we break this down, what are some of the skills we're talking about? Sarah Eifermann: In business acumen? Well, they would have been everything that we talked about in our episode about being a business owner versus being an independent contractor. Trudi Cowan: So go back and have a listen if you haven't checked that one out yet. Sarah Eifermann: Yeah, So, ultimately, that's a really good segue into that those types of skill sets. I suppose I think the thing that I really love about the Quad Assessments piece is that its defined into 11 capabilities. And the capabilities. How they categorize what their definition is formed up of and the different systems and processes. So, let's read through them, Trudi. Trudi Cowan: Alright so the first one is the mindset. Sarah Eifermann: So let's take through all of them and then we'll go back down to give you a bit of a broader understanding. Trudi Cowan: So we've got the mindset, foresight, broad scanning, strategic alignment, collaborative, resource management, systems and processes, decision making, talent development, the duty of care, financial literacy and that is it. And if you have listened to our previous episode. A lot of those words were definitely mentioned. Sarah Eifermann: These words come out in all of our episodes. Trudi Cowan: Yeah, true they do come out in a lot of episodes. Sarah Eifermann: Right, because you've never had this defined as on the same level that we're talking about now. But you innately demonstrate these things right. So, some people do have it innately, but you also by nature of the role that you're in. Yeah, and the experiences that you've had in your work life. Yeah, and the companies and the people that you've dealt with, that would have built up your knowledge of how to act and how to trade and what's valuable and what leads to a successful outcome. Because according to Wikipedia, which is always a source that we quote, it leads to good business acumen skills, lead to good outcomes in business. Yeah, right. So let's break down the 11 capabilities, and the first one being mindset. So, this is really talking about your mental attitude to business. Yep, it's sometimes referred to as an unconscious bias. So that's that, you know, subconscious unconscious thought process where we align with particular people, places, and things. That makes us feel safe and comfortable, and how we react to them. But there's also a direct relationship here between your mental attitudes and your responses are interpretations of situations. And how you whether or not you're conscious of your mindset in that as well. Right. And the indicators of these preferences and these habits have a direct influence on the way you might demonstrate your business acumen to others. So you actually might have really great knowledge about what goes into business and what has to happen. But if you don't demonstrate it to people and you have no awareness that you're not demonstrating it because you're not across the category of mindset, and how important that is. You might have a big disconnect with people in your business. And that won't necessarily work for you either. Right, so the second category is foresight. And foresight It's your ability to take that step back, relax, say what's in the total picture of the business and what's in the future, what's coming your way. What's the marketplace doing, what do you need to be aware of? It's very similar to if you were a 17th-century British sailor on one of those big ships in the ocean, and you're watching the storm come in. Trudi Cowan: Right. Okay, so where are we headed with this random example? Sarah Eifermann: Very, very random. We're heading to the Bermuda Triangle. We would have called it, big picture thinking. Trudi Cowan: You're looking down that narrow tunnel, you're looking at that much picture and plan of what's happening. Sarah Eifermann: High level is another word for it, but specifically the BAG, which is the business acumen gauge its definition is foresight, so it's really the ability to detect favorable, unfavorable changes early and interpret those consequences for your businesses and create effective. Trudi Cowan: Responses. Yep, right. Sarah Eifermann: So then that's fine up with broad scanning and broad scanning is similar to big picture thinking probably foresight and broad scanning go together and big picture thinking. Board scanning is that ability to, you're seeing the storm coming. What else do you need to take aware of like take stock of? Are there other ships in the ocean? Trudi Cowan: How is the storm going to impact us. Sarah Eifermann: Is it going to miss us is it going to hit us. What do we need to do, do we need to offload cargo or stuff along with those directions, and it's the consideration of in the broader business and when you're making decisions in business. Whether you're using your knowledge to understand what's going on around you. Are you testing your decisions to the marketplace, and people who have these skills, they're you know usually considered, they're consistent in their research, and the knowledge base and they know what's going on around them and they're less likely to be caught off guard by something happening. Trudi Cowan: So they're likely to seek feedback, customer reviews. Sarah Eifermann: They may not even need it because they've already done that as part of their natural habit process. Yep. So they're aware of what's going on at the time that, as you said, they do seek feedback naturally, but it's they've already done it in that full-circle approach to business. And they can usually speak with pretty strong insight on what's going on. Yep, so you can tell when you're talking to them that they know what they're talking about. Yep, because they've done the greater work. So, and that leads to strategic alignment and strategy as we know it's the choices and the moves you make the chess piece games. In the endeavor to achieve your goals in business success. Strategic alignment is about creating, setting, and executing the strategies of the direction in which you want your business to go, right. This is why strategy plays such a big part in business planning, yeah, effectively they kind of could be said to be the same thing or two sides of the same coin. Yeah, because you can't really do one without the other. Trudi Cowan: There's no point in having a business plan if you don't have a strategy. Sarah Eifermann: Correct. You be surprised how many people do, though. Yeah, no my business plan is to do this, why I don't know why, that's why I'm doing it. I find it problematic. It takes on a high level of leadership in strategic alignment to steer the ship through choppy waters, which is, you know, that analogy really works from that point of view because the strategy becomes the plot of a path between the port. So if you are that sailor in the ocean. Yep, that's sort of where it comes from now. It's those four categories commonly known as the leadership categories of business acumen. Yeah, right, you could still have business acumen and not being in a leadership role, and those categories wouldn't really affect what you're doing. But if you're in the leadership role as a business owner, they're probably your primary focus. Trudi Cowan: Very important ones, Sarah Eifermann: Right, and we talked about that this thread runs through a lot of all of the things we talk about whether or not we've consciously told you of this. Trudi Cowan: Whether we're consciously thinking that we're telling them. Sarah Eifermann: Correct. Well, I probably was. Because I know this stuff inside and outright. This is new technically new info for you as well. So then we go into resource management. Now, resource management. As we know, resource Management as we know is about managing Trudi Cowan: Resources? Sarah Eifermann: Yeah, funnily enough. So yeah, it's talking about your different resources your people, your time, your finances, your materials, resources for you could be very different to what resources are me. Trudi Cowan: Well for me it's all about people. Yeah, are my resources really and time for someone that sells a product your resources are going to be manufacturing. Manufacturing, product availability, Yep, Sarah Eifermann: Different resources so your ability to demonstrate resource management so taking care and being on top of that. Is also your capability to meet the needs of your business or your project as a business owner. And if you can't demonstrate that. Then, where are you in terms of your ability to demonstrate business acumen? Trudi Cowan: For a service business, there's no point taking on staff if you're not going to make use of those staff. Sarah Eifermann: Funny that. Right, exactly. So we talked about collaborative. So, the collaborative capability. It kind of does speak for itself. It's about people's ability to work together and your demonstration of being able to work with others to achieve those common goals or objectives or desires or needs, right. Trudi Cowan: Yeah, that's what previously discussed, no one can do everything. Or be an expert in everything, so it's necessary to collaborate with others. Yeah, in order to have a successful business. Sarah Eifermann: But it's also about the development of your team and your staff or your advisors. Because they may not be on staff to collaborate or work towards that strategic alignment of those four other capabilities. But the strategic alignment specifically of your business and requires active participation and engagement. Trudi Cowan: So not just delegating and setting and forgetting? Sarah Eifermann: No this is the issue right if you do that, You're not demonstrating collaboration. No, you're demonstrating resource management. Right, and there's a difference. Trudi Cowan: But even with resource management, sending that task to someone to sit and sitting and forgetting about it, you still got to, yes, appreciate, they can do the task but still be on top of it being done and know that they are doing the work and they're the right person to do the work. Sarah Eifermann: A collaborative approach to that is ensuring that the task that you've delegated out has gone to someone that understands why it's strategically important to the business, and how to action it. If you've just delegated it to somebody that doesn't know or doesn't care. Yeah. You've dropped the ball in that category in business acumen. So then we look at systems and processes, again, another term we use a lot here. So this refers to, you know, setting up your business and you know efficiently identifying those systems that are working, and maybe being fluent. We talked about and changing and managing the information and technology to drive your success. So not just integrating a system and then hoping for the best. It's not just necessarily a piece of software or technology, it's the people that drive the systems as well. Yep, and ensuring that there's synergy in those systems and people. Yes, if you've got a tech-illiterate trainee on the tools that you want now to use an iPad to work, it's not going to work. And even if you get him or her training, it may still not work. There needs to be a development or an exemption in that category for that person to be able to either get the effective training they need over a period of time that satisfactory to bring them online. Or they need a completely different system. To achieve the outcomes that you want to work and be in control of. Any questions so far? Trudi Cowan: No, I'm enjoying listening and learning at the moment. Sarah Eifermann: So, decision making. We think that one speaks for itself. It's not it's a capability that's often taken for granted because a lot of people struggle to make decisions. Trudi Cowan: I do, Sarah Eifermann: Yeah, right I don't I just my personality, don't get me wrong I don't think about things I think about it, but I make a decision very quickly. Yeah, positive, negative, what's going to work in my favor, what's not going to work in my favor, how do I move forward if I do this, how do I move forward if I do that, bang done decision made, move on. Trudi Cowan: And it depends like some things I make decisions on very easily and then others, I probably struggle on the little things. Sarah Eifermann: Interesting, interesting, that's interesting we all have our own quirks about this, you know, I make decisions really quickly, sometimes I don't I sit back, and I go, I’ve got to weigh it all up to make sure I'm making the right decision. But a lot of people don't make any decisions, and they sit for too long, and then the opportunity to make the decision has already passed. Trudi Cowan: And that's part of the decision-making process. There's no point in making it if you've made it too late. Sarah Eifermann: It's your opportunity that is gone. Whether that is staff, or a market opportunity to sell a product or achieve something, you wait too long to decide because you're trying to make the right decision 100% perfectly. Trudi Cowan: Nothing's ever 100%. Sarah Eifermann: Exactly, exactly. So making sound choices really relies on all of the capabilities that we've already talked about. And it can be its own structured process, you can create one to make quality outcomes that fit your personality needs. You can build yourself a matrix around, you know, choose your own ending novel style. How does this work for me? Yeah, to get you into a habit of being able to make a decision faster or make one in the first place. Yep, right, and decision making, also is about assessing from the available information and identifying the actions, and then sharing things with other people. And then as we just said Trudi Cowan: No point making a recognized decision if you're not actually going to tell someone you've made it. Sarah Eifermann: You're going to be surprised how commonly that takes place, and you know so sharing that and then reliving that format which is what we just talked about is creating yourself a framework to be able to start doing it. One of the benefits everyone goes oh framework. Who wants to be structured by that. The thing about consistency in culture is that when you are consistent in how you communicate and deliver measurables and outcomes, it's actually easier for your staff and less stressful for them to misinterpret what you've asked them to do. Trudi Cowan: It makes you more reliable because they know what to expect. Sarah Eifermann: Correct. And therefore you become more trustworthy as well, whether it's as an employer, or as a business contact or supplier even, right. When you are consistent and Paris will tell you from Pascal Satori that the same thing applies in marketing, oh yeah, it, consistency drives trust. Trudi Cowan: It's important It confuses people if things are constantly changing. Sarah Eifermann: Correct. Yeah, so it's the consistency that drives trust in that. So, again, decision-making done well, has huge benefits to your business. Trudi Cowan: Yep. Sarah Eifermann: And then the next capability that we've got is talent development. So talent development is more than just assessing or developing talent. People think I do plenty of talent development I hired that person. Yeah, it's about making sure that the talent that you hire is correct and meets the performance needs of your business. The only way you can do that is if you've done an assessment of the business. Done your business planning, and you're following. Trudi Cowan: And you know what you need them to be. Sarah Eifermann: And you're following the categories of business acumen to ensure that when you get to talent development. It matches. It's a demonstration of you as a business owner or in a leadership role your ability to spend time and engage with your staff. To give quality and useful feedback that constructive criticism pays that kind of is not often constructive. Yep, and develop long-term growth opportunities and outcomes for the staff and the business at the same time. Trudi Cowan: The reality is most staff want to learn and grow. Yeah, and then learning and growing only helps your business because you get a more qualified, more productive, staff member. Sarah Eifermann: Yeah, and we've talked about culture and that culture comes from the top. This is actively demonstrating your ability to build culture and how you do it. Yep, it's tangible and culture forms part of the duty of care too, and a duty of care is another one of the capabilities that we've got. It is enshrined in leadership duty of care is enshrined in all of our institutions that date back and specifically the military going back a very long time. But if you look at medical. Yep, the medical industry, whether it's doctors or hospitals or there is a duty of care to patients. You ethically, have a duty of care to your clients. Trudi Cowan: And to the, I actually have a duty to the HEO. Sarah Eifermann: Right as a tax agent. I have a duty of care with my finance broking license to my clients, but also to the lenders to ensure that the information is being provided. So the duty of care is a category of business acumen, it is also, it forms, ethical, positioning, or demonstration of ethics. Trudi Cowan: And any good leader has a good set of ethics. Sarah Eifermann: Correct. This is why it's one of those capabilities. So, other things that duty of care potentially covers is your duty of care to self, and the impact of your decisions and your actions, your language, how you communicate on staff, and other business contexts. And how that extends to your total business offering. Like if you don't have a duty of care to yourself, How do you have a duty of care to your business? The economy, the environment, your children, like I mean this list could go on and on and on. But fundamentally speaking for this episode. It's a key criteria of the business acumen definition that we're talking about at the moment. So, then, that brings us to our last category in this wheelhouse. Trudi Cowan: Financial literacy. Sarah Eifermann: Financial literacy Trudi Cowan: And we've definitely spoken about this many times. Sarah Eifermann: Yeah, I'd say often financial literacy is assumed to be the ability to interpret financial data, profit and losses, tax returns, budgets, and cash flows, but in this sense financial literacy, you know, is about the total business not just one element of it. So it's not just the profit and loss, yeah, it's just not the sales statement, it's all of it. From the cash flows to the budgets to the P&Ls, all the way through, and then your ability to take that information and apply it in conjunction with strategy or strategic planning. And then see how that then impacts all of the risks of the decisions that you make. Trudi Cowan: And that's probably the gap that I most commonly see is people actually taking that information and using it. Sarah Eifermann: Yes, yes. And I think, you know, one of the biggest themes of financial FOFU. Right, yeah, it really is about. Okay, so you learn it, then what do you do with it. Yeah, you got to apply it, how do you apply it? Trudi Cowan: Well you make use of that information to help inform your decisions. To help understand aspects of your business. Sarah Eifermann: Yeah, and I really love this definition because it gives you almost a pathway as to how you then take that data and move it back towards applying it to decisions in conjunction with the other capabilities. Yeah, and so I really feel like I’ve said earlier this is the missing piece that a lot of business owners don't get taught. And don't know about or they haven't tangibly defined as a thing. So the business acumen gauge itself, it is a 360 test, wherein your workplace, you utilize an upline, downline, and two peers as a minimum, and they assess your, the importance in your role of business acumen in these categories or capabilities, and your demonstration of it. One of the reasons I love the business acumen gauge for what it is. Is because 360 you've gone through plenty of these incorporate life, It can be really personal and really emotional. And you can take the outcomes from them in a positive or a negative way. Yeah, whereas, this is unemotional because it's not talking about you. It's talking about the demonstration within your role. So you are demonstrating it but the importance within your role as well. So do you as CEO of a large corporation need to demonstrate these things, at what level. Yep. What do your peers think? What does your downline think? What does your board think? Yeah, versus what do you think. Yeah, and then there's a gap, usually, and it's in the gap that you can grow. Yeah, you know, we always, I’ve often said that you know, growth, the friction creates the space for when you want to grow. So if you're having a complicated time in your life, there'll be lessons that will be learned during that time, it might not be comfortable. So this particular assessment allows you to see find the gap that you can't quite clearly see, your organization can't see. So it's a really good one for executives, but I like it for business owners that are struggling to find that tangible way to understand business acumen, yep, right. Trudi Cowan: Helping find the gap in their own skillset. Sarah Eifermann: So if you're a business owner, though you think well I don't have an upline, you don't, you don't have an upline that is fair, but you will have people that you have as advisors, whether it's a financial planner, an accountant, a business coach. Trudi Cowan: Well let's use me as an example. Sarah Eifermann: Yeah, so for you if we were to do this test for you, you would have. Trudi Cowan: I’ve got one employee, so I could use her as a downline. I've got a couple of contractors that I do delegate work to so potentially one of them could also be a downline. Sarah Eifermann: Peers? Trudi Cowan: You Sarah Eifermann: Yes, Trudi Cowan: or some of the other accountants that I know and collaborate with from time to time. Sarah Eifermann: Correct, upline would be a business coach, or your mentor in the industry that you've previously, or an old partner that you've worked for a Deloitte or something like that might not be current, but yeah, because you do need, I mean you can do it without the upline as a business owner, but that's usually where the biggest gap is right, they're the ones that have the skills to really know where you might be missing in these capabilities. Trudi Cowan: So if you got a partner in your business. Could they be your upline? Sarah Eifermann: No, they are your peer. Because they're your equal. Yeah, assuming that they are your equal, right. Depending on your skill sets, and the structure of your business, they may be able to take the place, but again it's, it demonstrates why you should have third-party oversight on some level, yep. Collaboratively, but to allow you to have that, that really clear feedback when it comes to the wood from the trees argument. Sometimes when you're in the business with someone, it's really hard to, if you've got the identical same skill sets and you've come into the business together, or even if they're not identical, but they're on the same level of development and demonstration. Trudi Cowan: It's hard to see the other's gaps. Sarah Eifermann: So one person might be able to clearly demonstrate it and the other person doesn't. So, and that's where something like this could be really beneficial. Usually the business coach in that instance, but that is assuming that they've got a business coach. I mean, I could potentially come in, do a couple of strategy sessions, and then facilitate the gauge. Yeah, but it would not be as good as the accountant that they've worked with for 15 years. Well, yeah, assuming they know them well right that they're good. Trudi Cowan: Well if they've been there accounts for 15 years, I would hope that they know them well. Sarah Eifermann: Yes, well we'll just leave that topic there. So, I mean this is a lot of information in a really short period of time. Where I’ve got some resources on my website you can jump to. I've got an article on LinkedIn, that we can talk about, the business acumen engaged facilitator, it's not cheap, it's about $1200 per person. And that's because by the time we do the test we chase all of your contacts to do the test and then we do the debrief and facilitation. That's about the amount of time that it actually takes to achieve but I can tell you right now. Trudi Cowan: It's going to be a worthwhile investment because you're going to learn so much about yourself and the way that you run your business. Sarah Eifermann: The knowledge that comes out of it, I just think is invaluable in what it gives you, and I could probably recommend, depending on where you are in your state of growth and personal development in business. That you would do it every two to three years. Trudi Cowan: Okay, so it's an ongoing thing that you can continually test. There is a point in time it is I guess, isn't it? Because are you demonstrating those skills right now? Sarah Eifermann: Because it's a demonstration so it's a point in time. So it does have benefits, and also as you develop as a business owner, you're going to spread your wings, you're going to meet different people on different levels of skills. Yep, and acumen themselves. Yeah, and they say like attracts like and you vibrate with the people that are you know, you're the total sum of the five closest people to you. And how you think, and you feel. So if you've leveled up and you've left behind some of those earlier business contacts you've had, you really want to benchmark your growth, to what it was. Meet your new contact group or business friends, whatever you call it, or surround yourself with. So, do you have any questions about it? Considering you're one of our key audience here then technically. Trudi Cowan: Oh, yeah, if I'm thinking about it, I'm not really sure if I want to do it, or do the investment, where do I go? Sarah Eifermann: Have a chat, ring me, ask me. I mean, like any business decision that you make, there needs to be a return of investment and it needs to be tangible for you. So if you're not going to feel that it's going to deliver you an outcome, then I wouldn't recommend you do that because you'll just think it's a complete waste of time and money. Trudi Cowan: Yeah, do I need to be running a business, of a certain size or if I'm still a small trader, am I still going to get some benefit out of it? Sarah Eifermann: You'll still get benefit out of it because if nothing else you'll get a coaching session that speaks to where your weaknesses are. Based on the empirical evidence that comes out of the test. So you do definitely need a minimum of, you need, two downlines and one peer, to make this work. Trudi Cowan: Do I get the results of what people have said about me or are it all confident? Sarah Eifermann: And so that's another thing I love about this test. It's all confidential and you can't tell who said what other than if you have one peer one downline one upline right. You can kind of guess from the results on the report who said that. But here's the thing, if you're going into this exercise really worried or defensive about what other people have said. Trudi Cowan: You have not the right attitude. Sarah Eifermann: You've already got a problem that we don't even need the test to tell us, you've got. Yeah, right. Trudi Cowan: So, I just know being that someone may be filling in the questionnaire might be concerned about is if their boss is going to find out what they have said. Sarah Eifermann: No, but remember again it's about the importance, perceived importance of that person's role of business acumen in that role, and their demonstration of business acumen. That's it. It's not personal. Yep, it's not done they demonstrate business acumen in this component. Well, yes or no. Trudi Cowan: So you've sort of said, you know to downlines and what have you if I’ve got a big team, can I get everyone to fill out the questionnaire? Sarah Eifermann: Yes, you could, yeah, I mean, the more like any data point, the more data, right, the more data points you've got the better. Yeah, but you also don't necessarily. I mean it's completely up to you. Yes, you definitely could do have everyone do it but it's obviously more data to go through it's more data to debrief on everything would start to take longer. Yeah, but you could definitely do it you probably wouldn't want more than 10. Okay, but you definitely. Trudi Cowan: Yeah, I think it'd be the right relevant people as well. Sarah Eifermann: Correct. Yeah, there is no point getting somebody who doesn't know you, Joe Bloggs over in whatever division. Trudi Cowan: Yeah. Doesn't have fairly regular interaction with you. Sarah Eifermann: Yeah, and you want people that understand the questions as well because we're not talking about you personally Trudi. We're talking about your demonstration of these capabilities in your role and the importance of those capabilities in your role. Now, if all you do is pack boxes, resource management and systems and processes are going to be the true capabilities, other than the majority, the impact of that right, just by nature, you'll have a duty of care that will probably still be important, but you won't really need financial literacy, you won't need strategic planning like as important, they're not as important in the role. So it starts to write the capabilities for that role and, often if you find a business owner that says that it's a five because it's one to five sliding scale, Likert scale. If there are five in everything that it's important in everything. Trudi Cowan: Well that's just not right. Sarah Eifermann: Why? Trudi Cowan: We've said before, you can't be good at everything. You can't do everything, and therefore everything can't be personally important to you, because that means you're trying to do everything. And that's not a good business owner. Sarah Eifermann: Correct. So it can be a really great tool to use and help. Sometimes people who need to be shown proven to them, that they're not perhaps operating in a sustainable way. Because it's empirical evidence. Trudi Cowan: Sometimes maybe just show them that they're not actually operating in a way that they think they are. Sarah Eifermann: Exactly, exactly. So, it can need a bit of keep logs in its delivery. And if I'm not the right practitioner for you. That's cool. We'll find you one that is like there's a list of, and you might want to man, you might not want a woman to deliver, like, and that's okay as well. Yeah, and once again it's about finding, I just think that this is such a key missing part of business and personal development, especially if you are looking at running a business or being entrepreneurial. Or if you're an elite role in the organization, yeah so even that could be voluntary leadership roles. Think CFA, think football club think, yeah, you know any of those other voluntary roles. Business acumen still has an impact because it's talking about leadership capabilities. And then the other capabilities and Trudi Cowan: You're still learning within an organization that you even if it's not a profit-making one. Certainly, a very interesting topic, isn't it? I suspect you could talk about it all day long. Sarah Eifermann: Hours, and hours. Trudi Cowan: But we probably need to leave it about there any final words. Sarah Eifermann: If nothing else, go and look up the capabilities and the categories, and learn which ones work for you. And think about the ones that you think you may do well already, and maybe invest some time in the ones that you don't do well already. That you know that you might need to spend some more time in talent development or resource management, or financial literacy. Yeah, that's the common one. Yeah, Trudi Cowan: Certainly, so thanks for listening guys as always if you've got any questions or comments, shoot us through a DM on our socials or directly get in contact with us. Yeah, we're always happy to have a chat. Sarah Eifermann: Alright guys, see you next time. Trudi Cowan: See ya Sarah Eifermann: Bye.———————-
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