Rikki:

Do you know what I did when I became the Managing Director of Burmah Castrol? I was frightened to death because you go through this process of "God, can I do it?" 

Bob:

That's exactly what I was getting at. That sort of imposter syndrome. You've got there by being, in your case, a great salesperson, and then suddenly you've got all these other things to look after. Which exactly, as you say, you know less about.

It's a massive transition, because when you, the first light, first promotion to your first management job, 

I regularly hear and also small business leaders talk about, I can do the job of all my team, you know, I can do it better than they can and so on. And I think that's interesting, because actually your job is not to do what they're doing.  You want them to better than you at doing their job.

Rikki:

What you've got to be good at is getting them to do their job, motivating them and leading and so on. And the more senior you get, that's what the more important that becomes. 

Bob:

I remember working with a client last year where a big part of the conversation I was having with them was trying to help them understand that actually what they were being paid to do was make good decisions and the level they'd got to.

It wasn't really that much about day to day motivation of the people because they've got a good, competent director team beneath them. They were working too hard. What I was saying to them was stop doing stuff, take time out to think carefully about what was the right decision here.

Rikki:

And the more senior you get, the more decisions become the important thing and the more space you have to create in your head to be able to make great decisions.