What to do when your Managers Do the Weasel War Dance

When ferrets are especially excited, they will perform the weasel war dance, a frenzied series of sideways hops. This is often accompanied by an arched back, dooking or hissing noises, or a frizzy tail. This is often the behaviour of senior level managers who encounter dramatic change - such as in a Management Buy Out of the business.


Although the weasel war dance may make a ferret appear frightened or angry, they are often just excited and are usually harmless to humans.  This is true of your Managers.  A natural human reaction to change is resistance and often even the most capable of people do not know how to express their feelings during this period.


In a Management Buy Out, more work and pressure is put on the buy out team.  There is an inevitable discussion of who in 'in' the buy out and who is 'out'.  At some point, those in the team will need to discuss how many of the management team's shares they will get personally and start thinking about what investment they are willing to make.   


So why the Weasel War Dance?


The leaders of teams should take care to spot the signs.  People will start to procrastinate and avoid making decisions - stepping from side to side just like the Weasel.   The need for accurate reading of body language is essential as people will often say the words without committing to them.   Members of the proposed team will seek each other out and try to measure up to each other - especially true when dividing the shares in the new business.   


As a leader of a potential buy out the main task will be to placate, install confidence and make wise choices.   The success of the venture will not be dependant on any one person, even the leader, so the team is all important.   There are bound to be people who consider themselves and the 'main man' or indispensable.  If that person does not work well with others in the team he may have to be dispensed with for the sake of the success of the buy out.


So, there's nothing wrong with a weasel and his funny little war dance.  Equally, expect some drama when organising a Management Buy Out.  Perhaps the only thing you wont see is a fizzy tail....

Get Rid of the Munching Cows before your Management Buy Out

Google earth has led to some interesting discoveries, one being that Cows, who eat all day long, either face north or south whilst eating.  Why?  No one knows, but they have always done it that way.

Now, look at your company before you perform a Management Buy Out, and look at what your managers do on a daily basis and ask, 'do they always eat North?'  Have they always done it that way?  Many tasks performed in a business are carried out as a matter of habit and process.  Often when you re-examine these things there seems to be no reason why they are still going on.

The 'Cows Eat North' principle in business is particularly true with businesses which have a longer history.  Processes can be developed more than 30 years ago - before computers and before cheap data storage - which still continue. Often businesses will have considerable resources employed just to keep these processes going.  Examples of whole departments existing on a bygone need are not uncommon.

When you are considering a Management Buy Out you must make sure that you don't have a bunch of munching cows in your business.

The best Management Buy Outs are those which detach themselves from their previous owners but which also re-examine every system and process to make sure it is still required in the new enterprise.  CEOs and Directors must be ready to shoot the munching cows in their own area of responsibility even if it does mean some difficult conversations.  It doesn't always mean the people leave the business, it may mean that those munching cows are trained to eat facing a different way.....but it isn't easy, after all, cows have been munching the same way since the first baby calf walked this earth.

Are you a Management Lion, a Lemur or just a Leech?

In a successful Management Buy Out you need a mix of Lions, Lemurs and, yes, even Leeches.

Lions are often called the Kings of the Jungle,  as they occupy the tip of the food chain spending 22 hours resting or asleep and just 50 minutes eating with just over an hour spent hunting. Their position comes as a result of what they are able to do and achieve.   In management terms, you need people who bring in the business, the hunters.  Before the buy out these people often get called lazy or feckless but a leader of the management buyout team may just need a few lions on their team even if they don't put the hours in that other people do.

Lemurs, charming little animals, have very full days, continually having to forage for food in the environment they are born in.  Often sociable, they search and seek - or farm - all day long. Equally, you need the people on the management team who keep things moving.  They may not have super brains (the lemurs have one of the lowest brain weight to mass ratios in the jungle) but their activity ensures survival.

Finally there are the Leeches, surely not a term to use in your management team?

Actually Leeches have been used for decades in medicine and are staging a comeback in modern medicine for specific cures or treatment.  A modern management team needs Leeches too.  All companies need non profit generators to keep them safe; compliance, finance, IT etc.   Often these people have great influence in companies before the buy out and leaders of MBOs are often tempted to cut these away when they buy out their business to reduce the costs (or even to get rid of annoying people).  However, if the non profit generating infrastructure of a business is cut too much it will leave the company exposed and companies with reputational, or legal or technical issues are very hard to sell on.

So the answer to the successful team for a Management Buy Out is to make sure you have an assortment of Lions, Lemurs and Leeches.  Who would have thought that?