The Dosh leadership wayI was recently inspired by the US ‘Success Magazine’ www.success.com piece on “Leadership – the Virgin Way” which is promoting a book by Richard Branson, to think about what is the Dosh Ltd (Financial Advocacy) Leadership Way.

I believe we have a strong leadership theme and culture in our company, which makes being part of it special, and is something I wish to share with you.  Perhaps after reading this post you will want to assess your leadership culture or assess where your company is on their journey, or change your company direction, and hopefully find out more about Dosh at www.dosh.org – or drop me a line to find out more.

So here are my 10 examples of leadership which make it the Dosh way:

  1. We recruit Leaders: Each of my colleagues has been recruited for their values, beliefs, and their experience of supporting people with their money. They want to make a difference in a person with learning disabilities life, and that they want to take a leadership role within their company.
  2. As Leaders: They want to support people to be more independent and have more control with their money
  3. “Dosh have a very creative, can-do attitude and are very knowledgeable. Their service is starting to save significant care management time for Social Work” A quote from one of our Commissioners, our default position is to say ‘yes’and when we do this it more often than not opens up new opportunities for all of us.
  4. We have a ‘no blame culture’: We work within a culture that each of us is doing our best, so that when mistakes happen, we admit our mistake – we learn from it – I apologise – and we move on. We accept that mistakes happen and, for Dosh, it is not about the mistake, but about how we react in a positive and urgent way to remedy whatever has gone wrong.
  5. Each and every one of us has a sense of urgency: In Dosh we have momentum! We are successful, but we know that we will lose that if we lose our momentum
  6. We all have a positive mind-set: “Optimism is True Moral Courage” – according to the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton
  7. We have a passion for what we do: We are passionate about supporting people with learning disabilities and we love what we do.
  8. Problems, Questions and doing new stuff: For the people we support it is a challenge to our professionalism that we will do our utmost to resolve problems and find solutions for our customers
  9. Although our team members are based across the country they all help each other with the challenges they are facing as they care for each other.
  10. As their Managing Director it is important to me that everyone is having fun! It is something I check at the end of every 1-1 “are you still enjoying your job?”

How do you get a similar Leadership Way? My Top 10 Tips:

  1. Recruit a Diverse Team: Don’t recruit people who look like you!
  2. What is your Vision? When you have one don’t keep it to yourself!
  3. Create a Buzz: Introduce something new each month into your work and company.  Have a “Wow” factor so the people you work with and your customers think…”I wasn’t expecting that!”
  4. Ensure your colleagues feel that it is their company too: each team member needs to feel they have a stake in the company and that they can effect change
  5. Empower your colleagues! Each team member in Dosh has a unique talent and you need to find out what it is and make sure you use their gift.
  6. Do not only have two main goals for you, your team and your company as they are not big enough! Have 10  Think Big, Be Big, And Do Big!
  7. Develop ambitious and challenging Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that measure the team and the organisation’s performance. Even better, ask your team members to set their own targets as they will likely be more challenging than those you set!
  8. Ask your team if they are having fun? If they are not, do something about it even if it involves re-designing what you do.
  9. What you do is important, sometimes urgent and what you do makes a difference in peoples lives, but do not take yourself too seriously; maintain perspective and inject some humour
  10. Be consistent in what you do each day. Enchant people (even those who are not your paying customers) with your offer each and every day.

Dosh supports people with a learning disability with their money and state benefits. We support people through Appointeeship, in a person centred way, through our local Financial Advocates who become members of a person’s circle of support. We also support people with their Individual Budgets, Tenancy Agreements and provide consultancy. 

What is your Leadership Way?