Knowing what roles should be represented on the business continuity management (BCM) team and what kind of people should fill them is an overlooked key to success in making organizations resilient. In today’s post we’ll look at what the slots on a BCM team should be and the traits and skillsets needed in the team’s staff and leadership.
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BCM Team Roles
This week’s blog will look at one of the key factors that determines how successful a company is in avoiding and recovering from outages and protecting its stakeholders: the roles represented on its BCM team and the skillsets and personality traits of the people chosen to fill them.
The roles that should be represented on a company’s BCM team change over time depending on the maturity of the program. The initial group, which lays the groundwork for the program by preparing the standards, training, and processes, should consist of the following:
As the program matures, various other roles will be needed, possibly including the following:
Now let’s look at the human factor, the personality traits and skillsets the BCM team leader and members need in order to excel in their roles and create an effective program. We’ll start with the position of team leader.
The role of BCM leader is extremely challenging. Being a good BC manager takes a strong social profile. A BC leader has to be persuasive, decisive, good in a crisis, confident in dealing with executives, a good presenter, and negotiator, and empathetic in working with subordinates. The role also takes solid technical knowledge and ability (of BC standards and best practices, for example) and deep knowledge of the industry and organization. The BCM boss needs to know who the key players are at the company and how to get things done there.
Not many people have all these qualities.
Here are two things we see frequently: Many BCM managers are sound on the technical side but weak on leadership and managerial skills. Many leaders overestimate their overall level of expertise.
The effectiveness of enterprise BC programs depends not on the quantity of resources the program has at its disposal but the quality of its leadership.
How can you as a BC leader shore up any personal and professional weaknesses you might have? Educate and develop yourself to raise your skills in areas where you have gaps (focus on 3 to 5 key actions you can take over the next six to 12 months). And/or delegate responsibility for your weak areas to people who are skilled in those tasks (or at least seek advice from those people).
Look to capitalize on your strengths and manage your weaknesses.
Now it’s time to staff your BC team, whether that means bringing in new people or maximizing the efficiency of your current staff.
Like you, your staff members are going to have strengths and weaknesses. It’s the leader’s business to get a grasp on what these are and also to think about what combination of skillsets is needed to enable to the team to succeed.
Work gradually toward assembling the best team you can to carry out the critical roles. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that your personnel problems can be solved by bringing in more people. What you need are the right people with the right skillsets.
A common mistake is that managers hire new BCM practitioners with the idea of finding something for them to do once they’re onboard. If a baseball manager did this, he might end up with nine first basemen. No good manager would ever do this and no BCM leader should either.
What you need to do is assess your needs, assess your people, then match the latter to the former.
Below is a list (taken from my ebook 10 Keys to a Peak-Performing BCM Program) of the key skill sets that you should look at in assessing your current staff and bringing in new hires. The list is divided into personal and professional skill sets.
Personal Skills
Professional Skills
These are the personal and professional traits and skills your team members need in order to be effective in building your program and protecting your organization against disruptions.
One thing that can help in building a balanced team is to quantify the members’ skillsets. Make a spreadsheet, list the team members on the left, and write down across the top the skills you think are important. Then assign each team member a rating of between zero and five for each skill, depending on their willingness and ability to carry out that role. You could then color code the different fields, using red to indicate weakness in an area, yellow to indicate moderate competence, and green to show strong ability. This lets you assess the range of everyone’s skills at a glance.
The final step, now that you understand your team, is to make it better. Here are seven ways to do so:
Understanding the critical roles within a business continuity management (BCM) team and selecting individuals with the right skillsets and personality traits is essential for creating a resilient organization. The composition of the BCM team should evolve with the maturity of the program, ranging from foundational roles like the Sponsor, Business Continuity Manager, and Administrative Assistant to more specialized roles as the program grows.
The BCM team leader should possess a combination of technical knowledge, leadership skills, and industry expertise. By assessing the team members’ strengths and weaknesses—and balancing and improving their skillsets—the leader can simultaneously elevate the BCM program and improve the organization’s resilience.