Martin Moore

Head of HR, The British Museum

BEST DECISION

Neil MacGregor, the director of the museum, is leading the ambitious vision of becoming the 'museum of the world'. So I decided very quickly when I joined that I would have to make significant changes to the HR department if we were going to be able to play our part in this change agenda. I moved fast and it was quite bruising for some people.

When I started, I found that I'd inherited a personnel department in the traditional sense. The work was mainly about administration. I set my people the challenge of raising our professionalism very quickly. We are committed to a major learning and development programme. All my team are taking on professional development and already there have been considerable benefits. The industrial relations climate has tended to be rather adversarial in the past, but we are now trying to work more collaboratively.

There is still a lot of work to do. But acting fast was the right approach. If I had waited six months, I would have become a captive of the old structure.

WORST DECISION

When I was with a previous employer - a telecoms company - I designed and launched an executive coaching programme for the top team. We were facing a number of challenges, and I felt that coaching was the best way to tackle them. We had to get more international in outlook, and we needed more empowerment to get people working more effectively together.

The CEO was initially very receptive but it soon became clear that in fact he was not at all comfortable with coaching in practice. He couldn't let go, and was unable to sit back and let coaching develop and become more widespread in the organisation.

The observed behaviour of leaders matters enormously. It influences everybody else. So really I was struggling against the culture of the organisation. It was a huge learning experience for me. You can't force an organisation to accept an approach for which it is simply not ready.