Leadership at the frontline

This past week was one of those weeks where a number of unrelated events came together to build a theme in my mind about leadership.  I've consciously tried to pay less attention to the healthcare world from whence I came over the past year while expanding my executive coaching and consulting practice.  However, I can't help but see the headlines and twitter feeds describing another change in healthcare senior leadership in Alberta.  The best analogy I can paint is slowing down to see a car accident even though it really doesn't involve you.  That being said, this is not a entry about healthcare per se.  What's said here applies in many other industries and sectors.

AHS replaces interim chief executive after only one month

Leadership at Alberta Health Services in state of flux

By Jamie Komarnicki and Reid Southwick, Calgary Herald November 16, 2013

I've also been taking a coaching course and this week we were tasked to post a review on an article of our choice.  I choose the article "Silence Kills - The Seven Crucial Conversations® in Healthcare.  Those in healthcare are probably quite familiar with the content and those in other industries have their own experience with the reality described by the article - mistakes, incompetence, broken rules, lack of support, poor teamwork, disrespect and micromanagement all tolerated and accepted in silence.  The consequence of this culture of silence is a range of adverse patient episodes, including medication errors, hospital-acquired infections, and other mishaps.  Similarly the workforce is afflicted with poor morale, low employee engagement, and high turnover.  Pick another industry or business and you liable to find a similar version of this healthcare study.

At the same time, I continue to experience enthusiasm and energy from a number of my coaching clients dedicated to making a difference in their chosen field.  Most of them are approaching their work with very aspirational goals and objectives.  It is important to note, though, that they are not just aspiring to achieve leadership positions or new roles simply for the sake of personal advancement.  Rather, they are quite sincere and committed about making a difference for the system and for the clients or customers they serve.  They are optimistic, idealistic and passionate in their hopes and dreams for their respective organizations.  This is despite - or perhaps even because of - the current challenges in their work environments.

The last piece of the puzzle in this confluence of unrelated activities was finally getting around to reading "Strengthening Credibility - A Leader's Workbook" by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner.  I've read their previous works, was impacted by their perspective and have been using their lessons ever since.  I was also extremely fortunate to personally learn from James Kouzes in a healthcare leadership seminar in the early 90's.  Some key statements out of their recent work struck me and ended up providing context to all of the above circumstances.  Excuse me while I quote at length from the very beginning of their latest book:

"...we found that credibility is not based on job titles or hierarchical positions but with the

human being in the leader's shoes.  Above all else, we found that leadership is personal.  It's not about the corporation, the community, or the country.  It's about you and your relationship with others.  If people don't believe in the messenger, they won't believe the message.  If people don't believe in you, they won't believe in what you say.  And if it's about you, then it's about your beliefs, your values, and your principles.  It's also about how true you are to your values and beliefs." 

This one paragraph put into perspective all of the seemingly unconnected circumstances and events noted above.  What it told me is that, despite the turmoil in any industry or sector or business or organization, we all still have the opportunity to lead in the positions we are in.  As a leader at the frontline of any organization, and perhaps as close as possible to the C-suite without actually being in it, you have the leadership opportunity to positively impact and support those staff who work with you.  You have the power to lead them to the best of your ability.  Yes, your information is imperfect and incomplete.  Yes, you may not have access to all the resources you would like or require to do the best job you believe you and your staff are capable of.  Ultimately, however, you can still make a positive difference in your sphere of influence.  And maybe, just maybe, through your authenticity, integrity and consistency you can extend that sphere of influence and move the needle of performance just a little bit every day.

Is this just pie-in-the-sky thinking?  Some would have you think so.  Some would have you buy into the notion that as a frontline/mid-level leader you really are nothing more than a sailor in a rowboat simply trying to survive the North Atlantic during a tempest.  If you happen to make progress from Canada to England it's only by sheer determination and luck. That you have no power to impact your surroundings and the best you can hope for is to not get fired.

By contrast I have seen very good frontline leaders achieve remarkable things under the most adverse circumstances.  Frontline leaders who had to work with very poor building infrastructure, either crumbling around them because of age or far too small for the volume of work they had to deal with.  Frontline leaders who didn't get all the budgetary resources they needed or had to deal with ongoing staff shortages.  Frontline leaders who had to deal with a variety of "difficult-to-deal-with-yet-powerful" people.  Frontline leaders who had to navigate the realities of strong unions and all that potentially entails about managing staff performance.  Yet these leaders, had fully engaged staff, on budget performance and higher customer satisfaction ratings than any of their peers.  Why?  How?

What accounted for these remarkable results?  I believe it goes back to the very heart of the Kouzes and Posner quote.  The staff of these leaders believed in the "message" because they believed in the "messenger".   These messengers/leaders had (and have) credibility with their followers because they have truly engaged and partnered with their staff, have a set of shared values that they adhere to consistently when making decisions, have worked on supporting and developing staff over time, and ultimately have helped to foster a sense of purpose and hope despite all the challenges.  Above all the messenger and leader has been amongst and with their followers during their trials and tribulations.  There is a personal connection and even a camaraderie with their staff.

Ultimately that's what leadership is all about.  It's personal, it's about you and it's about how you show up every day.  Show up and be authentic.  That is your real leadership challenge.
______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

It's not Them, it's You - Redux

A lament that I've often heard from many leaders is "Why don't my staff get what we are trying to do?"  The context for this can relate to many things - a focus on developing new products or service offerings, a desire to enhance customer service capability, a shift in emphasis in strategic direction, or any number of other "big-ticket" ventures that a leader undertakes.  Regardless, the long and short of the story is that things are not going right and certainly not as well as the leader expected.  In fact, rather than succeeding the initiative is actually failing.

The leader's frustration - and mystification - at the lack of success arises because in his/her mind the initiative should be moving forward rapidly, smoothly and with a minimum of bumps along the way.  From the leader's perspective the reasons for moving forward assertively and confidently are so self-evident that there should be no reason for confusion or lack of action.  From the leader's perspective all steps that should have reasonably been taken to communicate the importance of the initiative have been taken.  From the leader's perspective implementation of his/her brilliantly conceived idea should be proceeding easily and smoothly because...well...it's just so bloody brilliant!

Yet, success is not forthcoming.  And maybe that means it's time for a change in perspective.  Maybe its not about them.  Maybe it's about you.

It's often far easier to blame others for a lack of success or progress in moving an organization forward than in taking a hard look at what we are doing or not doing as the leader.  It's personally challenging to start asking some hard questions about what role I as a leader played in not setting the organization up for success.  What steps did I not take?  What warning signs did I ignore? 

So maybe your leadership is getting in the way.  First off, like anyone else, leaders can develop tunnel vision.  We may have become so engaged with our day-to-day work that we start to lose perspective.  Despite the fact that we are specifically tasked with maintaining that 50,000 foot view - or maybe as a result of it - we can lose a sense of what else might be happening in and around the rest of the organization.  In essence, we have become trapped by our own mental box and simply can't conceive of factors or issues that might impact successful implementation of our ideas.  The facts may even be staring you right in the face but you simply are no longer able to see them.  Here's where developing a true climate of trust and confidence in your team can pay huge dividends.  The more objective eyes on the ball the better.

Related to the tunnel vision noted above is a phenomenon that I'll describe as the speed trap.  As leaders we can easily get caught up in the desire to move forward as fast as possible.  Time is money, we have to get out ahead of an issue, we have to be first to market, we have to move, move and move faster.  This driving sense of urgency, however, can cause us to plan in a superficial fashion and gloss over challenges.  More importantly, as we try to solve a problem the anxiety we feel to get on with things can actually prevent us from truly understanding the issue before us. As a result, we may not actually be tackling the real problem but only just dealing with its most noteworthy symptoms.  The adage of pay now or pay later bears listening to.  Only in this regard the currency in question is time.  Slow down to move faster and more effectively.

Leaders can also be confounded by an overconfidence in their ability to communicate.  Effective communication is never simply about getting the memo(s), emails, or newsletters out or having a grand launch event.  For any significant initiative, the leader and his most trusted lieutenants have already spent a considerable amount of time coming to grips with the whys and wherefores of the initiative.  They understand the importance of the effort not only at an intellectual level but more importantly at a visceral level.  Leaders are therefore surprised and amazed that the rest of the organization doesn't have the same level of understanding and commitment.  The reality is that nobody else has been able to spend as much time on this idea as the leader already has.  They truly don't yet "get it" because they have not yet been given the time to understand the rationale for the effort.  A leader and his support team must not only communicate but allow time for the idea to be digested.  In addition, effective communication will ensure and incorporate a feedback loop that allows a check on understanding of key messages and expectations.

Success in implementing past initiatives may also cloud judgment on a go-forward basis.  A lack of planning, preparation, and good communication may not have confounded success in the past.  A leader may have succeeded in spite of himself for a whole variety of reasons.  A fact-based analysis may not have been undertaken to help identify key learnings.  Perhaps we were saved by even worse planning and preparation of a competitor.  Perhaps we were saved by the extraordinary efforts of some of our staff.  The truth is we don't really know what factors supported success or what that success actually cost us.  The result is that a leader is unduly confident in his own ability or otherwise complacent relative to what the next effort is really going to take. 

Finally, the ability to move an initiative forward may be most fatally confounded by the organization's assessment of the leader and his/her motivations.  Ultimately, I believe that words and actions of a leader must line up over the long run.  Staff and stakeholders will commit more strongly to something if they believe it serves the achievement of the organization's stated mission, vision and values.  They will commit if they can see benefit for them as individuals and for the organization as a whole.  If, however, past experience has informed them that the leader is first and foremost concerned about his/her personal gain an integrity gap will develop and grow.  In these circumstances, the leader may gain compliance but he will not gain true commitment to future endeavours.  Staff and stakeholders will ultimately see through the motivations of a self-absorbed leader.  It may take some time, but eventually organizational performance will suffer.

There could be probably be a few more warnings posted here about not rushing to judgment on one's staff.  The cautionary tale is one of making sure to look at yourself in the mirror first before casting aspersions on the skills, abilities and motivations of your followers.  Have you done enough to set the stage for success?  Have you provided the right tools to support effective implementation?  Have you looked at the issue from all perspectives?  In the end, it may be that it's not them that failed you.  Maybe you failed them.
______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.