The Case for Disruption in Canadian Healthcare

One of the tasks that I set myself is to do what I can to keep current on issues that matter to my clients. This builds on my lifelong interest in learning.  In doing so, I've increasingly tried to force myself into new areas of learning or non-traditional avenues that can stretch my thinking, establish new thought patterns, and suggest unique opportunities to delivering value.  As I've continued to grow my executive coaching and consulting practices, one of the singular benefits that I've derived comes from working in a variety of sectors that substantially transcend my former career as a senior executive in healthcare.  The experience with so many other sectors has significantly expanded my view of the world, opened up new possibilities, and allowed me to bring greater value to all of my clients.  My own personal disruption - career change - has had significant positive benefits for me.

These positive returns, as with all types of disruption, did not come without pain and challenge.  Indeed that's what we see in all industries that have undergone significant disruption. A new model for product or service delivery is introduced, competitive conflict and "bloodshed" ensues over some period of time, before a new "normal" is established.  Certainly some of the more familiar examples of disruption are often associated with technological innovations, e.g., the automobile, the airplane, the internet.  But just as often, and perhaps more profoundly, we find sentinel disruptions coming from new ideas and new means of delivering products and services like Walmart, Apple and Uber.  In these cases, existing business paradigms are turned inside out, upside down and/or entirely bypassed in order to achieve a position of market dominance including creation of entirely new markets.  Perhaps common to all of these disruptive innovations is a deep understanding and better appreciation of what fundamental customer needs and desires are.

Over the past several decades as concerns about costs in Canada's healthcare system have been debated, as new technologies have been introduced, and as governments and health administrators have attempted to grapple with a myriad of challenges to system performance and sustainability a plethora of studies and solutions have been offered in support of desired outcomes.  Yet for all these studies, changes, and restructuring there are certainly questions about what we have achieved for the significant investment of time, energy and money.  Debate continues around whether we have achieved healthcare's triple aim of improving the patient experience of care, improving the health of our population, and reducing the per capita cost of health care.

Ongoing prescriptions for impactful change - mine among them - call for clear vision, sustained effort towards achievement of a vision, and strong leadership.  I still believe that all of those are necessary prerequisites for a more effective and sustainable health system.  However, I'm also increasingly of the mind that Canada's healthcare system needs its own Uber to break out us of our incremental pattern of change.  Some might take issue with my assertion that we've only undertaken incremental change and note major shifts in health governance and structures in the past number of years.  However, I suggest that while challenging and energy-draining, these changes have not fundamentally altered altered how we deliver healthcare services nor have they changed our bottom-line results.  To my mind, even the advent and expansion of specialized, privately-owned/ operated health services (e.g., surgi-centres) has done little to change the base paradigm for health services in Canada.

Ultimately, what we may need to come to terms with is whether a highly-regulated and bureaucratized system - subject to the whims and foibles of political forces and professional self-interest - is actually able to deliver the significant and widespread innovation necessary to deal with current and future challenges.

As with other disruptive influences and forces that have reshaped other industries the solution may need to come from an outside source.  Perhaps the leadership and disruptive change cannot, in fact, come from our current political parties, pundits, leaders and structures.  We are too bound up in managing the day-to-day challenges, vested in current systems, too constrained by our current view of how things have been and should be.  Perhaps for truly innovative and breakthrough solutions to present themselves we need our own version of Steve Jobs and Uber.  My thoughts and hopes for a vastly improved health care system increasingly lie in this direction and with this hope.

Disruption can often times feel like anarchy and barbarians at the gate (just ask taxi operators about Uber) but in as many circumstances it can be a harbinger of a new industry or reshaping of an existing one to deal with fundamental customer requirements (e.g., cost-effective and timely transportation in the case of Uber?). Is this the path forward for healthcare?  Can some leader or leaders break the mold and pave a path to delivering on our Triple Aim?

Is leadership in healthcare about managing and smoothing disruptive influences for the effective management of the organization or do we need leadership to BE the disruptive force that takes us to a new, impossible to imagine, level of performance that we require.

Either way it's all about leadership. 
______________________________

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.

Leader Heal - or Direct - Thyself!

I get a lot of satisfaction from being an executive coach and consultant.  Most of the time what this look and feels like is the gratification I get from helping individuals, team and organizations make an important breakthrough, realize and own their strengths, and achieve a goal that they have never imagined possible.  Beyond that, my clients also cause me to reflect a great deal on what is possible in my own business and personal life.  They inspire me by their journey, their courage and their commitment to make something real for themselves.

Most importantly they continue to teach me the importance of turning my executive coaching lens and leadership abilities on myself from time to time.  They compel me to practice what I preach.  They direct me, as a leader, to chart my course and take specific action to realize my personal vision.

Just as organizations benefit from having, developing and living to a well-articulated vision and set of values so too is it clear to me that individuals - leaders - similarly benefit from similar efforts in solidifying their own direction and plan.  Just as with an organizational effort, significant time, energy and thought should be put into establishing a leader's personal vision, values, strategic directions and action plans.  All too often, however, we assume "we've got it".  Why do I need to plan for something when I'm already "on the path"?  The answer to these types of questions is not necessarily dissimilar to why an organization undertakes a strategic planning process - clarity of direction.  And don't assume that just because you are a force of one that you don't have to coordinate or consult with others to achieve your grand vision.  In fact, it might be critical to seek out support or thoughts from others in your journey - mentor, colleague, spouse.  None of us, no matter how accomplished a leader, can claim omnipotence.  

I've had my own personal Mission, Vision and Values statements for at least 15 years.  I've recently been more motivated to develop specific annual goals and objectives that move me toward achievement of my vision.  I've made effort to review these products on a periodic basis and particularly at points in time where I've either been considering or experiencing a major transition in my career or life.  In general, I can say that an intensive review has taken place at least every two to three years.  In fact, I'm undertaking that personal "business plan" review right now.  Otherwise, I keep my plans close at hand and visible enough to remind me and support me in my day-to-day work.  The frequency with which I review my commitments to myself seems to work and I've surprised myself in seeing how stable my vision and values have been over the years despite some major changes in personal circumstances.

Key to the long-term stability - and relevance - of my personal mission, vision and values was some pretty intense up-front work and personal introspection.  I wasn't always interested in that level of self-work and there are days even now where I cringe at the "touchy-feely" exercise that it can sometimes feel like.  Certainly some of my closest colleagues over the years will attest to the challenge of trying to get me to explore my inner self! 

I strongly believe that every leader should put this kind of work into themselves.  They owe it to themselves, but they also owe it to those that they hope to lead.  And it's not just thinking about it - you need to spend time crafting, articulating and ultimately putting pen to paper.  It's not something that you may share with anyone but yourself, but it will clarify what is important to you as a person and as a leader, will help guide your decision-making in an organization, and will help place your career goals within the context of your broader life goals.  This latter point is critical.  We don't exist in a vacuum nor in a manner that allows us to easily compartmentalize our lives.  Our work life impacts our home life and vice versa.  I believe that this reality is too strong to ignore and we do a great disservice to ourselves and others if we try to force that compartmentalization.

What are the necessary steps to creating the components of your personal plan?  In some ways, the effort and the components very much mirror the work most of us as leaders have done in crafting strategic plans for our organizations.  We have experience and templates/processes already available to us that we can scale back to an individual level.  Most efforts need to start with some process of self-evaluation or self-diagnosis.  This could take a variety of forms.  Over the years I have continued to take advantage of opportunities afforded to me by 360 performance reviews/ assessments, self assessments, or even something as simple as a SWOT framework applied to my leadership/business.  This self-evaluation process may include both reflections/lessons learned from your past experiences as a leader - how did people in the past respond to your leadership?  Your process may also benefit from an assessment of the approach, style, qualities and perceived values of leaders you have worked for in the past.  I have found that I have learned more from poor leaders as I have from excellent leaders.  Poor leaders have helped me define what I don't stand for and how I won't lead.

There is also benefit in writing down your thoughts about your vision and values as you go.  You need to engage with yourself and struggle with the work of articulating what is important to you as a leader.  Don't expect to come up with the perfect statements in the first - or seventh - attempt.  As you know from work on organizational strategic plans, there is a lot of back and forth, refining and clarifying that is going to happen.  Cut yourself some slack in the process and understand that you make refinements as you grow and develop in your leadership knowledge.  Don't be afraid to listen to what others say about what are important leadership qualities to them.  That doesn't mean just adopting what somebody else has said, but there will more grist for the mill in your process and at this point more input is better than no input or ideas.  Talk with some of your trusted colleagues.  There is great benefit in bouncing ideas off those who will be honest with you about your strengths, weaknesses and current leadership behaviours - if you have the strength and courage to really hear them.

Charting your leadership course may mean that you end up with far more than just a set of statements about your personal Mission, Vision and Values.  You could choose to create other components of your own strategic plan including a personal action/learning plan (Human Resource Plan), personal strengths/approach that characterize your leadership style (Marketing Plan), how you want to be known or remembered as a leader, and any number of other components.  The choice is up to you.  At the end of the day you also need to make a commitment to taking the first steps in making your vision real - what will you do in the next 3 months, 6 months and year to move you closer to your ultimate goal.  Vision without action is simply a dream.  Action without vision is simply a frenzy.

My personal "business plan" is perhaps a bit different than some.  I have not articulated a vision as simply a statement of a position I expect to hold in five years.  Rather I have talked about the characteristics of my life that I want to be known by - honesty, integrity, hard work - the lifestyle I expect to lead (e.g., physically active, life-long learner), and my commitment to family and others.  At a professional level I have focused on being of value to my profession and being respected and valued by my clients and colleagues.  The value in this approach is that it allows me to be true to my core rather than defining success by whether I've achieved a particular position.  Moreover, it allows for a greater degree of personal flexibility in responding to both adversity and opportunity - life can throw us curves, both good and not so good, but if we keep our eye on our personal north star we will be successful in navigating short-term "surprises". The ultimate benefit of knowing yourself is the ability it gives you to truly take control of your journey to becoming the most effective leader - and person - you can be. 

Your future is yours to create if you understand who you are and what is important to you.  Chart your course.  Your star is out there.

______________________________

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.

Use Executive Coaching to Your Best Advantage!

I've previously posted on how to select your executive coach and touched a bit on what executive coaching is all about.  However, I've not yet addressed how you should prepare to get the most out of your executive coaching engagement.  Executive coaching can be one of the most effective ways of accelerating your development as a leader and well it should since it can represent a significant investment of personal and/or organizational time and money. Here's my list of things you should do to maximize the benefits of your executive coaching experience.

1. Define your outcomes.  Any good executive coach will seek to establish an understanding of your specific goals and objectives for the engagement.  Moreover, they may have at hand various methods by which to draw those out of you and define the work for the next number of months.  Ultimately, however, the goals and objectives and outcomes are for you to own, create and work towards.  In the case of support being provided by an organization (not just an individual) there may be specific expectations and outcomes defined by a supervisor.  Regardless, work towards clearly defining the target.  Otherwise at the end of the engagement all parties may be frustrated with what's been achieved or not.
2. Be prepared to work.  An executive coach is there to challenge your thinking and assumptions, to move you to new levels of performance, and to enhance confidence through action.  But just as it is incumbent upon you to define the outcomes it is equally essential that you show up in the coaching session ready to work.  The time spent with a coach should not be akin to pulling teeth - you are addressing your current challenges, taking charge of your future, and you should be prepared to work as hard - and harder - than your coach.  Don't expect your coach to do the heavy lifting for you.
3. Be prepared to work - Part II.  The work in a coaching engagement doesn't just or even mostly happen when you are face-to-face with your executive coach.  Your time with your executive coach is designed to develop plans, explore options, test assumptions and commit to change.  While a change in perspective and perception will happen in the executive coaching session, delivery and action happens in between sessions and back at the coal face of your work.  All the best laid plans are only as effective what actually happens when you implement your plans.  Be the change you want to see!
   
4. Drive the agenda.  Sometimes it's of benefit to think of your executive coach as your co-pilot.  You are in charge of where you need to go.  You define the work for each session.  Again your executive coach will be there as a guide, a thinking partner, and a challenger, but you are in charge.  You are the leader in your business (and personal life) so be the leader in your own personal development.  Work with your co-pilot to plot the course at each session and once decided focus on your path.
5. Be truthful, candid and honest.  Your executive coach is focused on your success.  Period.  In that regard, if you have done the best job possible in selecting your executive coach (check out my October 14, 2014 post "Selecting Your Executive Coach - Redux") you've determined a fit does in fact exist, you trust the person in front of you and you are confident in their track record in support of your goals.  So don't beat around the bush.  Time is money and if you are going to move forward assertively be prepared to be vulnerable.  It's in your best interests and your executive coach has no other agenda than what works for you. 
6. Have the courage to change.  Engaging with an executive coach is not about maintenance or just having a great conversation.  You - or your organization - is expecting you to evolve, grow and change as a result of the investment of time and money made in an executive coach.  Work with an executive coach is not about maintenance of status quo.  You should expect that when you choose an executive coach that you will be undertaking new challenges, overcoming anxieties, and assertively progressing forward.  The coaching engagement should make you feel uncomfortable.  Be prepared for and embrace change!
   
7. Own the coaching relationship.  As tough as it might be for some executive coaches, you are the customer and the customer is always right.  Tell your coach - your vendor - what is working for you in the coaching engagement, what's not working and how the work can be changed to be more effective.  That being said, be prepared for your coach to push you.  Part of the value in executive coaching is breaking out of your comfort zone and traditional patterns of behavior.  It's a give and take relationship and both you and your executive coach will work to develop an effective and constructive working partnership.

It's my hope and expectation that following these guidelines you will make the most out of your investment in yourself through executive coaching.  Coaching can be a powerful tool in moving your leadership forward in a powerful way but much of that success depends on your leadership in the engagement.
______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
President & Co-Founder
BreakPoint Solutions
gregh@breakpoint.solutions
780-250-2543

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.

Leadership and a Leap of Faith

Recently I shared a visual on my LinkedIn profile that suggested if any one of us were to realize our ambitions, if we were to achieve all that we could be, we would have to make the jump from one certainty or reality to something less tangible but more rewarding.

The visual calls upon the reader to take a leap of faith.

When I posted the visual I got a question back from one of my connections along the lines of:  "But what do we do when we need the safety net between the two ledges? Prepared to jump, but conditioned to be a sheep and stay in the safe zone... :)"  Not necessarily an atypical response and certainly a relatively common reaction or perspective that I have encountered in my executive coaching practice.  Many of us dream of a better job, career, life but are in fact afraid to take that next BIG step into the unknown.  In fact, there are many of us out there who have made a choice - consciously or unconsciously - to stay in positions, companies, and careers that are demoralizing, uninspiring and downright painful.  We have defaulted to the evil we know rather than taken the risk for a less well understood future benefit.  

My very brief response at the time to the question was that if we constantly find ourselves in need of the safety net, or the tether, or the anchor - whatever that might be - we are unlikely to achieve any of our dreams or ambitions in life.  Another way of putting this more poetically is:

You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

Christopher Columbus

Many of us marvel at the success of renowned entrepreneurs and business owners.  We envy their success and the lifestyle that has come with that success.  However, if you dig deeper into their stories it is clear that most of these individuals were not overnight successes nor did their current success come without challenge or even outright failure.  In fact, many of them failed spectacularly or often before achieving success.  What ultimately allowed them to succeed where others may not have even made the attempt?  You'll get various answers to that question but in part I believe it relates to a strong determination to succeed, a willingness to fail and not be deterred by failure, and perhaps a stronger confidence in self than many of us may have.  Ultimately, they took that leap of faith because they wanted to get the brass ring, understood they might stumble along the way, but were confident enough in their vision and abilities to eventually succeed.

All nice high-level stuff but let me bring this back to a local sense of reality from my point of view.  For the past two years I've been privileged enough to be a TEC Canada Chair.  That experience has opened me up to the possibilities ahead for any of us if we have strength of vision, a belief in self and a determination to succeed.  The stories of my TEC members have been inspiring for the challenges overcome, the success achieved to date, and the audacity of goals being pursued.  How audacious?  How about $50 million net worth by the age of 50 - with no capital of your own to start your venture (and on track)?  How about starting a company from scratch, getting executives to buy in with an equity stake in nothing and no salary and turning that into a nationally recognized venture in 3 years?  How about being a driving force in a regionally based company and turning that into a multimillion dollar stake as part of a buy-out by a national firm?  Success does come by a leap of faith.  Not without risk of course, nor without trials, tribulations and a few sleepless nights, but it does come.

Need something more personal?  How about making a shift out of a 25-year career to take on the challenge of building an executive coaching and consulting practice?  In the course of my three-year reinvention (to date) I've had more than one of my contacts express appreciation and amazement at my "successful" transformation.  I can't say that I yet share their same perspective on what success looks like but the comments have come all the same.  When pressed for the "secret of my success" I come back to the leap of faith concept once again.  I certainly had opportunities to return to my past career on a few occasions and I could easily have retreated to my place of comfort and safety.  I may have hesitated a time or two - and still have sleepless nights - but I know that I'll achieve more by having stayed the course and invested in my leap of faith fully.

I certainly appreciate the comfort and need for a "safety net".  But rather than hold on to your current reality and past success as your anchor and stabilizing point let me offer you some other linchpins in realizing your greater success that can still reassure you while you take flight:

1. Work on your vision, solidify your vision and keep focused on your vision - a leap of faith for me doesn't entail going in blind.  Belaboring the metaphor, you have to see the other side of the gorge in order to know where you are jumping to and have invested enough in yourself to have a reasonable degree of confidence to know you have the strength and skills to make the gap.  There is no 100% guarantee of success but there is closer to 0% chance if you make the leap without any focus or preparation.
2. Execute your plan with strength and conviction - even the best plans fail through poor execution.  Vision is the starting point but solidify that vision with clear goals and priorities, measure your progress, hold yourself accountable to those goals and metrics, adjust tactics as required to achieve the vision, and get help as you need it.  Those who are constantly planning or changing focus have no hope of making the leap.  
3. Don't give up (easily) - as noted before, many successful entrepreneurs and leaders did not enjoy or experience overnight success.  There will be setbacks, challenges and moments of (intense??) anxiety.  Be dogged in your determination to succeed.  Plan your work and work your plan.  Review tactics and investments to be sure.  If it were easy somebody would have already done it.  Where there is risk there is also reward.

Leadership is never about certainty or guarantees.  Leadership is all about taking that leap of faith - for yourself and on behalf of others.  Your current reality and success can hold you back or become a foundation for even greater success.  Which reality you embrace is truly going to be a matter of your own courage, confidence and conviction in yourself.  Leadership - is it in you?
______________________________

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.

Fear and Panic don't equate to Leadership

Earlier this month Alberta underwent one of its infamous generational changes in government.  A new NDP government was formed after 44 years of Progressive Conservative government who had in turn ousted a Social Credit dynasty that had been in place for decades before.  In fact, Alberta has only had 5 governing parties hold power since coming into being since 1905.  When Alberta holds to a party it holds on to them for a long time.  Similarly, when a party is ousted from power it goes into political oblivion.  To this date - with the jury currently out on the Progressive Conservatives - no party has ever returned to power, and two have been wiped away completely never to return.

Leading up to this transition in power and since, the level of hyperbole from some commentators,  business people, federal politicians and Joe Q Public in respect of the transition from a "conservative" government to a "socialist" government has been extraordinary.  Dire predictions have been made of wholesale cancellation of oil and building projects, flight of capital, and departure of major segments of our population.  The province has now even been referred to as Albertastan in some quarters.

The predictions and prognostications were so over-the-top as to cause others to worry about creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Concern developed that continued negative commentary would start to make too many believe that now was the time to pull up stakes or freeze further commitments with the result that the provincial economy - already dealing with a precipitous drop in oil prices - would in fact slip into recession or worse.  A group of five prominent Alberta businessmen (sometimes derogatorily referred to as the "Monopoly Men") in particular warned of the consequences to Alberta's competitive advantage if the "socialists" were voted to power.

In my time as a manager/leader starting some twenty-five years ago, I've had the opportunity to work with and observe many leaders, managers and staff.  They have all helped me grow and develop my own leadership philosophy and style.  Sometimes I've learned great tools and techniques from them as they have navigated normal and not so normal situations.  But there have been just as many opportunities - and maybe more - where the lesson learned has been "I'll never do that!"

One of the areas of greatest learning has been in the experience of seeing how managers and leaders react to "adverse" events.  Those events have covered a spectrum of circumstances - poor (to deadly) service to clients, the out-of-the-blue call from a prominent political leader looking for action, a staff crisis, a building or equipment malfunction impacting service delivery, or media showing up without warning at your doorstep.  The set of circumstances is largely irrelevant other than in trying to convey that something bad has happened that needs to be addressed.  More importantly for me, is the range of leadership reactions these situations have engendered - which has been nothing short of extraordinary, educational and (in a perverse sort of way) highly entertaining.

For the intent of this blog and to highlight my point, I am going to focus on what I consider to be the negative side of these reactions.  In many cases, I write from direct experience or have otherwise observed the leadership response as it has unfolded.  Namely, a leadership reaction that actually becomes part of or creates the crisis it purports to want to avoid or manage.  Rather than providing stability, strength and vision through a challenging time, some leaders react with fear, panic and threats.  All too often the reaction is far more a testament to their true skill level or fear of lost alliances and entitlements enjoyed in "better" times. 

All too often, and for too many in leadership positions, there is a tendency to lose one's head during a real or perceived crisis.  I emphasize perceived because I believe that in many situations leaders may overplay a set of circumstances and never step back for long enough to evaluate whether in fact there is a real crisis in need of management.  Up-front evaluation is an important first step.  Otherwise you are going to be expending a lot of unnecessary time and energy that probably could be put to better use. 

Beyond this initial evaluation, it appears that for some leaders running around, crying out that the proverbial sky is falling is somehow an effective way of ensuring that immediate, decisive and effective action is taken.  That's where I believe some leaders miss the point about what effective leadership is and should be about.  Too many react to a negative scenario by confusing immediate action or any action with effective action.  They seem to believe that only by providing an immediate response in a situation will they be perceived as being in control, responsible and competent.  The reality is often far different.  More often the sense they convey to staff and others around them is that they are in panic mode.  Rather than being a leader that manages the situation their reaction more often generates fear, stress and anxiety to everyone unfortunate to be caught up in the vortex of activity.

Aside from the mental distress that the leader is subjecting themselves and their team to, a "decisive" yet hasty reaction is just as likely (or more likely) to lead to the wrong decision as to the right one.  In most situations we rarely have 100% perfect information.  In crisis situations this is even more the case.  Therefore, crisis demands disciplined leadership, an ability to remain calm, and the strength to keep yourself and your team focused in order to solve the problem at hand.  In my experience, panic and performance excellence rarely go together.  A panicked reaction can often lead to more problems to solve.

A leader in crisis (versus a leader who manages through crisis) also creates a number of other negative impacts that may not be understood at the time or even later. First, in your haste to make a decision, you many not even be solving the right problem but merely papering over symptoms.  Second, by making a hasty decision you may inadvertently compromise your ability to achieve other more important objectives.  Third, rather than creating an effective and productive team you are more likely creating fear, reduced productivity, risk aversion and indecisiveness amongst your staff.  Ultimately, you are also doing damage to the perception of your leadership capacity - you are not creating an image of a confident and competent leader amongst your team, peers, superiors, or other stakeholders that can be looked to for strength in times of challenge.

So Keep Calm and Carry On!  I'm convinced that we don't see or experience as many crisis situations as we think we do.  Take the appropriate time to assess the situation.  And even when you do experience a true crisis, taking a deep breath before taking action is still a good tactic and a sign of confident, disciplined leader.  Your reaction will calm others, help them focus on doing the right things, and ensure understanding of all impacts of your actions.  I'm convinced that by taking a more measured and less panicked approach that you will make better decisions and the confidence in your leadership will be enhanced.

Leadership excellence means more poise and less panic. 







______________________________

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.

Restructuring - Do it Right or Not at All

In the past several months, as the price of oil has plummeted and caused private sector firms and governments to recalibrate their plans, seemingly inviolable just months before, we see many organizations - private and public sector both - assess the need to reform themselves or already actively engaged in restructuring efforts.  Some of this is transpiring "organically" as organizations downsize while in other circumstances the weak are consumed by the strong(er).  All efforts are being undertaken in order to survive the current slump or perhaps even thrive and exceed market expectations despite the downturn.  The question, however, stands as to whether the restructuring efforts are well thought out or at all consistent with a long-term plan.  Is the restructuring playing to inherent organizational strengths or are actions merely short-term and short-sighted calculations?

My admonition to leaders is to undertake restructuring efforts with significant thought and caution.  As we have seen in too many organizations and sectors, restructuring is often initiated without adequate forethought as to whether it fundamentally serves the long-term goals of the entity.  How do I arrive at that conclusion?  Simple.  I just look at how many organizations are back at restructuring, sometimes doing a complete 180, as little as a year down the road from the last effort.  In doing so, not only have we expended significant time, energy and dollars in the effort (for naught), we may have also lost some of our key personnel in the transition, damaged a corporate culture that has been our competitive edge, but also damaged our own leadership credibility on this or other initiatives.  The costs to badly done restructuring are far more significant than if we had never made the attempt.

My first request to leaders in this regard is to make restructuring your last strategy, not your first.  Governments and politicians generally fall in the category of picking this option first off the table.  It gives the great illusion of action and serious intent without addressing some more fundamental, but less "timely" and time-consuming options.  For best effect organization structure should adhere to the axiom of "form follows function."  What do you require of your organization and what are the entirety of steps or initiatives you have to have in place or tweak to be successful?  Organizational restructuring is inherently disruptive and can cause you people to focus on looking back and around in terms of who they report to, whether their job is secure, and whether the pain is worth the benefit rather than focusing on the quality of customer service and the financial bottom line.

Second, if you are adamant that organizational restructuring is the only thing that is going to get you
the results you require, make sure that you understand who your top performers are and ensure their future in your organization.  There are clearly casualties in any restructuring.  Some intentional and some unintentional.  Without due diligence and effort, some of your best people may decide that this next restructuring presents them with the best opportunity to explore their horizons - at another company.  The irony of change is that your best people have the most options.  If you don't pay homage to that fact you may find yourself with a brand new organizational vehicle that no one is qualified to drive.

Hand-in-hand with having the right people place to drive your new organization structure don't throw the baby out with the bath water.  By that I mean, while you have many intended reasons for making a change in organization structure, don't be blind to other unintended consequences this change may bring.  An organizational restructuring effort is no different than any other major project or change initiative.  Be clear about goals up front, understand constituents and stakeholder interests and power, maintain or enhance clarity of accountability for results and make sure that other systems (e.g., performance metrics, reward and recognition systems) are aligned and collectively support the change you are trying to make with your restructuring effort.

Finally, as you contemplate and implement a restructuring effort, be clear about your current weaknesses and your current strengths.  Together these start to define what your organization is truly capable of achieving and in what time frame.  Build on your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses as you are best able. Also appreciate that you may not - and likely will not - go from Point A to Point B in one fell swoop.  It make take an incremental and transparent approach to change.  More broadly speaking understand your organization's current culture and how that may both assist and hinder your efforts at implementing the structural changes you are contemplating.  To put a finer point on this by way of analogy - don't expect your staff to turn into world class athletes overnight if for the past 20 years you've never even asked them to walk around the block.

As the leader of your organization, it's up to you not just set the grand vision for the future.  You must also effectively manage the transition from the old to the new.  Change is inevitable to be sure but it must be managed and shaped in a direction that is truly aligned with the long-term bottom line of the firm.  It's tempting to think that restructuring is the answer in that it shows decisive action during challenging times.  However, if not well planned and executed it can negatively impact performance and competitive advantage.  And ultimately, it will reflect back on your own leadership credibility - the coin of the realm for the next big initiative you feel compelled to undertake.
______________________________

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.

Trust - A Leadership Cornerstone

Most of us in leadership positions expect or need to have confidence in the abilities of those that work with or for us.  We want to trust that our subordinates have the skills and abilities to perform their duties capably if not at an exceptional level.  Even more importantly we endeavor to be assured that our team members are committed to our shared objectives, will in fact put forward their best efforts, and will communicate with us honestly about their achievements and challenges.  There are a whole lot of assumptions built into this little vignette - that we have properly defined the jobs we have hired peopled into, that our expectations are clear, that our hiring process are robust enough to pick the best candidates, etc. - but fundamentally, we believe that once we have hired on a subordinate that they can be trusted to perform.

But how does your leadership build - or destroy - that expectation of trust on your team?  I suggest that the performance you are getting and the trust that exists within a team is largely based on the example you set and the environment you create as a leader.

Patrick Lencioni identifies trust or the lack of trust as the fundamental building block of team performance - good or bad.  He suggests that truly great teams have a high level of trust that allows them to be comfortable with one another, to be able to admit their individual weaknesses and mistakes, to be able to confront without fear the weaknesses of the team, and ultimately have open, unguarded communication.  Without that level of trust, the team underperforms as it lacks the ability to engage in constructive conflict, lacks commitment to common goals, is unaccountable for individual or team performance, and ultimately fails to achieve results.

Lencioni's perspective on trust is a deeper concept than most of us as leaders typically define for ourselves and our teams.  Too many of us believe that commitment, accountability and results are simply the result of a transactional equation - I Pay You and You Do What I Want/Need.  Failure to achieve (sometimes ill-defined expectations) means that you lose a bonus opportunity or run the risk of being fired outright.  No touchy feely approach to leadership and accountability for you!

In my view, as I believe with Lencioni's perspective and that of other leadership gurus, this basic equation of trust and accountability far too easily lets individual leaders off the hook for setting the stage for a trust-based environment and for the the level of results obtained as a result.  One of the fundamental principles that Lencioni espouses in this regard is that there must be leadership by example.  The leader must show the way by demonstrating vulnerability, being prepared to admit weaknesses and mistakes, and thus sets the stage for the team to do the same and creating an opportunity for honest assessment, improvement opportunities, and better performance.

I suspect that for most of us that definitely smells too "new age" and akin to sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya.  So let me give you some very specific and tangible steps to help you - as a leader - build trust within your team.  First, start with setting very clear expectations for individual and team performance.  Simple to say and yet almost unfailingly difficult to operationalize.  Without specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-limited objectives and expectations most team members will be tentative in their efforts and guarded in their communications not knowing or trusting as to whether they can meet their leader's expectations.  Expectations must not only be clear for the individual team member but the leader too must explicitly define expectations for themselves that are visible to the rest of the team.

Second, there must be demonstrated commitment on the part of the leader to working towards achieving these expectations.  At a basic level this is the integrity check, walking the talk, having your leadership actions match your leadership rhetoric.  Too often team members are accustomed to developing a perspective on their leaders more like "Do as I say, not as I do."  Your leadership actions and words must be aligned.  The leader must similarly demonstrate commitment to the achievement of team objectives through resource allocation, time management (e.g., priority setting) and recognition of results.  Failure to do so is the surest way to diminish trust and attendant effort.

Third, communication must be ever present - at the beginning of the team-building and expectation setting process, as progress is made towards goals, as barriers to success are encountered, as environmental circumstances change and as success is achieved.  This is not about micro-managing.  Rather, this is about maintaining two-way, open communication, ensuring clarification of expectations, supporting efforts as required, encouraging, and redirecting as necessary.  Communication in this regard can be compared to the feedback we get from our car's dashboard - speed, distance, fluid levels, warning lights - all of which give us confidence as to appropriate progress towards our final destination.

Finally, building trust with the leader and within the team is also being clear about consequences related to both good and bad performance.  This closes the loop on expectation setting discussed earlier.  Ultimately the leader is the enforcer, referee, and ultimate arbiter on performance standards.  If, as a leader, you fail to appropriately award or discipline team members - and self - based on results or adherence to agreed-upon team norms then the trust that you might have worked so hard to establish can be erased in an instance.  The standard of performance you pass by is the standard of performance that you accept.  The consequences and the standards of performance become the pre-established and transparent benchmarks against which decisions are made.  There is no "nice" or "mean" about it.  It just is.  This helps support consistency and supports decision-making on the part of the leader.

One last piece of advice in this regard.  Creating an environment of trust is not a one-off event.  If you haven't already come to this conclusion from the discourse above let me emphasize that the effort you make in creating a trust-based (and high-performing) environment requires steady effort and energy.  It's very much like building up your personal line of credit with your financial institution.  Small steps every day that can be negatively impacted with one default, large or small.  If you've built up a decent level of trust and admit to your mistakes and weaknesses you are certainly more likely to whether any small or short-term setback.

Leadership by example creates the trust you've been looking for and expecting all along. 
______________________________

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.

Toxic Leadership - Part Two

Just over a month ago I published a post entitled "Toxic Leadership". At the end of that post the question of not just simply identifying a toxic leader but effectively working or managing in such an environment was left open.  The article that I drew from at the time seemed to imply that the only effective strategy in dealing with a toxic boss was to simply cope with that reality.  A less polished way to put it would be "suck it up buttercup."

So I put it to you - the reader of this blog - to ponder alternatives to managing a toxic leader and surviving the personal angst and chaos that ensues.  Unfortunately, even with time and discussion and feedback what came back to me were two relatively harsh alternatives.  The first commonly stated alternative was in fact to merely accept this as an inevitable consequence of a working life.  In this harsh assessment it is clear that those who shared their thoughts (or despair) with me were not alone.  Gallup research seems to consistently bear out a common theme of poor leadership and lack of engagement of staff in literally all industries.  Common terminology used to describe such poor leaders includes - self-oriented, stubborn, overly demanding, and impulsive.

The second most common response I received back was that the (best/only) way to manage a toxic leader was to accept defeat and move on to another role in another part of the organization or to leave altogether.  The challenge with that alternative goes directly back to the Gallup research just noted above.  Most industries, sectors, and companies all seem to suffer from poor leaders.  So you might just be moving from the frying pan to the fire in your attempt to escape a bad situation.

I did get some other insights from my readers and I've expanded upon those kernels below.  Perhaps these are more practical then simply resorting to the alternatives of self-suppression and flight noted above.  The first solid piece of advice to provide is to clearly understand yourself.  While that may seem like an odd place to start when trying to think about dealing with a bad boss it's crucial in making sure you know what's important to you and what your boundaries are.  What this understanding of self positions you to do is more effectively pick your battles.  You can then better evaluate whether a "compromise" is morally and ethically defeating versus simply being annoying and inconvenient.  Essentially you can determine which one of the options for coping - management or flight is the best option.

It was also clear from the responses I received that while I might have focused on the more malicious type of leader in my first post, a number of you are dealing with a different varieties of poor leaders.   Hence you have some specific "solutions" to provide in that context.  The broader array of poor leadership included the micro-manager (short on vision, long on telling you how to do "everything"), the grand visionary (long on vision, unable to comprehend or frustrated by the work required to achieve the vision), the "analyst" and risk manager (every contingency and piece of data mapped out), the self-centred leader (it is all about me) and finally the truly incompetent leader (
More than a few of us have dealt with a leader who is short on "vision" but long on the ability to fixate on the smallest detail of any initiative.  The result for you is a high degree of frustration at best or intense feelings of inadequacy at worst. 

While these are all very different types of scenarios and leaders there are some common techniques and strategies by which you can perhaps more effectively manage - and perhaps even succeed - in these environments:

• Be prepared.  Unfortunately you are going to have to put in more time into this "relationship" than your boss will.  Regardless of what type of bad boss you have none of them have as much at stake as you do.  Understand yourself and your boundaries, prepare in advance for each meeting, and map a plan/objectives for each meeting or initiative.  As a leader yourself you can manage the relationship.  In some ways it's important to think of your boss as your most important customer.
• Don't assume.  As a corollary to "Be Prepared" don't make the mistake of assuming anything about what your boss will want, knows, expects or will do.  In any of these scenarios you don't have the luxury of not planning for or anticipating a variety of circumstances.  Plan for the worst, hope for the best.
• Don't try to be right.  This is a hard one to swallow but in the "battle" you're in you are going to have to decided whether you want to be right or get the right thing done.  They are not necessarily the same thing.  Be clear about your ultimate goal for the particular project or initiative and be prepared to alter tactics to ensure success.
• Understand your boss.  I found with one of my worst bosses that I really had to make an effort to get into his head.  I certainly would never lead the way he did, but I did try to anticipate what might set him off (e.g., one too many chairs for the Board meeting!) and resigned myself to many agonizing minutes of silence as he "visioned" the next big thing.  This meant being disciplined in my work habits and approach.  I also tried to emulate his language.  Explaining things my way was not as successful as explaining things his way.
• Support your boss.  Several of my readers reflected on a boss who has clearly been promoted too quickly, had an awesome interview that belied a lack of substance, or was the best of a bunch of poor candidates.  Now what?  For most of us, if we are committed to our organization, our staff or our customers, it means we do our level best to deliver great service regardless or in spite of the leadership handicap we labor under.  Our satisfaction comes from succeeding despite that handicap.
• Engage a team.  Most times, despite the strength and validity of your arguments, the strength of your position, or even your own personal credibility and history as a leader you won't be in a position to effectively counter a poor leader one-on-one.  You may need to engage like-minded allies.  I'm not suggesting fostering a mutiny.  That's a dangerous road.  Rather, you need more than one voice offering alternatives, respectfully questioning direction or decisions, and otherwise offering other solutions.  If you become the lone voice within you could soon be the lost voice without.

It often takes more energy and effort to lead up than it takes to lead a team of subordinates.  Your team has less choice about whether to follow you.  This is also true of a CEO who is trying to work with a Board of Directors, a Board Chair or a group of shareholders.  Leadership is not just about working with those who recognize your authority because you are one or more levels up the ladder from them.  Leadership is also about how you can manage others above you.

Success in managing a poor leader takes a lot more strength, discipline and emotional maturity than feels reasonable but it can be a harsh reality.  I certainly can't say that I've always passed my own personal tests but then continuous learning and growth should always be part of what being an effective leader is all about.
______________________________

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.

The Value in Distraction

A post that once again is inspired by work with my coaching clients.  I was recently engaged by an entrepreneur looking to launch another successful business venture.  Unlike most of my clients he came well-prepared for our first meeting with, amongst other things, a fairly comprehensive business plan and metrics.  Further to that preparation, his efforts transcended a mere business focus and also placed his venture into the context of his life experience and goals.  I was very impressed with the comprehensiveness of his starting point and his obvious focus and determination to succeed.  While I am a business and executive coach, not a life coach, I emphasize and reinforce that NO ONE effectively compartmentalizes the various components of their life - what happens at home impacts work and what happens at work comes home.  This client came to me already seemingly understanding that reality and trying to reach the right balance - if that is what we can call it - between the various components, passions, and commitments in his life.

One thing that also struck me in a different way was a component of his plan that called upon him to make better use of idle time.  In many respects, I read this section to mean that idle time was a negative to be managed or eliminated.  If there was idle time or some form of downtime to be had the intent was to focus this time productively, divert distraction into business reading, perhaps watching a televised business report, or something similar that would continue to round out business thinking, enhancing skills, and otherwise drive success of the new venture in the near to long-term.

What it did for me, however, was raise a question about why as a society or, perhaps more to the point, as business leaders we denigrate distraction and pure idle time.  Taking a page from my previous (I'd like to say current but can't!) Ironman training, it's clear that more and more training becomes counterproductive at some point in time.  After a while, there is not only diminishing marginal returns from all that extra effort but we can actually start to do real physical harm to ourselves by not letting our bodies recover properly between training sessions.  Moreover, most of us have to ramp down workouts several weeks prior to our "A" race in order to be rested and energized for the big test.  Perhaps some truly elite athletes - or masochistic types - do it differently, but for the vast majority of us the rule of thumb is more is not necessarily better.

My suggestion and recommendation on a business intellectual side then is to take the same approach as we would in exercising our physical selves.  Do not discount distraction and idle time.  Rather see it as a way of resting and recuperating your intellectual faculties for the next big push.  I also suggest that you NOT structure this idle time.  I often recommend structured time in one's work calender for reflection and assessment of past efforts and planning for the next go.  That reflective time is different than idle time.  Perhaps the best way to think about idle time as eyes wide open REM sleep.  As to the form of this distraction I suspect the sky is the limit and we may not even recognize when we are doing it.  It could range from absentmindedly doodling on our notepads in a meeting, to zoning out in front of our TV's at supper time, to playing a game on our smartphone.  The truth is our minds need a break just as much as our bodies do in order to be as effective as we believe they should be when the real crunch time comes.

So my admonition to you is to allow yourself the opportunity to be distracted, to enjoy some true idle time, without feeling like you are wasting precious time.  Truth is you need that time to re-energize, refresh and renew for the next big effort.

Go ahead.  Build that Lego Death Star you've always wanted to. 

Or read a few more of my blog posts.  They could be pretty distracting too!


______________________________

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.

Strategy, Strategy, Wherefore Art Thou?

Later this week the Government of Alberta will bring down it's 2015/2016 budget.  There have been more than a few trial balloons floated on both the revenue and expenditure side of the equation.  Public sector leaders have been anticipating budget cuts ranging all the way from 2% through to 10%.   When compared to recent years of increases, and further adjusting for inflationary pressures, the anticipated cuts are causing more than a bit of anxiety around what this may all mean.  This is even more true considering that up until this time public sector performance - whether measured by classroom size in schools, wait times in hospital emergency departments, or ability to maintain infrastructure - has been less than noteworthy.

The precipitous drop in the price of oil has seen similar drastic changes in the fortunes of many private sector ventures in Alberta and Saskatchewan (and Russia!) who are either directly involved in or provide services to the oil sector.  Literally thousands of employees and contractors have been let go while other vendors have been told to take substantial cuts in fees if they wish to maintain working relationships with their current partners.

Many of us have seen - and played a role in - this movie before.  In fact, if it were not for the tremendously negative impact it has on services and the many hundreds or thousands of individuals who are dislocated as a result, one might actually laugh and start making comparisons to movie sequels like Rocky (I, II, III, IV, & V).  At some point, it seems clear that there really is no longer a plot line but we feel somehow compelled to watch anyway and see how laborious the story can become.  For those of us who have lived this never ending story the humor works it way towards the dark and cynical side.  We laugh in order not to cry.  We joke if only to keep our sanity.

When I was in the public sector I was often fond of saying "Any fool can balance the budget, just don't provide any service."  My statement reflected my frustration as I perceived that outside of a set of fiscal parameters there was limited if any discussion of what underlying or foundational strategy "we" were being driven by or working towards.  At times it appeared that the only other "strategy" that we had in meeting our fiscal targets was to make sure that somehow no one became upset in the process of us taking significant resources out of the system.   I'm sure there are more than a few even more cynical and jaded pundits who would suggest that the public sector is not currently providing service regardless of level of financial resources being committed to it.  I believe that both perspectives come from the reality that while there has been a fiscal agenda in operation for several decades there has been no concurrent defining or overarching service strategy by which one could rationalize or guide fiscal decisions.  In many ways the tail has been wagging - and overpowering - the dog.

Make no mistake, there have been and are extensive strategic planning processes in effect and glossy strategic plans trotted out on a regular basis.  Unfortunately - again from my perspective - these efforts are defined by an excess of process, the use of elegantly crafted templates, and the next best-in-class graphics that belie a lack of grounding in honest assessments, true insight, and driving commitment to more than surviving the next fiscal year.  And whether we focus on the private or public sector in these down economic times our short-term focus, our willingness to shed our most valued resources - our people - seems at odds with the existence of any real long-term strategy.

Personally I would be more prepared to accept the current and pending cuts in the private and public sector if I could be convinced that there was in fact a real long-term strategy in play.  I further suspect that if there were a long-term strategy in existence, that the current downturn would at the very least entail more surgical precision in decisions being made to reduce body count in our organizations.  The boom and bust cycle that many organizations appear to go through - lamenting the lack of skilled human resources in one quarter or fiscal year followed by an unabashed eagerness to outdo one's competitors or counterparts in layoffs the next - only reinforces a cynical perspective on my part that "strategy" only exists as one more check box on a prescribed list of "management" things to do.

If service is really what our organizations - whether in the public or private sector - are all about surely we can lead better than what we have demonstrated over the past several decades.  If our most valuable asset in achieving our strategic directions are our human resources then surely we would undertake more efforts to preserve those assets.  The reality of thousands of layoffs in 2014 and more to come in 2015 suggest that we have not led well in the preceding years and have been guided by no real strategy.

The layoffs of 2014 and those pending in 2015 are akin to a ship on a storm-tossed sea.  We are just hoping to ride out another storm, lacking the foresight to have planned ahead, retained an experienced crew, and hoping that over the horizon we may find the next safe harbor.





 
______________________________

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.

Do the Facts Speak?

In the middle of last year I was fortunate enough to renew acquaintances with some business associates in the US.  As part of developing a partnership with the firm I was invited down to one of their regional customer summits which in this case was being held in Las Vegas.  The location is somewhat irrelevant as I suspect that some of my experiences could have been similar regardless of location in North America.  One of the more interesting experiences I had was with a cab driver who seemed to come directly out of some past episode of the X-Files - The Truth is Out There! and government is hell bent on one form of deception or manipulation or another.  One of the more prominent subjects on our all too long ride from airport to hotel that day was how Ebola was mutating into an airborne virus and how, when combined with illegal immigration, it was going to bring the nation to the zombie apocalypse.

Fast forward to the March 2015 issue of National Geographic and the cover story about "The War on Science".  Pick your favorite subject and this issue touches on it - vaccines and autism, evolution versus creationism, climate change or not.  Aside from the fascinating reality we live in of such strongly held views it got me thinking about how these types of mindsets play out in our leadership forums on a day-to-day basis.  No less than in the large scientific "debates" of today, business leaders often tout their reliance on the "facts" and the "evidence" to drive their business decisions.  Just as often, however, as we Monday morning quarterbacks dissect another failed business venture it is clear that facts were mostly ignored and even actively suppressed as the cliff of doom rapidly approached.

What makes highly educated, experienced and qualified business leaders, Presidents and CEO's hold on to directions, decisions and initiatives that are clearly unsupported by facts and evidence?  They often tout their reliance on the "hard cold facts" as the cornerstones of their leadership.  One of my takeaways from the National Geographic article is that all too often rather than continuing to be open to the "facts" or new evidence, leaders become personally entrenched and invested in a position.  This positional stance is only enhanced or strengthened when it comes under attack from someone else with whom they don't identify or believe is personally antagonistic to them.  The choice to change or be open to the evidence becomes confused by the fact that they feel personally under attack and become resistant to giving into the evidence being presented by others whom they don't like or can't respect - board members, executive team members, external advisers.  Ego is an Achilles heel of many a leader.

What about being open to new perspectives and evidence brought forward by one's team?  Surely our team, with whom we go to battle every day, is respected and trusted enough to help move our position and thus help the leader and the organization avoid an embarrassing or even a catastrophic failure?  Perhaps, but as the National Geographic article points out in respect of believing in science fact or not, a stronger impetus may be at play which prevents individual team members from bringing new information to light or supporting new perspectives.  At the end of the day, members of an executive team have powerful inducements - both tangible and intangible - to remain and be seen as strong members of the "tribe".  In the short-term in particular, there is often no up-side to disagreeing with a strongly held belief of the leader and far more disagreeable downside related to being "outside of the circle of trust".  Keep your head down, maybe the worst won't happen, maybe the leader will figure it out before it's too late, and at the end of the day maybe I'll escape any negative consequences in any event.

One final insight on why it's so hard to get the evidence and facts to speak.  While we may consider ourselves to be rational beings it is far more likely that we are going to be persuaded to a course of action or a change in direction by  charismatic appeal than through a balance sheet.  Some of history's most effective leaders have never been much bothered by the facts but they sure could ignite action through their own passionate commitment to a cause (however misguided).

As for the rest of us we have to decide whether the tribe is more important than the truth or whether the truth is more important than the tribe.  In either case there may be a price to pay.  Nobody said leadership was easy.  Leadership - good leadership - is about making hard choices, staying humble and being able to admit to and learn from mistakes.  It's about being open to the facts and the evidence.  It's about being open to change.

Do the facts speak to you?
______________________________

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.