Resolve to Invest in Your Leadership

It's that time of year again when many of us make New Year's resolutions.  The turning of the page at the stroke of midnight on December 31st provides a point at which many of us believe or aspire to a new level of performance at a personal or professional level or both.  Unfortunately, the rate at which these resolutions are kept and the extent of actual achievement falls far short of the inspired vision that created them.  In fact, some studies have identified that of those people who have made resolutions less than 10% will actually see them through in the course of the coming year. 

In the context of your leadership what have you resolved to do differently (and presumably better) in the coming year?  If you are an individual and a leader possessed of any degree of personal humility you would recognize that there is always opportunity for improvement.  Think back in the past year to those moments in which your leadership was challenged, where you struggled or were frustrated with getting results or getting results in a timely fashion, and even in those circumstances where you spent more than a few sleepless nights challenged by a key decision with seemingly no right answer.  With the benefit of hindsight what would you have done differently?  What skills or experience are going to better equip you for the challenges to come in 2014?  What are you going to do differently to better prepare yourself?  What are you prepared to invest in becoming a better leader?

As a TEC Canada Chair and an Executive Coach, I've engaged with many leaders, both formally and informally in the past year.  It's been interesting to note that, despite the diversity of industries and differences in years of experience of these leaders, the issues they face are often are quite similar.  Moreover, as leaders they also consistently struggle with the fact that they don't have a confidential resource at their disposal to bounce ideas off of, to express their own doubts about a plan of attack, or to simply have a forum to "talk-out-loud" without fear of being judged.  Most recognize the value of such a confidential resource or forum but not all avail themselves of the opportunity to engage such expertise.  Why?  There are a range of reasons that do come up but two of the most common are Time and Money. 

Considering those objections to engaging a confidential external resource it seems to me these leaders are undervaluing an investment in themselves and their leadership.  Given the fact these leaders are making decisions sometimes valued in the millions of dollars, impacting on hundreds or more staff, and countless more clients or customers, it seems to me that an investment in ongoing leadership development and support would make for a quite positive ROI calculation.  So while I can assume that a majority of leaders have implicitly or explicitly made some "resolutions" about how 2014 will be better than 2013 they may not be giving themselves all the ammunition they need to succeed.  And maybe they get lucky and are part of the 10% that make it despite all barriers, obstacles and challenges.  However, I'd like to think that for a few dollars and few hours of support each month those odds of success turn decisively in your favor.

Resolutions can provide you with a great personal vision.  Turning those resolutions into reality and success benefits from you - The Leader - making a commitment to truly investing in yourself.  Engaging with an objective and unbiased sounding board that will help you assess the past, build on your strengths, set clear and specific goals, and help you stay accountable to your plans - this is what makes a resolution and your leadership development a reality. 

As a leader, you one of the greatest assets your organization has.  Your Time and Your Money (and that of your organization) are precious commodities.  Invest this time and money wisely and to good effect.  In the context of your responsibilities you owe it to yourself and your organization to continuously sharpen your leadership acumen.  It's about you and it's about your leadership.

Resolve to invest in your leadership in 2014.
______________________________

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 The Thought that Counts - Redux

I just recently read an article that suggested that the annual Christmas party was the one last best opportunity in the year to boost or salvage one's employee engagement scores.  At one level I couldn't help but chuckle at this perspective - as if one kick-ass party was going to somehow undo an entire year of not paying attention to a company's most valuable and portable resource.  To me it's somewhat akin to saying that I could be a horrible husband or parent all year long and somehow overcome that with a great anniversary or birthday present.

On the other hand, I could also appreciate and buy-in to the perspective of making sure that as a leader we truly show up in an authentic and sincere fashion at this time of year.  That we take this time to truly demonstrate our appreciation for our staff, our team, our co-workers and our fellow human beings.  And perhaps that from this spirit of giving we could hold ourselves in that spirit for the year to come. 

Last year, I wrote an entry focused on how we as leaders do or do not show up at this time of year, and whether we demonstrate with any authenticity our appreciation and commitment to our staff.  With some minor edits I have reprised that entry for your consideration.

So Yes, the Christmas season is upon us once again!  If you are like me that usually means the typical scramble to get those last minute gifts, prepare for family visits, or send off Christmas cards.  It is also the time of year for work-based Christmas parties and events.    In my experience these have taken on many forms from unit-based social events, to Board/senior executive formal functions, to larger team-based gatherings at a local restaurant, and even holiday-themed meals provided for free to all staff during the Christmas season.  What some may fail to realize is that these events say a lot about the organization's or the individual leader's commitment to staff and can send strong messages about the reality of employee engagement in the organization. 

I recall from painful experience a year in which budget and optics caused my organization to cancel what had been a long-standing event - the annual tradition of offering a free meal to staff in the week leading up to Christmas.  Given the nature of trying to serve hundreds of people at 3 or 4 points in the day the food provided was delivered in buffet, industrial style production - hot food dished out cafeteria-style, with cake or squares for dessert, and your choice of juice or coffee.  There certainly was cost, but not extravagance.  Staff social committees put forward their best effort to provide entertainment for these functions as well so there was music, caroling, and contests to encourage socialization and camaraderie.  What I believe staff also enjoyed was the fact that very many of their managers took turns serving out meals at the event.  This included senior executives as well.  A colleague of mine and I made a particular tradition of taking on the night shift - which if memory served was 1 or 2 in the morning.  Staff were generally impressed that we made the effort to come in at night to put in a couple of hours of work and engage in conversation with them.  And we both thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Modest cost but an investment that paid off many times over in connecting with staff.

Needless to say the cancellation was not well received by most.  It was a challenging decision to make.  Some believed that public perception as much as cost supported the decision to cancel.  If there were budget challenges for the organization how could we justify spending dollars on a staff Christmas meal?  Others believed that if competitors were making similar decisions we had no choice but to follow.  However, for most management and staff it was not a warmly received decision.  Many felt it diminished the hard work and sacrifices of all staff.  Many felt that this was the one true reward and recognition that they received in a year and now it was gone.  Others may have taken the tradition for granted and it simply became an entitlement.  Nevertheless the cost to the organization in terms of goodwill was not insignificant.  We definitely came across as Scrooge-like.

What also went by the way that year was any formal lunch time gathering of management teams.  All of my managers would have gotten together at a restaurant or some other venue to have a buffet style meal, socialize, and listen to me give greetings of the season and thanks for a year's hard work.  Other senior executives would have done similar things with their direct reports.  That was no longer on the table.  I could have chosen then to forgo any annual Christmas gathering of my team.  However, it's not that easy to just give up these types of events if you really believe in rewarding and recognizing your team.  With the support of my direct reports and my family we decided to take a different approach to celebrating Christmas - we opened up my house over two days to a potluck style celebration.  What did this mean?  Well mostly it meant parking challenges for my neighborhood and space challenges in my house with upwards of 100 people attending each day enjoying each other's company and culinary creations.  It was a house full to the brim of Christmas spirit!  Adversity turned to celebration!  What could have been a season of discontent was turned into a huge positive team-building event.  The comments that my wife and I received from my management staff were overwhelmingly positive.  Many even suggested that this home-based event become the new Christmas tradition.  The team was strengthened that day and the Christmas spirit was alive and well.

I also kept my own more intimate work-based Christmas celebration going.  For probably the last 10 or 15 years, I have invited my immediate direct reports and their spouses over to my house some time in the Christmas season.  Again all the food is home-cooked with contributions from all.  More importantly for me, I have always used the occasion to individually recognize each of my team members with a gift - paid for by myself - that I believe spoke to their individual achievements or reality in the past year.  I put hours of thought into each person's gift.  Sometimes this related to a singular event, sometimes to their particular personality or character, or perhaps some key accomplishment - personal or work-related - that was noteworthy.  In all cases, the gift giving was preceded by a mostly humorous, and always heart-felt, presentation on my part.  I believe this was warmly received by my colleagues precisely because it demonstrated that I paid attention to their efforts throughout the year and thought enough about each one of them to put in this individualized effort.  Our success was made possible by their individual and combined efforts.  It certainly would have been easier and less time-consuming to give them all a gift card to Chapter's, or give them some corporate swag, or something equally as generic.  I also could have assigned the task of getting these gifts to my support staff or similarly had them make arrangements for the party.  After all, I was a senior executive and could have pulled out the "I'm too busy or important" excuse to support the delegation of work.  But I don't see that it would have had the same meaning for any of us.  And the reward I got for the effort was the laughter, the tears and team building that came from this Christmas tradition.  I enjoyed it and got energy from the effort!

Ultimately, regardless of organizational circumstances, I believe that any leader can demonstrate an ongoing commitment to staff, to engaging their team, and building a strong culture.  It does take effort, it does take creativity, but ultimately it really is all about sincerity of commitment to others.  As the leader you set the tone for the culture you work in.  You build the culture by all of your actions, both large and small.  You build the culture by how you treat and work with your colleagues on a day-to-day basis.  You build the culture of your organization by your level of engagement and interest in your staff.  You demonstrate by the level of your effort how much your team really means to you.

There is no better time to demonstrate your commitment to your team than at Christmas. 

After all, it's the thought that counts.
______________________________

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.

Can Your Organization's Culture Survive its Next Leader?

Several weeks ago I was a guest at a retirement function of a long-standing leader of a prominent local organization.  Not surprisingly, there were many accolades and a few good-natured barbs directed towards the retiring executive.  Similarly, there was an expression of both sadness and joy on the part of the retiring leader themselves - pride at the many years of accomplishments and challenges overcome but similarly a true sense of loss in preparing to be apart from a team and not being able to continue to see through the next round of major initiatives. 

Just as there is transition for the individual leader there is also a fair degree of uncertainty for the organization.  For those "left behind" they now begin to wonder what will the new leader be like?  What will change?  How will this impact us? How will this impact me?  These questions and anxieties don't just play out when an Owner, President or CEO transitions out of an organization.  At a frontline level, staff can also feel real anxiety when their supervisor, manager or director move on to new roles.  For better or worse, the leader - President or supervisor - has established a certain way of getting things done for the entire company or for simply their unit.  The leader has created a culture or sub-culture that people have become accustomed to.

For the purpose of this entry, I'm assuming that the culture the departing leader has created is in fact a positive one - a culture that has not been enforced but rather has been fostered and grown over time, that is characterized by great teamwork, open communication, strong employee engagement, great morale, strong customer satisfaction, and a record of success that comes from a strong values base and a can-do attitude.  The unit, division or organization has a great reputation, is a magnet for both clients and prospective hires, and stands out as being a great place to work.  It is a benchmark for other organizations or other parts of the same organization.

By all metrics this is an entity and culture worth preserving, growing and emulating.  And because its been performing so well one might believe that the reasons for its performance and capability might be well understood.  And because it has been performing so well one might believe that particular care might be taken selecting the right leader with the right qualities to build upon that success.  Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

I've experienced or seen a few situations where a strong, dynamic, values-based, performance-oriented culture was lost because of errors in selecting the next leader.  In one example, a CEO was hired into a newly created organization which was the result of a forced merger of at least 10 different smaller entities.  At the outset of this CEO's tenure there was a real possibility of continuing division along community and service lines.  The reality was that less than a year later this organization was a benchmark amongst its peers - a united leadership team, commonly-held vision and values, significantly improved relationships and partnerships with its unions, empowered and energetic staff, open communication, and above all integrity of character and decision-making.  In addition, the CEO and the rest of the senior leadership took strong steps in succession planning with a focus on sustaining long-term gains and success into the future.

Unfortunately, when that CEO determined it was time to move on to bigger challenges and opportunities the Board failed to adequately consider these succession planning efforts - or perhaps didn't buy into the culture of the organization that had been created.  The Board selected an external candidate as the next leader. In hindsight, it is now clear that the factors that had led to success for the organization and that established a strong performance-based culture were not understood or appreciated by the Board.  The new CEO had a far less open approach than the organization was used to.  Decisions were made by him alone or by a very small circle of advisers.  Empowerment, flexibility, autonomy, and integrity became more challenging commodities to come by.  The result was a relatively rapid departure of a number of "bright lights" in the organization.  They moved on.  They looked for other opportunities to continue their careers.  Within a short time the former culture - and successes - of the organization became a historical footnote.

A second example with the loss of culture is less dramatic but no less challenging.  Historically, an organization with a long values-driven history but perhaps less dynamic leadership than one might have expected and hoped for.  Nonetheless, the strong values base had in fact helped create an element of competitive advantage in the local marketplace and helped sustain the organization's existence through some rather dramatic changes in its business environment.  Like the previous example, however, the Board seemingly had less appreciation of the strength of the existing organizational culture while at the same time being sensitive to the less than dynamic leadership they had historically had.  They were intent on rectifying this and were also intent on growing the enterprise.  For this purpose, they identified a need to hire a leader from outside the organization with the requisite vision to move the enterprise forward.  Unfortunately, the same leadership characteristics of charisma, energy, and self-confidence that seemingly commended this leader also masked some less than desirable characteristics. 

The results?  The organization did in fact grow and there continue to be plans for more growth.  The public perception of the organization remains somewhat intact, but perhaps as much due to low performing competitors than to any real enhancement in performance.  The impacts on the organization's culture have been more clear - staff engagement results have dropped, teamwork between service lines has declined, there is limited if any trust in official internal communications, morale is low, and the competitive advantage that once existed in recruitment and retention is less pronounced if there at all.  Fear within the workplace is a growing reality with few if any prepared to openly question decisions or the basis upon which these decisions have been made.  Leadership of the organization has become increasing isolated from the frontline. 

Two very different examples.  Two very similar results.  In each case a strong, performance-based culture was negatively impacted by one decision - the hire of a new leader.  In the first case, the new leader was too insecure and weak to work within the strong, inclusive and empowered decision-making culture that had been created.  Making decisions in isolation for fear of being challenged ultimately led to the loss of many key personnel, the relatively rapid departure of this particular CEO, and a mortal wound to the organization's performance-based culture.  In the second case, the stated values do not seem drive current decision-making.  Key personnel have left or remain physically present but otherwise disengaged.  The organizational culture is certainly not what it once was and in many respects it bears more and more resemblance to the competition in its marketplace.  The competitive advantage it once had is being eroded.

Two very different examples that look at the impact of a leadership hire and the failure to truly consider the existing culture - and what it takes to maintain such.  The lesson of these tales, however, is just a relevant at a frontline level.  The selection of a supervisor, manager, director or any other role must explicitly consider alignment of leadership skills, style, and character if there is a desire to sustain and promote a positive work culture that has been the hallmark of the work unit in question. 

It's about leadership and if you don't pay attention in making these critical leadership decisions your culture will be immediately, inevitably, and perhaps irrevocably impacted. 
______________________________

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.