The Spirit of the Christmas Season

A number of events of the past week have served to reinforce what should be of importance to us this time of year and what should animate our Christmas celebrations - and not just on December 25th but hopefully for the whole of the year.

Last week the face of terrorism was brought home to the people of Sydney, Australia, when a lone gunman took hostages in a a downtown cafe and coffee shop.  The end point to the incident was the death of the gunman and two of his hostages.  Coming less than two weeks from Christmas seemed to me to multiply the impact of the tragedy.  For someone like me whose family history is one of gathering with loved ones, after having traveled long distances, and partaking in religious observances, feasting and gift-giving, the thought of having a wife, daughter or friend taken from me so suddenly and senselessly at a time that is supposed to epitomize faith, love, hope, and celebration is simply incomprehensible.  Moreover, the people who's lives were taken, who were injured, or terrorized for those long and agonizing hours were simply living out their daily lives at the time - buying coffee and chocolates for themselves or as gifts for others before returning to work.

Here in Edmonton I was reminded that we live in a very small world and that events half a world away can have immediate impact.  At my weekly Rotary meeting we have a tradition of "happy bucks", giving a dollar or more to exercise the privilege of announcing good news for ourselves or others in our circle of friends and family.  This past Tuesday our newest member - just inducted that day - stood up to express his unending gratitude that his daughter was not counted as one of the victims of the Sydney attack.  His daughter lives in Sydney.  His daughter works one block away from the cafe where the tragedy unfolded and in the days leading up to the attack had been to the cafe several times.  But for the grace of God his daughter could have easily been a hostage.  He could have lost his daughter last week.  Needless to say, there were more than a few moments during this "happy buck" moment where my Rotary colleague needed to take time to compose himself.

All of us sitting in that room were afforded the reminder to hold our loved ones closer as life can change in an instance.  We were reminded of what is really important not just in the Spirit of Christmas but in truth all year round.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas we shall also see and experience stories of compassion and charity and love that will serve to reinforce what our humanity should be about.  This morning, as I was driving into work I was hearing about the efforts of a radio station in Edmonton to make Christmas memorable for one deserving family - a family who would otherwise be struggling through the Christmas season without the basic necessities of life.  Christmas gifts and a tree would indeed be luxuries.  Remembering last year's effort, I look forward to this year's version of a Christmas makeover that not only makes December 25th a day of joy but helps this family have a more prosperous and fulfilling 2015.

Finally, I can also relate to someone in my circle of friends who have also had their life significantly impacted by the compassion of others in their community.  I welcome you to listen to the audio link below, to hear the Spirit of Christmas as it impacted the daughter and grand-daughter of a friend of mine in Lloydminster (AB/SK).  This story again made the Spirit of Christmas real for me this year and I hope I can carry that spirit on with me for as long as possible into 2015.

https://soundcloud.com/vistaradioalbertaeast/the-goats-christmas-wish-2014-shelley-and-jennifer

I offer you these stories in hopes that you can remember what - and who - is truly important to you this Christmas season, to hold your loved ones close in your heart and in your arms, and that no matter how busy we are making a living in whatever we do that we never forget what and who we are living for.

Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous and Fulfilling 2015 for you and your family.

_____________________________________________________________________________

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.






 

A Recipe for Success?

This past week I was honored to have been asked to be the inaugural guest on a colleague's radio talk show.  Rachel Foster (http://www.rachelfoster.com/) and I have known each for many years now, starting with our work together in health care.  In fact, Rachel was one of my inspirations for moving down the path of becoming an executive coach.  The topic she choose to address and asked me to comment on as a guest was entitled "Mastering the Art of Your Business Success" and as with many things that happen to me in the course of my work life it now serves as an inspiration for a blog post.

There were a number of key ideas we touched on within this omnibus heading and quite frankly I'm sure we were both wishing that we had far more than an hour to converse, explore and share our thoughts - key influences in our lives, challenges overcome and vision for the future.  Each one of these may themselves serve as inspiration for future writing, but for today I'm going to address the question of what wisdom or lessons I believe I have discovered for that might be informative to others as they look to master their business and/or professional success.

Of course, the key proviso here is that I'm entirely reflecting on my past history and experience.  So the points that follow are based on a sample size of one through a particular path of development that is unique to me.  Moreover hindsight is 20/20 so while I can extract what I see as kernels of truth now, after 25+ years of experience, it's not like I had these answers in front of me as I progressed through my career.  More than likely, even if I did have these answers provided to me, I might still have had to learn the hard way!  Human's are a stubborn lot!  So here is my assessment of what I believe has helped me be successful over my health care and now executive coach/consulting career.

First, I have always had and still have this sense of incompletion, of not actually being successful.  Now for others on the outside looking in, holding several high level executive roles in highly complex organizations and then re-establishing myself in a new career in the past several years starts to look like success.  However, I've so far not achieved a level of comfort that I envision might characterize someone who "has arrived".  So I see that as helping me maintain my edge and continuing to drive forward on to the next set of goals and targets.  And there is always the next hill to climb and something new to create.  Rule #1 then is to stay hungry, never become complacent or take current success for granted.

Second, I truly believe that a huge factor in my success has been the desire and willingness to listen and learn from others.  In fact, at one point in my health care career I provided that very answer to one of my subordinates when they asked how I achieved CEO level positions without having a clinical degree or background.  The traditional route to senior level roles in my experience, and my colleague's, was that one either had to be clinically trained and experienced (e.g., doctor, nurse) or advance up through the finance/accounting professions.  I have neither.  But I did listen to others.  I did intently focus on and learn from what others said (or didn't say) or do.  I believe I learned immensely from their successes, challenges and insights.  Rule #2 - have the humility to learn from all around you and you will not only be personally successful but others around will respect your honest interest in them.

Third, understand yourself first and foremost.  Put some real time and energy into developing and articulating your personal leadership mission, vision, values and how you want to show up as a leader every day.  I started down this particular path of a written leadership "map" for myself influenced by Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and by an opportunity to attend a workshop hosted by Jim Kouzes of "The Leadership Challenge" fame.  Both authors provided me with frameworks and ideas that I have continued to put into practice ever since - most importantly of documenting (in writing) my leadership commitments and revisiting those on a regular basis.  Rule #3 - know thyself and be introspective.

Fourth, and something that I have only come to appreciate in the past couple of years, is to dream big.  I have been very fortunate to have come into contact with so many amazing, positive and adventurous people, business owners and leaders particularly since I have started my own entrepreneurial venture.  Primarily through my TEC Canada Chair role and Executive Coach practice, I have had the privilege of meeting several people with BIG dreams.  They have been of inspiration to me and have helped me to re-imagine the possibilities for my own business venture.  Rule #4 - think big and surround yourself with inspiring and action-oriented people!

Fifth, never stop learning.  Since hitting my academic stride in the latter half of my undergrad degree, I have always been enamored by the learning opportunities afforded to me. Those learning opportunities are not just formal educational ventures either.  Rather there is much to be learned in just day-to-day life and living and travels to other parts of the world.  The key for me has been having an insatiable hunger for seeing how others live and lead, how they advance themselves, and being open to the lessons to be gained from the broader world.  Rule #5 - learn continuously and forever.  It's not only necessary in today's highly dynamic environment, it's also a damn lot of fun.

Finally, and a lesson that continues to reinforce itself to me frequently, is to make sure you take care of yourself.  It's definitely not just about your business or your executive position.  Your health, your relationships and how you make your money has to be aligned with the entirety of your life.  Do stop and smell the roses, train for and compete in an Ironman, attend your 4-year old's playschool Christmas pageant on a Friday afternoon, play PlayStation with your 14-year old, and drink a glass of wine in the evening with your spouse.  There is never going to be enough time in your business to get everything done, the work will be there again tomorrow, and the e-mails will continue to pile up.  It's inevitable, infuriating, and daunting.  But unless you live life, make time for yourself and those important to you, truly what is the point.  Enjoy the journey and live without regrets.  Rule #6 - live life with purpose, on purpose.

______________________________

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 About Respect

In this past week, my local paper has laid out a series on the state of our province's hospital system.  Called "Condition Critical", it shed some light not only on the challenges our provincial health care system faces but also helped identify how we got here and how we might extricate ourselves.  If you haven't seen or read all or part of the series you can catch up by pasting the following link to your browser and catching up:  http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/condition-critical/index.html

To many of us in embedded in the healthcare system for any length of time there may in fact be few surprises in the articles.  Moreover, the situation is likely not unique to Alberta or even in Canada.  Other jurisdictions have struggled with similar challenges in healthcare and in other parts of the public sector.  It's easy to build infrastructure, cut the ribbons, gain the short-term political points but far less easy to manage the year-to-year operational challenges and legacy effects down the road.  Even the private sector has dealt with similar issues over the years as they change and consolidate services as demographics, technology and other business factors dictate.

My focus is less on the reality of an overbuilt and unsustainable hospital infrastructure than on one particular aspect of the story relating to how hospital maintenance needs were evaluated and then how they were ranked in receiving maintenance dollars, capital upgrades or slotted for replacement.  The Edmonton Journal states (underline is my emphasis):

"A five-month investigation by the Journal found the province’s infrastructure rating system is convoluted, lacks transparency and is subject to manipulation behind the scenes. Instead of providing objective measures of facility need that can be shared with the public and used to determine funding priorities, the system appears influenced by frequent changes in methodology, inconsistent practices and political whim — most of it applied outside of public view."

I place this assertion in the context of an initiative that was announced the week prior where the government announced it's intent to reform Alberta’s public service to "...address 'shocking' turnover, low morale and a host of other very significant problems."  Giving credit where credit is due, Premier Jim Prentice identified that “[t]here have been employee surveys that show the morale of the civil service is low, and that there has not been a healthy relationship between elected representatives of government and the civil service."  He went on to state "[t]here has clearly been a very high level of turnover and churn, and I actually found the numbers quite shocking."  He added, that inexperience at senior levels was also a concern.

For those who have been in the civil service the factual statements come as little or no surprise.  I don't doubt that to one degree or another this same set of statements could be applied to provincial and federal employees across Canada.  In addition, some of the challenges facing our civil service bedevil our private sector - higher than desired levels of turnover in staff and inexperience at senior levels.  Succession planning, particular as the baby boomer generation starts to exit the workplace, is a concern for every sector.

So what's the solution to this sad state of affairs? I believe it lies in and is recognized by the statement that suggests there has been an unhealthy relationship between elected representatives of government and the civil service that has also established a culture where it is ok for the public and media to dump on civil servants.  More plainly and fundamentally it comes down to respect - or rather a lack thereof - for the effort, skill, ability and expertise of our civil service employees.  Having been a civil servant for only a couple of years and having worked in the public sector for 25 years, I can personally relate to issues of lack of respect - chasing one's tail on suspect initiatives, trying to rationalize political (small p or otherwise) decisions, having one's suggestions or input requested and subsequently dismissed, and being thrown "under the bus" when it suited other political or "leadership " agendas.  These actions hardly smacked of respect and certainly do nothing to support engagement and retention of staff.

Harvard Business Review just recently concluded a study in which it surveyed nearly 20,000 employees around the world.  Their focus was on assessing factors that impacted on employee commitment and engagement.  Their finding - respect from leaders towards their staff was the single biggest factor impacting employee satisfaction and engagement.  Those staff that felt respected by their leader(s) reported 56% better health and well-being, 89% greater satisfaction with their jobs, and 92% greater focus in their roles.  They also reported 55% more engagement with their organizations.  The results for those staff who did not feel respected by their leader(s) were also similarly clear - less engagement, more turnover, less focus, lower productivity, greater absenteeism and disability.  

There's a clear cost to government - and any organization - in not demonstrating respect for those who work for us.  Without the right number of engaged and skilled staff we clearly can't deliver on our organizational mandate.  The cost of turnover and absenteeism should be self-evident.  So if this government, or any government and business, is truly interested in reforming their workforce and the workplace culture it has to start by promoting a culture of respect.  In this particular case, that effort has to start at the top.  Our elected officials need to be leaders in changing a culture where it has been OK to vilify public civil servants, casting them as them as villains in some of the challenges facing the public sector, and throwing them under the bus when it is politically convenient.  The issues described in "Condition Critical", where decisions on hospital maintenance and replacement are made behind closed doors and may in fact discount the input of "bureaucrats", does not currently foster a culture of respect and engagement.

Until such time as government and business leaders are truly prepared to hire, reward and support staff on the basis of their skills, ability and passion for the work to be done they will continue to be plagued with high levels of turnover, low levels of morale, and decreasing capacity to actually meet ever more challenging demands.

It's About Leadership and in this case It's About Respect.

______________________________

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.