What Code do you Uphold?

I can often relate sports reality to leadership challenges.  So while it may seem strange to start this blog with reference to the the NHL playoffs bear with me for a moment or two.  I'm going to reflect back in particular to my beloved Habs beating those beastly Bruins this year, but also drawn upon some other sports stories that came to mind relating to unwritten codes that we enforce or hold on to as part of our sporting culture - and how that might relate to our work cultures.

For those of you who don't follow hockey I'll briefly recap.  This year, Montreal defeated Boston - the best team in hockey over this regular season - in the seventh and final game of their series and did so on Boston's home ice.  This was but another chapter in probably the most storied rivalry in hockey.  As is tradition, every series ends with the obligatory handshake between the teams and is supposed to epitomize the highest level of sportsmanship.  Well in this series it didn't quite go according to script.  One of Boston's star players, Milan Lucic, is reported to have told at least one Montreal player that "I'm going to f---king kill you next year."  Story enough to be sure, but what got at least as much play was that Montreal players came under fire for disclosing this gem of a conversation with the media.  Evidently this was against the unwritten code in hockey which is what is said in the handshake line or "between men" on the ice stays on the ice.  The "code" had been broken.

At about the same time we also saw Michael Alan Sam Jr. drafted by the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League.  Nothing too unique about this event - except that he was the first publicly gay player to be drafted in league history and if he takes the field with the Rams this year will also become the first publicly gay athlete in NFL history.  This, of course, was bigger news than Sam's being named Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year in his senior year and consensus All-American.  His coming out and willingness to be bold in doing so - including kissing his companion on national TV - clearly were the bigger story than his athletic accomplishments.  He had clearly broken the code of what type of behavior and lifestyle is expected from NFL-calibre players.   This is despite the fact that there are nearly 1,700 players in the NFL each year and over the course of its history the odds are more than one of them has been gay.  The code was be straight or at the very least be silent and discrete.  Michael Sam broke that code.

I also finally saw the movie "42", a 2013 biographical film about the life of baseball player Jackie Robinson.  In 1946, Jackie Robinson became the first black man to play and star in major league baseball - twenty years in advance of the peak of the civil rights movement in the United States, He endured vicious harassment and abuse, up to an including numerous death threats.  He not only got to experience this abuse in the form of anonymous letters and catcalls from the stands - he also was on the receiving end of countless taunts, physical harm (e.g, fastball to the head), and efforts to ostracize him even from his own white teammates.  He had broken the color line in baseball, he had broken the unwritten code that didn't allow blacks into baseball - or mainstream society.

What does this have to do with leadership?  Clearly, at high level for our society, is has everything to do with leadership.  At an organizational level, however, there are clear examples of unwritten codes that we continue to uphold both by our actions and inaction, by our voluntary commitment, and through our own fear and desire for self-preservation.  I was astounded this year (maybe through my own naivety) to learn about the challenges two of my female colleagues were experiencing in their organizations.  They were still falling victim to an "old boys" mentality and blatant sexism.  Their skills and abilities were being dismissed and going underutilized.  An unwritten code about what makes for good leadership and who can take on senior level roles that continues to play out in many business sectors.

More akin to the first sports analogy I started with, is the notion of upholding a code of silence in our organizations.  This manifests in several different ways.  If we consider some of the recent events in government relating to expense scandals and the like, it is clear that a code of silence had been operative for some time.  Individuals in peer positions decided not to confront their colleagues feeling that it would upset other agendas.  Those in subordinate positions likely stood silent for fear of their jobs and careers.  As leaders and professionals we also often fail to deal with lack of performance or poor performance by our colleagues.  Sometimes we do so out of a fear of conflict and confrontation.  Just as often we adhere to a code of silence that suggests a mentality of rallying around a management colleague.  We "hang together" even if the consequences of doing so in the form of staff turnover, grievances, client complaints, financial mismanagement, and more are there for all to see.  In many cases we tolerate and support this code of silence through our lack of action while others pay the price.

This action or inaction also comes despite our many professional codes of conduct that would seemingly direct us to more positive effort for the benefit of our clients/customers, our organizations and our professions.

So what code or codes do you uphold?  How clear are you about the actions you take - or not - that foster and support organizational and leadership excellence?  Are you helping maintain an unhealthy status quo or are you prepared to step up and leave a legacy of your 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.

 

Personal Reinvention

Earlier this week I received notice that I had successfully obtained Professional Certified Coach (PCC) status with the International Coach Federation (ICF).  Needless to say I was quite enthused at my accomplishment and dutifully updated my LinkedIn status and credentials, took to my twitter account to trumpet the news, and celebrated with my Facebook friends.  I also took time to thank ALL of those I had coached over the past two years and others in positions of authority who had vouched for me as part of the ICF credentialing process. 

One of the first responses back to me on Facebook also sparked this blog entry.  My past coach remarked "Congrats Greg!  That's a huge milestone to celebrate.  Consider yourself officially transitioned."  Officially transitioned.  It was an interesting assessment of where I now stand in my career.  Over the past two years I have had several offers to return to an executive role in healthcare.  I'd also been approached with leadership opportunities in other sectors.  The offers were intriguing and would have represented an easier path than the one I've been on.  While I didn't dismiss these offers out-of-hand, there were some very tangible reasons for leaving my former role and sector in the first place and very specific and rewarding reasons for continuing my commitment to my (re) discovered passion for leadership coaching.

I've learned a lot along this path of reinvention and found continued expression for my desire to lead and be of service to others - and perhaps there a few gems for others as they consider a change in role, sector, or career.  Even if you expect to stay in the same leadership role for the long-term its wise to consider how you might need to reinvent yourself to take account of the changing business environment that surrounds you.  Evolve or perish!  So here are some of my takeaways from two years of reinvention.

First, any truly successful or meaningful reinvention has to start with the realization that whatever you have done before, the positions you held, and the titles you "owned" don't carry much weight in your new venture.  In my case being the Senior Vice President of a large organization with responsibility for hundreds of millions of dollars in budget and several thousand staff didn't carry as much weight as I had hoped or vainly expected when trying to contract with coaching or consulting clients.  As you transition, your clients or staff in your new venture are going to be less interested in what YOU HAVE DONE versus what they believe YOU CAN DO for them into the future.  It can be a harsh reality check.  You can very much feel that you are starting from scratch.  Taking nothing for granted as you start your new journey.    

Second, and perhaps an evident no-brainer, is the particular value of reinventing yourself on the basis of what excites you and gets your motor running.  Commit to following your passion and the rest will fall into place.  It was at least six months into my personal reinvention before I made the tentative yet powerful decision to commit to becoming a certified executive coach.  There were a few bumps along this path as I juggled a need to invest in self versus the desire to pursue lucrative consulting engagements.  Short-term pain for long-term gain and easier said than done.  However, once you truly commit I expect you to be rewarded with a strong feeling of "being in the right place" and intent on overcoming obstacles in pursuit of your driving passion.

As the Nike slogan says "Just do it!"  Just because I had discovered or rediscovered what got my motor running didn't mean that I had the process of coaching nailed on day one nor that I had the confidence to boldly own a new future.  It took a lot of small, sometimes tentative steps along the way, a great deal of peer support, family encouragement, support of mentors, and willing clients to help me move from passion, to action, to the beginning realization of the true potential before me.  You too will need to constantly remind yourself of your vision, goals, objectives and milestones along the way.  Take time to celebrate your very real successes and hold true to the path you have set for yourself despite the inevitable setbacks or stumbles.  Reinventing oneself is a constant state of trying and practice.

Successfully reinventing oneself is also about time and metrics.  As noted, it's taken me two years to achieve PCC status.  While I'd like to say that I've been patient with that process those who have walked this path with me - including my wife - will quickly remind me how much that has not been the case.  The reality is if you expect to radically - and successfully - change paths you have to be patient with the process.  In my case I had spent the previous 25 years in healthcare leadership roles.  Expecting to seamlessly transition into another career at the same level of performance was certainly not a realistic expectation.  That didn't stop me from punishing myself for not excelling in the same way that I believed I had in my former roles.  What was comforting - to some degree - were the metrics and milestones I had established at the beginning of my transition.  Take time to step back and assess your progress against your plan.  You will more realistically evaluate your progress and success and not get discouraged in the day-to-day effort.  You will see that your effort is paying off and your vision slowly translating into reality.

Finally, whether it is reinvention of oneself in career terms, redefinition or reconfiguration of one's leadership role and capacity, or investment in one's skills and abilities, it should be recognized that the process must be constant.  If there is anything that the past two years has taught me - whether as a coach or a consultant - it is that you are only as good as your last successful engagement.  I am constantly evaluating and reevaluating what worked or didn't work.  How could I have had greater impact for my clients?  What can I learn and apply to the next encounter or next engagement?  This effort takes a great deal of discipline, self-motivation and a passion for learning in its own right.  But I believe that the energy expended in the effort of continual and constant reinvention will rebound to you manifold.  While I pride myself on being a force multiplier for my clients they have also been a force multiplier for me.

Good luck on your continued reinvention.  My personal reinvention continues to be a work in progress - as all good leadership should be.
______________________________

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.

Get off your treadmill

For those who know me well, the title of this blog entry might seem at odds with the lifestyle I've tried to fashion for myself over the past five years or so - two Ironman Canada finishes, variety of other smaller distance triathlons, and up to 2 workouts a day.  But sometimes, there is a real need to re-evaluate progress, goals, and the processes you are using to achieve results.  Sometimes, you have to get off the treadmill, dismount from your bike, and step back from the pool to objectively assess status in order to reach your desired level of performance.

The same is true in your leadership journey.  In my one-to-one coaching sessions and team development engagements, I often find myself working with my clients to help them carve out time for them to step back and critically evaluate and reengage with the fundamental core of their roles, vocations and business.  Almost without exception they lament their lack of time as they face the impossible task of juggling all the "priorities" being thrown at them, all the urgent issues requiring their attention, and all the stillborn and "critical" initiatives they believe they must tackle.

In most cases, individual leaders try to address this by simply extending their work week.  In essence, however, this extended effort typically does not leave us any more satisfied with our workload then when we started.  Rather, we find ourselves on "the treadmill" and rather than effectively using our creative talents and ingenuity as leaders - utilizing the brainpower and capabilities for which we were selected - we are far more often engaged in a pure test of our stamina.  At this point, as leaders, we have to question whether we are truly leading.  Are we running an organization or is our organization running us?

The same dynamic plays out for leadership teams as well.  The frustration that exists for individual leaders may look different for a team - competing priorities, lack of collaboration, competition for resources, and conflict - but in reality it comes from some of the same sources.  Teams have not taken the time to step back to critically reevaluate the nature of the work they are doing, how that fits in with a bigger picture of organizational success, and what truly is a critical priority for success in the coming month, quarter and year.

So what's the solution to this time press?  Ironically enough it's having the courage to step back from the coal face of work long enough to gain some perspective.  As I described at the beginning of this entry, I often engage with my clients to establish a structured approach to setting aside protected time on a regular basis to simply evaluate and take stock of their work.  This time has to be established as sacred and critical to the leader (or a team as the case may be).  It has to be focused and uninterrupted time.  Consider this time as important as any non-negotiable event in your calendar - meeting with your Board of Directors, meeting with your boss, a major presentation to your professional peers.  You can't defer or neglect these kinds of events.  You wouldn't be asking your Board Chair/Boss to be excused from your once per month meeting while you take a series of phone calls.  You need to make the same kind of commitment to yourself as a leader or a team to effectively evaluate your current status and future effort.

Your future success as a leader is NOT going to be predicated on your stamina or ability to endure.  You have been selected to lead your organization for the quality of your decision-making, for your ability to discern key factors and information in a chaotic environment, and for your ability to focus organizational effort on common goals.  You can't do this if you don't exercise personal leadership and discipline.  Be deliberate and strong with yourself to stay in charge of your business - don't let your business run you.  Be decisive and courageous enough to take time for yourself and to truly discern where your leadership is going to make the biggest difference.  Taking that time is going to be one of biggest tests of your leadership.

Do you have the courage to step off the treadmill if even only for a little while?   
______________________________

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.

Conflict is inevitable?

Yesterday I was privileged to host a Taste of TEC event as I continue work to build and launch my CEO Forum here in Edmonton.  One of the perks of this particular event is that we were able to coordinate with other TEC Canada CEO Forums in the area and get access to a guest speaker. 

The subject area for our guest speaker was "Secrets to Successful Conflict Resolution".  Without a doubt conflict - in all its forms - is a common challenge in any business and at any stage of a leader's career.  My intent is not to summarize the speaker's presentation.  Rather, I wanted to identify a few key points that really resonated for me personally.

First, despite our best efforts and intentions, I really do believe that conflict in any organization is inevitable.  Whenever two or more people come together in pursuit of some common goal - marriage included! - there are bound to be friction points, differences of opinion, and misinterpretations of actions or intent.  Ignoring that reality will definitely not make the "situation" go away.  In fact, in almost all cases, ignoring the reality of conflict only makes the situation worse and more difficult to resolve later (with a lot more pain and suffering).  On more than one occasion I have been quite astounded to hear managers and leaders identify for themselves and others that they don't like conflict.  I'm not sure at that point if they really every truly understood what it was to take on their role!  Quite frankly, without conflict there would be a lot less demand for managers and leaders. 

Second, it struck me that so much conflict can start off with seemingly superficial roots and much of that relates back to a failure in basic communication.  In my coaching practice one of the fundamental tenets and beliefs is that everyone yearns to be heard.  Just needs to be heard.  That perspective also builds off of my experience in 25 years of health care management.  I don't have the stats at hand, but in the vast majority of complaints that patients or families had with their experience at my hospitals, long-term care facilities, or with any other health care service most of their presenting issue didn't truly relate to the quality of their care, but rather with the quality of their interaction - communication - with staff.  They didn't feel respected, understood, valued - they didn't feel heard.

Third, when it comes to conflict there is no time like the present.  As I noted before, too many managers and leaders want to avoid conflict.  They don't like it, it causes them grief, and overall they may see it as a waste of time and energy.  However, conflict seems to obey a perverse "pay-it-forward" mentality.  If you don't take the time to deal with me now I'm going to come back in spades to you later.  Rather than thinking of time spent up-front in communicating with and hearing from your stakeholders as a waste of time, think of that time spent as an investment or a point of leverage.  If you don't take the time now it's going to take a whole lot more effort - and time - to recover and repair relationships in service of the results you want later on.

Finally, in conflict, don't rush to judgement.  As leaders we often feel compelled to have all the answers at our fingertips the moment a situation is brought to our attention.  We can sometimes act as every issue and decision was ours to make and that to be true leaders we had better be able to size up and respond with a solution in the next five minutes.  However, unless someone has just pulled the fire alarm or you can see the out-of-control truck about to barrel through your front door, you probably have more time at your disposal to make an informed assessment and decision.  Pause.  Investigate.  Challenge assumptions and perceptions.  Get clarity.  Ask questions.  Ask some more questions.  Don't fall prey to the delusion that every issue is yours to own as a leader or everything requires your immediate attention.  You might just be solving the wrong problem, adding fuel to the fire of an existing conflict, or starting a new fire.

So yes, it is my belief that conflict is inevitable.  As leaders though we have the ability to manage and even constructively use conflict to our benefit if we consciously use the tools at our disposal.  Conflict and conflict management is part of 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.

Are you a possum or a mammoth?

I was recently watching "Ice Age The Meltdown" (for the umpteenth time) with my three daughters and it struck me that one of the lead characters - Ellie the Mammoth - faces a challenge that many of us face in our leadership journey.  Namely understanding and realizing her own strength and reality.  For much of her life, because she was separated from her family and raised as a possum, she functions just as her possum brothers do despite possessing vastly superior size and strength.  Even though it should have been readily apparent in the course of time that she was different she comes to own her possum personality the result of which is she hangs from trees to sleep, tries to travel only at night, and lives in fear of being snatched and carried away by a hawk.

How many of us fail to own our true selves, our strength and our potential?  How many of us have the strength and power of a mammoth but live out our lives as possums? 

So what accounts for this reality?  As in Ellie's case, the strength of our lived experience clearly plays a strong role.  Imagine the pressure on Ellie to conform and fit in to the "corporate culture" that was her possum world.  Brought in young and raised for years to be part of the pack, to do as expected, and probably expected to restrain her true potential.  Don't stand out, adhere to accepted norms of performance, and follow the rules.  Aside from general peer pressure, she was also likely supported by one or two key mentors, those that were there for her and helped her to fit in despite her evident physical differences from the crowd.

How many of us can relate this to our lives in various roles where we entered with enthusiasm and naivete about how we could make a difference, apply our energy for a greater cause, and make THE difference?  How many of us lament - or perhaps have even forgotten - these glory days as we withered under a corporate culture that sought status quo or incremental change?  Did we give up our mammoth dreams for something more practical, pedestrian and safe?

But as Ellie's story points out there is hope.  Through crisis (e.g., the threat of flood) she is forced to change her perspective, gains new allies, and is brought to realization of who and what she is.  I'd like to believe that we don't need some sort of personal or professional crisis in our lives to help us regain our true sense of self but I'm inclined to believe that more often than not this is what is required.  Too many of us seem to need some sort of external impetus to shake us from our stupor and get back on the path that holds so much potential.  Likewise, getting some different points of view from others can also help - whether professional colleague, mentor, coach - get us to a different place from which to own our true potential.

Now this misconception of ourselves can just as easily work in reverse.  For much of the movie Ellie can't see herself for the mammoth that she is.  In contrast, for at least part of the movie, Sid the Sloth develops an exaggerated sense of his powers and importance as he accidentally discovers the means to create fire.  As a result he becomes the object of worship as the Fire King for a tribe of mini sloths.  Sid mistakenly attributes his new found status to skill and not luck.  How many of the leaders that we have worked for - or ourselves - have been similarly deluded?

In both cases I see the key elements of understanding our true strengths and weaknesses as leaders as coming from a healthy dose of humility, introspection, continuous learning, openness to new information and perspectives, and the ability to surround ourselves with others that will present a healthy challenge to our view of the world and ourselves.  Maybe you are a mammoth and don't know it and can't see it.  Maybe you think you are a mammoth and really are just a possum.  Either circumstance can be detrimental to you and to others.

Leadership is many things, but above all else is having the courage to own and develop your potential.  You owe that potential to yourself and to those that you are and could be leading.
______________________________

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.

Selecting your Executive Coach

I've seen and been a part of a variety of coach selection processes in the past several years.  I've also been on both sides of the selection process - picking an executive coach for myself and being selected by others to be their executive coach.  What I have experienced is that the processes - and the quality thereof - are as varied as the individuals and organizations involved.

If you are like most leaders I have worked with your understanding of executive coaching is pretty basic.  You are not quite sure what coaching is and sometimes you are not quite clear on what you want to achieve by engaging an executive coach.  Some of the most common reasons that I experience in individuals looking for a coach is that they are trying to overcome some personal or professional challenges (e.g., it's lonely at the top, barriers to professional advancement) or their organization is supporting coaching for their leaders.

Regardless of motivation or understanding, the next crucial step is trying to figure out how to select an executive coach that is right for you.  In my opinion, this is an effort that requires as much time, thought and process as we put into hiring any staff member, contractor, architect, or other professional resource.  I say that with a thought that all such other processes in your organization are approached with due vigor and diligence.  In many respects, there should be even more effort and structure to selecting an executive coach as what's at stake is your leadership effectiveness.  And in my opinion without effective leadership all other resources in an organization are vastly underutilized or even squandered.

So how can you maximize the opportunity available to you by getting access to and support of an executive coach?  How can you ensure that you choose the right coach for you?  Here are my top  factors and processes - not necessarily listed in order of importance - in making your best executive coach selection decision:

Number One:  get access to some form of bio or resume for a variety of coaches.  Get a sense of who they are and their track record.  Approach this just as you would any other recruitment process.  You are hoping to have a number of options to select from and to do that you need more than a few examples to choose from.  Your decision may even be informed by the multitude of samples and approaches you see coaches taking in responding to your requirements.

Number Two:  just like in any other recruiting process, try to gain some clarity for yourself in what you want an executive coach to do with and for you.  By way of analogy, it's a pretty tall and incongruous order to go looking for a Chief Financial Officer or IT Director if you have no idea what tasks you want them to focus on or what education and skills you need them to have.  The same holds true when selecting your executive coach.

Number Three:  following from above, make sure that the executive coaches that present themselves for your consideration are in fact qualified - by education and experience - to provide the requisite level of service that you are looking for.  I'll demonstrate my bias here in that I believe that qualified coaches are graduates of a program that establishes them as Certified Executive Coaches (CEC), are active members of the International Coach Federation, and tangibly demonstrate a commitment to advancing their coaching acumen.  They are well-trained and have an excellent track record.

Number Four:  get references from their current or past coaching clients.  If they have been able to have positive impact on others it's quite likely that these other clients will be more than willing to speak about their experience with you.  If the coach in question is on LinkedIn, look for endorsements and testimonials from their clients.

Number Five:  take the time to interview at least two to three prospective coaches.  Ask them your key questions.  Ask them to describe in detail their coaching process.  Ask them to describe in detail their successes and their failures (e.g., toughest assignment, learnings, whether they have been fired from a coaching engagement).  Ask them how they stay current in their coaching practice. This is a critical selection decision for you - take the time to get this decision right!  Make this a true and effective interview.  Don't speed-date your way to a decision.

While selecting your executive coach is a very personal decision one tactic that I have seen work well is some form of panel interview or input.  I remember one client in particular who involved a number of his direct reports in the selection process.  We do this in any other number of recruiting and selection processes so why not with an executive coach? 

Number Six:  be wary of coaches who over-promise or offer to solve your problems.  While you are definitely looking for confident and competent coaches with a track record of helping clients to identify, clarify and address your challenges, be clear for yourself that it is YOU who sets the agenda for the engagement, you are the one true agent of change, and you have the power and expertise to set your future direction.  In my opinion, if you are feeling that you are getting the hard sell than it's time to walk away from that engagement. 

Number Seven:  consider this an investment in your personal and professional leadership.  What is that worth to you?  What is it worth to your organization?  It may appear more than a bit self-serving on my part, but be wary of coaches who offer bargain-basement coaching rates.  While price is never a guarantee of quality (see other points in this list) it should give you pause to consider what you might be signing up for.  There may be a reason you can get coaching for less than the going rate.

Number Eight:  connection, connection, connection.  Despite whatever skills, qualifications, and references any coach might have, if you don't feel a connection to a particular coach I'd suggest not contracting their services.  This is an individual that you are going to have to feel completely comfortable in revealing all of your fears, anxieties and challenges.  You are going to have to be ready with this individual challenging you in each session and during the term of your coaching engagement.  If you don't feel a connection move on to other options.  This is about YOU and no one else.

This is a critical decision for your leadership.  You want the best resource available to you.  Don't settle.  Your executive coach can be one of your best resources in advancing your personal leadership so put in the time and effort into the selection process.  After all, it's about YOUR 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.

Short-term gain, Long-term pain...

This past week I had the opportunity to take a literal drive down memory lane and return to my home province for business reasons.  Even though I was born in Saskatchewan I have spent the vast majority of my working life in other parts of Western Canada.  However, this drive gave me the chance to go back to one of the places I had worked in the mid 1990s.  A lot has changed since I left that role - including the fact that the organization that I once led no longer exists.  At the same time, I saw clear evidence of how decisions based on short-term considerations can sometimes have repercussions years and even decades removed from the original situation.  I won't delve into the details of the particular decision but its interesting to note that a choice made in 1993 - 3 years before I took on my former role - is still having a ripple effect 20 years later.  And not in a good way.

Many of us are quite familiar with the phrase "Short-term pain for long-term pain" and there are variety of circumstances in which we look to apply that wisdom.  At a personal level I've often tried to draw some sort of inspiration from that phrase as I tried to lose weight, get in shape, train for an Ironman competition, or put in some extra hours in a senior executive, consultant or coach role.  In like fashion, at an organizational level, we commonly send out similar messages and set similar expectations for our staff - if we make these sacrifices now, or make this extra or challenging effort over the next few weeks and months, it will all be worth it by the end of the year or position us well relative to our competitors or in achieving our strategic objectives.  If only we can endure we will reap our just rewards!

Just as often though it seems we fall from this wisdom in both our personal and professional lives.   We can often come up with quite rational and cogent reasons why we made a particular and suboptimal decision.  We took what was possible versus desirable and made compromises along the way.  We worked to balance relationships against outcomes.  We decided to minimize conflict.  Our political arenas seem rife with this type of pragmatism or realism.  Such a view is certainly abetted by a time frame for vision that at its best tops out at four years.  How often do we hear "it was the best we could accomplish under the circumstances" or "we took a balanced approach to the issues at hand" as justifications are rolled out for the less than optimal achievement.  I'd be naive not to understand that a pragmatic or realistic approach may be necessary in some circumstances.  I'm not convinced, though, that what we see or hear represents a pragmatic or realistic line of reasoning.  Rather, it's seems like we are trying to justify taking the easy way out of a tough situation. And sometimes the best decision is not the easiest one.

As leaders we have to not only be conscious of the implications of our tradeoffs in the short-term but in the long-term as well.  Leaders have to take the long view.  They are uniquely positioned by their role to do so and the organization and its clients have a rightful expectation that the leader will in fact act in their long-term interests.  There is a great weight of responsibility placed upon leaders to not only help their organizations succeed in the short-term (e.g., balance budgets, meet market expectations) but to position for them for long-term success.  At the very least, and to the best of their ability, I believe it is incumbent on leaders to not hamstring their successors by taking the path of least resistance in the short term.  This is particularly so when the leader may not be around to deal with the long-term consequences of today's actions.  It seems somewhat unethical to reap the short-term gain without having to deal with the long-term pain of one's actions. 

This latter statement - taking the short-term gain without having to deal with the long-term pain - was what hit me this past week.  Decisions made by leaders no longer on the scene, for short-term gain, that compromises the ability of a successor organization to deliver on its mandate.  I dealt with those consequences three years after I took on my leadership role, and the leaders of today are continuing to work with the bad hand they have been dealt 20 years later.

It's incumbent on leaders to be practical AND visionary.  To be compassionate AND yet make the hard choices.  It's incumbent on leaders - at every level of an organization - to not only make short-term sacrifices for the future benefit of the organization but also to sometimes forgo some short-term benefits as well.  Don't take the easy way out in lieu of the right way forward.  It's one thing to deal with the consequences of your own decisions.  Its another to leave a future generation of leaders compromised in their ability to lead in the wake you have created.

Short-term pain for long-term gain sure.  Short-term gain leading to long-term pain not so much.

______________________________

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.

Breaking Down the Silos

When we work in large organizations - and maybe even ones that are not so large - it seems inevitable that we will bump up against and be frustrated by a variety of internal barriers.  Perhaps most challenging is a silo mentality that builds up within an organization that causes departments and leaders to focus only on their individual goals and objectives often at the expense of the success of the larger enterprise.  To me it seems that this mentality breeds it's own self-fulfilling prophecy - in order for me/my department to "get ahead" I have to look out for number one first and foremost.  Over time, this behavior engenders more of the same from other parts of the organization.  Gradually, but inexorably, we become less trusting and less collaborative with each other working unconsciously (one would hope) to reduce the overall efficiency and effectiveness of our business enterprise.  We also collectively become more and more frustrated and disengaged.

A silo mentality does not just happen.  There is a leadership choice that plays out that gets an organization, its staff and its culture to this point.  Sometimes there can be a very deliberate and Machiavellian rationale to actively establishing such a perspective - competition amongst subordinates or between departments may actually be perceived as positive.  This type of calculation may suggest that competition encourages the cream to rise to the top.  Alternatively, there may be a perspective that if one's subordinates are so busy competing with each other they won't have time to position themselves for the next step up.  In these circumstances a silo mentality is created out of conscious intent.

In contrast, I have worked with leaders who just didn't want to devote the time and energy necessary to preventing or breaking down internal barriers.  In some cases they have take a defeatist attitude to this situation reasoning that in large organizations and by human nature there is must be some inevitable friction and inability to work entirely effectively together - people will be people.  Some leaders take this to an extreme suggesting that use of their time in refereeing disputes, managing conflicts and "babysitting" their leadership team is really beneath their station.  Quite frankly, I'm not sure what they think they are leading when they adopt this attitude.



There are a number of ways to either prevent or actively break down the silos and barriers that hinder organizational effectiveness.  They all require personal time, energy and leadership of the leader and his senior team.  While some leaders might downplay the utility of creating a unified vision for the organization and gaining consensus on key organizational values, I have always believed that The Vision and The Values of the organization were a necessary tool for setting common direction and holding true to that direction.  This helped to set clear guideposts by which performance, decisions and behaviors could be measured and evaluated on an ongoing basis.  To be effective in this regard it's not just a create them and put them on the shelf exercise.  It's effectively, consistently and continuously using the Vision and Values in decision-making.

Once the Vision and the Values are solidly established and understood, it's now time to reconfigure other elements of the organization in that light.  In particular, it's time to reconfigure how department performance is measured and evaluated and how individual performance is rewarded and recognized.  The old adage certainly holds true - both at a departmental and personal level - what gets measured gets managed.  Too often organizations can energetically engage in a comprehensive process to establish the Vision and establish its core Values but then fail to take the specific and concrete steps necessary to reinforce that commitment.  Changing up how departments, teams and individuals are evaluated and rewarded is one of the best - if not the best - way of signalling a need for change, including an emphasis on cross functional work.  Ultimately, there must also be a willingness to take the harshest of steps - termination of employment - if performance and behavior is not to the inherent or explicit standard established in the Vision and Values.

A silo mentality can be prevented and broken down.  Staff and leaders at various levels can have some impact on this by their own individual efforts.  However, there is no substitute for establishing and sustaining a collaborative organizational culture than the engagement of its senior leadership.  A silo mentality is not inevitable.  Leaders who understand and own their role will actively engage in and allow their organizations to reach their full potential.  It's not about about babysitting or refereeing.  It's 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.