The Work of Leadership: Sharing What You Know

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This post is a contribution to the Carnival of HR, which is being hosted on Dovetail Software Blog beginning March 27, 2013. Click over to Dovetail Software and read some of the other posts written on the topic of “Sharing.”

I once believed that leadership was an achievement that resulted from a process of developing knowledge, skills, and experience -not to mention an accumulation of battle scars. The problem with this idea of leadership development is that it is incomplete at best, but more likely just wrong. If it was true, then leadership development would largely be an academic process, with a bit of practice along the journey.

I’ve learned that leadership development is not a path to enlightenment; it is an interactive growth process. The most significant growth comes when you realize that your focus is not simply about developing yourself, but rather it is the development of self and the development of others. The real work of leadership is sharing your knowledge, expertise and experience to help others succeed.

Engagement of Followers

One of the most remarkable leaders with whom I’ve worked is also one of the most transparent teachers I’ve ever met. Not only did he share his challenges, approaches and the reasons for his decisions with his team, but he discussed them openly while he was working on them. He asked for ideas, and invited his direct reports to challenge him on the key issues that would affect the organization. He would go back to the decisions that he made to engage in a postmortem analysis. On the surface, his leadership style allowed his direct reports access to information, motives, strategy, and the opportunity to influence the direction of the organization.

On a deeper level, this sharing engaged a broader group of people to learn collectively through leadership experience, while it was occurring. He had a highly performing leadership team and organization, and the most engaged leadership team that I’ve ever seen.

Leadership through Influence

Not all of us will hold high-level positions in large organizations. However, we all can directly influence the life and work of others. We influence through leadership work. The real work of leadership is sharing our knowledge, expertise and experience to help others succeed.

Influence through Social Media

I subscribe to many blogs that are written by people who deliver content that influences my life every day. I’ve learned more about managing diabetes issues from blogs than from any other source. I tweak my running and training strategies based on the advice of other runners who share their experiences. And, I stay tuned into HR and leadership thought through a number of bloggers and social media influencers. What’s interesting to me is that many of these people who influence my life do not hold high-level leadership positions in organizations; some of them make a living through something other than what they write.

Leadership is not a position, it is a choice. The real work of leadership is sharing our knowledge, expertise and experience to help others succeed. The most significant progress that I’ve made in my leadership journey has always been the result of what other leaders have taught me, and through what they are humble enough to share.

How do you share what you know to help others succeed?

Burn Out: Don’t Judge

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When was the last time that something in your life became so overwhelming that you simply ignored it? What are you ignoring right now that will likely cause you to experience pain or discomfort in the future? What is stopping you from doing something about it?

There are plenty of things that I would love to ignore right now: a major job transition, selling my house, and preparing to move with my family to Colorado, to name a few. The good news is that these are all time-limited events, and I will push through them. The exciting opportunities on the other side of these changes will re-energize me.

What about challenges not of our choosing, and not of short duration?

I’ve read for months about the struggles of other diabetics for managing their chronic disease over a lifetime. My response had honestly been a helping of empathy, mixed in with a small dose of, “Suck it up.” I had managed my blood sugars through a strict diet, vigorous exercise, and extreme focus. If I could do it, anybody should.

The Rate of Change

One of the principles of the Adaptive Leadership theory is this: leaders should introduce organizational change at a rate that people can tolerate. The acceptable change rate is not the same for everybody, and it is the work of leaders to monitor this tolerance, and to make adjustments accordingly. In other words, we are all capable of adapting to change as long as the rate of change is not faster than what we are capable of managing.

I wonder how this concept applies to our personal choices? Are we capable of managing and maintaining lifestyle and behavioral changes? How do we know when it is too much?

A Dose of Humility

I spent fourteen consecutive months managing diet and exercise changes through focus and discipline. It was a pretty good run, and I’m proud of the substantive changes that it had on my health and my diabetes – my blood sugars were virtually perfect. The problem now is that I need to begin again.

Fourteen months with no donuts (that’s hard for an ex-cop), virtually no beer, a fast-food hiatus, and 20-plus running miles a week came to a screeching halt about 6 weeks ago. It’s not that I had a couple of bad meals, and missed a long run; I jumped into the fast-food express lane, riding my Lazy-Boy, and inhaled a doughnut (or maybe two) for the first time in more than a year. I’ve completely abandoned my approach to managing diabetes. The result: I once again have erratic blood sugars, and feel like crap, all the time.

Tolerance

While living with such discipline is hard – sometimes really hard – I can’t say that the lifestyle changes (diet and exercise) alone led to burn out. I’m wondering if it has more to do with the significant life changes (i.e., a new job and preparing to move my family 1,000 miles) that have pushed me past my point of change tolerance? My reaction to more change has been to focus on that which is most immediate, and most pressing, seemingly at the expense of that which is not. The time-limited, high-energy events have gotten all of my attention while the long-term health events have been ignored.

How true is this of our professional work? When we get overwhelmed, we move into firefighting mode and deal with those things that are most urgent, rather than what is more important. The long term consequence is burn out.

What has caused you to experience burn out in your job or your life? How have you overcome it?

Healthcare Reform: Culture and People

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I love to talk about organization culture and leadership. What I like even more than talking about it is working on it. In my experience, they are inseparable. You cannot change one without simultaneously working on the other. What happens when we are talking about changing the culture of an entire industry?

Healthcare Finance Management Association (HFMA)

One of the best conversations I’ve had in a long time about culture and leadership took place last week. I was interviewed by researchers from HFMA and McManis Consulting about the Value Project.

HFMA is in its second phase of an ambitious effort to help healthcare organizations prepare for the monumental changes that are occurring in (or, “to”) the industry. The result of this research will be a series of recommendations and road maps to help healthcare organizations navigate the structure, reimbursement, and organizational changes that will be required as a result of healthcare reform. In the end, healthcare organizations are going to have to change, and deliver more value to their patients and their communities.

What I found interesting is that I was one of few Chief HR Officers to be interviewed in this project to date. I’m glad that I was given the opportunity, and I had a few suggestions and opinions to share regarding the project’s focus on “Culture and People.”

Managing Conflict

After a robust, high-energy, and 75-minute conversation, one of the researchers summed up my “radical” rant like this: ”Building the culture to drive this change must include building the leadership capacity to manage conflict.” My response was, “Yes!” I’ll take it one step further: this work is going to require healthcare leaders who thrive in a world of continuous conflict.

Change is Not a Program

One mistake that we often make in leadership and organization development is that we try to reduce the change work that we need to accomplish into neatly defined programs and initiatives. We develop strategies, timelines, and metrics to fit into our strategic plans and organization dashboards. Trying to codify change elements into concrete business deliverables sometimes comes at the cost of really understanding the human side of change. It is difficult to plot the steps of behavioral evolution onto Gantt charts.

Radical change will always be rooted in messy and emotional people issues. Conflict is inherent in change work. But, it is in this conflict where human innovation, strength, and diversity lie. The answers to our problems will be found in the conflict and debate that hasn’t yet occurred. Leadership is about creating this conflict where it doesn’t exist, and effectively leading people to contribute where it does. Change is not a program, it is a set of relationships and social structures. Changing an organization, or an industry is a contact sport.

Back to Reality

As much as I like to debate theoretical constructs, it still comes down to the day-to-day actions of leaders to move their organizations (or industry) through change. Here were a couple of my recommendations about the Value Project:

Involve more CHROs in the research. There are some smart, radical, and strategic thinkers in the HR profession and the industry;
Do not underestimate the importance of organization development and social science research on change. The real work of healthcare reform lies with the people who are providing care to our communities; and,
Challenge traditional business logic and assumptions. As one of my colleagues often says, “Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic will not change the outcome.” Focusing exclusively on re-aligning the financial incentives and payment systems will not in itself drive the behavioral changes necessary to create value in our country’s healthcare system.

What are your thoughts about healthcare reform, and the people side of the change necessary to address it?