Resurrecting Deming - Again!

Over the life of my career - 25+ years as a public sector leader followed by another nine years (so far) of executive coaching and management consulting - I have had the privilege to work with a multitude of organizations and leaders in a variety of sectors. What is somewhat surprising in that leadership journey is how many lessons stand the test of time despite how much we believe the world has changed. What is far more disappointing, however, is too many of us continue to make the same wrong assumptions, arrive at the wrong conclusions, look to the same tired solutions, and experience the same level of frustration that things don't magically get better.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again...
and expecting a different result.

I'm certain the quote above is one you have heard many times before and perhaps even used yourself when trying to make your own compelling point. And it's been around for as many years as I can remember. So why doesn't remain true and compelling? What are we failing to learn from our mistakes or, more importantly, why are we failing to learn from our mistakes as leaders and as organizations?

One of the things I have come to believe is you cannot discover these lessons, learn from those experiences and do anything differently if you lack some form of humility and courage.

As leaders, it can be far easier on our person or egos to blame others around us or for a mistake, failure, or even disaster, than to admit we missed the signs, signals, and harbingers of doom.

Beyond that, we have to recognize and own our larger responsibility as owners, creators, and keepers of the systems and processes our staff have to work with (more on that below).

And finally, we have to demonstrate a commitment to ongoing learning and model a sincere willingness to really hear what others have to say about what is - and what is not - happening as it should, or what we expect for the organization. An unwillingness to be that open or honest can at best reflect naivety, maybe insecurity, and at worst pure arrogance.

From 1991 to 1993, I had a formative experience while completing my master's degree. Through my studies and an internship, I had the opportunity to learn implementing total quality management from two organizations. Through that I became exposed to the work of Dr. W. E. Deming and I further explored his teachings through my thesis on total quality management. It was eye-opening and his principles really struck a chord with me at the time. Over the succeeding years I have come back to his basic principles more than once. I have learned from other leadership gurus as well, but Deming's perspective has had continued value for me. I want to touch on only a few of his 14 Points with the belief that these have much to inspire those in leadership positions - or those looking for good leadership.

Point Seven - Institute Leadership

Dr. Deming calls on management to lead rather than to manage. It’s a simple statement but what does it really mean for us as leaders? Well, I'm pretty confident that if you were to talk to many frontline staff and management personnel outside of the executive suite, they would provide you with countless examples of where they felt they were being managed and not led. This bias towards "management" is without doubt enhanced by the pressure on organizations to perform and achieve better results. A typical management response is to exercise greater control and oversight to make sure results get better. More often than not, efforts of this nature only seem to put more barriers in the way of getting good work done - more reports to generate, more signatures to get, more unreasonable timelines to meet, multiple and conflicting demands, and failure to hear and act on input and recommendations from staff.

Point Eight - Drive Out Fear

My past leadership experience is certainly laced with a belief that fear might be an effective leadership tool. And maybe it can be in the short-term, but not if you are trying to create a high-performing organization for the long-term. With fear in an organization, there cannot be open communication, innovation, and teamwork - and these are all required for an organization to achieve the full measure of its potential. To my now evolved mind (😀), leadership of any organization - and at all levels of the organization - must actively model open communication, encourage appropriate risk taking and innovation, and promote teamwork at all levels, from the executive suite through to the front lines of operations. With fear in place, an organization shall continue to squander the full potential of its people and the organization to the detriment of those it purports to serve.

Point Ten - Eliminate Slogans, Exhortations, and Targets for the Workforce

Everybody needs to measure performance. Deming did not intend, nor do I suggest, that system performance not be evaluated on an ongoing basis. Rather, what Point Ten addresses is the notion of trying to assess an individual's performance without reference to an understanding of the system in which that individual works. If an individual is prevented from achieving higher levels of performance by a system (that management has created or allowed to be created), then performance managing an employee, setting new targets for them to achieve, and giving them "motivational" speeches will have little impact on performance. It is far more likely that such efforts will actually cause frustration, demoralization, and reduced performance.

Deming's red bead experiment is a great illustration of this principle - given an equal number of red and white beads, an employee is tasked with collecting only white beads with an employer-provided scoop or paddle. Inevitably, the employee collects some red beads in their assigned task. As a result of "failing" in their assigned task, the employee may be given further direction by their supervisor, there may be encouragement to do better, they may be applauded if their red bead count has gone down, or they may be chastised if their red bead count goes up. Regardless, their individual effort and various interventions at the personal level will have no impact on actual outcome. It's like expecting employee engagement scores in an organization to go up simply by saying that the target should be 10 out of 10 on the next engagement survey. Only by leadership changing the system will the organizational environment be better, more consistent results be achieved. I see a strong correlation between Point Ten and the need to Drive Out Fear from an organization as noted earlier. In fact, I believe that what leaders often create by exhortations to do better is an environment in which results and information are hidden through fear rather than discovered. And only by discovery can we improve.

Point Twelve - Remove Barriers to Pride of Workmanship

In this Point, Deming was referring to unclear expectations, lack of timely feedback (or any feedback), lack of training and support, and systems that focused on short-term results rather than long-term goals. Staff and front-line managers are often frustrated by multiple tasks or changing priorities (see Point Seven) as leaders change focus or react to external stimuli without, it seems, giving due regard to long-term objectives or stated core values. And unfortunately, more than one of us can relate to the fear that the performance evaluation process creates in us - either as provider or receiver of the experience. Too often this is because we establish the evaluation process as a one-time event, not as a continual process of discussion, engagement, and opportunity. There is a need too to ensure the evaluation process becomes an opportunity for leaders and staff alike to identify and invest in skills and intellect. It is also a great opportunity for leaders to model desired behaviours and reinforce common goals. On this latter point, I firmly believe there must be a high degree of visibility and sincere engagement with internal audiences on par with leadership visibility and engagement with external audiences. Without the kind of internal alignment that comes from such effort, the ability to deliver on commitments to external audiences and customers stands on shaky ground.

There certainly is more gold in Deming than I have covered here. In addition, what this hopefully reinforces, is we don't need to go looking for new ideas on leadership. There already exists a lot of knowledge - and common sense - upon which to enhance our leadership. Make it so!

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

Don't Drink the Sand

In much of my leadership career - and maybe my life in general - no small part of me hoped and dreamed about achieving formal recognition for the quality of my work. And along the way I did, in fact, achieve awards in my chosen profession. In that regard, I'm probably not that different from many of you. In reality, this desire for recognition is probably a function of our upbringing and our educational system. We were all graded. We all knew where we stood in our class academically or athletically. If we excelled we were given ribbons, medals, and even money in the form of bursaries and scholarships. And that recognition felt good.

As a society we continue to translate this award function into our leadership and business environments in the form of our nation's or province's top employers, most ethical companies, top leaders in [pick the profession] and almost any other category that you can think up. These awards are often pursued with incredible vigor by individual leaders and companies. I've even since seen individual leaders suggest, cajole, and coerce their staff or colleagues for that coveted nomination. If and once achieved, those accolades are then heavily marketed as a competitive advantage or even simply as a point of pride.  

And because we are busy people, we place heavy emphasis on the validity and credibility of these ratings or rewards and make decisions as potential customers or staff of these organizations. If such and such experts say he/she/they are best in class, that should be good enough for me should it not?  

Unfortunately this pursuit of awards and accolades comes with its own problems and opportunity to twist our personal behavior and organizational culture. Based on personal experience, I will suggest that in far too many cases, the emperor is, in fact, wearing no clothes.  

I would encourage all of us to dig a bit deeper into what goes into these "achievements".  I for one have had the misfortune of peeking behind the proverbial curtain and have come away more than a bit disillusioned with what I have discovered. In personal scenarios impacting me, I have discovered that competitors in my profession were not necessarily identified as best in class for their professional skill but rather on the quality of their website! Form over substance! In some cases, my so-called competitors were no longer in practice! 

That's one small example, but there are even more egregious examples. This goes as far as something as prestigious as the Order of Canada. Aside from those who have been officially stripped of such recognition (e.g., Alan Eagleson, Steven Fonyo), I have my own impressions of others who have been so honored. In at least one case I joked - facetiously at the time - that I'd have to be rescinding my Canadian citizenship because of who had obtained this honour.

These examples of personal leadership failures also operate at an organizational level and we simply cannot place blind faith in the view of experts and awards achieved. We have seen far too many examples of spectacular corporate failures that followed on years of being media and business darlings. Example?  In 2001, an American company achieved $90 billion in market capitalization making it the seventh largest company in the USA at the time. For six years running, this same company was ranked by Fortune magazine as America's most innovative company.  

In December 3, 2001, this same company - Enron - filed for bankruptcy.  

Of the many reasons cited for Enron's demise, two stand out for me within the context of my blog topic:  (1) stakeholders/watchdogs overlooked bad behavior as long as they were profiting, and (2) looking to others believing that those others had done their due diligence. Clearly, these reasons were abetted by willful fraud, but for me, the long story short is don't believe everything you see or read on the internet, in newspaper clippings or promotional materials.  

Unfortunately, too many award programs are based on an application process alone. There is limited to no on-site visitation or verification in play. There is no deeper dive into evaluating the veracity of claims made. In some cases, an organization or leader can present documentation on the existence of a policy or program but it is not required to provide information as to the quality of its implementation or effectiveness. In addition, staff, customers, and other key stakeholders may, or may not, be part of validating the leader's or organization's claims. The application might, in fact, only be as good as the paper it is written on.   

And the motivations of the applicant to win are enormous - prestige, business opportunity, ego. Marketing acumen and writing skill then become more important to success then fact. Form runs the risk of trumping substance. Many of us are already familiar with this reality in other circumstances, most notably the recruitment and selection process. How many times have you seen others - or yourself - won over by a glorious CV and a charismatic presence in an interview, only to have buyers remorse later? Presentation and pizzazz can only cover up so many sins for so long.  

As I penned this blog I was reminded of an exchange between two characters from the 1995 movie "The American President", which for me encapsulates the challenges we face in sorting the wheat from the chaff and seeing beyond formal awards and what might actually lie beneath:

People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.

Lewis, we've had presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.

My request of you? Dig deeper. Don't be fooled by the pleasant mirage that might be before you. Put in the effort to find out if there really is a glass of water or a glass of sand before you.

Don't drink the sand.

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

Home - Greg Hadubiak Cops for Cancer Ironteam (akaraisin.com)

The Power of Vision, Commitment, and Legacy

Several years ago I found myself in Warsaw, Poland, representing the Edmonton Charter Chapter of the International Coach Federation at the annual Global Leadership Forum. Coaching leadership from over 68 countries were there to collaborate to support the growth of the coaching profession, our chapters, and our clients.

What the trip also afforded me, albeit in a very limited fashion, was the ability to get to know the history of Warsaw and Poland to a greater degree than what I previously possessed. Most particularly, I had a chance to visit the Warsaw Uprising Museum and the Royal Castle. In both cases, I had the opportunity to fully appreciate the utter and complete devastation that Warsaw experienced as a result of World War II and the challenges it faced under Nazi, Soviet, and Communist rule. Warsaw – a thriving and artistic metropolis of over one million people – was reduced to a pile of rubble occupied by no more than a few thousand at the war’s end.

The journey back for Warsaw actually started at the commencement of hostilities in September 1939 and, in some respects, continues to this day. When Nazi planes started bombing the city, many of its cultural icons and buildings were immediately put at risk with the Royal Palace being severely damaged at the outset. Many brave Poles began the effort to save the artifacts within the building even to the point of losing their lives in doing so. Throughout those early days of desperation and ultimate defeat, they continued the effort to preserve as much of the art and the architecture of their buildings. They showed as much determination in the process of preserving their heritage as the Nazi’s did in destroying and looting it.

No reprieve came to the residents of Warsaw and Poland as the war drew to a close. Quite the contrary. As Nazi Germany went through its death throes, Hitler and his cronies were more determined than ever to destroy what they could not own or control, while at the same time making Warsaw a devastating battleground with the Soviet war machine. The result was that literally all of Warsaw was laid waste and the Royal Castle was purposely destroyed by the Nazis before withdrawing from the area.

As you might imagine, the Soviet Union and its Communist-installed regime were in no rush to support the reconstruction of glories of the past or anything that might detract from unswerving allegiance to a new world order. As a result, reconstruction of the Royal Castle was not started until 1971 – fully 25 years after the end of World War II – and was not fully restored until 1988.

What does any of have this to with my usual focus on leadership? Simply this: consider the vision and the commitment to preserving a cultural heritage taken up by a few key leaders and likely hundreds if not thousands of other ordinary citizens from 1939 through to 1988. As I noted earlier, those who took steps to preserve the arts and architecture of the Royal Castle at the start, and for the duration of World War II, often paid for that effort with their lives. This meant not only removing art and furnishings from the Royal Castle, but it also sometimes meant removing pieces of the building itself – frescoes, statues, decorative paneling – all to be carried away and hidden until the war was over.

Regardless of whether these same individuals survived the war or not, many of them must have realized that they weren't likely going to be around for the restoration of the Royal Palace or any other edifice in Warsaw. And yet they not only undertook the immediate effort and risk, but they persevered in their commitment for the two plus decades that followed. They had to have known that their vision would not be realized in their lifetime. They faced a multitude of challenges, including barriers put in place by authorities of the day and the very real issues facing a rebuilding nation and economy. But they persevered and sacrificed in support of their vision anyway.

Just as importantly, these visionaries were able to convince the populace of Warsaw, Poland and others to contribute to the rebuilding and restoration of the Royal Castle. By 1975, over $500 million zloty had been raised through voluntary contribution, including from Polish citizens, who in many ways had so little to give at the time, as they continued to work to restore the basic necessities of life. Art and artifacts hidden during the war were recovered and returned for inclusion in the new structure. And new significant pieces of art were donated from other countries around the world.

How many of us struggle to create a vision for ourselves or for the businesses we lead that goes much beyond two to three years?

How many of us aspire to create and sustain a vision with the power to impact well beyond ourselves, operating with the realization that its achievement will be beyond our physical ability to see it realized?

In today’s world, how many of us would even entertain such prospects if there were not something of immediate gain in such a venture for us?

I hope you can take from this short post a sense of the inspiration and awe I felt for those with the commitment to build for more than just themselves. To be inspired by the selfless sacrifices that others were prepared to make for future generations and that we have seen in other similar circumstances - in business, in charitable causes, and in nation-building - and to challenge ourselves to a higher level of performance and goal setting.

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

Home - Greg Hadubiak Cops for Cancer Ironteam (akaraisin.com)

Ebbs and Flows - Chapter II?

In my last post I talked about some challenging news my wife and family received about her health: a breast cancer diagnosis. This came just in advance of our 12th wedding anniversary and, of course, in the throes of my latest and continuing Ironman preparations.

So the latest? After celebrating our anniversary with a stay in an Edmonton hotel - as adventurous as celebrations can get in the middle of a pandemic - we met with her oncoplastic surgeon to get further interpretation of what her diagnosis, treatment plan and prognosis was likely to be.  I have to say it is sobering to be in a room - staying largely silent - as a physician and your wife discuss surgical options ranging from lumpectomy to mastectomy, survival and satisfaction rates post-surgical intervention, how radiation and/or chemotherapy come into play and so on. It's more than surreal.  

However, what we arrived at was the intervention required was not only not life-threatening, but it was also (at this point) not life-altering either. It seems strange to say this given the short but challenging journey we were on up to that point, but the surgical and medical intervention required is quite limited and contained. That being said, we are still months away from conclusion, with surgery taking place in late May, followed by recovery, followed by a course of radiation. So still much for my wife to endure and still more worry for the family to navigate. Regardless, these are far better outcomes than could have occurred. And certainly a far better reality than that facing so many others who have faced - and lost - a battle with cancer.  

So much more different than the reality that faced Ronan Smyth and his family.  

For several weeks I could start to feel the real powerlessness and fear that Ronan's family must have faced when they got his cancer diagnosis. For them it was clear relatively soon that there was no potential for a positive outcome.  Rather, they knew from the outset that time was limited. I held on to that fear for only a few weeks. It was enough.  

My wife and I have had some pretty deep discussions in the past several weeks. All the what-if scenarios.  How long this journey to health might take her. What that might mean for the whole family during that time. What we would do to prepare if, should it happen, that she wouldn't be in our lives sometime in the future.  How would I manage as a single parent - again. A lot of future surfing and most of it not of the positive kind.

Ronan and his family faced the same situation.  While Ronan got the cancer diagnosis, his family carried the hit, the burden, the worry, and the anxiety of losing a son and a brother. And there was to be no miracle cure. There was every reason to ponder the future to come after Ronan's passing.  

Ronan didn't give into despair - or at least not entirely. I am absolutely certain that denial, anger, sadness, anxiety, and a host of other emotions turned up for Ronan and his family on a regular basis.  But he also adopted a mantra of Why Not? After being told of his diagnosis, he started - as his parents would call it - a crazy list. He was intent on living life to the fullest during the time left to him and pursued the completion of his list with vengeance. In that he was supported not only by his family, but also by a larger community, including people he had never met. This commitment to living led him to meet his hockey hero Carey Price, flip the coin at the beginning of an Eskimos game, and leap out of plane for not one but two skydiving adventures! More courage and bravado than I!  

On Ronan's first jump, I was told he feared nothing. He asked his tandem partner for barrel rolls and anything that could be thrown at him. On the next jump he wanted to take the leap going backward! And he was accommodated!  

Ronan's mother tells me he rarely complained about his fate.  Make no mistake, there were discussions about why me, but this perspective was significantly overshadowed by his determination to see what he could accomplish in the time remaining to him. He decided to challenge his food with all kinds of different foods. He spent his savings enjoying the life left to him and looking to experience all that he could. He became a fearless adrenaline junky, riding in fast cars and motorcycles. And not only did he do this for himself, he was also able to convince other family and friends to join him in his adventures. He convinced them to share in his Why Not adventures! Ronan's journey served as a reminder that life is precious and needs to be cherished every day.  

Ronan's journey continues to inspire my own Why Not and What If fundraising and Ironman challenge.  As does my wife's more hopeful and optimistic cancer journey.  

Ironman Canada is now four months away.  My fundraising goal is $90,000 away from completion.  

F#ck cancer.  

Home - Greg Hadubiak Cops for Cancer Ironteam (akaraisin.com)

Are you with me?

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

Ebbs and Flows

I often - or I should say always? - watch videos of past Ironman Kona championships while I do my indoor bike training. This obviously takes place primarily during my winter training schedule. Aside from being a very fair-weather athlete, it affords me the opportunity to be inspired by the stories that play out on this canvas both for the professional and age-group athletes, showcasing their talents and determination for all to see.   

One comment or phrase that sticks with me at these times is something along the lines of how much has to go right for an athlete on the day of any particular event. You can never guarantee perfect health on race day, or that you won't have some mechanical malfunction to contend with, or that you won't experience adverse weather conditions to cope with. All of these and more can come at you and test your reserves and mental fortitude. I can attest to several such circumstances in my time in competition, including torrential downpours and hailstorms, a slipped bike chain while climbing a hill, and getting kicked in the head during the swim.  

The same reality of ebbs and flows come at you in training and in the life leading up to any given race.  What has been demonstrated to me since I started in this Ironman world in 2008 is there is no perfect path in training, no year when there has not been bumps along the way. For age-groupers like myself, this means juggling the demands of life outside of Ironman. Most of us have to work to live into a chance to participate in an Ironman or to afford the cost of equipment and registration fees. Work and family obligations will come first for us non-professionals. Regardless of effort or desire, Ironman performance is not our primary or sole commitment.  

This year and last - 2020 and 2021 - have tested this balancing act like never before and have reminded me of the realities and challenges of keeping focused on a goal. When I restarted this journey to Ironman in late 2019 and early 2020, no one would have imagined the impact a global pandemic would have on the plans of mice and men. In February 2020, I made a commitment to raise funds and awareness in support of the Kids With Cancer Society, DIPG and Ronan Smyth. And even as COVID continued to take hold of our lives in 2020, I remained focused on my goals and was probably in my best shape since my 20s.  Then, of course, Ironman Canada 2020 was cancelled and my focus shifted to 2021.

These past few weeks have continued to throw curveballs at me, both good and bad, as I recommit to my goals. We've had a reasonable start to spring here in Edmonton that has allowed me to get outside on my bike earlier than I have done in many years prior - up until this weekend when we were hit by a crazy blizzard. That reality will have me back on the wind trainer again for at least a few more days.  Run training has similarly being going along well and I was pleased with the volume of running that I was getting in - up until I broke one of my toes in a simple household accident! So moving a bit more gingerly in the short-term. I was also quite pleased with my progress and stamina in the pool - up until the COVID resurgence in our third wave caused our facility to close yet again. So back to doing some strength and core training to stimulate those swim muscles.

On the bigger stage of life, I was extraordinarily happy to see my oldest daughter get her first COVID vaccine (access given due to underlying chronic health condition)! This follows on my wife's successful vaccination - with full two doses - earlier in March because of her healthcare role. Others in my extended family are also getting or are scheduled for doses, and I am scheduled for the end of April. Relief is starting to cross my furrowed brow.

But life has decided to throw another curveball at me, laced with irony. Being a member of the Cops for Cancer Ironteam since 2008 and now strongly committed to raising $100,000 for the Kids With Cancer Society since last year, my family finds that cancer has decided to make things even more personal.  Earlier this month, my wife received a diagnosis of breast cancer. She is in the very early days of this journey and we are both grateful the cancer was caught early. We are only now beginning to understand the choices before us and won't have anything close to clarity on treatment plan for several more weeks.  As you can imagine, the emotional and mental stress for her - and for her family - has been very much been about ebbs and flows. Trying to not future surf, presume the worst, remain optimistic, and yet also having those moments of anxiety and fear that test our energy.

In many respects, I believe this reality will also bring me closer to appreciating what Ronan's family had to experience and endure as they navigated through a much harsher reality for their son - having inoperable brain cancer, with no hope of recovery, simply looking for ways to make the most of the time remaining to them. And they did just that. They lived life to the fullest possible with the mantra that Ronan came to take on - and which I share - of Why Not!  There is no doubt that Ronan and his family experienced many ebbs and flows with what cancer threw at him and at them.  

The reality is we have no say in what life throws at us - broken toe, weather, COVID, cancer diagnosis.  We continue to have a choice as to how we will respond to these ebbs and flows.  We can still live with determination and purpose.  

Ironman Canada is just over four months away.  My fundraising goal is $90,000 away from completion.  My life and my commitment will be challenged by my wife's cancer diagnosis but it shall not define us.  

F#ck cancer.  

Home - Greg Hadubiak Cops for Cancer Ironteam (akaraisin.com)

Are you with me?

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

The Power of our Values

BreakPoint Solutions formally began operations in September 2017.  The motivation behind the creation of the company, however, had its genesis well before that. One could argue that BreakPoint Solutions was decades in the making given the past experiences of its founders and partners. While some of the players have changed over time, the basic premise of what we do has not. This past winter - working virtually through COVID-19 restrictions - we discussed and cemented foundational elements for us.  

We first concluded as a company, a group of like-minded professionals, that our mission and vision were one and the same:

To awaken and unleash the potential in leaders, teams, and organizations

As a mission, this statement represents our purpose, what motivates us to do what we do. It inspires us to boldly put ourselves out in the world as coaches, consultants, leaders, mentors, and advisors. This is our why; this is why we do what we do. As a vision, it helps guide us to where we want to go, what we want to be known for, and what we want to achieve. It also defines what we hope to help our clients create for themselves and for others. We are motivated and inspired by our clients - by their unrealized or unknown potential; by their commitment, by their journey, by their struggles, and by their incredible successes. Through our work we expect to help them achieve more than they ever imagined possible. And they do.

The why and where are only part of the story. For us the how is just as important. Our how is represented by the values we have revisited in each year of our existence. Each year we have come back to further explore how we want to work with our clients, how we want to be known and remembered by those we work with, and - quite honestly - to attract the types of clients that value what we value. We put our values out there, with our definitions, our interpretation, seeking to convey our personality and our team culture.  If our values resonate with you, your team, or your organization we believe we can do great things together.

In every single case, we have debated the meaning and relevance of these values for us as individual professionals and as a team working together. They powerfully guide our actions and where we choose to work. Our values are:

Integrity

We hold ourselves accountable to our values, principles and commitments. We are authentic and transparent in our work, which leads to strong, trust-based relationships.

Long story short, we strive to walk our talk. We deliver on our promises. And we want more than just a contract with our clients. We actively strive to create strong relationships even to the point where it might actually be forgotten that we are not full-fledged members of a team or an organization. We know each other so well and our mutual respect is so strong that we can act in almost unconscious tandem, while at the same time having the ability to (respectfully) challenge each other in the best spirit of partnership to drive success.

Courage

We believe in the power of human potential. We challenge boundaries by building on our strengths, always experimenting with what is possible, learning and growing through the journey.

We appreciate and understand that the first steps, or the next steps, on any journey can be daunting. Even if the current reality and environment are challenging, it is the evil we know and perhaps what we have become comfortable with. We work with our clients to own their strengths as much as their uncertainty, to push the boundaries of what they perceive might be possible/impossible, and to challenge themselves with "what if?" and "why not?"  Doing is learning. Learning is growing. Growing is achieving. We believe in the power of human potential - your potential.

Collaboration

We are committed to a philosophy of co-creation, understanding there is greater power and possibility in partnerships. United in shared purpose, we move beyond the power of one.

BreakPoint Solutions comes together in the spirit of team and yet is so much more than just a team. We deeply believe we are far more capable, effective, and powerful when we learn from and lean on each other. The same perspective applies in terms of how we believe we work best with our clients. We bring expertise, skills, abilities, and strengths to any engagement, but so too do our clients. We must co-create.  Why? Because our clients have to own, implement, potentially modify, and live with the solutions they've developed. We don't want to be back a year or two from now helping the same person, the same team, or the same organization solve a problem or leveraging an opportunity that should have been attended to in the past. 

Creativity

We challenge ourselves to remain curious. Unique situations call for unique thinking. We believe in the power of innovation, agility, and adaptability. We challenge convention in the pursuit of pragmatic solutions.

Many of us at BreakPoint Solutions are certified executive coaches (CEC). Foundational to a coaching practice is the art of curiosity. We are challenged to be judgment free, to support ourselves and others to challenge assumption and bias, and to dig beneath the surface realities. If 2020 and the beginning of 2021 have taught us nothing, it has it has taught us not just the desirability, but the necessity, of being innovative, agile, and adaptable. This is also where our varied client experiences and environments prove so valuable. They are a live learning lab. As unique as we all believe ourselves to be - and we are - there is much that can be learned and adapted to a range of circumstances. Critically important is all these creative ideas have to be translated into meaningful action. Innovation must be applied to be useful. Deploy or die.

Fun

We seek to balance productivity and enjoyment knowing they work together to increase personal and organizational effectiveness.

This value is very near and dear to our hearts and souls. Without exception, the coaches and consultants of BreakPoint Solutions bring to the table years of senior level leadership experience gained in large, complex, challenging work environments. And we don't take ourselves too seriously. Our experience is tempered with humility. We know from personal experience how much impact a joyful work environment - or the lack thereof - has on our personal productivity. We spend more time in our work, with each other, and with our clients, than in anything else we do. It had better be fun, it had better allow our passions to shine through, otherwise we can't and won't deliver our best work. It's inevitable. If you are working with us, expect humility, self-deprecating humour, and maybe even a bit of irreverence. We are going to do great work together while making it enjoyable too!

So that is who and what BreakPoint Solutions is all about. We are more than just a name or a sum of our parts. We are an intentional stopping point, a place to pause, an opportunity to help you derive new knowledge, and establish a commitment to a new path or direction. We are a place to help you evaluate what's working, what needs to change, and what you need to do to reset for the future you want.

We are BreakPoint Solutions. And for us It's About Leadership in all its forms.

Want to work with us? Check here to get in touch to find out how we can work together to get you to where you, or your organization, want to be.

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

Good Leadership Requires Good Governance

It's often been said, in one form or another, as goes the leader so goes the company. Rest assured this is not going to be another blog/commentary about Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau, Jason Kenney, or any other potentially polarizing public figure. My focus continues to be on the impact that leadership - for good or for bad - has on the culture and success of an organization. But there is probably not a day, and certainly not a week, that goes by when we don't hear about some (inexplicable? disappointing?) organizational failure that seems to directly link to a leadership failure. 

I would suggest there is something to be said or explored in how these leadership and organizational failures might connect back to the quality and effectiveness of oversight provided by a board of directors.  They begin to set the tone from the top in a variety of ways, in what they do, and what they fail to do. 

I'm not sure how many of us appreciate the role that a board of directors plays in setting direction for large organizations and in helping it achieve those objectives. In most circumstances, public and media focus falls on a leader - a president, a CEO, or another top executive. Ultimately, however, a well functioning board is fundamental to the success of an organization through their decisions, not the least of which is their selection of THE senior operational leader. The quality of their decision making and their commitment to their governance task can have wide-ranging impact.

I have worked with a variety of boards in my 25-year career. I have worked with good boards and not so good boards. I have seen them lose their way in a variety of circumstances, including being burdened with an ineffective Chair, a disruptive board member, uncommitted board members, boards that get too involved in operations, and boards that simply perform a rubber stamp role for what senior leadership wants to get done. Ineffective governance can severely compromise and inhibit the ability of an organization to succeed and fulfill its mandate.

Sometimes boards don't even understand what their key responsibilities are. This lack of understanding or confusion can often arise from how a person is recruited to the board, or the quality of the orientation they receive upon becoming a member. Those boards that function on the basis of being elected have an additional potential challenge of individual platforms (e.g., axes to grind) entering into the equation.

Too often board members can be selected on criteria that may have nothing to do with the kinds of skills that a board requires to fulfill its functions. Instead, they selected because they are part of the same personal network as existing board members, they are prominent community members, they are politically connected, they are major donors, and so on and so forth. None of these factors necessarily make for a good board member. A poor selection process can then be compounded by inadequate orientation to the role of the board. In that circumstance, an individual board member has to either rely on the skills they bring to the table from their life outside of the boardroom, the examples set by their fellow board members (for good or for bad), or they may be left to take what orientation or guidance they might get from senior leadership of the organization. Not the ideal recipe for success.

So what's the starting point for good governance? The first task is to clearly understand the roles of the board. First and foremost, a board needs to focus on setting direction - making clear choices on an organization's vision, mission, values, and strategic directions. Failure to fully engage in this first set of major responsibilities means an organization can easily drift from its fundamental purpose. Failure to develop cohesion around these fundamental building blocks also, and inevitably, leads to conflict between board members that impacts organizational performance and public confidence. Moreover, if there is no consensus among the Board as to vision, mission, values, and strategic directions, how can senior operational leadership be effectively guided or held accountable for performance?

Second, a board is required to exercise oversight on organizational performance. It is important here to distinguish oversight for organizational performance from managing the organization. Neither the board as a whole nor individual board members (including the Chair) should get involved in managing the organization. The temptation to direct operations is intense, especially for those board members who lead and manage significant entities outside of the organization for which they are a board member. The board needs to remember the organization has engaged operational leaders - the CEO in particular - to manage operational matters. Ostensibly, they have used a robust process for recruitment and selection, have followed up with appropriate performance reviews and feedback, and have trust in the CEO and other management personnel to achieve the board-established strategic directions. If the board lacks such confidence then it has erred in selection, has erred in communicating expectations, or perhaps has not been engaged in managing performance at all. Ultimately, if that confidence erodes, the choice of the board is to more clearly communicate its expectations or remove the CEO. The choices available to the board should not include becoming more engaged in operational decision-making.

That being said, a board must exercise appropriate oversight. It must be clear on its expectations and establish robust and objective mechanisms by which to evaluate CEO performance on achievement of the organization's vision and strategic directions. Moreover, a board would do well to evaluate outcomes and also - at a high level - how those outcomes were achieved. The board has a key role to ensure the values of the organization are fostered and upheld. Every effort should be made to ensure that objective, quantifiable reports on performance are made available to the board on a regular basis. In this regard, the board should avail itself of a variety of forms of feedback to evaluate performance and success in achieving objectives.

Finally, a board manages its direction setting accountability, its oversight responsibility, and its own functions by establishing policy. These policies must clearly distinguish board function from management function. Just as important, they must describe and detail how the board itself shall function - the role of the Chair and other officers of the board, how decisions will be made, what committee structures, if any, will be utilized, and so forth. This is one distinct way to ensure role clarity and to diminish and manage potential conflicts.

As can be imagined, it is easy for boards to become involved in non-board activities and tasks. Board members can easily neglect the very real work required to ensure proper board functioning. If this high-level, strategic work is not done, or is done poorly, there will be little or no foundation for success for the organization as a whole.

Boards have very real responsibilities. The tasks they are engaged in cannot be minimized or trivialized. We have seen too many organizational failures in recent years that can be traced back to governance failures. Complacency about board performance is not an option. However, effective governance does not mean becoming more engaged in operational leadership. Nor is it to establish ever more controls and bureaucracy. Boards need to do very real work to understand their roles and responsibilities, establish proper structures to do their work, recruit and retain good members, and set the tone for the values and ethics that will guide the organization.

To achieve operational excellence there must be a foundation of governance excellence. Good leadership requires good governance.

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

Governance Minefields

Leadership at a governance level is often written about and there are more than enough courses and programs out there that purport to certify competent and qualified directors. And yet we still see - and I get up close and personal with - how governance success remains elusive. Significant organizational failures, whether in the public or private sector, are often attributed to a failure in operational leadership, character flaws of the CEO, and a host of other reasons. I suggest, however, that those failures can too often just as easily be traced back to inadequate governance process and even understanding about what governance is or should be.

I'm going to give you my experience on what I see as some of the most common minefields that boards and individual directors should watch out for to reduce the chances of governance, leadership, and organizational setbacks and failure.

One: Governance Philosophy and Framework. Boards need to spend significant time and energy on clarifying what governance means for them and what it entails in terms of their interactions with the CEO and operations. Too often boards and incoming directors operate under the assumption that the skills, abilities, and experiences they have acquired in other environments somehow magically imparts to them the skill to become effective board members. Too often this also means you have as many perspectives on what the board's role is as there are board members. The board needs to engage in a deep and engaged discussion about how they will fulfill their collective responsibilities as a board. The implicit understandings and the potential differences of opinion have to be surfaced, debated, and solidified.  

Two: Recruit and Select with Purpose and Intent. One of the challenges that boards increasingly face in the modern era is the challenge of diversity and inclusion. While many boards have developed skills matrices and other processes to fill out their ranks as vacancies arise, there are still unseen biases in place that perpetuate a homogeneity in board composition. Boards must increasingly challenge their own paradigms, challenge their assumptions, and confront their biases as they recruit and select new board members with an eye to the future challenges their organization may face. More of the same might support harmony, but is likely inadequate to support change in a dynamic environment.

Three: Wear the Right Hat. Boards need to pay attention in their recruitment, selection, and orientation efforts to the perspectives and mentality of wanna be board members. Are these new board members animated by a singular issue?  Do they have an axe to grind? Are they at risk for conflict-of-interest scenarios?  Can they identify potential blind spots or biases?  In my experience, these types of conflicts and biases move well beyond direct and personal financial benefit as so many might assume. Individuals might be trying to right some perceived wrong from past experience with the organization (e.g., a family member's bad experience), a desire to change the values and culture of the organization to align with personal values, or even believing  they are more qualified to be the CEO so they will "dig deep" into operations to get things right.

Four: Do Your Work. Aspiring to be on a board - or at least to being an effective board member on an effective board - means you have work to do. I still encounter too many board members who view their simple membership on a board or attendance at board meetings as service enough. They believe their presence is contribution enough, or that a trite - and maybe even the odd relevant comment - once a board meeting fulfills their obligations as a board member. This is no more than check-box governance or social club participation. Regardless of the size of organization, board work should be seen and undertaken as a significant responsibility. Stand up or stand aside. Read your agenda materials before the board meeting, participate in board committee meetings as designated, and bring forward your unique perspective to the benefit of the organization. 

Five: Evaluate Board Performance. While many board members might be quite prepared and excited to evaluate CEO and organizational performance, they can become quite twitchy when the subject of board evaluation is broached. As a group of peers - and perhaps accomplished professionals in their other lives - they fear the challenge or consequences of evaluating each other and/or being evaluated themselves. But, in my view, they have a responsibility to model a commitment to evaluation, self-improvement, and growth that I expect they have for the rest of the organization. What can help boards carry out this function are a number of things: a) a transparent and authentic discussion of the purpose of such an evaluation; b) an agreed-upon and relevant structure and process for the evaluation; and c) objective, third-party support for supporting the assessment. These elements can take a lot of the fear and mystery out of the evaluation while at the same time making the process and results credible.

Six: Sustaining the Board. One could argue that this minefield could be considered an outcome or offshoot of several of the items noted above. The point to be made here is the board, not the CEO or operations, has to sustain, grow, and cultivate the governance philosophy, framework, and its culture in a very intentional fashion. To me this process takes several forms: a) reviewing and affirming the governance philosophy and framework on a regular (and not less than annual) basis; b) a structured approach to review board policies and procedures; c) engaging in professional and personal growth and development activities; c) onboarding new board members (and not simply handing incoming board members the orientation manual...); and d) being available as mentors to new board members.  

Seven: Manage the CEO Partnership. The single most important relationship a board has to manage is the partnership it should have with its operational leader. I like to talk about this through the use of a visual that shows two overlapping circles. In the middle, there are the shades of grey to be actively managed. So I don't view the the roles of board and CEO as being completely and utterly distinct and separate. They have a shared responsibility to protect and advance the organization. And they do have to fulfill this obligation in a trust-based partnership. Too often boards or individual board members gravitate to polar extremes. On one hand they can default to a far too personal a relationship with their operational leader, blindly trusting the CEO and not keeping their eyes on real performance of the organization.  On the other hand, other board members see their role as one of forensic auditor in every board meeting or even requiring on-site, random, operational visits to interrogate staff and clients alike about organizational performance. Neither approach is appropriate, nor will it create an environment conducive to operational excellence.

Being on a board or pursuing a board appointment represents a significant commitment and responsibility.  The small listing of landmines above is not intended to dissuade anyone from pursuing a board appointment. The work is both critically necessary for organizations large and small, in the private and public sectors, and can be incredibly rewarding and informative. Just appreciate it is a critical role and it requires significant effort to do the role justice.

It's About Governance and It's About Leadership!

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

So, you think you can grow your business without HR?

As a business owner, have you ever stopped to consider how many hats you might be wearing on your entrepreneurial adventure? Many business owners have their fingerprint on everything in the early days to ensure quality control and consistent messaging. Understandably so, it is their invention. But as businesses grow, owners need to evaluate where their time is best spent and where it makes the most positive impact to their business.

If I look at my own HR start-up, I am not only supporting clients with HR solutions, but I am also the strategist, the visionary, the marketer, and face of my brand. I have quickly learned that – unfortunately – I am not Wonder Woman and I cannot do it all. Although sometimes the thought of having an eighth day in the work week sounds like a good idea. Instead, I leverage my time with a Creativity Consultant who collaborates with me to format and edit documents, proposals, and surveys. She also takes care of webpage management and supports my social media presence. And I work with an accountant who handles my bookkeeping. It takes a village to bring my vision to life and by partnering with SMEs (subject matter experts) or professionals in their field, I feel freer and stronger to focus on the things that matter most to me.   

This reminds me of the evolution of one of my childhood passions. Growing up, I loved to sew, and I started to learn how when I was nine years old. You should have seen my first sewing project! It was a short skirt with strawberry-printed fabric. I was thrilled in my choice of fabric and it was just fabulous! As a child, I had lots of time to dedicate to sewing, so I completed many projects for friends and family. Over time, I saw how sewing, like other leisurely pursuits, takes time. Fast forward to today, and even though I know how to sew and alter clothing, I choose not to do it. My time is a valuable commodity and I want to invest it in areas that bring me the greatest value. As a result, I outsource this work to a skilled seamstress who provides high quality service to me. It truly is a win/win partnership. 

So, when do you start to leverage SMEs to maximize your time and continue to add life to your business? Most business owners readily hand over their receipts to a bookkeeper but will only occasionally look to an HR professional for support. 

When I have connected with business owners and other leaders, they have said, “When I reach threshold XYZ, I will engage HR into the business”.  There is a point in time, and it is not as far down the road as you think, when adding an HR professional can be especially valuable. You only need basic minimum requirements to involve HR. For example, when you have more than two employees on staff, you need to start to think about team dynamics and if employees are working well together, if they understand their roles, if they know how their work contributes to the overall vision, if they know what is expected of them, and if they know they matter.  Like when going out to sea, you need to have some basic equipment, like an anchor and compass because without it, you are placing your safety at great risk. The same applies to the success of your business: HR could be considered basic equipment and helps to keep your business afloat.

Now, I get it, when wearing the HR hat, you may not see any issues. So, you may be wondering why you need HR and when the right time is to leverage it. Is it when you have all your systems in place? Think you may get sued? Have concerns your talented staff will leave? Rely on Google to find your answers? Are spending hours dealing with people matters which you may not be passionate about?

Have you weighed the risks of continuing to manage HR on your own? If you are spending a lot of your time on HR functions, what tasks get dropped? What are you not doing that you should be doing? Another way to look at the risks of taking on HR tasks is to analyze where you spend most of your time. Is it on business development, client relations, running day-to-day operations, marketing, or employee relations matters? Where would you rather be spending your time?  If you could make a shift, what would you see as the positive and tangible impact to your business?  At the end of the day, by trying to do it all, there are no savings; in fact, it is actually costing you.   

HR is an organization’s human resources multiplier. HR increases team effectiveness of teams and of the workplace, they leverage employee performance, and help shape human potential. People are the heart of the organization and HR is the glue that connects people and performance. HR professionals are natural champions to cultivate a rich employee experience. 

Why not make your business better and leverage HR to manage your employee relations and maintain compliance, to set up or update your HR infrastructure, to explore HR solutions that fit your unique needs, to tap into subject matter expertise, and to evaluate and elevate your employee experience? Whether it is fractional HR support or interim HR leadership, you will gain time to focus on advancing your vision and increasing overall performance in your business. Let HR be your organization’s HR multiplier that will positively enable your business to make improved decisions around what matters most: PEOPLE. 

Driven by connection,
Rita

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Rita Filice, BCOMM, CPHR
Partner, BreakPoint Solutions
ritaf@breakpoint.solutions 
www.breakpoint.solutions 
780-250-2544

Diversity and Inclusion Part 2: Creating a Culture of Inclusion and Learning

“Leaders are stewards of an organization’s culture; their behaviors and mindsets reverberate throughout the organization. Hence to dismantle systems of discrimination and subordination, leaders must undergo the same shifts of heart, mind, and behavior that they want for the organization as a whole and then translate those personal shifts into real, lasting change in their companies.”

Robin J. Ely and David A. Thomas, Harvard Business Review

Inclusive Leadership - How should leaders show up?

Leaders have a crucial role to play because of their ability to influence systemic change in an organization’s D&I journey. Whether organizations are just starting their journey, or their work is already underway, leaders must fully commit to the hard work of listening well, demonstrating empathy, self-reflection, and giving underrepresented people a voice by inviting them to share their lived experiences and realities.

Leaders, because of their ability to impact change, must hold employees accountable and be held accountable to D&I objectives. They must model positive behavior that supports the organization’s D&I efforts. They must be intentional, consistent, vulnerable, and prepared to get uncomfortable with their teams. When leaders do these things, this is where growth happens.  

What are the keys to successfully build a diverse and inclusive workplace?

1. Trust. It all starts with trust. Trust is developed by respecting one another. Trust is the glue that builds strong teams. Employees need to feel safe to share openly, make mistakes, ask questions, and raise concerns without consequence. This is also the foundation for psychological safety. Organizations that cultivate psychological safety in the workplace build inclusive cultures.

2. Transparency. Organizations need to share openly and continually communicate wins and setbacks on the organization’s D&I efforts. This will contribute to maintaining high levels of employee engagement throughout the journey.

3. Curiosity and Learning Mindset. Curiosity is about asking questions, exploring, and digging deeper to learn and grow. The landscape of D&I is all about being in this state of always wondering. Imagine going on an expedition to climb Mount Everest. There are a lot of unknowns, fears, and doubts; however, you will never reach the summit by sitting at base camp. Curiosity and learning go hand in hand.

“Being curious provides the motivation to learn other skills; curiosity fuels learning.”
Paul Ashcroft, Simon Brown, Garrick Jones, The Curious Advantage

5. Cultural Humility. As lifelong learners, organizations and leaders need to embrace cultural humility. By engaging in self-reflection to start to understand personal and systemic biases, and by developing and maintaining respectful processes and relationships, mutual trust can be built (www.fnha.ca). This helps break down barriers to understanding the experiences of others and welcomes deeper understanding of others’ cultures and experiences.    

Final Thoughts

As I continue to deepen my knowledge in D&I, I am drawn to the self-discovery and reflection that comes with this work and the opportunities to share my lived experiences and discover my own blind spots. As research professor and author Brené Brown stated in her podcast with Emmanuel Acho (author of "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man"), this work is about “learning, un-learning, and re-learning".

Nobody is perfect in this space.  I believe the secret sauce to developing a healthy D&I culture involves consistency, community, continuous learning, openness, and dialogue. Remember to show up and be vulnerable, even if you do not have all the answers. 

Driven by connection,
Rita

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Rita Filice, BCOMM, CPHR
Partner, BreakPoint Solutions
ritaf@breakpoint.solutions 
www.breakpoint.solutions 
780-250-2544

Diversity and Inclusion Part 1: Beyond the Checkbox

It is only the second month of 2021, and although I am grateful that 2020 is behind us, I have reflected many times on the lessons learned, on the pandemic, and on the tragic events (e.g., the Black Lives Matter protests and the Capitol Hill riots to name a few) that have taken place in the last year. It is hard to forget how our world has been turned upside down.  

In the aftermath of the events of 2020 and with increased media exposure, discussions around diversity and inclusion (D&I) are going strong. The heartbreaking events and protests in 2020 are advancing dialogue on systemic discrimination and bias like never before. People are hurting. I feel angst on so many levels – professionally as an HR leader and personally through my lived experiences – because diversity, fairness, and equity are at the center of my life and work.  

What has changed? Why do these discussions feel different today? This is not the first time there have been riots or powerful events around racial injustice and systemic discrimination. Is it because these events are hitting prime time news and media?

From a corporate perspective, historically, organizations have made efforts to incorporate diversity and inclusion into the workplace. Resolving D&I incidents were limited to the HR department that was charged to rectify the scenario, ensure employees were treated fairly and given equal opportunities, and subsequently, offer training. The difference today is the world is talking about the realities of diversity, equity, inclusion, and more time and energy are being invested on educating people on anti-racism and interrupting bias.

These ongoing discussions have inspired action. More organizations are becoming aware of how systemic discrimination and bias are subtly and overtly part of their organization, and leaders are becoming actively engaged to start to break the cycle to build more diverse and inclusive workplaces. Leaders are having conversations within their organizations to evaluate what has been done, if it is enough, or how they can get started. There is momentum to get involved, to act, to contribute to something bigger that gives purpose and meaning for humanity. This drive to act has inspired me to get involved; to give back; and to participate in networks that openly share, embrace differences, and encourage learning. I wholeheartedly believe it is in each one of us to act. 

How should organizations approach D&I?

In my experience, the best way to approach D&I is as a leader-led culture change management initiative that is interwoven into the organization’s strategic plan. It is not an HR initiative. For successful outcomes, D&I requires an organization’s living commitment to lifelong learning as part of a never-ending journey.

With the ongoing discussions around D&I, some of the companies, that had not done work in this space, have rushed to create a D&I policy or post a company-wide statement about its stance on diversity and inclusion – check; or offer awareness training to its employees – check. They have completed the D&I requirement, right? Other organizations did not have an urgency to respond because they do not see themselves as having any issues with diversity and inclusion. Is it because when they look around the room, the majority of employees look like them? Or when they look at the people at the leadership table there is at least one person who looks different in an executive role, so they are good, right?

Don’t get me wrong, developing a D&I policy is a start, and training is a part of the puzzle, but it is not THE solution. Training on its own does not actually change the behaviors and systems that contribute to systemic discrimination and bias. The work around D&I needs to go deeper. The work needs to go beyond the checkbox to challenge values, beliefs, behaviors, and systems. Furthermore, the deep work requires being intentional to understand, appreciate, and acknowledge people’s unique attributes and the differences that make up who they are. D&I work requires an organization to define their why and what outcomes are desired as part of the overall strategic plan. This is the deep work required to ingrain D&I into the fabric of an organization. With deep work comes deep learning and it is in learning where progress is made. Are organizations prepared to invest in doing this work?

If you are wondering if there is a business case for diversity and inclusion, the jury is no longer out. The decision to invest in D&I with a learning mindset is well worth it and organizations will reap many benefits. Most notably, it leads to higher employee engagement and team satisfaction, stronger employee skillsets, higher quality of work, improved decision making, better staff retention, and increased overall company performance.

Final Thoughts

From my experience, it is not enough for organizations to simply create a D&I policy and conduct awareness training. D&I goes beyond the checkbox to include deep work to change behaviors and systems. It requires organizations to dig deep into understanding, appreciating, and acknowledging its people’s differences. Human beings have had a lifetime to build attributes, beliefs, and experiences that have shaped who they are today. This work takes time and a living commitment by organizations to learn and grow.  And most of all, always remember why you started.

Check back on Friday for part 2 of this two-part series.

Driven by connection,
Rita

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Rita Filice, BCOMM, CPHR
Partner, BreakPoint Solutions
ritaf@breakpoint.solutions 
www.breakpoint.solutions 
780-250-2544

What's Your Ocean?

I have often found myself using a variety of metaphors in my personal and business life, trying to make a point, trying to confirm or cement my own understanding of a concept, or to do something similar for someone I'm working with.  I think we have all done something like this at one point in time or another. The ability to provide people with some point of comparison or even a visual representation of a thought or an idea can often allow us to reach agreement, advance a perspective, or otherwise make a change.

So what is my reference to an ocean meant to convey?  From an early point in my career (and life) I found myself strongly influenced by the writings of Stephen Covey.  His book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, inspired me to articulate and document my first mission, vision, and values.  As I look back on those initial efforts, I see a significant degree of naivety and lack of depth in the efforts!  No small wonder, as I might have been 21 years old when I took my first stab at this kind of work, had limited life experience (relatively speaking) and wouldn't say I had much benefit of mentorship at that early stage of my career.  That being said, the effort was the right thing to be doing and some of the same values I identified then are still important watchwords for me now - not least of which is the value of integrity.

As I have transitioned through my leadership career and into executive coaching and consulting, my ability to frame my personal mission and vision has dramatically evolved - or at least I think so!  I believe I have been able to solidify both elements with the benefit of all kinds of experiences - life, business, relationships, formal learning, and so on.  My points of reference and foundations for creating visualizations that help me make sense of things for myself - and with others for themselves in my coaching practice - have grown, expanded, and become more fulsome. One of the most relevant, consistently useful and powerful I have found to be a reference to the Ocean and to the River.

One thing that many of my clients so often struggle to deal with or overcome is the notion, or the even the utility, of having a vision.  Common challenges in this regard revolve around an inability to be specific or detailed enough about a desired future state, intimidation around not having the crystal ball to predict the future, being overwhelmed by the potential immensity or power of a desired vision that causes some to not even start on the journey, or - perhaps hardest of all - feeling like one has no power to overcome barriers and challenges that will inevitably arise and get in our way.  Taken to extremes, this latter perspective suggests we are truly victims of circumstance, destined to a pre-determined fate, mere flotsam and jetsam to be tossed about by far more powerful forces.

So to the Ocean and the River and the potential power of metaphor.  The Ocean for me is that stand-in for our sense of direction and where we want to get to.  Sometimes that Ocean is something we see in close proximity to us - perhaps no more than a few months or a year out.  Other times, it truly could be years in the making, up to and including retirement.  Many of us might be accustomed to thinking of a traditional retirement age of somewhere between 55 and 65.  Regardless, for all of our individual protestations, assumptions, and limiting beliefs, we have a vision, or dreams, about how we hope life might turn out for us.  

Now to the River.  That is our path. These are the steps we take on the journey to that far-off shore.  At points in time in the River's journey to the Ocean, the clouds or a fog bank might clear enough for us to see the destination more clearly, or there may be a parting in the forest and perhaps a height from which the river flows that allows us to glimpse the future.  We get some brief moments of clarity before the riverbend puts its head downward again, carving out its effort against the rocks and the soil that we must cover and push against to succeed and achieve.  

But aside from any conformity imposed by man on the course of any individual River, none flow in a straight line.  The River encounters a multitude of different geographical and environmental realities that alter its flow, that change its speed, maybe at times seeming to stagnate, and even seemingly turn back on itself.  The journey of the River is meandering, changing, worked through cataracts and rapids, and can even change paths from season to season.  Ultimately and unerringly, it does, eventually, reach the Ocean.

As a metaphor then, I suggest you can describe your vision - your Ocean - in sufficient detail to keep you moving forward.  You can find and describe your version of this Ocean view, its shoreline, the sounds and the smells you might expect to experience.  Warm or cool breeze, sounds of birds, crashing of waves, sandy or rocky beach.  We've heard about similar destinations from others.  We know some of what to expect when we get there.  You CAN create this vision, your Ocean.

In similar fashion, we know some of the first steps we can take along the way to the Ocean.  We can prepare for the journey, but at some point, if the Ocean means enough to us, we must begin, we must start.  And even when (not if) we encounter some harder terrain, some boulders, or a diversion, keeping the Ocean in mind allows our River to adjust, to change course, to slow down or speed up, with the idea that the Ocean is still there, still waiting for us and still worth working for.  

What's your practical application of this metaphor?  How can this metaphor even apply within the context of world-altering events like COVID-19?  For me, I still have an image of my Ocean as it relates to my obligations and commitments to my family, hopes, and expectations for my career, and even something as small (perhaps) as the next Ironman in August 2021 and $100,000 in a fundraising goal reached for Kids with Cancer Society and in honour of Ronan Smyth.  

Find your Ocean.  Begin and sustain your journey as the River.  The path will be winding.  There will be both scenic and desolate landscapes along the way.  Keep your vision and sustain your efforts.  The River will get there. 

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

Disruptor - In Service of What?

In previous blogs I have called for disruption as a necessary and required force for change. This has been particularly true for me given my long experience in healthcare. We have a very expensive system that doesn't deliver on what it should given the resources expended, we have imbalances in how we spend our dollars in light of our changing population demographics (e.g., a need to continue a shift from cure to prevention, mental health, palliative and care of seniors), and there is a need to appropriately leverage technological advances (the right tool, at the right time, for the right reasons). In those past blogs, I have suggested that healthcare needs some form of Uber-like development or something akin to how Apple disrupted how we communicate and interact with each other.

This is not, however, a post about disruption in that sense.  Rather, it will speak to a perspective of leaders as disruptors within their own companies or organizations.  By definition - or at least by my reasoning - leaders are not brought in or hold a pinnacle position to manage to the status quo.  They are uniquely positioned and tasked with scanning the environment for the organization, identifying both threats and opportunities, and required to position the business for future success.  Disruption can and often is the name of the game for a leader.  This is why there is a constant need on the part of the leader for continuous learning and development.  The strengths or knowledge that got you to a position of leadership must remain as evolving and dynamic as the organization's environment.

The same holds true for leaders at all levels of the organization, even if to a lessor extent.  Even at a front-line supervisory level, the leader must be in a constant state of learning, evolution, and anticipation of what is before them.  They are required, at their level, to challenge their teams to grow and avoid stagnation and complacency.  Their teams must be made change ready and resilient if they are to maintain effectiveness and engagement.  

Let's be clear here as well that I am not talking about change for the sake of change.  There are just as many leaders - in both the private and public sector - who go for the appearance of disruption without actually changing anything of substance.  Nor do they intend to or are they capable of leading real change in these circumstances. The most common forms of this in my estimation are things like mergers and acquisitions and organizational restructuring.  

Turning back to healthcare for the moment, how many restructuring efforts have our systems been through in the past decade or two?  Can we say that the benefits of such have outstripped the cost of the disruption that was caused?  I am in the cynical group that would say we have put on the modern day equivalent of Roman bread and circuses without addressing core fundamentals.  Similarly, I have worked with several organizations that are in a constant state of acquisitions, driven to enhance (short-term) shareholder value or image, but oblivious to or uncaring of the systems and cultural integration work required in such endeavors.  There is much bluff and bluster built on shaky foundations.

This is where the question of Disruptor - In Service of What? comes into play.  And it applies no less at a front-line level as it does for a CEO.  In fact, just recently, I had a newly-minted leader recount how he had been questioned and even goaded by a subordinate to be more disruptive, to challenge the culture of the organization, to take on senior leaders all in order to make a leadership mark.  In the view of this subordinate, disruption was required in order to make one's mark as a leader.  The further implication was that failure to be disruptive was tantamount to mediocrity and career stagnation. What I believe I heard in this was that disruption was seen as a means to advance a personal agenda. Disruption and challenging behavior were seen as necessary for career advancement, to get noticed and to otherwise standout.  The reality was the organization is saddled with a challenging employee who scorns the use of influence versus power in leadership, engages lightly, if at all with others, and is not an icon of collaboration.  At this point, disruption is most often destructive, conflict-ridden, and a sport for one.  There is much promise accompanied by little hope that this potential can be harnessed.

It's at this point that I am reminded of Jim Collins's concept of Level 5 Leadership.  Whereas our examples above seem motivated by personal gain and short-term thinking, Collins notes the success and longevity of other leaders who are as equally ambitious, disruptive and creative with a focus on team and organizational success.  The difference between the hard-driving individual in the little vignette above, and the executives in restructuring and acquisitions noted earlier, is one of motivation.  Disruption that acts only to challenge and destroy, or change for change's sake, are all too often about personal ambition and glory.  They don't necessarily create something new and better, and even if they do create something, these edifices are built on shaky foundations that inevitably fall in the next strong wind.  They get changed and disrupted by the next "great" leader. 

So by all means, disrupt, challenge, seek out, and generate change.  That's what a leader is supposed to do.  But if you really want a legacy and to build something of lasting impact, do it for the purpose of creating something bigger than yourself, of building up the capacity of those you lead, and to realizing a potential for yourself and your organization that you never dreamed of when you started.  I further suggest that being the lone wolf, railing against all around you, calling out the failings of others, may feel vindicating and cathartic.  However, in order to be truly called a leader, you have to have more than a few people follow you down a new path of change.  Leaders need willing and committed followers.

In my view, disruption is necessary, inevitable, and should be used to create rather than simply tear down.  Be a disruptor.  Be a creator.  Be a leader. 

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

What Leadership Isn't

We live in interesting and challenging times.  The pressures, frustrations, anxieties and everything else you might want to use to describe 2020 and the first weeks of 2021 are there in spades.  People are trying to cope with extraordinary events and circumstances unlike anything they have ever experienced.  As a consequence, our personal reserves are being tapped, stretched and even shattered like never before.  The consequence of this is we may have found ourselves wanting, perhaps not quite up to the challenges, and acting in ways, that in better times, we would never imagine.  I say this in part as a hope that some of what we have seen of late can be chalked up to stress reactions.  

That being said, a phrase that comes to mind in times like these: adversity does not so much build character as it reveals it.

So what does it say about us as individuals and collectives that in these times "we" have rushed the Capitol in Washington, vilified and threatened each other in online forums, made death threats against public health officials throughout Canada and the U.S. (and perhaps more) and, as of January 23, saw fit to rally in the front yard of Saskatchewan's Chief Medical Officer of Health.  There are, it seems, no bounds to what we believe is acceptable behavior or discourse, nor do we see anything wrong in attacking - perhaps even killing - those who have given themselves over to serving the public.

What does this have to do with leadership?  

This type of behavior doesn't exist in a vacuum.  Too many of us and most often, and disturbingly, our political leaders have been creating the environment that not only permits but encourages this type of behavior.  And the seeds of this reality were not just sown in the past year nor with the advent of someone like Donald J. Trump in the U.S. four years ago.  Too many politicians have determined that their path to power is abetted by attacks on our public servants.  And the collective "we" have become accustomed to attacking government waste and inefficiency, turning the word bureaucrat into a bad name, and even suggesting our public sector is this nefarious deep state intent on subverting the will of elected officials.  We have turned expertise, experience, and education into qualities to be questioned and dismissed, recommendations coming from such quarters to be held under suspicion and thrown away if they don't accord with what some leaders wish to believe.  Shoot the messenger for suggesting that the emperor has no clothes, their draft policies have no legs, and that plans are not grounded in reality. 

We have normalized a narrative that sees public servants as the other, as alien, and not worthy of the same respect we would demand for ourselves. 

As noted, this is not a new phenomenon.  I have personally experienced several examples of this perspective dating back decades.  As an administrator, vice-president, and CEO in Canada's public health care system, I have been subject to more than my fair share of eye-popping attacks.  

Example 1, individual members of my own Board of Directors deciding that their best course of action in voicing their displeasure with a Board-approved operational/budget initiative was to attack my credentials and my motivations in our local media.  Let's be clear - those attacks came from a couple of  my bosses, roasting their own employee, likely to protect themselves from potential community backlash.  It was convenient, easy and wrong. 

Example 2, straight out of the "I pay your salary through my taxes, you work for me" category (e.g., this is my desk Nancy Pelosi), getting calls literally at all hours of the day or night - and mostly night, at my house.  I was rapidly disabused of the notion that I could have my name and number in a phone book.  When I suggested that I would be more than willing to debate the finer merits of the issue during working hours, it was made clear that my public position meant my open for business sign was on all night.  While I might have signed on for some of those realities, my family clearly had not.  Number became unlisted after that. 

Example 3, after having made the effort to meet with a few community members whose community was about to be impacted by a provincially mandated decision, it was suggested that I ran the risk of being shot between the eyes.  The implication was that I needed to back away from the decision.  No discussion about other alternatives we could have worked through together.  Assassination seemed to be in order.  And this particular insight was not offered by any random member of the community.  It was provided by a manager of a financial institution in that community.

What does this have to do with leadership?  In light of some of the more newsworthy public events of late (e.g., Capitol riot, protest in Saskatchewan), we see political leaders stepping out to express their dismay at such events, to offer condemnation of the perpetrators, and support for public servants.  Too often those words ring hollow or hypocritical when these very same "leaders" have set the stage with their words in actions in the years prior to where we now find ourselves. 

I leave you with the following statement, which has a distinctly healthcare flavor to it, but which I believe should act as a call to do better in relation to how we should be treating all of our public sector employees; i.e., doctors, nurses, teachers, police, fire, civil servants.  

"Since the beginning of COVID-19, this worrying phenomenon has escalated. What began as online harassment has evolved into threats and in-person intimidation. We have seen protests at the private residences of #Saskatchewan’s chief medical officer of health and #Quebec’s National Public Health Officer.

We must speak out against such #intimidation, whether online or in-person, and urge those responsible for overseeing social media platforms and law enforcement bodies to put an end to this highly alarming conduct. Peaceful protests are an important feature of our democracy, but these recent demonstrations have crossed a crucial line between free speech and willful intimidation.

Public health officials and #HealthCareWorkers in Canada have been working tirelessly — under stressful and very challenging conditions — since the beginning of the pandemic to keep Canadians healthy and safe. They deserve nothing short of our full appreciation and respect.

These disquieting acts of aggression must not be tolerated."

Dr. Ann Collins, CMA President

Actions matter. Words matter. Do better. It's About Leadership!

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

Leadership Lost...and Complicity

January 20, 2020 marked the end of the Trump presidency, if not the end of Trump, MAGA, and associated realities. The assessment/evaluation of his term will continue for decades to come. The full impact and story will NOT be told or understood until that kind of time has passed. Here in Alberta, the passing of this chapter in the US is being received to mixed reviews. In some quarters, positively, anticipating a return to less vitriolic and chaotic times, a commitment to healing and inclusion, and for environmental protection. In other quarters, dreading the consequences of cancelled energy projects and viewing such changes with anger and dismay.

Politically, for our conservative government in Alberta, the year 2020 and the commencement of 2021 is a time that seems like it can't pass fast enough.  Receiving the news of another blow to Alberta's energy economy, on top of mixed reviews on COVID/healthcare management and Aloha-gate, has led to a sharp rise in unpopularity of our Premier and a similar plunge in trust in his leadership.

In my previous two blogs I have focused on the theme of Leadership Lost. What was not addressed in those two previous posts, however, is the reality that leadership has never been anything but a team sport.  Donald Trump, Jason Kenney, and any other leader have never achieved anything alone - good or bad.  By its very definition, the term leader entails and requires that there are people to be led, that there be followers, and that there be supporters to help achieve and even sometimes help to develop or massage a vision to be pursued. 

Particularly in the US at the present time, we have heard many terms that describe how Donald Trump both came to power and was allowed to ignore, shatter, and blow past so many long-held protocols and norms of Presidential behaviour - incite, collude, collaborate, connive.  Complicity is a word that I choose to use in describing the reality of his leadership.  Usually complicity or being complicit implies, or is taken to mean, negative intent.  It need not necessarily be so.  Positive results could also, conceivably, be supported by positive actions; e.g., I could be complicit in supporting a colleague's success.  But I will be focusing on the more commonly held negative connotation this word invokes.

Complicity, I believe, can come in many forms and can be visualized as a continuum.  At one end there may be those of use who are unconsciously complicit or only want to make ourselves vaguely aware of nefarious things that are going on around us.  We might consider ourselves smaller cogs in the machinery of an organization, business, or public sector entity.  We are content to work our 9-to-5 shift, get our pay cheque, and stay apart from other elements of an organization's life.  We'd rather not know and work on the premise that ignorance is bliss.  Others of us might be more aware of situations and circumstances based on our positions or connections to other individuals in an organization.  One example I can cite here is that of an accounting clerk - seeing expense claims of executives, knowing and perhaps even calling into question dubious submissions from those in positions of power, but ultimately bending to power (willingly or unwillingly).  The expenses claims are no longer questioned as it relates to policy but merely moved along.

Others of us are more knowingly and intentionally collaborators in nefarious deeds.  Not surprisingly, although not a given, individuals like Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump were key supporters of their father through thick and thin.  Blood can be thicker than water.  Others in a leader's inner circle may also actually believe in fundamentally the same causes and similarly believe that ends pursued justify means used.  This may be accompanied by a further belief that all leaders are flawed in one way or another but that, again, the outcomes being pursued are grounds to support overlooking, forgiving, or even actively defending such character defects.  

As we dig deeper into the circle of collaborators, there are also those who are as self-centred and narcissistic as the leader themselves.  These are perhaps the most dangerous and culpable actors in the rise of a dangerous leader.  These individuals are more than competent, skilled, and experienced.  They have vision and foresight enough to understand how the leader can help them to advance their own ends so they become willing accomplices in the leader's actions and agenda.  In some cases, these collaborators become co-opted into the spiderweb they have helped create.  In my executive leadership experience, this has taken on the form of "right-thinking" people being given greater consideration for performance bonuses, increased or accelerated promotional opportunities, more frequent and attractive personal development opportunities, and so forth.  It has even meant beneficial (and mostly largely unscanctioned/hidden) changes to benefits plans and related compensation elements that would not pass moral, ethical, and even legal tests.  

Often, these collaborators, slowly but inevitably, get dragged to a point of no return.  They - we - delude themselves through a variety of mental gymnastics or self-defense mechanisms to come along with the leader, either voluntarily or involuntarily, as strong advocates or as the willfully blind.  Our future defense when consequences arrive - as in most circumstances they inevitably do - is to claim ignorance, no ill intent, or lack of power to alter the destructive path.

Leadership lost through complicity often comes from a corruption of our personal values.  And as with so many other things, it happens gradually and then suddenly.  We find ourselves through a series of compromises, each of them seemingly small and inconsequential at a place we would never have imagined - an attack on the U.S. Capitol for one.

It's About Leadership.  But that leadership includes the team that supports the leader.  At a point we all have to be clear about or rediscover our personal values, be prepared to be judged by our own standards, and hold ourselves accountable to what we have actioned or not actioned.  Eleventh hour confessions and contrition are unlikely to save us from Leadership Lost and its consequences.  We reap what we have helped sow.

It's About Leadership.  What do you want to be remembered for?  How do you want your 15 minutes of fame (media attention, public spotlight) to look?  With whom do you want to be forever associated?

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

Leadership Lost...or Never There?

This year continues to be an eventful year - and as of the writing of this blog, we are still only sitting on January 11! At the time of my last post we we were experiencing Aloha-gate in Alberta and had not yet gotten to the vote certification process in the U.S. Presidential election. What a difference a week has made in the reality we are facing today! The (top!) highlights of the past week include: the second impeachment process has begun for Donald Trump following the Capitol debacle of January 6, coupled with ever-challenging COVID-19 case counts and deaths. We see resignations from Trump's Cabinet (rather late in the day), some Republicans jumping ship, other allies looking to distance themselves from the carnage, Trump suspended from social media platforms, and Trump world losing corporate opportunities.

At a more local level in Alberta, the latest political polls show the governing United Conservative Party (UCP) dropping precipitously as the choice of Albertans, now sitting with a 31% approval rating as compared to the NDP at 48%. In April 2019, the UCP won a majority government with nearly 55% of the vote in their favor. This appears to be a direct outcome of a variety of government missteps and anxieties primarily (though not exclusively) related to handling of COVID-19. Much like what we now see in the US, there are starting to be some cracks in unity within the UCP/conservative ranks and certainly many calls for resignations, reassignment, and consequences for government leaders and staffers who are believed to have not shown the "right stuff" or even followed government policies and directives.

When I last posted (Leadership Lost), I talked about the fundamental sense of betrayal that so many people seemed to feel here in Alberta when government leaders and staffers seemed to go against their own directives and guidelines on managing the COVID-19 response.  Those who had adhered to restrictions, experienced loss of income/job, had to home school, or otherwise had their lives impacted were incensed.  I identified several reasons for this sense of anger and betrayal, the consequences of which for the UCP are currently reflected in the political polling noted earlier.   

One element of that anger I glossed over quite significantly, however, was a sense of foolishness that we might be experiencing during these type of perceived leadership failures.  Let me explain.  Most of us assess our leaders against our own needs and values - ill-defined as they sometimes might be.  Whether this be in politics or work or other group settings, we gravitate towards leaders whom we believe "get us" and believe in the same things we do.  The key question here is how do we make such an assessment and determine fit?  For the vast majority of us - whether in politics or business - we have limited time, access, and ability to vigorously and authentically assess and evaluate our prospective leader's values and capabilities.  And in many cases, our leadership candidates purposefully look to keep their true persona and intentions vague.  In today's social media and sound bite-driven, world we are even more challenged to go past the surface to what might be real versus staged.

We are also confounded by our unconscious filters and biases.  Contrary to what this first statement implies, filters in our minds actually serve a great purpose.  They allow us to deal with the literally thousands of pieces of data our senses take in every hour and every day.  If we had to pause for any length of time to consciously process, evaluate, and make sense of this data, we could literally be frozen into place.  An example?  I suspect very few of us who drive have to place a lot of thought into what to do when we get to an intersection or have to respond to a traffic signal.  We automatically press the brake when we see a red light, maintain or increase speed when coming to a green light, and perhaps press even harder on the gas when we see yellow.  At the same time this is happening, you are listening to the radio, a fellow passenger, or might be processing other to-do's and issues in your brain.

What does this concept of filters and unconscious bias have to do with how we pick and evaluate our leaders?  Whether we realize it or not, and whether we want to own that reality or not, we unconsciously look for qualities, characteristics, and statements that support what we already want to believe.  This is called confirmation bias. Moreover, any contrary information is not only often dismissed, it might not even register on one's radar!  We don't even see the facts when they are staring us in the face.  We see what we want to see, we dismiss what we don't, and we get highly emotional and even more entrenched when our strongly held views are challenged. 

Equating this to gambling, when presented with a losing hand (e.g., our leaders are not what we expected they would be), we often double down.  We become more committed to a cause, a leader, a direction that isn't supported by the facts or reality.  But at some point, in leadership as in gambling, we run out of chips to stay in our particular world.  "Winning", or coming back from the point of no return, is no longer possible.  The result is at least despondency if not outright anger.  If the latter, we blame everyone but ourselves for defeat.  

In reality, however, our sense of anger reflects that we are primarily angry at ourselves.  The leadership we have lost was likely never there in the first place.  It was a mirage of our own making.  We eventually realize that the leaders we came to place our faith in have not changed since we first cast our vote for them.  They are who they have always been, possessed of the same values when first elected or selected, guided by the same ambitions as they once were, and committed to the same objectives as always.  

Our anger is not so much that they fooled us into believing they understood us and cared for the same things we did, or even cared about us.

Our anger might just be based on the fact that we fooled ourselves into seeing what wasn't there to begin with.  We have seen the enemy and it was us.

It's About Leadership.  The challenge just might be to own what we imagined and created. 

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

Leadership Lost

This post comes as the world continues to navigate the scourge of COVID-19 and all of its associated impacts - economic dislocation, social isolation, fear and anxiety, uncertainty about the future, and literally a reset of almost all of what we took for granted just months ago.  What we have also come to experience is there is no common answer to the challenges we have been facing and how to get to the other side of this current reality.  Governments and leaders around the world have opted for everything from extreme lockdowns, to calls for personal responsibility, to abject denial of the significance of COVID.

This past weekend, in the transition from 2020 to 2021, Albertans came to understand a different kind of reality when it became known that multiple elected leaders and political officials ignored their own government's words, advice, and "suggestions", and were found to have travelled not just outside of their own city/town but out-of-province and out-of-country.  In some instances, these actions were further compounded by what seemed to be active attempts to deceive the electorate through social media posts. These same officials were wanting us to believe they were sending Christmas and New Year's greetings from Alberta while in reality what we were viewing were pre-recorded greetings, posted at appropriate times, while vacations continued in places like Hawaii, Mexico, and Arizona.

Judging from my social media feed and news reports, it is clear that much of Alberta feels betrayed - in some cases profoundly so - by its leaders.  While the answer to the question why, might seem self-evident, it's important to dissect this outrage.  From my point of view, this outrage comes down to a number of factors that perhaps we all take for granted or is unsaid about what we collectively believe constitutes good leadership.  

Taking a page from Kouzes & Posner (Credibility, The Leadership Challenge), a consistent quality of leadership that followers look for is honesty.  Leadership is not (truly) achieved through simply having a position of authority or power.  It is achieved by followers being willing to follow a leader, through an evaluation that the leader(s) is someone worthy of their trust, and who shares their values and goals.  Followers must know they can trust their leaders.  A failure of honesty poisons the environment and the relationship between leader and followers.  Honesty, trust and integrity.  By failing to Model the Way (Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership), by failing to set the example and holding themselves accountable to their professed values and standards, Alberta leaders have significantly betrayed the trust of their constituents, have damaged their leadership credibility, and have diminished their legitimacy to lead through the current health and economic challenges facing this province.  

This government has only made a bad situation worse through failing to take personal and collective responsibility for actions, providing reasons why their actions were acceptable under current (unclear?) guidelines, and making half-hearted and belated apologies for their actions.  

The majority of Albertans believe they have been making significant voluntary and involuntary sacrifices for the past year.  They have lost income or entire jobs/careers, put educational/career plans on hold, become teachers for their young children, socially isolated from family and friends, cancelled vacation plans, and in many other ways put their lives on hold.  Their outrage suggests  they were operating on the belief that these sacrifices were shared by their leaders, only now to have those beliefs proven false, their faith and trust misplaced.  They not only feel betrayed, they feel they have been taken as fools for believing in the common cause. 

This is where I believe the heart of this matter lies.  What I believe accounts for the profound and widespread outrage at the moment is not just the immediate act of ignoring public health recommendations.  We feel not just betrayed but duped.  What the actions of our provincial leadership seem to demonstrate is a distinct lack of respect for their followers, for the electorate, and for fellow citizens.  We now believe we foolishly held the same values and commitments as our leaders.  By the actions of our leaders, this facade has been shattered.  The rules were only ever for us, not leadership or the inner circle.  We are not worthy.  Let us eat cake.

Where to from here?  Can trust and credibility be restored?  Will Albertans forgive and forget?  Only time will tell and, at some level, I'm sure political calculations suggest a two-year window until the next election is an eternity providing ample opportunity for resurrection.

It's About Leadership!  It always has been.  For me and I believe for most Albertans, leadership - exemplary leadership - is defined by integrity, honesty, credibility, shared pain, and shared sacrifice.  So far our provincial leadership has failed the test. 

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

Enabler or Gatekeeper?

When you think of HR, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Compliance officer? Gatekeeper? Controller? Or is it trusted advisor? Enabler? Business partner?

The HR profession has transformed from being a highly administrative function to being a strategic voice in business. Traditionally, HR has been perceived as a gatekeeper. Instead of managers being able to move forward with their ideas or challenges, HR was a roadblock where necessary action stopped.  There was an us vs. them mentality that pushed leaders away and forced them to circumvent processes to still get their job done.  

Gatekeeper: a person or organization that controls whether people can have or use a particular service (www.dictionary.cambridge.org)

When I started my career, I knew one thing for sure: my mandate was to connect with people, develop meaningful relationships, elevate the employee experience, and make things happen for the business. And through my lived experiences, I learned that a command-and-control approach with people and processes (i.e., being a gatekeeper) did not produce results. I also knew that from an HR perspective, well designed guidelines that fit the culture and values of the organization were necessary and added value to the employee experience. So, the trick was to figure out how to produce results, animate the culture and values of the organization, and nurture the employee experience by empowering them in their roles and their decision-making.

The choice for me was always simple on how I would show up and perform. To be an enabler, I had to pave the way to make things happen, influence people’s decisions with knowledge and data, and help leaders bring their ideas to life through collaboration.

Enabler: a person or thing that makes something possible (www.lexico.com)

One of my greatest memories in HR was working at a land development and housing company. Working alongside the Vice President of Housing and other members of the senior leadership team, we clicked and made significant progress on the employee experience. My commitment to being an enabler was an important piece to my success in moving the business forward, as described here by the VP of Housing:

“Rita is the first HR person I have worked with that gets the relationship between operations and HR. She is an enabler of people where others are gatekeepers. Rita consistently earned and built trust on the senior team through outstanding credibility, objectivity, and professionalism. She challenged experienced managers in our construction and sales culture to modernize and be open minded to the benefits of cultural change and modern people policies.”

My goal was to create an open and collaborative space for leaders to feel safe, to be vulnerable, to proactively raise people issues, to evaluate options to solve problems, and to create solutions that fit the situation.

My role as enabler looked like this:

• Trusted advisor: earning trust, respect and credibility by being present, walking the talk, listening well, asking the right questions, and challenging thinking by bringing forward different perspectives.

• Business knowledge: leveraging human resources knowledge and investing time to understand the business, the people, and the drivers for success.

• Open door philosophy: having an open door for employees and leaders to discuss issues, to clarify understandings, and to be a sounding board. My door was always open.

• Delivering candid feedback: being comfortable with the uncomfortable, having difficult conversations, and offering honest feedback with empathy, courage, and respect.

• Being proactive: anticipating what the business required and bringing forward valuable ideas and insight to make informed decisions about people.

• Collaboration: great things happen when people work together. Collaboration is one of my values and it is how I partner with the business to improve people decisions.

How can leaders support HR to be an enabler to the business?

• Be accountable to themselves, their teams and the organization.

• Communicate often. Leaders are a pathway to raise awareness, share knowledge and keep employees informed.

• Leverage human resources. HR is on your team and they want you to succeed!

• Be open, transparent and honest. Share information often and speak up if you cannot meet a company deadline.

• When in doubt, ask for HR’s help before a small people problem becomes a big people problem.

• Put employees first. HR is supportive when they know leaders have done everything in their power to work with their employees and position them to succeed.

• Get social and take a break with your HR partner. We are human too! Go for coffee. Create space for HR to get to know you, your pain points, what keeps you up at night. Developing trusting relationships is hard work but well worth it when you want to accomplish great things together. Trust me, this is a cool thing to do!

HR is no longer an administrative function, but an enabling voice to organizations. And as the future of work evolves, HR will continue to be a center of influence and a strategic voice to organizations.

HR is in a unique position to influence business and people decisions and offer valuable insight. It can connect the dots between people, data, and business, giving organizations a competitive advantage. Organizations that enable HR will improve business performance.

As human beings, we are wired for social connection. This is a year where that wiring has been tested in every aspect of our lives. As I write this blog, it is the last month of 2020, and a time to reflect on what this year has taught us about where we show up as gatekeepers and where we show up as enablers. How have those occurrences impacted your ability and capacity to experience connection?

I believe it is in each one of us to be an enabler. Human beings have the ability to be open minded, to collaborate, to be vulnerable, to empower others, to be empathetic, to communicate often, to be active listeners, to show up with no judgement, and to accept different perspectives. Imagine the possibilities if the enabler lens was expanded from the HR function in a business and applied to a vision for humanity and the world. Just imagine!

Driven by connection,
Rita

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Rita Filice, BCOMM, CPHR
Partner, BreakPoint Solutions
ritaf@breakpoint.solutions 
www.breakpoint.solutions 
780-250-2544

Moral Distress, Residue, and the Price of Leadership

Today - November 25, 2020. As I write this, Alberta is coming off successive days of over 1,000 COVID cases and ICU capacity is reaching pre-determined threshold limits in the province. We have the dubious distinction of leading the country. For days, weeks, and even months, our provincial government has been admonishing citizens to exercise personal responsibility in how they work, play, live, and socialize in order to flatten the COVID curve.

The current conservative government has been loathe to impose (and enforce?) more significant restrictions up to and including a circuit-breaker lockdown of between two to four weeks long.  This would harken back to earlier this year when businesses were shuttered and schools either effectively closed or moved to virtual reality through to the end of June.  Similar efforts have been used to positive affect in other countries like Australia.

In April, daily cases reported numbers in the low hundreds.  Today we are multiples beyond that and likely to hit new highs in the coming days. The Grinch is likely to steal Christmas this year. 

The current choice provincial political leadership seems to believe it is faced with is one between economic disaster that would arise from a lockdown, the potential backlash from some who believe any form of restrictions is a violation of their individual rights, and a continuing - and accelerated - rate of infection, hospitalization, and death of Albertans. Livelihoods or lives.

Leadership is about hard choices.  Compounding that reality is that those hard choices are fraught with imperfect information, particularly around decisions where there are conflicting opinions, motivations, and truly unknown future outcomes.  Leaders rarely get clear and distinct choices between right and wrong, yes or no, black and white.  Leadership is about the courage to function and excel in the shades of gray. 

Those choices can result in pain and anguish when we struggle through what is the right thing to do or we may even be actively prevented from doing the right thing.  There may also be times where we feel we are forced to do the wrong thing.  We experience moral distress.  I can only imagine the moral distress that our Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) faces each day as she watches the cases climb, contact tracing systems collapse under the volume of activity, citizens ignoring recommendations to promote their safety, and having to toe a political line relative to what should be done versus what will be allowed or tolerated. 

Beyond the period of agonizing over that first big choice comes the consequence of having to now live with those choices.  Moral residue follows moral distress - a feeling of having comprised ourselves, our ethics, our values, and ourselves when the anticipated and real consequences of our choices come home to roost.  I believe the CMOH is trying to do the right thing.  The question becomes is she being prevented from doing the right thing or is she even being forced to do the wrong thing.

The answers to whether our government is doing the right thing or the wrong thing will become much more abundantly clear in the next two to three weeks.  In that time we will find out how much of a game of Russian roulette we have been playing.  We will find out how many blanks or live ammo are in our collective gun.  If we have guessed, hoped, or chosen wrong, we will put our healthcare system in another situation of moral distress. In fact, we already have.  Elective and non-urgent surgeries have already been cancelled.  Other appointments and diagnostic tests have been delayed or postponed.  These consequences will pale in comparison to the choices we may be placing before our healthcare professionals in the weeks to come.  We could be asking them to NOT put COVID patients on ventilators because we lack capacity.  We may be asking them to CHOOSE between providing life-saving care for a 55-year-old father of three daughters, or the 80-year-old grandmother of six grandkids, or the 30-year-old just-married wife starting to really launch her career.

Moral distress.  Moral residue.  It's being writ large for all of us.  Send our kids to school or not.  Work from home or not.  See our families or not.  Support a lockdown or not.  

This is the time for strong leadership. This is a time for courage. This is a time of commitment.

It's About Leadership. Period.

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

Exorcising Our Ghosts

Growing up I had my fair share of fears as I suspect most kids do. In particular, I somehow learned to fear the dark and more particularly all the evil creatures that might be lurking under the bed, in my closet or just outside the window. Every noise and small movement of shadow seemed to be amplified, the precursor to my impending doom. Several decades removed from those childish fears I still find myself somewhat anxious at the thought of a night out with my telescope observing the heavens.

The reality is, however, that in my youth those monsters were quite real. And in truth, it was only over time and not through any particular parental logic that they were overcome. I profess to still having some fear of the dark, but more often it is borne out of knowledge of what is really out there - farm dogs that might perceive me as a threat; skunks, coyotes or other wild animals; and other humans who might have less astronomical things on their minds. My fears are more grounded in reality these days (e.g., COVID impacts, US election results??), but they don't hold me back from pursuing one of my personal passions. So what gets me out there in the middle of the night regardless of perceived or real ghosts? In this case, it is the opportunity to gaze upon celestial wonders of far flung galaxies, nebulae, and the rings of Saturn. In some bizarre and metaphorical sense, I am driven to face my fears by a higher purpose.

As an executive coach - and a leader/entrepreneur in my own right - I experience and realize that I can be subject to a number of different fears. Most of these come down to self-doubt and the courage to take on new and different challenges in my career and business. And I see similar behavior in many of the clients I work with. The mythical monsters that have lived in the closets or just outside our windows in our youth now stalk the halls and alleys of our hearts, minds and souls. These monsters and ghosts are some of the most insidious we will ever face. They know us well and play on and magnify our weaknesses, insecurities, and doubts. Left unfaced, they grow in strength and hold us paralyzed with fear striving to ensure we never take that next step forward.

These ghosts don't operate purely or even mostly on horror and shock value. Rather, they are more cunning and possessed of a powerful voice, constantly talking us out of taking that next bold step into the future. They are the voice that suggests we really aren't qualified to apply for a new position. They help us procrastinate and rationalize to the point where even if we were to apply and get an interview we would show up with the belief we don't belong. We display our anxiety to the point that those who would make the selection decision recognize our lack of confidence and make the non-selection decision we have been expecting all along. We become our own self-fulfilling prophecy.

But like conquering our own childhood fears, success in facing our more mature fears is possible. My success and the successes of my coaching clients are proof of that. In my first year away from an executive role and into my new venture, I probably had more sleepless nights - and self-talk - than I'd had in the previous 10 years. What made this the right move? Was my business plan just wishful thinking? What made me think that my marketing efforts were the right ones? And so on and so forth. I could say it was the powerful vision of my ultimate success that kept me going, but that would be too easy a way to rewrite history. Truth be told, I was probably just too proud and stubborn to give in. But I did ultimately face and conquer (most of) my fears. I often did so with the encouragement, support, inspiration, and examples of others.

In similar fashion, I have been inspired by the courage that many of my coaching clients have ultimately demonstrated as they struggled with realizing their potential, seeking out new opportunities, and taking on new challenges. We have helped them face their fears, challenge their self-limiting beliefs and powerfully own their strengths. A quote from one of my coaching colleagues comes to mind in this regard: "Your mind is a dangerous neighborhood to go into alone." So together, we have walked the dark halls and alleys of their mind, challenging assumptions, taking small steps, all in service of a grander vision of what is possible for them, to realize their potential and open up new vistas they had not even imagined.

The fears and doubts never truly go away. I still fear the dark, I still fear swimming in open water, and I still fear that success enjoyed today is fleeting. Even as my clients enjoy their current success (e.g., new job, award, raise, promotion), they still wonder how they will maintain or build on that success. Our fears and doubts won't go quietly into the night, but perhaps rather than paralyzing us, they can serve a more useful function of keeping us sharp and helping us prepare for potential (and reality-based) setbacks.

Keeping a higher purpose and vision in front of us - the celestial heavens, the triathlon finish line, a successful and fulfilling career - is a foundation by which we can keep moving one step ahead, developing our own level of reassurance that our fears are often overblown. We can choose to live in fear or live in purpose. We can look back on our past successes as harbingers of bigger things to come. We can believe in our strengths and in our capacity to become stronger. We can ultimately build the confidence and courage to overcome what is holding us back from our un-imagined potential.

Choose to face your ghosts, get off your (metaphorical) bed, and shine a flashlight into the dark spaces. What you don't find there might amaze you and lighten your load.

Exorcise your ghosts - own the night.

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