King of the Mountain

Umpteen times I’ve tried to finish this blog over a span of almost two years.  It seemed that every time I’d return to this draft that there would be an even bigger national tragedy that would force my attention away from discussing healthcare leadership.  What we see now and what we will suffer for years to come, humbles and grieves me.  However, to call me a snowflake would show a lack of understanding of the power of a snowflake.  I am from Michigan and I’ve seen snowflakes take out a Ford F150.  Regardless, let’s move this draft to a posting.

How many times have you had to report to someone who had been promoted to a position of management or directorship because of qualities that had nothing to do with the job of leadership?  For many of us, unfortunately, this has occurred way too many times.  If this incompetent manager keeps to himself and implodes on his own, we can breathe a sigh of relief having missed a bullet.  Unfortunately, this person will usually feel compelled to wield this newly assigned position of power and may even thrive convincing those whom he reports of his “management skills” while he leaves broken people and their careers in his wake.

One of the hallmarks of the current political scene is a lack of diplomacy and decency.  Sadly, we have seen a tacit acceptance of this “non-politically correctness” spread to the work place, in social media, and even in the discussion about leadership.  We know this toxic language and these people.  If they lived in our neighborhood, making every excursion outside of our home a nightmare or terrorized our playground at recess, we quickly learned.  If they weren’t physically bigger, they had a gang, or a streak of meanness that was intimidating.  Most of the nice kids were totally unprepared for this.  It was always easier to take the long way home, drop a class, or go out for another sport.

My condolences if you encounter this person as an adult.  Worse if he becomes your supervisor at work.  Intimidation, harassment, discrimination, or lack of respect in the proverbial tool box of this manager is nothing less than an excuse to being a bully.  Why is it that these people placed at the top of the leadership pyramid feel that those under them are inferior, do not deserve their respect, and are nothing less than cogs in the company’s machine that can be discarded and replaced?  

Thankfully, this bullying approach doesn’t always go unnoticed or succeed.  A Gallup poll of more one million employed U.S. workers concluded that the number 1 reason people quit their jobs is a bad boss or immediate supervisor.  Furthermore, the findings indicate people leave managers not companies.  Therefore, turnover is mostly a manager issue.  Fingers crossed here:  it appears that companies are finding out that bad bosses are bad for business.

But here we are again, like legislating supply side economics, we are giving this failed approach another go.  For now.

For those of us who are drawn to leadership, one thing to keep in mind is that leadership, like so many skills, is just that.  It can be acquired over years of specific training followed by more years of trial and error.  And all through this process, someone who wants to be a leader has to keep an open mind and learn with every failure and every wrong turn. Success, I’ve found, should only be savored for a short while because the next challenge is just around the bend.  Keeping an open mind is about not getting too cocky.  Or feeling you can bend your staff to your will by bullying.

It is my considered opinion of decades of being led as well as leading, is that people usually know early in their careers if they should lead.  There are times it might feel like striving for a job as a manager or director is the only next upward step in career.  That choice might turn out disastrous not only for you, but also for the inevitable collateral damage of others.  On a personal level, working towards a management job may simply be a case of a lack of imagination.  Corporate-think?

Instead of pursuing the path of leadership when every cell in your body is tugging you in a different direction, take a few breaths and consider what you enjoy, or don’t enjoy, about your job.  Do you really want to face the daily demands of leadership while, at the same time, discover ways to inspire and give direction to your team while putting your own ego aside?  Seeing to staff details, such as reconciling time cards is important, but I’d argue it is not as important reviewing and confirming the context of the Why of the work and setting goals that make sense.

These are what I think are the imperatives for successful leadership:

1. Hire the right people
2. Guide and give direction to your people on a regular schedule
3. Set the context of all activity and continually review and confirm the context
4. Provide your people the resources they need to succeed and be intuitive to know when they need the resources before they do
5. Remember that your people’s successes is your success.

Pharrel Williams in a 2016 interview stated:  To me, the old definition of leadership is “Look at me, I’m a leader.”  But the new definition should be “No, actually, look at you—I’m listening.”

Archeologists have been called a number of names. Of those that don’t make me cringe, “Reverse Engineers” is one of my favorites.

Personalities aside, one of our skills should include the ability to dismantle a current situation to its origins. As reverse engineers, we rely on the artifacts and data we discover along the way to compare with what has been uncovered before. As scientists, we are delighted and excited with how our findings do or do not line up with what others think. Debate and an evolution in thinking is all part of the scientific process. It is dynamic, cerebral, often passionate, and, for the most part, fun.

This should be the case for all applied social sciences.

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 In my role as a healthcare leader, I have coordinated many planning meetings. Like others, I have used the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) approach to generate ideas and direct the discussion of planning groups to action plans and goals that everyone present can agree on. These discussions are for brainstorming and are usually optimistic about the future.

Another planning approach that appeals to the reverse engineer in me is called the Pre-mortem or the Failure Dream exercise.

This is how I present the Failure Dream:

1. I have everyone participate in a simple relaxation exercise to shake off some of the daily stress and open their minds and imagination. I will usually lead Pranayama breathing of full and deep diaphragmatic breathing in and out of the nose.
2. With eyes still closed, I have everyone focus on a specific project that is being considered for implementation.
3. I then announce that this project has been implemented BUT has failed. Everyone opens their eyes and have only two minutes to write down all the reasons why it has failed.
4. Next, they hand in their reasons.
5. I share these reasons on a white board with the group. Unlike in the SWOT exercise, I encourage people to debate the reasons of failure.
6. With this information in hand, I can then:

• re-evaluate the project and consider scuttling it before it reaches implementation.
• But,if the project moves forward, I use this list as a punch card to assure that all possibilities of failure are being addressed.

I have found that participants will be more candid and less cognizant of the opinions of their peers and leader in this exercise because it is unexpected and the reasons are written quickly.

Reverse engineering can uncover concerns not always recognized when you and your organization is charging forward.

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In my last blog I listed the fundamental skills identified by David Autor of MIT needed to succeed in all jobs. They were:

1. Communicate
2. Tell a story
3. Analyze
4. Articulate

Although I am admittedly the least imaginative storyteller in my family, I still savor an imaginative story delivered with passion. Our hero (many times not a hero at all in the beginning) will probably face huge odds. He/She will probably fail, learn, regroup, and return again face the “Beast” or “Abomination” and finally succeed.

The power of a compelling story can inspire and change people’s perceptions and prejudices. It can also reinforce our beliefs and values. During his life, the great mythologist Joseph Campbell developed the theory of the “Hero’s Journey” and its power to strengthen our cultural story.

Joseph Campbell saw universal patterns embedded in myths, spiritual literature, fairy tales, popular books, and films, as well as in psychological development.

The man credited with “Follow your bliss,” identified twelve stages in the heroic or mythic journey for the archetype hero. They are in order:

1. The Ordinary World
2. The Call to Adventure
3. Refusal of the Call
4. Meeting with the Mentor
5. Crossing the Threshold
6. Tests, Allies and Enemies
7. Approach
8. The Ordeal
9. The Reward
10. The Road Back
11. The Resurrection
12. Return with the Elixir

As a frame of reference think of Jason and the Argonauts, Jesus of Nazareth in the New Testament, Beowulf, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Star Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy. Campbell wrote that when we find the abomination, we find God. For it is those moments that we gain awakening and growth.

 All of these heroes embarked on a journey that was difficult and yet they persevered even with opportunities to back out. We are all on a journey, and so are our projects.

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As I briefly noted above, these universal patterns can be seen not only in the journeys of our cultural, spiritual, and mythical national heroes, but also in our own personal journey.

Psychologist David Gordon in his 2007 work Mindful Dreaming saw that our sleeping dreams followed a similar pattern to that outlined by Joseph Campbell. He listed these stages as:

1. The Calling
2. The Quest
3. Illumination
4. The Return

In his practice, David Gordon counseled individuals to use their dreams to heal and to move forward.   Furthermore, he encouraged his clients to indentify seemingly threatening individuals in their dreams as mentors. Yes, mentors.

These mentors are there to lend a helping hand and facilitate the dreamer’s intentions regardless how threatening or off-putting they may seem at first (harking back to Dr. Campbell and his stage 4). Gordon asks his clients to immediately write down their dreams and then to share these dreams in groups.

His intention is that his clients will learn not to fear their dreams, but as a returning hero, become their own mentor.

Gordon concludes, “It is shame—the most powerful negative human thought—that alienates us from awareness of our true nature.”

Instead of fearing ones dreams and “nightmares,” it is our dreams that help us identify our problems and then provides us a way to a more fulfilling life along our own Heroic Journey.

I have heard it asked in interviews: “If you were an animal. What animal would you be?”

In spite of the dubious nature of this question in a job interview and, at the same time, scanning the personal photos decorating the office of the interviewer searching for evidence of a cat or dog fancier, you still need to provide an answer that doesn’t sound ironic of dismissive. I don’t know what the right answer might be, but in today’s job market, you may feel like you are an Eohippus.

For a brief moment consider the Eohippus. I will be the first to admit that it is an odd choice that you may not be readily familiar and one your interviewer is not prepared: unless he loves horses.

In spite of being ancient (enjoying the plant-rich climate of the Eocene Epoch which takes us back about 50 million years), with no modern relatives surviving in North America, and small enough to look a cocker spaniel in the eye, the Eohippus would still be identified to be a horse by our modern eye. There it stood: possessing the adaptability and keen sense of survival to advance its genes tens of millions of years before the appearance of the first hominid. Yet the Eohippus refused to become one of those strange antediluvian finds: its remains looked like a horse and all paleontological evidence indicated that it acted like a horse.

Go Team Eohippus!

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What do you think are the persistent fundamental skills that are still valuable in every work domain?

According to David Autor, an MIT economist who has written on technological change and employment growth, in an interview on FreakonomicsRadio, listed these fundamental skills as the ability to:

1. Communicate
2. Tell a story
3. Analyze
4. Articulate

Notably, these skills are not necessarily inherent to or taught in any single discipline.

At one point in my career as a medical social worker I know that I expressed a bias that these traits are the bread and butter of every social worker and counselor. I was proud that we medical social workers brought a skill set to the hospital just as important as the surgical skills of a surgeon and the manual therapy healing of the physical therapist. In fact, my graduate thesis that I completed while I was working full-time as a medical social worker, leaned heavily in the direction that the abilities associated with social work makes for the most effective hospital leadership: self-serving, no? I have, thankfully, learned a lot since that time.

Regardless, I like this brief list of skills and think that they are just as relevant now as they were in the analog days.

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It is helpful to remember that there are some fundamental skills that are portable to your next job, but these skills identified by David Autor, however, can’t be laid aside and sit idle. They need to be challenged and honed.

How do you do this when you aren’t working in a field of our choosing? Here is my short list of activities. These are certainly not inclusive and I invite you to add others:

• Volunteer at an organization that shares your values.
• Write and/or journal not just about your feelings, but about your passions and what gives your life meaning.
• Meet to talk with trusted friends in your line of work. Don’t make these meetings all about work, make them personal too.
• Create spreadsheets about your efforts and expenses in your work search. Keep those tools of management sharp and ready for redeployment.
• Read about changes and trends in not just your field, but in other industries as well. It never ceases to amaze me just how brilliance has so many applications.
• Attend continuing education classes and/or webinars.
• This is a good time to work on improving performance in your sport and maybe discover a new activity.

French novelist Gustave Flaubert wrote: The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments.

In conclusion: Ride that Eohippus long and hard!

Even though we went our separate ways after junior high, I always figured that David Wallin Shaw and I would always be available to each other to talk over a coffee or a dinner.  We were friends in grade school and our families were together on most Friday and Sunday nights. In kindergarten, Dave was in love with Diane and had planned on marrying her when the right moment would present itself.  His time never came and I married Diane.

We started bumping into each other at a hospital workout gym and we were both surprised to see what kind of men we became.  When Dave was diagnosed with the disease that would kill him this weekend, he had one of his sisters contact me and we rekindled our friendship.  We found that we could still lean on each other and talk about almost anything.  These last few years have been trying for both of us, but it has been a privilege for me to spend them with Dave again.

I think about culture a lot. 

Not just now, but for as long as I can remember. 

It may be because I was adopted and never knowing my biological roots that I’ve felt like an ethnologist in the field:  seeing interactions and relationships from an objective standpoint:  an observer.  And this is here, in my community, and for nearly sixty years.

This role of ethnologist, however, is one I apparently cannot turn off.

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The Cultural Creep

At a recent breakfast, my friend Randy shared an article that concluded that one needs to avoid using long and complex words while being interviewed for a job because doing so may perplex and prejudice the interviewer against you.  Without missing a beat, I saw this as yet another example that our American culture is continuing to widen the strata between classes.  (And not an article in how to interview better to land that job.)

In the 60’s and 70’s, it was my observation that you could be poor economically, but that we all strove to be at least intellectually equal.  My generation could go months without a haircut and years without new jeans, but we eagerly grabbed for scholarships and grants to go to college.  And everyone read. 

We all read and, many times, the same books and periodicals.  Here, the gap was breeched.  Doctors and lawyers and professors talked with social workers and construction workers and students.

The Internet promised us access to more intellectual property, but instead we were flooded with pop culture.  What adjustment hasn’t occurred is that any posting is now weighed as equals to properly vetted scholarly texts.  Sadly, on the Internet and in a growing number of media, discrimination isn’t exercised and now we are witnessing more parochial divisions among Americans since the time where credibility was weighed by simple literacy.

For your consideration I’d like to suggest a not too long and complex word to describe this cultural spread creep:  Insidious.

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The Importance of an Open Mind

In wanting to be open minded, a trait we all aspired to at one time, I see where many people have become, well, a little simple minded.  Searching for the absolute, the black and white, I find many people over looking the varying shades of gray that color most issues.

Reading books rip off the filter of this kind of monochromatic thinking.  Again, I’m talking about literature and properly researched papers.  (Unlike this blog and many others; please accept this part of my post as a rant.)

I do think, however, that the newest generation to enter adulthood, Generation Y, is more socially conscientious than previous generations before, especially my own.  (Rant, rant, rant.)  I do appreciate this generational attribute of openness and I want to believe that all the prejudices that held America from true enlightenment will become a footnote (versus a foot trail) in our history.  Meanwhile, please don’t rule me out as a job candidate simply because my favorite word is culpable.

Culture, defined by one of my favorite anthropologists, Marvin Harris, are patterns of behavior, thought, and feelings that are acquired or influenced through learning and that are characteristic of groups of people rather than of individuals…In other words, a culture is the total socially-acquired life-way or life-style of a particular group of people.  Culture, Man, and Nature (p. 136).

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Leading Today

In order to be an effective leader, I analyze the culture of the team or clinic or organization I am being assigned.  I do this by watching people perform their duties, how they interact with one another, and then by asking lots of questions.  I ask not only questions to those who are part of the culture, but also to those who depend on a group to produce a service or product.  I find learning this new culture is continuous and often fun.  I see that generational differences are a significant variable that can’t be ignored.

Before long, I can “go native” regardless of the educational and licensed differences.  I find that once we share a common language and common goals, getting things done is much easier.

However, cultures are dynamic and there are times when cultures need to change to meet the goals of the organization.  A few management experts predict that it takes no less than four years and with focused repetition to change a work culture.  If steady and continuous education and support fail to change the culture, there is the “cleaning house” strategy.  That “nuclear” approach, however, comes with a price.

Peter Drucker, world renown management consultant and self proclaimed “Christian-conservative anarchist” and social-ecologist, in 1973 and then in 2008, warned us that there are deep ethical implications with making changes simply to meet short-term and the egocentric needs of a manager.

Business enterprises are organs of society.  They do not exist for their own sake, but to fulfill a specific social purpose and to satisfy a specific need of a society, a community, or individuals.  (Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, p. 37)

But if (a man) lacks in character and integrity—no matter how knowledgeable, how brilliant, how successful—he destroys.  He destroys people, the most valuable resource of the enterprise.  (Management, p. 287)

Your self-anointed ethnologist wants to remind you managers to do your research, ask lots of questions (without assuming to know the correct answers), and be careful when analyzing cultures different from your own.  If you keep an open mind, you will enjoy learning about another culture and invariably something about yourself, too.