Ep. 5: The Seldom Spoken Aspects of Leadership (1 of 4)
Creating the perfect company from the organizational experts MultiView Incorporated. This content is based on NBI's work with over 1,300 organizations extracting nine eighty nine data elements with nine twenty two cross calculations over twenty seven years on a monthly basis and then systematizing the operational success patterns of the ninetieth percentile. Our intent is to get beyond the brag and the boast and simply share insights from our experience without manipulation or coercion to sell anything except helpful ideas. These messages range from intimate recordings from the Awakened Forest to concerts, national conferences, and broadcasts.
Speaker 2:All right. Welcome everybody to the Seldom Spoken Aspects of Leadership. And this event, I mean there's hundreds of people in it. I know there are a lot of organizations that are doing kind of the large group format and the big screen where there's lots of people attending. I think that group interaction is a good thing.
Speaker 2:Then obviously, but you know watching it by yourself is great. And of course it's being recorded. So that possibly, if you deem it worthy, it can be incorporated into your proprietary leadership development system. Because, again, as I have reviewed all these hospices, even preparing for this, I'm just amazed that those people, those organizations that focus on leadership, how they become a leadership factory. Reproducing what they have become.
Speaker 2:And so I thank you for taking the time. I don't know exactly how long this will go. But I don't want to leave anything on the table either. Now, of course, my job is what? To be as helpful as I can be.
Speaker 2:And I lost my second child. Like eighteen months ago. And I kind of, know, part of my mission in life anymore, you know, I said, you know, I'm just going to devote myself to goodness and helpfulness. And this is part of it. So I'm just kind of putting it out there like that and I'm not going to try to impress you.
Speaker 2:I find that when I try to impress people, I don't. Best to get beyond the boast, brag, the production, and just be yourself. And not try to impress people. And a lot of you know already, I don't like to talk about this squishy topic of leadership. I find it can be a little vain.
Speaker 2:I like to listen to people. I like to hear people's comments on it. I don't like to talk about it myself. And so we'll go ahead and start to get into this. Again, I show up to these things just to see what I'm gonna say.
Speaker 2:So we'll see how it all comes out. And, yeah, let's do it. So I have no time for small talk at this point in my career or life. And so we'll just talk plain. And the value of humility.
Speaker 2:You take a look at almost all great leaders, Though these are usually strong characters, at least people with a great sense of direction and directional correctness, they usually have a spirit or attitude of humility and openness, which allows a person to suspend their current belief systems or views of the world in order to at least consider alternative ideas. Because without such space, one drifts into the domain of pride or arrogance that does not allow anything new in. And so I think it's good to wipe the slate clean often and say, I don't know anything. And start from that better, I can build back. Failure teaches you reality.
Speaker 2:Better than wins. Any leader, if you're really going someplace, if you're really an innovator, you're risking. So there has to be in a real leader this tolerance for risk or risk tolerance, if you want to language it like that. Which invariably, there's going to be missteps. Just like the jet going from Hawaii to LA is going to have to make a thousand course corrections along the way.
Speaker 2:There are no straight lines in this world. Not really. Not in the natural world. We can say we make our own, but even those are not perfect lines. There are no zeros.
Speaker 2:Or nothing. There's always this correction element. And this idea of failing in leadership is something that should give you some comfort when you start to take a look at all the different possible outcomes from your decisions. But rather than procrastinating and being the ineffective leader that is not bold in making the move, where it's like, okay, let's take some well placed shots in this direction. Knowing again if that directional correctness is good.
Speaker 2:But that pain is useful because pain again registers at such a higher vibration than winds. And we just tend to remember that. Probably going back to our ancestors and the survival instinct saying, Hey, I wouldn't get around that dinosaur. I saw him eat one guy. And so we might not want to do that.
Speaker 2:Okay, word for new leaders. I realize we have a wide gamut of leaders that have been in the saddle for many years. We have a lot of newer leaders, a higher proportion. And new leaders. Invariably, most of you are going to suffer from the impostor feeling.
Speaker 2:What qualifies me to be in a position of authority, in a position of leadership? Almost everybody has that. All teachers have that. Why should I be teaching on this topic? So there's an element of courage that has to be introduced to say, hey, this is normal and power through.
Speaker 2:You'll get used to it over time. I shouldn't say used to it. I'm always a little squeamish. Could come from some latent insecurities that I'm still trying to overcome. I mean even before doing these kinds of talks I feel like throwing up usually.
Speaker 2:There's a nerve thing or doing a concert or musical performance. Always feel that weirdness. But that's okay. And so, get over the impostor feeling. You're going to be okay and everybody has to start someplace.
Speaker 2:And the surprising thing on this, and you'll see all these things in small letters here, you know your age is not a major factor in leadership. I remember I ran my first really large thing at age 32 because Deborah, who was my mom, raised me under her wing as the CEO when she made me her number two. I was only 32 years old. I mean, I'm the snot nose kid with hundreds and hundreds of employees and departments and business segments. And people got behind it.
Speaker 2:War background. I've run clinical operations, inpatient units. I don't have a clinical background. People got behind it. We got results.
Speaker 2:I just use myself as an example. Because the background, your upbringing, all these things are of value. Certainly technical know how, competence helps you be respected, to have authority. But leadership is somehow more than even that. Leadership is almost indescribable.
Speaker 2:But you know it when you see it or you're around it. And it perhaps has more to do with art than it does science. One of the biggest mistakes of leadership is to promote people who are excellent at their jobs, thinking that this will translate into leadership. It normally won't. Yes, they may be able to lead from the front in technical aspects.
Speaker 2:But that's not what you're hiring these people for. If you got a great nurse or someone that operates a machine or someone that's great at work in the fields or whatever endeavors you're doing, And that's helpful. But the quality you're looking for, the quality that you want to promote is that of leadership talent. Will people get behind this person? Does this person have the ability, the capability of inspiring others to move in a common direction, you know, with the common cause.
Speaker 2:That's what you're promoting for or hiring for. Be a bit weary of people that want to be leaders, at least I am. Because what we don't want is, Oh, great leader. That is not the motivation. We need people that just basically can see what needs done or has the vision to do and does it without wanting to be Mr.
Speaker 2:Or Mrs. Big. Or come off as a know it all that, Hey, I've got the whole enchilada here. Again, that humility factor. I'd also be or hold in suspicion people that are overly confident.
Speaker 2:I would hold in suspect people that are overly confident. Why? Because all topics themselves are infinite. Nobody knows the whole deal. And, you know, perhaps the overcomerant people have not been decimated by catastrophic loss.
Speaker 2:And that's where a whole bunch of growing and humility comes in. Okay. I've also found that the best leaders tend not to want the job or position. Why? Leadership involves a lot of work.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of hundred hour weeks. Lots of weekends. I don't even know how to be a success in a forty hour week. Heck, I go back to even early multi view. We had cots here because we slept all night sometimes here, especially like cost report season.
Speaker 2:Or sometimes if I was working on some again since the financial domain has been a big thing, something for an organization and I would sleep at the office. There's some other people we hear about that's done that too and they've done okay. But you put in the time, got to put in the wood. So leadership involves a lot of work, a lot of personalities to manage, a lot of challenges to solve, and a lot of thought. Again, it takes energy.
Speaker 2:I'm just sharing this. I spend probably an hour and a half every morning planning my day, going through all the initiatives and things that need to be done, We prioritize them according to what's going to render what is the highest use of value. And then that's how the day is organized. And it's not just you're not just organized yourself. You're organizing, you know, all your employees.
Speaker 2:What's the most intelligent way we could go about this today? This day. Not every leader is successful in every situation or environment. There's an infinite number of variables in all situations and companies ranging from the level of board support, scandals, personal manners, confidence in unfamiliar environments. All these are contributory.
Speaker 2:And I say this because we, myself, MBI, we've helped place hundreds of people in leadership positions without charging a penny through the last twenty seven years. Sometimes it's taking people laterally from one organization to another company, you know, back and forth. Sometimes it's through our proprietary use of videos to identify talent within organizations and promote those people and put them on the executive track. But we've done this. They don't all work out.
Speaker 2:But you got to place your bets somewhere, knowing your heart will be broken occasionally. And I'm thinking of one of my top leaders. Nancy, you worked with her. Nancy's over here. Give me support.
Speaker 2:One of the I mean she's a great leader. I mean she's done so many hospice or organizational turnarounds and I was just thinking about one of her clients that had went from a massive deficit to huge surpluses, huge organization. And we brought in a leader that was successful in one environment and it did not translate to the new environment. So, sometimes it doesn't work out. Leadership.
Speaker 2:We find ourselves in leadership positions and it can be kind of a what I'll call a both thing. And you'll see that I usually have a lot of both or multi thinking Because singular explanations of most things are incomplete at best. And so, you can be in a leadership because it's a self willed thing, meaning, hey, I see the vision, this needs to be done. Or we find ourselves in a leadership position because an event or circumstance summons our powers and we rise to the occasion with the solution. Cost reports are one of those things with me.
Speaker 2:It's like, oh, God, we owe 3 and a half million bucks back. How are we going to pay? Man, there's a snot nose reed guy. Here's the plan. Boom, it works.
Speaker 2:Hey, let's promote that guy. Boom. So, it can be an event thing that's external from your human organism. Okay. Some people say, what is the fast track for becoming an effective leader?
Speaker 2:Well, would study the benchmarking of whatever field or industry or industry you are. Of course, what do we measure? There's hundreds and hundreds of things. So that we know the fiftieth percentile, the norms of quality and cost, so we can distinguish between great performance, average performance, mediocre performance that is, or great or poor, whatever. Again, this helps us because we start to ask intelligent questions.
Speaker 2:We know the numbers and we go, we're not doing so good here. I wonder who is. What can we do? And it's always easy to mimic or rip off ideas from others rather than make them yourselves. So, the quantification of your field of endeavor.
Speaker 2:Two. And this was really healthcare, but it also can translate into other sales of consumer products and goods. The focus on mastering the perfect visit or the perfect phone interactions. Perfect interaction. Okay.
Speaker 2:We know that this single move, especially in the healthcare context, will help you, number one, endear yourself to your troops because you're into it for the right reasons. You're into it for noble purpose. You're giving meaning and value to your troops. And you're solving number two, your quality issues as well as your economic issues and woes in a single move. Okay, so there's the fast track.
Speaker 2:Understand your business, understand the measurements, what's good, bad, whatever. Get some intelligence as to where to precisely direct your energy and resources. Boom! Focus on your Basically, we're saying your customer service, your experience, what people are coming to you for and what do they want? Predictable experience.
Speaker 2:Predictable delight. And so you work on customer delight and boom, great things happen. Best known success patterns. I talk about it a lot. There's a lot of newbies out in all the leaders that are listening to this.
Speaker 2:But this is coming from our experience of benchmarking primarily post acute hospice home care based on the monthly benchmarking of really it's around a thousand organizations. We understate that purposely because some organizations they may have 50 sites. I was adding them up for something. It was way over this because we have them down as counted as one and they got like 50 CMS sites or whatever. So anyway extracting nine eighty nine data elements with nine twenty two cross calculations and of course work with 1,300 organizations all over.
Speaker 2:So, we're not just making this stuff up. There's a lot of mileage behind this. So, known success patterns. A lot of people say practices. But again, we say best known.
Speaker 2:Why? Because if you say best practice, you're probably being a little bit silly. Arrogant, in fact. Because nobody again knows the whole deal. Nobody has the whole enchilada.
Speaker 2:Intelligence, again, defined as what? Two words: pattern recognition. And I'm not going to go into all the philosophical explanation about that. You can go to one of the podcasts that's being released to go deeper there. As far as leadership, this idea of directional correctness is a huge deal.
Speaker 2:I was sitting in this boardroom with these billionaires. And by the way, I mean, you know, we all have to I was thinking about this. I don't have a slide on this, but you know, we all need mentors. And so, I find like if one guy is not too snotty or whatever, take if someone's like really bright. I remember I was in this one meeting and I said, Hey guy, can we meet after this meeting?
Speaker 2:And then I'll just we'll take someone's office, like, Excuse me, could me and could we have a quick meeting here? And I say, How'd you do it? I'm always surprised how willing people are to share. How they've achieved whatever they have. But I was in one of these meetings and this guy says, Andrew, you're here because you're an expert.
Speaker 2:You have more information than anyone in Multiview, you know, on the operations of this really this post secure world, especially the hospice home health thing. That's why you're here. And we don't know this. So that's why you're here. But we know there is a directional correctness that the overall demographics of The United States is an aging population.
Speaker 2:And that this is a place where we need to be investing and playing. Though we don't you're here because you know the specifics we don't know all the specifics. But there's something directionally correct to this. And so, this is a great concept for leaders to keep in mind because you go: Oh, there's something to this. There's some truth in it.
Speaker 2:And I think there's at least five. The first is the utter need for standardization in systems. We cannot grow on any scale without these. Otherwise, we just have masses and low quality. Compensation.
Speaker 2:There's something to we behave how we're paid. Right? It's like if CMS or whatever changes how an organization is paid, do we just say, well, I think we're going to keep doing it the old way. No, we change our systems to accommodate the changes in policy. So we all get there some directional correctness about comp.
Speaker 2:Frequent measurement. There's something to frequent measurement. Even if we're on a diet or whatever, getting on that scale going, Oh, I shouldn't have had that extra large burrito or whatever. There's something to that. Accountability.
Speaker 2:We know there's something to holding people accountable. You know the screams right now are in government. Oh, hold people accountable. And when you hold employees accountable to actually do their jobs, there's something to that and having systems to do that. And then the fifth thing is what?
Speaker 2:Leadership and leadership development. And that's what we're talking about today. There's something to actually studying, focusing, perhaps even systematizing leadership development programs within our respective companies. And one of the things I've noticed there as I was getting ready for this and I always over prepare for things, It seems again probably comes from that insecurity that's deeply seated in me somewhere. I was just trying to list out some of the greatest leaders and it's kind of hard to get on kind of my top list.
Speaker 2:I just tend to be a little critical. I'm critical of myself. And I'm also always wanting the organizations we serve to do well. But, you know, I came up with a sheet and I was shocked at how many leaders came out of the same systems. The same just multiples.
Speaker 2:Whereas the other ones are kind of singular. Yeah, this was a great he or she was great here or whatever really incredible leadership here. And then yet these ones are just coming out repeatedly. So, what's that say? They're from the same hive.
Speaker 2:So, it's curious the fact that so many great leaders tend to come from the same organizations as if it's in the water or some kind of tradition. I mean, I'll just list North Star Hospice of Michigan. Dotty Dreamo turned that thing around. I mean she made everybody do a vow that they were going to do the multi view and just you know commit to standardization and then Bob Cahill came out there he is great. Now Patrick Miller and Leanne.
Speaker 2:I mean that's a machine. Know, Caris had a lot of that. Norman, one of the greatest. Paul say, I mean you can kind of keep going. So, there's something going on where people are picking up on these leadership aspects.
Speaker 2:That's a reoccurring of phenomena. That environment somehow is creating these conditions for success where leadership is modeled, learned, replicated. Okay. Virtually all the frustrations involved with creating and running a hospital or home care organization have already been solved or greatly alleviated. So, that's the one thing I think a great leader kind of has to go, I don't have to reinvent everything all the time.
Speaker 2:Intelligence kind of gets get past this pride thing and go, hey, most of the stuff's already been done. So if there's anything that's really on my mind that's causing anxiety, frustration, then that's where you start to look for your answers. These best known success patterns. Whether you get them from us. This is what we do.
Speaker 2:We don't have all of them. Some of them are going to come from other domains, fields, others, Peer groups sometimes, but usually peer groups actually have the reverse effect and they hold people back. Which is kind of an interesting thing because you get too far out in front of your peer group and they're going, Oh, something's wrong there, you know, and that black crab comes back and pulls them right back in the bucket. Anyway, so you got to watch that. But anyway, these people that have solved these things, it's always a small minority.
Speaker 2:So out of thousands of organizations, might be 10, a distinct minority. But that's where the leader needs to be going to solve issues. Being that innovator, Having the courage to leave the huddled masses and the herd in the dust. And as we get into this deeper, and we are going deep today, Can you be okay with muddling through life most of the time and this really muddling through leadership? A lot of people think, hey, they have to have the precise master plan meticulously mapped out of what you're going to do.
Speaker 2:The truth is most of us will have a rough plan and that plan or vision takes on more shape over time. It almost seems like the universe will only reward the true vision is when you have the courage or the guts to step out and suddenly you can see a little more and you take that next step and you see more of what needs to do rather than just sitting back and, well, I'm still planning here. We'll move once I get this plan together, you know. Again, there's just too many variables in life. You got that 50% at least of life that is beyond your control.
Speaker 2:That happens. And then the other 50% human will, your vision, all that. But recognize that being a leader, again, is a life changing opportunity for yourself as you have to grow into this position. And as you lead people to success and teach them how to be successful, that's life changing. And so much of it has to do with these conditions for success.
Speaker 2:Okay, leadership. Why is it needed? Because no organization can grow beyond the capabilities of the leader. And no leader can build anything on any scale without the help of others. We need others.
Speaker 2:And one of the payoffs for the CEO is that by developing leaders, it frees you a great deal. Frees up your time, energy as you learn to delegate, knowing that your heart will be shattered from time to time. All organizations need leaders as they are always in short supply. What I'm saying there is, yeah, you may technically have bodies filling the org chart. But the question of a true leader is, are these, is each name on there given me the ROI or return I need?
Speaker 2:Or do I need to upgrade that position? There's the hard question. And all I know is as I'm looking through videos of people to see whether they should be on the leadership track and we can go through hundreds of them in short periods of time. So, yeah, that one's got something to them. We all can self promote in this world.
Speaker 2:It's not like you have to have the position title or whatever. Hell, just start doing stuff. Learn to advertise it a little bit to the operas so they're aware of you. But no smart cookie leader is going to say this person's really getting something done. I'm going to leave that person in that spot.
Speaker 2:They're going to say no, I'm going to invest. We're gonna get latitude here or whatever. So, there's always room. And in my mind, all organizations are short on leaders. I could use a few right now to lead some initiatives.
Speaker 2:Okay. Assessing leadership. Since we know we need it, well, how do we discover these people? Because we can only grow to the extent that we have leaders. In the one Baldrige winning organization, again, one of the top two awards of quality in the world, the Demings Award and the Baldrige, we stopped growing at a certain point because we ran out of leaders.
Speaker 2:So keeping the pipeline full is important. Of course, in the MBI system, we always have a number one and a number two. Two people trained for these positions. So, if you lose one, boom, you got another one that can take the file folder and lead it. But to evaluate who you should put on that leadership track.
Speaker 2:First, do they have intelligence, capability, horsepower, however you want to language it. Because again, people are not going to get behind someone they perceive as being as dumb as a rock. I'm just putting it out there. They want to see intelligence. I mean whoever's being led is going to want to see intelligence.
Speaker 2:Capability. And how do you find out if they have this? There's multiple ways. First, the talent of communication. If you're leading others, you've got to get ideas out of your head into the minds of others.
Speaker 2:So, the talent of communication. So, I take a look at their writing skills as well as their public speaking skills. That's a great thing to do. Next, I look further at their talent of organization and their ability to prioritize. That is distinguish between higher value things from lower value things.
Speaker 2:That's intelligence. Next. Do they have a great attitude? Can do attitude. Because no one wants to work around someone with a crappy attitude.
Speaker 2:Attitude, and that's a whole other infinite topic, you can listen to messages on that. But attitude has so much to do with our success in life. Having a great attitude leads to better thoughts. The thoughts that we dwell upon become beliefs. Those things we believe in, we tend to act on.
Speaker 2:And if we're acting on good beliefs, we have better results. But it starts with attitude. Because you can't control your thoughts. No matter what professional hype queen or motivational person is gonna tell you, you can control your thoughts. Well, you can't.
Speaker 2:Not completely. You can shape your defaults or your thought habits. Next, does this person you're assessing have energy, ambition, drive? They can have all the right thoughts, great, we can do it. But you take a look at their body language and they're just like leaning back in the lazy boy.
Speaker 2:No, a leader, you want some juice there. You know, some drive. You want decisiveness, courage. People don't want squishy leaders that can't make a decision. Or we're gathering data all the time, you know.
Speaker 2:You're never gonna have enough data. There's a point where you just got to say, here's what we have and we're going. And then that courage just to step out. But indecisive people will take energy away from the group on initiatives. Better to say charge and then go, wait, let's stop retreat or let's go this direction.
Speaker 2:Because you can always do that and people respect that. Assessing whether someone can be a leader. Do they have a profound understanding of accountability? And our definition of accountability is what? Owning one's life without blaming others or circumstances.
Speaker 2:Owning every number. Owning every result. Owning the performance of every employee and say that's me. Owning your turnover rate. And this usually requires a reconciliation of the light side of life and the dark side of life, the bitter side of life and the sweet side.
Speaker 2:And having the willingness to inflict some pain when standards or a job is not done to the standards of the organization. Getting some edge. This is why this called the seldom spoken aspects of leadership. Because this is what people don't hear. They want to hear about the rah rah.
Speaker 2:You can do it. Well, you didn't do it. There's the door. Or, know, here's the pain for not doing it. Whether it be innocent or malicious.
Speaker 2:Okay, a profound understanding of accountability and what it means. And we'll talk about that later. An interest in standardization. If we cannot grow beyond or to any scale without standardization. Where we get away from confused processes.
Speaker 2:Normally, don't graduate from college and they say, well, you know, let's teach about finance and business here. Oh, yeah, let's teach about standardization. They don't teach it. Very few can even name the steps for standardization or the requirements for standardization or designing the position state of self control. But people have these childish views, elementary views of what standardization is really all about.
Speaker 2:Why can multi view go on average of three years without a single phone call ringing more than three times where it's not answered by a real human, a competent human? Years. The longest we've ever went is four and a half years. We went two years. One year, one time we went just a few months and it happened.
Speaker 2:Boom. But that's pretty good. Or organizations that went again 4,222 visits without a single complainer screw up. Meeting the prior record of 3,553. I mean, these these are standards so far out.
Speaker 2:I mean, just off the charts. Because most organizations expect screw ups complaints every day. But that just shows you how low the standards are. And now all I know is that when there's a screw up, I'm ready to rip someone's lungs out. In the nicest way possible, of course.
Speaker 2:But I just am not going to tolerate it. I'd rather fire everybody in the organization, do it all myself if I have to. And that's kind of the attitude. You know, practically speaking, of course, that's not gonna happen, but people got they know you say what you mean, you mean what you say. So, an interest in standardization where, hey, I really want to know how world class organizations became world class.
Speaker 2:I have an interest in that. And then you show them. And then the last point is confidence. With a willingness to bet on themselves and bet on your company or organization. And the way to find out whether people have confidence almost instantly is, are you willing to take a meager salary with the bulk of it coming from your performance?
Speaker 2:And that's right where you find out whether you got a wiener or whiner. Oh, no, I gotta do that. I bills. I got Come on. And if you got a marketing person that won't bet on themselves, I mean, someone's smoking dope.
Speaker 2:Are they willing to bet on themselves? That's how you've got someone with confidence in themselves and they're willing to bet on the organization as well. Okay. A leader represents the future. And it seems that human beings need a future.
Speaker 2:We need a bright horizon. And that's one aspect of leadership. You've got to show this bright horizon. Because otherwise we see people go into depression, they can go into suicide, they can go into all these negative states because they have no vision for where they're going to be. So, this is some aspect at least of humankind.
Speaker 2:That's the reality. We want a bright horizon and that leader has to be part of that. And I'll just say this. A leader is a truth seeker. Right?
Speaker 2:What is the truth? What is the best way of doing this? How does life actually operate in this planet? That's why, again, I live in nature, right? I watch so much of my stuff has to do with nature because I think nature is the truth of how life actually operates on this planet.
Speaker 2:But what is the truth about this? How do human beings actually behave? What do they respond to? And you take a look and see it's a world of motivations and demotivations and whatever and how can we align with that to get the results or go in the direction that we want.
Speaker 1:We hope you are having the best day of your life. If you need something further, just visit one of the MultiView Incorporated websites or contact us through social media. Smoke signals, carrier pigeons, telepathy have not proven reliable. All calls are answered within three rings by a competent real person. Thank you for listening.
