Tag Archive for: Articles by David Irvine

Smart Vs. Healthy: Unlocking Your Organization’s Potential

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What would you rather be: smart or healthy? Do you know a smart person who is not reaching their potential because of poor health? You can be brilliant, but if you are depressed, sick, or suffering from low energy, chronic pain, or inflexibility, your capacity will be diminished. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, health is one of the true sources of wealth. Without it, fulfillment is not impossible, but extremely difficult.

In his superb book, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business, Patrick Lencioni makes an intriguing distinction between a smart organization and a healthy organization. Like people, organizations can be smart, but if they aren’t healthy, their capability will be weakened.

Smart organizations focus on:

  • Strategy
  • Expediency
  • Marketing
  • Finance
  • Technology,

Healthy organizations are about:

  • Minimizing Politics
  • Trust
  • Creating clarity
  • Morale
  • Employee Engagement
  • Energy
  • Holding people accountable to high standards.

“Smart” and “healthy” are equally vital to success, both personally and organizationally. It’s just that many organizations I work with are over-focused on “smart” at the expense of health.

Personal health is primarily about discipline and habits. And just as we have to take care of our personal health, we have to take care of the health of our culture, regardless of our position within the culture. Here is a list of disciplines that you can take accountability for in order to foster organizational health:

  1. Build a cohesive leadership team. Whether it’s executive leaders, a board of directors, or parents, the relationships at the senior level set the tone for a healthy culture. Like a marriage, a leadership team needs concerted effort and time – away from the operations – to get to know each other, to learn about what matters most to each person, and to foster connection.
  2. Create clarity. Have an inspiring mission for why you exist and an uplifting vision for where you are taking people. Get clear about your values, how you expect people to behave. Get clear about what you expect from people and take the time to communicate these expectations. Clarify your most important priorities – your vital few – rather than your demanding many. Clarity breeds health.
  3. Make building trust your number one leadership priority. Identify your “significant seven” stakeholders – the people who you depend on and the people who depend on you. Spend at least half your time investing in these relationships. Listen for and clarify concerns. Connect to reality. Pay attention. Be in touch. Get to know people. Make contact. Listen for concerns. Remove barriers. Spend time coaching and mentoring. Bring a “servant mindset” to your work.
  4. Hold people accountable. “Everyone on a team knows who is and who is not performing and they are looking to you as the leader to see what you are going to do about it,” said Collin Powell, former US Secretary of State. Letting bacteria grow in a culture eventually turns to poison. A healthy organization is one with high standards, the courage to have the difficult conversations, and the nerve to make the tough decisions. There are many reasons why managers don’t hold people accountable, and I’ll address these, along with strategies to overcome these reasons, in future articles.
  5. Time for reflection. Healthy people consistently make room for reflection: on their lives, their work, and their priorities. Take a moment and reflect on the current level of health in your organization. Ask yourself what disciplines you need to start incorporating into your work and your life. If you reach inside, chances are you will find your own answers as to what it takes for you to have a healthy workplace and life.
  6. Come to work healthy. A healthy organization starts with healthy people. We don’t experience the world as it is. We experience the world as we are. An organizational mission statement will have much more meaning for you when you have a sense of your own mission. Organizational values will mean much more to you when you are committed to live by your own code of conduct. When you are healthy, you naturally foster health around you. “Be the change you wish for in the world.”

Acceptance Of Our Darker Self: A Key To Leadership

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I was coaching an executive recently who was sent to work with me by her CEO. The presenting problem was an extremely low score on a recent 360 survey. The results of her feedback were that she was a competent professional but had very poor interpersonal skills. When I tried to get the executive’s perspective of herself, all I got was a positive presentation. She was, indeed, very difficult to reach to and to connect with, just as her scores indicated. Soon after this initial interview started I pointed out the discrepancy between her “polished presentation” of herself and the reality of how others were perceiving her. Her response was that she was always taught to be optimistic and positive, and with a smile on her face, she explained that she just couldn’t understand why the feedback scores were so low.

Her perceived “inauthenticity” was distancing her from those she was most interdependent upon. It’s hard to trust people that won’t be honest with themselves. In reality, she wasn’t phony; it’s just that she was only expressing a small spectrum of herself.

A lack of acceptance of the darker side of herself (e.g. insecurity, fears, resentments, worries, inadequacies) was preventing her from being perceived as “real,” and resulting in people distancing themselves from her. She was also incapable of assessing the full spectrum of what was happening in her culture because she couldn’t see it in herself.

Authenticity is compelling. It also enables you to lead with greater wisdom and resourcefulness. This is our work together: to face and accept some of the darker parts of our nature, the parts we avoid. Connecting with and accepting a fuller spectrum of oneself – especially the darker self – enables us to better connect with others.

Nurturing The Artist Within

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Picasso said that we are all artists when we are 8 years old; we have to be taught not to be artists.  Just as we suppress the artist within us, we are indoctrinated to not trust the authentic self within us – the essence of who we are. By trying to meet the expectations of a world that tells us how we “should” be, we lose touch with the authentic desires that live within us. Where can we start to claim back this lost inheritance?

My friend and renowned artist, Murray Phillips, thinks that we start with an understanding of the concept of spirituality.  The term “spirituality” is bandied about today and is one of the catch-words of the 21st century.  “Spirituality,” writes Murray, “is part of our nature – part of the essence of being human.  Spirituality is not an optional add-on.  It is not that some people are spiritual and others aren’t; anymore than some people are physical and others aren’t.  Some people may be in better physical health than others but they are not more physical.  Some people are aware of their spirituality and others may be less aware, but they are no less spiritual.  This is an important place to begin.  If we are spiritual beings we function best when we are cognizant of that.  One of the ways of increasing that awareness is to nurture the artist in you. Make time to deliberately and consistently feed the creative aspects of your being.”

While meditation, prayer, and quietness can foster authentic connection, so too can creativity. Create a sanctuary where you can get away from the expectations of the world to create and reflect.  Creativity is the language of our spiritual nature. Find an area of interest (painting, writing, poetry, woodworking, dancing, music) and become involved.  Make it a priority, remembering that urgent things always will crowd out important things.  Use it as an opportunity to feed your soul.

“If of thy earthly goods thou art bereft
And to thy meager store two loaves alone to thee are left
Sell one and with the dole
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.”

THE PERFORMANCE CRITICAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM™ A Hammer Won’t Build You A House

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Take a moment to think of the last time you heard a good motivational speaker. We love to get away from work and life, step back and be entertained, educated, inspired, and even provoked. But now ask honestly: “Did you implement the ideas and strategies the speaker addressed in their speech?” You may take away a nugget or two from every good presentation. Maybe you’ll remember a good story or an inspiring thought. But there’s a world of difference between remembering something different and actually doing something differently.

For the past twenty years, I’ve made a living at being one of those inspirational speakers. Like a good carpenter, I have a good hammer. I’ve hit people over the head (albeit kindly) with a good message and pretty good delivery. I’ve made a lot of good connections, and undoubtedly made an impact on people’s lives. But in the past two years, I’ve thought carefully about taking the impact I make to a new level – both personally and organizationally. I have taken time to reflect deeply on some important questions:

  • What difference do I really make as a speaker?
  • What’s the actual ROI for organizations when I am a “sage on the stage” for an hour or three?
  • What lasting value do I bring and how do I know that the seeds I sow actually take root somewhere out there in the soil of the audience?
  • After I get buy-in, how do I ensure that vital organizational and leadership principles are implemented through the performance cycle of Action – Contribution – Inspiration – and back to another performance enhanced action?
  • How can I structure my business to ensure long-term success for the organizations that hire me?

action_inspiration_contribution

Reflection on these questions led to a careful search for partners to help expand my speaking business to include a consulting firm that would ensure implementation of the principles and ideas that I teach.

What I came to realize is that just because I’d designed a hammer, that doesn’t mean I can hit the nail on the head. Building a house, like building a great life or a great organization, requires more than an inspired idea. It requires a clear vision that inspires you. It requires a blueprint. It requires leadership. And it necessitates a team that is held accountable to execute the plan. And it requires disciplined, focused work. A speech, no matter how powerful, in itself does not provide a solid process, structure, and accountability system to ensure consistent results across an organization. The start may be inspiration, but it’s implementation that is the greatest challenge – and the greatest opportunity. If you don’t get results you want from a great speech, it is critical to follow-up on the nuggets of inspiration with a plan of action. Developing that plan of action often needs the considered and objective support of experts.

Irvine & Associates Inc. has now partnered with Vantage Path to create a boutique leadership consulting firm dedicated to help transform the culture of organizations. Our performance-based training and development programs achieve measurable improvements in the bottom line. In partnership with Vantage Path, we have carefully collaborated to create a thorough organizational change process that we call the Performance Critical Management System™ – a complete method for ensuring consistent leadership and operational behaviour at every level of an organization. Our approach is built on a proven framework that drives organizational success. We customize each of our programs to align with your organization’s competencies, performance needs, and desired culture. We have built an entire system that ensures clarity, engagement, proficiency, and results at every level – through the power of authentic leadership.

Action and inspiration alone won’t sustain you. Integrating both is what galvanizes people and ensures that actions move the organization in the right direction.  Everyone feels better when you know that your action makes a difference. When what you do serves both yourself and others and is connected to an organizational mission and purpose, you feel your job is important. The inspiration from a speech might get you started, but only having a clear process, structure, and accountability will you ensure that the speech has long-term, sustainable impact.

This tool for sustainability is called the Performance Critical Management System™. This system extends a choice of flexible delivery that incorporates a learning management system (LMS) and can be delivered online, classroom or a blend of both.

Entitlement: Greatness Run Aground

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I have noticed that every time a great culture is built, there appears to be an opposite and equal reaction to greatness: entitlement. It seems to be human nature. If you give your kids a lot, they want more. I grew up with telephone party lines, with one line for up to five or six residences. There were times when you had to wait 1/2 hour to make a phone call. Now I get impatient with my cell phone provider when I get a dropped call and have to redial with the push of one button.

It used to take a winter to travel across this country on chuck wagons and horses. Now, as expectations have been raised, I find myself getting upset if a plane is thirty minutes late. Living in a great country, with world-class health care, education, law enforcement, and political systems seems only to increase our craving for more. Meet our needs with a high standard, and we raise the bar with a demand for more. I’ve seen the same dynamic in organizational cultures. The more the organization gives us what we want, the more entitled we feel. The best cultures I have worked with all experience the challenge of entitlement.

The reverse of this also seems true. My mother lived through the depression in a 900 square foot shack with ten siblings, enduring years of unimaginable poverty, and was void of entitlement. When she was close to death I asked her how she felt about dying. “After seventy-eight years, I accept death. I was fortunate just to have lived!” Joyce did not even feel entitled to life itself. Hard times are an ally in battling entitlement.

All the recent attention to building great cultures, empowering employees, and developing leadership capacity so people feel engaged seems to have unintentionally reinforced our love of entitlement. Living in great cultures has somehow fostered a belief that we have a right to get whatever we want without any obligations in return. Doing our own thing and expecting rights without service is self-serving. In the name of a great culture, we see people ask for such things as more pay, more freedom, greater recognition and privilege, more flex time or a risk-free environment without any reciprocating accountabilities.

This is simply wrong. Just because we are attempting to build cultures of trust that encourage you to find your authentic voice doesn’t mean you will get everything you ask for or have absolute security. Cultures of trust require a partnership, a commitment to a dialogue, not acts of concession. Accountable, authentic cultures of trust are based on reciprocal agreements. There are no licenses granted.

At the heart of entitlement is the belief that “my wants are more important than the culture and the culture exists for my sake.” At some point each of us needs to grow up and discover that our self-interest is better served by doing good work than by getting good things. Entitlement also rests on the belief that something is owed us because of sacrifices we have made. In reality, entitlement claims rights that have not been earned. It diminishes self-respect and constrains our freedom. The only way to reclaim what we have lost to entitlement is through acts of commitment and service to an entity larger than ourselves – the culture we work and live in.

When you see entitlement in the culture you live or work in, there are four steps to counter it:

  1. See entitlement as a sign of growth and greatness. You won’t find much entitlement in poverty and highly bureaucratic systems that have been suppressed for years.
  2. Identify the value or values you want to replace entitlement (e.g. self responsibility, service to others, gratitude).
  3. Find the allies in your culture who live by the values you are committed to and support them to foster these values with others who trust them. Like parenting, you only influence the values of people with whom you have a strong, trusting relationship.
  4. Get the values you want to instill off the wall and into people’s hearts through conversations and clearly defined actions. Then make a promise to live and work in accord with these actions, while being open for ongoing feedback and learning. Then shine a light an actions that are self-responsible, committed to service, and exude gratitude. Tell the story. Keep the renewed values fresh, making it difficult to be entitled.

Thanks to Peter Block (Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest, Berrett-Koehler Publishers) for his inspiration behind many of these insights.

Adventure With An Astrocytoma: How Illness Affects Impact

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Leadership requires the ability to see, sense, and realize new possibilities – in ourselves, our institutions and organizations, and in society. But where does the capacity to see these hidden possibilities come from? Where does the ability to see beauty – in a flower, an expression of art, or a human being – originate? Where do we derive the ability to see the potential in people? Where does loving and embracing life come from? Where does the realization of possibilities originate? It comes, in part, from knowing that nothing is permanent. Would we see the beauty in a flower, sunset, or human being if they lasted forever?

Last November, my sixty-one year-old brother, Hal, was in Vancouver to receive the award for Alberta’s Outstanding Family Physician. Three days before the award ceremony he had a seizure and a few days later came the grave diagnosis: a grade III Anaplastic Astrocytoma – an aggressive, inoperable tumor intersecting three lobes of his brain. The prognosis was grim. With no treatment, he would live an estimated three-four months; with aggressive radiation and chemotherapy, one-three years, and with a miracle, longer.

For the past six months I have traveled with Hal through what he has been calling his “Adventure with an Astrocytoma.” This so called ‘adventure’ is a grinding mix of aggressive radiation and chemotherapy treatments, with accompanying aphasia, memory loss, itching rashes, seizures, headaches, nausea, diarrhea, and so little energy that putting his feet on the floor in the morning can be called success. Hal’s limbs are getting skinny and his belly is growing from the steroids that prevent brain swelling. While the medication experimentation continues, the days when he is able to get himself outside into the sunlight and around the block is a ‘Mount Everest’ accomplishment. From his most recent MRI, we see that the tumor is presently stable, meaning the chemo and radiation have stopped its growth, at least for now. This is good news and beyond what was originally expected for this point in his treatment.

While I wouldn’t wish this hell on anyone, I am surprisingly grateful. Hal and I have spent more time together in the past six months than we have the previous twenty years. We’ve done some reminiscing; we’ve said “thank you” and have forgiven each other. Every time that we are together, we now say that we love each other. And we make time to hang out when he simply can’t get out of bed, can’t utter a word, and I have no clue what to say. This whole imperfect and human experience of being together in an awkward and clumsy way has somehow been a blessing. This reminder of the impermanence of life has strangely increased my life’s quality. My marriage and my relationships with my daughters have improved as I’ve slowed down and made a little more room to be a bit more present a little more often with those that matter most to me. Being open to the pain of Hal’s experience has deepened my experience of being alive, what matters in life, and what it means, more fully, to be human.

Below are six lessons I have learned thus far on this adventure with my brother and his astrocytoma:

  1. Don’t procrastinate getting to your bucket list. If you have some things you are planning to do when you retire, don’t wait. Do it now. The preciousness of life is not realized in the future. It is realized only in the present. There is no guarantee that the future will meet your current expectations.
  2. Take time to connect. Life is impermanent. Every relationship as you know it today eventually ends. Don’t wait for the end to be near to appreciate what is here now. Besides, we never know how abrupt and unplanned that ending can come. You really don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Don’t miss opportunities to be present to the people around you.
  3. Embrace the realization of life’s impermanence. The older you get, the more opportunities arise to be with people who are in the sunset of their life. Be with people when they are dying whenever you can. Embrace the experience of dying along with the pain, and your life, and the lives of those still around you, will be enriched.
  4. Take regular sabbaticals. In today’s world, with its relentless focus on success and productivity, we have lost touch with the balance between work and rest. Constantly striving, so many of us feel exhausted and deprived in the midst of abundance. Carve out regular time each week for rest, renewal, time with friends and family, and a few moments for yourself.
  5. Take care of your health. Don’t take your health for granted. Good health is a source of wealth. Being free of pain is one of life’s most vital blessings. While you can’t necessarily control your health, you can certainly influence it – with good habits. Later life will test your disciplines.
  6. Renew your spiritual strength. Times of loss afford us immense opportunities to renew, strengthen, and deepen our own personal and individual experience of spirituality. Take time each day to commune with nature and witness the intelligence within every living thing. Spend time in a sanctuary away from the demands of the world. Sit silently and watch a sunset, or listen to the sound of the ocean or a steam, or simply smell the scent of a flower.

The reminder of impermanence awakens you. The awareness of death magnifies what’s important in your life. Remember to stop and embrace fully that which surrounds you. The life you have today won’t last forever, and remembering this will help you appreciate and grasp it more deeply. And in turn, you will amplify your impact while enriching and nourishing the lives of those you lead and enlarge. There is no better personal or leadership development than coming to terms with your humanity.