Guest Blog Post: Leadership Focus: Ambiguity and Possibility

I am honored to share with you the following blog post written by Mary Kay Chess. Besides being my LPD (Leadership and Personal Development) professor at Bainbridge Graduate Institute, she is also a great organizational leadership consultant, mentor, and trusted friend. In this piece she writes about the power of trust and building a solid team.

We have very diverse interests on our board of twenty hospital CEOs. What new approach to strategic planning is possible?

Our traditional approach to attracting “customers” to our hospital no longer works.  What is required to engage more businesses in purchasing our hospital services?

We are considering different vendors in a competitive process.  How do we get rapid and confidential feedback from a diverse group of potential purchasers?

We discovered that our last strategic plan was created in 2008.  How do we overcome this stagnation and create a dynamic plan – quickly?

Once a month, during the lunch hour on the east coast, executives from around the United States pick up the phone and dial in for an hour conversation. This forum is called, Coffee & Tea Conversations, and it was created for executives of shared services organizations in rural communities.   

In the past, these leaders asked questions of one another during yearly meetings on rural healthcare issues. It became clear that leading loosely aligned organizations of hospital CEOs required more than casual conversations every twelve months.

For the last year, participants of Coffee & Tea Conversations moved puzzles to solutions through facilitated inquiry: iterative approaches to strategic planning emerge, responsive and immediate survey tools emerge, and thoughtful support for CEOs searching for continued funding in complex economic times is offered virtually.   

Participation in the Coffee & Tea Conversations varies as time and demands permit. It is now common for ten leaders from Alaska, Michigan, or New Hampshire to join the facilitator for this monthly conversation.  Why do these extremely harried leaders look forward to this time?  Why is this sixty minutes of value to them? What are they taking away from this brief encounter once a month?

Three major reasons point to why these network leaders continue to grab a cup of coffee and pick up the phone once a month:

1. Collaboration - Leaders are talking with leaders and able to move rapidly from inquiry to implementation.
2. Connections – Leaders in rural areas are confronted with the need to create opportunities for real change and they are in the company of others engaged in this social innovation.
3. Creativity – Leaders can rapidly consider and build on solutions generated in other communities across the country.

This is the work emerging over a year of one-hour monthly calls.  And, the foundation for this work is trust – in the process, in the content surfaced by peers and the facilitator, and in the diverse perspectives from colleagues sharing the same challenges. These leaders and the facilitator share a common purpose – improving services and community connections in rural areas. 

When asked why there was continued engagement in these calls, one leader responded, “This is the only place where the ambiguity and possibility co-exist.” And another, “I leave with practical hope and resiliency.” 

Mary Kay Chess, PhD, designed and implemented this approach to leadership building through facilitated conversations and over coffee (or tea). Dr. Chess, core faculty at BGI, also consults on strategic planning approaches for network boards and coaches executives.  

Lean Principles in Leadership

The concept of “lean” applies to more than operations. It only took two full quarters, but I feel I finally made a breakthrough today. I’ve lived the majority of my life afraid to depend on anyone but myself when it comes to my personal life. Professionally, I trust people to do what they do, but I don’t let that carry over in other areas. In developing the leader in me, I wanted to first focus on myself as a person. I learned that by not allowing myself to lean on others, I not only do myself a disservice, but I perform an injustice unto others as well.

Although I’m not ready to jump head first into the water (I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready for that, or that that would be safe), but I have taken steps to dip my toe in the water. Not the big toe, but a toe nonetheless. Today, after weeks of living in distress, losing sleep, and feeling uncertain, I called upon a trusted colleague, professor, and mentor Mary Kay Chess. While explaining some of the things I was going through, I realized a few things. First, I was using the language of feelings. I said things like “I feel unvalued.” Secondly, I saw that others see more than you I knew. Granted, Mary Kay is extremely intuitive and experienced in personal development, she still nailed exactly what I was thinking and going though based on her observations.

So yeah, I’m learning to lean. Understanding that there is a support structure is important to allow myself to be vulnerable. It’s important for me to be able to tune in to my needs. What does it really mean to take care of myself? Is basketball enough? No, it’s probably not. Taking care of myself also means being reflective, lessening the distractions, and learning when it’s time to let go.

Life has its ups and downs. From both there are important lessons to learn. Most of the time this quarter has been good. The last few have been down. What I appreciate most about the down times is that, at least for me, it reconnects me with things about which I’m passionate. When things are going well, it’s easy for me to get caught in the flow. When things are down, I think about more about how I miss writing, traveling, volunteering, running, interviewing interesting people, hanging out with friends, and other thins that bring me joy.

I recently committed to writing a book on personal branding. While many people see personal branding as a way to self promote. I see it as a way to build a reputation based on integrity and an understanding your authentic self. In beginning to write the book, I didn’t start by focusing on social media or networking, but rather ways to learn about one’s self. This requires a person to understand their strengths and their weaknesses. Normally, I say that a person should focus on their strengths and rely on others where they fall short. I still agree this is the best way to share duties in an organization. But when the weakness is inhibiting you from allowing you happiness, it’s something you need to work on.

Learning to lean is a big step for me. Actually practicing will be step two.