Authentic Leadership

chapter

one it’s 20

the end this

could have been the shortest ted talk

in the history of ted talks but is it

is it really the end

i say 2020 is the perfect

season for self-reflection

a reaffirmation and

a reconsideration of our approach

think about it 2020

when i was granted the opportunity to be

here

which was many moons ago it feels like

i said wow what

a privilege and an opportunity

a tedx i don’t even know who ted is but

a tedx

really and now i’m here

and i’m terrified if you can’t see it my

knees are shaking

but i thought that’s okay because this

is happening

and it’s happening now the message that

i want to share

is something that is far more profound

than my terrifying fear

and it is about all of these constructs

this tapestry of what it means

to be a great leader to build a team

to do it on a level of resiliency

and trust that is profound and then

there’s all of these really

nerdy concepts that go along with it

like knowledge management performance

management

thinking about building a social ecology

which i tell you is a real thing

and this is the weaving this tapestry

of what i call human capital and i was

introduced to this in my undergrad

studies and my grad studies and now

for some reason i’m glutton for

punishment and i’m doing all of this

research

about it as well but it’s really a very

real thing

a thing that has quite tangible and

intangible

impacts so when we think about this real

thing and i’m going to ask you to humor

me for a moment

right i want everyone to close

your eyes no peeking i see some of you

without your eyes closed

now do me a favor and think about

your best boss that you’ve ever had

now wait a minute boss does a disservice

to the word i want

you to imagine and visualize your

most amazing superhero teacher

leader mentor that you’ve ever had the

privilege of working with

all right do you have that person i see

some satisfaction on some faces out here

i can actually tell you’re smiling under

your mask right now

now what are some words and some

characteristics that come to mind when

you’re thinking of this person

uh-huh i would guess

that maybe you would say that that

person is knowledgeable

maybe that person is a teacher-doer

how about a visionary how about a person

that you’ve grown to rely on and trust

but on a larger concept how about that

person

gives you a sense of belonging there’s

power in that right

now let’s shift our perception

close your eyes again i would like you

to think about

the worst boss you’ve ever had

oh yeah that supervisor that manager

oh and i’m so sorry because some of you

look a little nauseous right now

and i bet you have characteristics that

you’re thinking of about that person

right or persons

i know i’ve got a few but we’re not

going to share our thoughts on those

because that is

not meant for this channel at this time

we’ll save those thoughts for after dark

but do you see the power in how that can

influence you

that is the power of human capital

now it wasn’t too long ago just a few

days ago

my better half actually said something

to me that was so profound

he said we want to do the right

thing for the right people

think about that you want to be a part

of something where you can do the right

thing

for and with the right people

that is what motivates us which brings

me to a story of when i met

my best friend now this was many moons

ago

i probably 18 years ago at this point it

was a series of happen chance and

unfortunate events

and i was obliged to go to a meeting

that i thought

in all of my infinite knowledge and

wisdom my early 20s

i do not want to be there i knew that i

would not like

any of these people that would be with

me in this this

meeting perhaps and i wanted to find my

way out before i got in

you know and i walk in and i’m like i

don’t want to even be a part of this i

don’t belong here

and i looked around the room i’m

canvassing everybody that’s there and

i’m like

absolutely i am not meant to be here

now and then i look across

and oh my gosh i just made eye contact

with someone

you know that kind of eye contact where

you look away really quickly almost like

you just walked in on somebody in the

bathroom

like you want to take it back and she’s

starting to come over to me

here she comes and

she’s got this saunter this kind of

goofy little way about herself

which i’ll say is quite annoying and she

looked at me and she said

hi friend what first of all i don’t even

know you

second of all i’m not your friend but

then these walls that we tend to put up

around ourselves

you know these self-preserving walls to

protect

us from you know anything in the outside

started to come down

with two simple words and i thought

is she really this type of reasonable

and decent

human being time went on we ended up

being

best of friends but as you can see

two very powerful words simple words

as a high friend started to build this

thing

not only between she and i but on a

larger scope within our social network

which is a social ecology and we’ve

developed this community of sorts this

sense of belonging which is

really what it’s about to feel like when

you’re included

which brings me to the pandemic

hot topic right there are two

schools of thought in this experience at

least in my opinion

we’ve got those folks

who life as they know it has been

obliterated right that

they have been forced into a transition

plan

that they would have never anticipated

to pivot

and remake their life as their own based

on whatever

they have available and then there’s the

other

group which is the marathon group

it’s got extremely busy to the point

where

we cannot even take a moment to regroup

and think about things where it’s just

been so intense and so demanding

i am part of that group i work for a

major health care system local major

health care system

and part of that marathon group has

required

especially at the beginning of this so

we’re talking

february march-ish many

early mornings now bear with me a moment

because with these early mornings and

what my better half calls my hr clicky

shoes i would

walk into the hospital make my way to

the lobby and through to the elevator

and around the corner

comes this gentleman who i grew

to know and develop a working

relationship with

and every morning especially between the

5 30 6 30 a.m

hour i would be making my way to the

elevator and he would be coming around

the side and i would say well top of the

morning sir

and he would say well good morning diana

and he’d say

how is your day going i say

fantastically well and he said that’s

wonderful mine is

too and as we began to continue to meet

about that same time at oh dark 30

i grew to learn that what he was doing

was he was leaving

his team that worked in this department

the third shift

after he would round with them and say

how is it going is there anything i can

do

what do you need how is your family

right and when he did that

what he was doing was establishing this

foundation

this this high level of trust

which is quite profound because i know

especially for those of you that were

looking a little nauseated a few moments

ago

when you had that boss that manager

who would just breeze through the office

and say oh how are you

but they really didn’t care what your

response was because they really didn’t

want to know because they really were

not

that in tune with you and what your

needs were at that time

see what that superhero

teacher leader mentors was doing is

every morning he was starting his day

taking maybe an hour a little more to

not only

interact with his first shift his second

shift

but his third shift but he was building

what i like to call a foundation of

trust

because you cannot develop this quickly

it’s not like a magic wand that you can

wave so quickly to say yes

i’m going to create a perfect culture

but what he was doing

and this is going to get a little cliche

so bear with me for a moment

was he was planting roots and from those

roots

what do you think could grow

and if you visualize the roots growing

into a beautiful tree

a tree with a canopy as wide as you can

imagine

we’ll call that tree inclusion

from that tree if we go back and digress

a little bit

think about that social ecology he’s

developing that team

and that team is now sitting under this

beautiful tree of inclusion

they all get along it’s trust it’s

wonderful no not every day is perfect

believe me because i wake up

some days i don’t even like myself i

can’t imagine anybody else liking me too

but under that tree this team sits

but there’s one more and i’m going to

take it to the next level of cliche

that tree is blossoming and from those

blossoms

we’ve got mattering fruit

and i don’t know about you but we are in

a season

where mattering means the most

where i can say you you

and you matter now why is that important

think about it think about what he’s

doing

and that leadership and that

connectivity that he

is establishing in his team

that right there is what it means to be

authentic so when we take those concepts

we’ve got a social ecology we’ve got

this community of practice and then

we’ve got that

superhero leader mentor who is

empowering

and engaging his team

those are all of those intangibles right

the

the glitter and the rainbows and

butterflies of human capital

but there’s one more piece where it

crosses into now the real world

and that’s the ownership so there’s a

recent gallup poll

and in the gallup poll and this is what

tells you that this is all real

and how it has very real impacts the

gallup

poll stated that 55

of the american workforce is complacent

okay so what’s that mean complacency

not everybody is going to have a high

performer day right

complacency means higher

absenteeism lower productivity

and losses and profitability

but let’s take that gallup information

and let’s put it into real tangibles

if you take ten thousand dollars worth

of an employee’s salary

and you put 55 complacency on it which

equals out to be about thirty four

percent i did the math

you end up with three thousand four

hundred dollars worth of loss

now let’s double that concept and let’s

think about the average

american salary forty seven

thousand dollars is what it is i would

question that especially after the

pandemic

forty seven thousand dollars if you take

thirty four percent of that

fifteen thousand nine hundred and eighty

dollars

per employee in complacency costs

lower productivity take that ownership

now if you don’t feel like there is a

sense

to want to build a culture build a

change

believe in a social ecology well then i

would beg to differ

so when you take all of that and you put

it together and you think about what it

means

to develop and engage and be an

authentic leader

i would say this what is it that you

would do

to develop that highly technical high

friend

principle do you also have the stanima

and the energy that it takes to be

that superhero leader mentor who is

connecting

with his team on a regular basis making

them a priority

i would have to say the notorious rbg

said it the best when she said

real change enduring

change happens one step

at a time so my call to action to you

is this as leaders

take that step in developing

an authentic leadership approach

turn the chapter plant your tree

add some inclusion and some mattering

fruit

thank you

you