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