You Belong: LinkedIn Brings Diversity & Inclusion Home

Teuila Hanson, Chief People Officer at LinkedIn, shared this article as a companion to her podcast, You Belong: LinkedIn Brings Diversity & Inclusion Home, 

As ILI continues experimenting with Maureen’s digital twin, here is episode 5 of the “Faux Mo Chronicles” where you can watch this digital twin evolve and see what the institute is doing to learn more about the technology and entertain you.

If I had to describe the past three years in one word, it would be “change.” The global pandemic accelerated a shift in how, when, and where we work. This, combined with economic uncertainty, has made the job market volatile. Slower growth, inflation, and increased layoffs have put pressure on professionals to make important career decisions. Many professionals are aligning their ambitions with their values, seeking companies that prioritize flexibility, purpose, growth, and learning and development. As talent leaders, we must critically rethink the future of work. How can we redefine productivity and keep our talent engaged and inspired? Here are a few strategies to adapt and meet the challenges of uncertainty.

 

Embrace an Adaptive & Agile Leadership Approach 

Talent leaders who can successfully navigate volatile cycles in the market, often adopt an agile and adaptive leadership style. In fact, McKinsey research shows that adaptability is the critical success factor during periods of transformation and systemic change. Adaptive leaders constantly reimagine their workplaces – iterating, adjusting, and experimenting with new ways of operating. They listen to employee feedback and modify their approach as needed, whereas reactive leaders react and respond with haste when crisis hits. By maintaining clear and consistent communication, adaptive leaders nurture employee and stakeholder trust, ensuring that even in times of uncertainty, transparency remains a priority. 

Today, building an adaptable and resilient workforce must be a cross-functional effort. The onus doesn’t fall on one department to enact change. To be successful, leaders should work together to build an employee-focused, future-forward culture—one where professionals want to stay and build their own agile careers.

 

Prioritize a Culture of Flexibility at Work

According to LinkedIn’s 2023 Workplace Learning Report, flexibility is the #1 factor candidates look for when considering a new job. At LinkedIn, we understand that in order to be successful, we must adopt an approach that quickly responds to the changing needs of our employees. Early in the pandemic, we introduced a simple question: “How are you doing?” to our Employee Voice Survey, which helped us get a quick pulse on what our employees needed most. We changed our hybrid and flexible work policies to meet people where they were and launched innovative mental health and L&D programs like “LiftUp!” and Career Week. As the Chief People Officer at LinkedIn, it was important to establish frequent points of connection with employees to actively listen, over-communicate, and build trust.

 

Lean Into Skills-First Hiring & Development to Attract and Retain Talent

Skills have become an important currency in the job search today. This is especially true during times of economic uncertainty, when keeping your skills sharp and taking proactive measures, like career cushioning, becomes key to staying relevant and future-proofing your career. No matter your background or level of experience, even if you’re stepping into the workforce for the first time, your skills are an important part of your professional narrative. For companies, taking a skills first-approach carries many benefits. For example:

  • Companies become more efficient in talent attraction & development: When businesses know the skill sets they have and need in their workforce to be successful, they can hire candidates more efficiently and develop existing talent to better meet business needs. In fact, More than 45% of hirers on LinkedIn globally explicitly rely on skills to search and identify candidates on LinkedIn. 
  • Companies gain access to a wider, more diverse candidate pool: Skills-based hiring can be an opportunity amplifier for talent with transferable skills. When companies take a look at the skills needed to get a job done instead of the degree and years of experience that typically accompany a position, they often find they have a wider bench of qualified, more diverse, talent to choose from. In fact, skills-first hiring can increase talent pools in the U.S. by 20x for workers without bachelor’s degrees.

In addition to building a more agile workforce, focusing on skills can encourage internal mobility and give employees access to new career opportunities. At LinkedIn, as well as companies like Google, EY, and Penguin Random House, we have removed degree requirements from the majority of our jobs, while other companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Apple have focused on measuring skills through projects or tests. To create a future-proof, agile workforce, organizations must double down on adaptive leadership and investing in their talent. During these uncertain times, companies should implement strategies that allow them to react quickly, ensuring the workplace is an environment that allows employees to grow, develop, and learn new skills that will bring us into the future. 

 

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Teuila Hanson is the Chief People Officer at LinkedIn. In this role she leads the team responsible for hiring, developing, and growing top talent, including all benefits, employee experience and Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging programs.

Prior to joining LinkedIn, Teuila was the executive vice president and Chief Strategy and People Officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. In this role, she led the strategy and people teams and served as chair of the bank’s management committee, creating an engaging workplace by driving bank strategy and integrating best practices in talent management, inclusion and diversity, learning and development, compensation and benefits, employee engagement and corporate culture. Teuila also held various leadership roles at AECOM Technology Corporation, a global professional services organization.

Teuila earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sonoma State University, and her juris doctor degree from Golden Gate University School of Law. She is a licensed member of the California Bar.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple PodcastsTuneInStitcherSpotify,  Amazon Music,  AudibleiHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

Why a People-First Approach is Key to a Successful Workplace Culture at Hilton

Laura Fuentes, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for Hilton, shared this article as a companion to her podcast Thrive at Hilton: Relentlessly Improving the Workplace. This article is about Hilton’s new campaign and dedication to workplace culture, which is essential to recognize. Hilton shares more of its story and how it built on its legacy of clear purpose with aligned action to create a campaign that demonstrates what Hilton has always known: team members are more than their titles, and behind every job, an extraordinary person is working hard to make each stay magical. For actionable steps you can take to emulate the work Hilton is doing, please subscribe to our Insights.

When Conrad Hilton founded our company more than 100 years ago, he had a bold vision: that travel could help spread the light and warmth of hospitality around the globe, and that it could ultimately play a role in bringing about world peace. When we travel and connect with other people, no matter how different our backgrounds may be, we see more of our shared humanity and experience empathy for one another. Hotels serve as natural gathering places to enable those connections to occur.

He also recognized that this bold vision could only come to life through the dedication and passion of the people who deliver this hospitality: Hilton’s team members.

Hilton’s workplace culture continues to build on that noble vision today. As the leader of our HR organization, I am inspired each and every day by our team members’ dedication to serving our guests, and I strive to never lose sight of the vital role our team members play in delivering that hospitality. I’ve come to believe stewarding that is a sacred responsibility.

Our award-winning workplace culture is built upon the idea of creating a fully human experience at work, which we deliver on by focusing on four key pillars: inclusion, wellness, growth and purpose. Now more than ever, employees are looking for more than a “typical” work experience. They are seeking a whole human experience at work, one that offers not only flexibility and inclusivity, but also a place for inspiration, growth, belonging, and fun at the same time, all of which can be found in Hilton’s legendary hospitality.

Following the challenges of the pandemic, our industry has rebuilt and come back stronger than ever, and we want to remind prospective team members of the many jobs and opportunities that a career in hospitality offers. That’s why we are taking our people-first approach even further with the introduction of a new employer brand campaign called “Every Job Makes the Stay,” which aims to disrupt thinking around what it means to work in hospitality by showcasing joy, purpose, and career growth, as seen through the voices of our own team members.

Built as an extension of Hilton’s first-ever global brand platform “Hilton. For The Stay,” which launched in 2022, the campaign targets labor challenges and recruiting needs by calling attention to the vast career growth possibilities that exist within Hilton. The campaign aims to ensure Hilton is top of mind for job seekers, especially those considering front line and hourly positions by emphasizing why a job at Hilton is unlike any other. It also highlights a sense of pride in Team Members, and showcases the many career paths they can take.

“Every Job Makes the Stay” demonstrates how Hilton is a people-first and purpose-driven organization, with an award-winning culture where you can bring your whole self to work every day. We offer benefits that empower you to defy expectations and seek excellence, and the flexibility to pursue your passions and grow your career with support every step of the way.

We’ve chosen to make our people the stars of this campaign by having it feature real team members talking about their jobs — because who better to speak authentically about working at Hilton than people who work here?

The campaign demonstrates what we at Hilton have always known: team members are more than their titles, and behind every job there’s an extraordinary person working hard to make each stay magical. You don’t just have a job or a title…you play a role and you fulfill a mission. You are an Ultimate Stay Creator, a Chief Welcome Officer or a Magic Maker.

The new campaign aims to shed light on what it means to work in hospitality and emphasizes why a job at Hilton is unlike any other in the industry. It also highlights why Hilton is a great place to do purpose-driven work, explore a variety of career paths and have some fun along the way.

With this new campaign — which will first launch in the U.S. and then go live around the globe in June — Hilton is, once again, reinventing retention and recruitment strategies to reach top talent across the U.S. and beyond.

Team members are the heart of our business. That means they’re also the best ambassadors to help us find talent. As a business of people serving people, we built this culture with our people at the core.

“Every Job Makes the Stay” is another step in our journey to making Hilton a great place to work for all, and to delivering on our belief that Hilton is a place to come for a job, but stay for a career. We will continue to build an environment where our more than 430,000 team members around the world can reach their full potential no matter their position. We look forward to continuing to listen to our team members and continuing to grow alongside one another, so we can co-design the future of work together.

 

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Laura Fuentes is the Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for Hilton with over two decades of experience in engineering, strategy consulting and human resources. Having worked in hospitality, financial services, and management consulting, Laura’s career reflects her global, cross-industry perspective in key business and talent areas. Throughout her tenure at Hilton, Laura has led efforts to build an award-winning culture at Hilton, being recognized by Fortune as the #1 Best Place to Work in the U.S. and by DiversityInc as the #1 Company on their 2021 Top 50 Companies for Diversity list. Originally from Spain, she holds a B.S. from the University of Virginia, a M.S. in Structural Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. She lives in Arlington with her husband and two sons.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple PodcastsTuneInStitcherSpotify,  Amazon Music,  AudibleiHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

Exiting Tech Stage Left: How Leaders Wake Up From Old Dreams to Pursue Their Purpose

Kvon Tucker, CEO and Founder of Consciously, a purpose-driven Executive and Leadership Coaching firm shares this article as a companion to his podcast Leadership is Relationships.

I quit! That’s right. I, Kvon Tucker, Fortune 500 Executive & Leadership Coach, have decided to leave Google. I am joining “The Great Resignation” and am leaving the job of my dreams.

Before I started working in tech, I admired the leaders from afar. Today, I get to be their leadership coach!

I came to Google with a purpose and now after building my coaching business and becoming a father, I’ve left on purpose. I’m writing about this because I want this to be a guide for anyone who has a sense that there is something else out there waiting for them. I want this to inspire anyone who might be contemplating leaving old dreams in search of new ones. I want more and more people to find greater experiences with purpose, power, fulfillment and freedom in their lives that I’ve been fortunate to find.

This does not mean you need to leave your job, but it might.

 

Making My Dream Come True

Working for Google was always the goal.

When I left SCE in 2015 to work with Netflix it was an opportunity of a lifetime for me. Not just because Netflix was a great company and I was a fan, but more because I knew it was a positive step towards working for Google. So I said yes. And what an experience it was. I learned so much about speed, scale, creativity, and coaching culture. I learned firsthand how freedom facilitates creativity and how important accountability & responsibility are.

The same goes for starting to work with Amazon in 2017. I never imagined what it would be like to work for such a large & well-known company, but I knew working with Amazon would increase my chances of working at Google. So I said yes. And similarly, I learned even more about speed and scale. I got to travel the world, facilitating leadership development with leaders from various cultures. I also got to learn how frugality facilitates a different kind of creativity.

Then in 2018, when Google offered me an opportunity to run my own Manager and Leadership Development shop for the recruiting organization – the answer was obviously Y-E-S!

And for three years working for Google was everything I imagined it would be and more. I was a leading strategy, leading culture, leading leaders, coaching, and my wife was pregnant. It was truly a dream come true. I got to create and experience life-changing leadership development programs for one of the most impactful organizations in the world.

And then – I went on paternity leave.

 

Waking Up From A Dream

Like many people before me, becoming a parent transformed me. It not only helped me learn more about my purpose on this planet, it helped me prioritize my time and energy in ways I never imagined I could or would. With that, I started looking at all of the things I had in my life differently and began to make choices.

While on paternity leave, I learned that:

  1. I loved being a dad.
  2. I loved executive & leadership coaching.
  3. I no longer loved being a program manager.

#3 might be the most important note. Becoming a parent and coaching more helped me realize that I had an entirely new dream and purpose for my life. Being a program manager at Google was no longer a part of the picture. While it was an amazing opportunity in 2018, in 2022 it no longer excited and fulfilled me. In fact, I began to find myself filled with dread.

And that’s how I knew it was time for a change.

 

What Waking Up Looks Like

The process of waking up can be challenging. It can be filled with insecurity, confusion, judgement, and fear. Imagine going to sleep in one place and then waking up in a completely new location. Waking up can be disorienting. That’s what waking up was like for me and similar to what many of my clients have shared with me.

Here are 3 signs you are waking up and ready for something new:

  1. Waking up with dread. If you are dragging your feet to the job, it’s likely time for you to start looking for something different.
  2. Large parts of your job drain you. While “no job is perfect”, finding rewarding work that is a better fit and energizes you is always worth the search!
  3. Your passion is calling you. Sometimes the shiny object in the mirror is closer than it appears. If you’ve found something fulfilling, the next step is to spend more time doing it.

The majority of people in the workforce are experiencing at least 1 of 3 of the above and while this is unfortunate, it also presents an opportunity for them to begin to discover their purpose and find the fulfillment they are seeking.

 

Pursuing Your Purpose

Now that I’ve left Google, I get to focus on stepping into the most important leadership roles I’ve ever had. Being a Dad, being an Executive & Leadership Coach, and being a business leader.

I want you to know that it is okay, normal, and natural to wake up from your dream and begin to want something different. Millions of people wake up every day dreading their jobs, but far fewer actually do something about it.

Leading and living purposefully doesn’t mean you have to quit your job. It doesn’t mean you have to turn your passion into a full-time job. We support leaders as they figure out what their bigger purpose is – and consciously take steps towards it. That journey looks different for everyone.

 

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Kvon Tucker is the CEO and Founder of Consciously, a purpose-driven Executive and Leadership Coaching firm.

Kvon is also a professionally trained Learning and Leadership Development expert. He has spent a third of his life dedicated to helping leaders, teams, and organizations learn, adapt, and transform.

His favorite tagline is, “All I know is how to help people grow.”

He has helped leaders at Netflix, Amazon, and Google adapt to hyper-growth and tremendous scale through experiential learning and leadership development coaching.

Kvon also holds a Master’s in Industrial-Organizational Psychology (M.S. I-O) and is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), and Professional Certified Coach (PCC).

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple PodcastsTuneInStitcherSpotify,  Amazon Music,  AudibleiHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

Lead Responsibly: An Absolut

Ann Mukherjee, Chairwoman and CEO of Pernod Ricard North America, provided this article as a companion to her podcast Lead Responsibly: An Absolut.

Once considered a solitary journey, achieving professional growth and success can be deeply enriched through building strong relationships with others. Cultivating trust and seeking support from collaborators is invaluable in helping you reach your career goals.

As both a mentor and a mentee, I’ve experienced the critical role that mentorship can play in helping individuals develop the skills and qualities necessary to become leaders. Effective mentors empower their mentees to find purpose in the work they’re doing, ensure they forge their own unique path to success and help them unleash their potential to achieve the impossible.

Mentors can come in a variety of forms, from leaders you admire, to a coworker who advocates for you. What’s most important is that they are individuals with whom you can be your authentic self behind closed doors. They tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Your mentor should encourage you to think critically about your actions, develop a crucial sense of self-awareness, and identify your strengths and areas of improvement. Through regular engagement with mentors, individuals at all levels can learn different leadership styles to transform into a purposeful leader.

Throughout my career, my mentors have imparted valuable lessons that have played a crucial role in shaping my leadership style. These lessons have been instrumental in helping me guide and mentor others. Here are the three most impactful lessons that I have learned from my mentors, which have defined my leadership philosophy:

 

  1. Lead with Your ‘Why’: Simply put – a purposeful leader must be engrossed by a personal sense of motivation which drives you and what you stand for. Early in my career, my mentors emphasized that finding my ‘why’ was critical to differentiating myself and reinforcing to key stakeholders I was a leader they could trust. It has served me well in my journey to operating an organization that cares about more than just the bottom line.

 

  1. Develop Resiliency: I make it a priority to nurture resilience in all my mentees because I believe it is a critical attribute for purposeful leadership. In today’s constantly changing economic and societal landscape, leaders who can guide their organizations through adversity and inspire adaptability are more likely to succeed and retain top talent.

 

  1. Discard the Traditional Leadership Model: As a mentor and purposeful leader, we are tasked with creating the benchmark of tomorrow’s leaders while meeting the diverse needs and demands of our stakeholders, including our employees. Being a “traditional” leader is no longer adequate to grow a business. Employees are looking to buy into their leaders’ philosophy, and consumers are motivated to buy into responsible brands that leave a sustainable impact. This can only be done once we establish a higher-order goal for our business that unites and clarifies our ambition in service of our financial targets. When married with personal and corporate resilience, purpose can be used to advance our mission and our bottom line in new and engaging ways.

 

Mentorship has defined my purposeful leadership at Pernod Ricard and in fact, it is what initially brought me to this organization – even as an industry outsider. Mentorship has empowered me to bring my whole self to work and lend my story to campaigns like Absolut Vodka’s #SexResponsibly, raising awareness around a crucial issue that our industry not only has the responsibility to address, but the power to change. The issue is one close to my heart, and I knew that my story would ground the campaign in the authenticity it deserved. Without the motivation of my mentors, I would not have had the confidence to take such a personal risk, and lead Pernod Ricard North America with purpose.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ann Mukherjee joined PRNA (Pernod Ricard) as CEO in December 2019. An industry outsider and woman of color, Ann is focused on delivering both ROI and ROR (return on responsibility). She’s advanced the business through ambiguity, driving a transformation rooted in the science of predictable consumer demand and guiding PRNA to record-breaking profits in 2021. Ann has launched award-winning brand campaigns and initiatives around consent, voting and hate speech. Ann has been recognized by Forbes 2022 ‘50 over 50’; Forbes’ Top 50 Most Influential CMOs; ADCOLOR’s Legend Award and was inducted into the American Marketing Association’s Marketing Hall of Fame.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple PodcastsTuneInStitcherSpotify,  Amazon Music,  AudibleiHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

Fringe or Mainstream? Leaders Explore Psychedelics.

Paul F. Austin, founder and CEO of Third Wave and one of the most prominent voices in the world of psychedelics and the team at Third Wave, provided this article as a companion to the podcast Fringe or Mainstream? Leaders Explore Psychedelics.

From neurology to organizational psychology, we constantly strive to bring you the latest in leadership development. That means we will occasionally explore leadership topics that are on the edge, outliers from the mainstream, but nonetheless may play a role in leadership development in years to come. That starts with today’s newsletter. It’s about the rising use of psychedelics among leaders not as recreation, but to help with decision making and other business issues. As we take this first step in exploring lesser-known perspectives on leadership, we understand some people are uncomfortable with the concept of psychedelic use, but believe keeping you informed is important.

Please note that microdosing is not for everyone, may not be legal where you live, can exacerbate certain conditions, and should always occur with an experienced, certified coach or therapist.

Microdosing, or taking “sub-perceptual” low doses of psychedelics, has many applications for people who are experiencing emotional distress and those who generally feel well. One lesser-known benefit of microdosing is enhanced leadership.

Third Wave founder Paul Austin, in his book Mastering Microdosing: How to Use Sub-Perceptual Psychedelics to Heal Trauma, Improve Performance, and Transform Your Life (2022), discusses how taking regular, tiny doses of psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin mushrooms enhances leadership potential.

 

What is Microdosing?

A sub-perceptual low dose of a psychedelic is low enough that you don’t experience classic psychedelic effects like visual distortions, hallucinations, intense emotional states, a strong body high, and deep introspection. However, this dose should still be high enough for you to “feel it” slightly.

You may experience an elevation in mood, creativity, mindfulness, focus, and energy. A microdosing regimen usually follows a routine such as dosing one day, taking two days off, then microdosing on the third day. You’ll typically repeat this protocol for a few weeks to a few months.

Many people experience mental health benefits following microdosing magic mushrooms or LSD, such as the alleviation of depression symptoms. 2021 research published in Scientific Reports revealed that microdosers report lower levels of anxiety and depression, and higher levels of well-being compared to non-microdosers.

 

The Relationship Between Microdosing and Leadership

Austin emphasizes that better leaders are desperately needed right now: “As the world evolves and we continue to develop new technology at a breathtaking pace, leadership demands are increasing.”

But what does it mean to be an effective leader? Austin explains: “Leaders need to adapt quickly to new situations and bring a creative, entrepreneurial problem-solving spirit to their endeavors. Microdosing can enhance both abilities.”

This connection between the microdosing experience and leadership is informed by Austin’s personal experiences, as he believes his “leadership path and overall character development are closely tied to microdosing.”

Prior to starting Third Wave, Austin had minimal leadership experience, but he cultivated that skill by starting and growing the company. Deriving benefits from a microdosing regimen, he discovered the many joys of leadership:

  • Articulating a vision that resonates with people
  • Contributing to a cause and mission greater than oneself
  • Being able to speak about uncomfortable topics
  • Cultivating the skills of social intelligence and public speaking
  • Empowering team members to be responsible, purposeful, passionate, and productive

Austin believes microdosing may also provide changes in thinking, feeling, and behavior that can prove beneficial when dealing with leadership challenges, namely, learning how to deal with criticism, and prioritizing self-care instead of overworking.

Managing the Ego

Leaders must be able to create a positive work culture where employees feel empowered to be their best selves.

“Leadership is evolving to be less hierarchical, dominant, and aggressive, and more about curating and cultivating space to allow the best people to step in and contribute,” says Austin.

This requires “managing the ego,” according to Austin. Managing the ego means not reacting defensively when your self-image feels threatened, being open to honest feedback, and accepting criticism as an opportunity to improve. Self-aware leaders should be secure enough to admit wrongdoing without losing sight of their vision. “Microdosing can help leaders make this shift,” says Austin.

A Balanced Approach to Thinking and Feeling

An effective leader is someone who knows when to take an analytical approach to problems and when to follow their gut feelings.

To find this balance, however, and adapt these styles in light of changing circumstances, “requires a significant degree of honest self-reflection,” and many business leaders have found that microdosing enables such a mindset.

Microdosing can “facilitate a flexible balance” and adaptability with regard to the different attitudes we can take towards problems in business, according to Austin, and thereby help leaders adapt to an uncertain future.

Austin also used this balancing of two important ways of being when building Third Wave. He states:

“I have hired team members on several occasions by focusing solely on how their skill sets would allow them to contribute. Determining this fit was task-based—I had to create clear expectations of everyone’s tasks.

“At other times, the candidate’s values have taken center stage in the hiring process. I understand that my feeling and intuition of who the person was and my sense of the values that dictated their work were better predictors of success in the long run.”

Divergent Thinking and Creativity

Novel problems require creative solutions. Many business leaders find that microdosing improves divergent thinking, or the processing of creating multiple, unique ideas or solutions to a problem you are facing.

Leaders also succeed when immersed in finding new and better ways of completing a task, a process that they find deeply fulfilling. Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has called this process flow. “The adaptability and focus that go hand-in-hand with microdosing perfectly complement this concept,” says Austin.

Many entrepreneurs can also have some of their best creative ideas when in a microdose headspace. As Austin told Quartz, “I started microdosing in June 2015 and I did it for seven months, and through that I came up with the idea of the Third Wave.”

In 2020, Business Insider also reported on how company founders were generating new business ideas through microdosing. And a 2018 study found that “both convergent and divergent thinking performance was improved after a non-blinded microdose.” (Convergent thinking involves reaching one well-defined solution to a problem.)

On Tribal Leadership

In the book Tribal Leadership, authors Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright explain the state of leadership culture today and how we can shift toward one that prioritizes the common good. While the authors don’t discuss microdosing, Austin believes that this practice of using psychedelic medicine is relevant to generating compassionate leadership.

In Tribal Leadership, the authors argue that professional cultures in the US are mostly defined by the excellence of the individual, not the group. A more evolved kind of culture, they believe, is a collective of core values and group members working toward a shared goal.

When leaders embody this latter kind of culture, the benefits are myriad: new waves of creativity and success and reduced fear, stress, and friction. As touched on previously, by reducing the grip of the ego and encouraging creativity and flexibility, microdosing can help leaders see why a collaborative culture is much healthier and more productive than a competitive, egocentric approach to leadership.

Final Thoughts on Microdosing and Leadership

Austin summarizes the benefits of microdosing to leaders as follows:

The requirements to succeed as a twenty-first-century entrepreneur—the ability to find creative solutions that address complex or chaotic problems, the capacity to self-reflect honestly and incorporate feedback from several sources in your processes, and the power to tap into a flow state to produce your best, most meaningful work—are things that microdosing supports. Of course, microdosing alone won’t make you a great entrepreneur. Still, it does hold the potential to unlock the qualities that leaders need to develop and carry out their visions in a dynamic and fast-changing world.

If you’re a leader looking for a novel approach to improving your skills and personal growth, check out Third Wave’s Microdosing Course or Paul F. Austin’s book, Mastering Microdosing.

Disclaimer: Psychedelics are largely illegal substances, and we do not encourage or condone their use where it is against the law. However, we accept that illicit drug use occurs and believe that offering responsible harm reduction information is imperative to keeping people safe. For that reason, this document is designed to enhance the safety of those who decide to use these substances.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Paul F. Austin is one of the most prominent voices in the world of psychedelics.

As the founder of Third Wave, he has educated millions on the importance of safe and effective psychedelic experiences. A pioneer at the intersection of microdosing, personal transformation, and professional success, he has been featured in Forbes, Rolling Stone, and the BBC’s Worklife.

Paul helps others use microdosing as a tool for professional development and increased self-awareness by treating the use of psychedelics as a skill refined through mentorship and courageous exploration.

Learning how to master this skill will be crucial in the story of humanity’s present-future evolution.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple PodcastsTuneInStitcherSpotify,  Amazon Music,  AudibleiHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

 Prepare for the Future with Foresight

Dr. Ciela Hartonov, a futurist, organizational psychologist, human behavior expert, writer, and thinker dedicated to reinventing work, shared this article as a companion to her podcast  Prepare for the Future with Foresight

 

Exploring the Future, Today

Anticipating, preparing for, and shaping the future is essential as the world continues to be more uncertain than ever. The best leaders and organizations recognize that they need to keep themselves educated and on top of emerging factors that may influence business longevity. The Vitality Index from BCG shows that organizations who are most resilient over the long run continuously develop future growth options, proactively anticipating how emergent change will impact them. To do this requires a comprehensive and strategic innovation approach.

Humcollective provides a systematic innovation approach that 1. Scans the environment for signals of change and impactful trends 2. Develops strategies to capitalize on opportunities or mitigate risks and 3. Embeds the shift into strategic organizational plans and change initiatives.

For the purposes of this article, the focus is on sharing more information about Step 1: Scan, which leverages foresight as the foundation. Foresight uses trending and forecasting tools to move beyond the known. It is designed to help us better understand future possibilities in order to build the strategic plans of tomorrow, today.

Collecting Inputs

Innovation comes from seeing what others do not yet see and making sense of patterns in a new way. Thus, the first step is scanning the environment for signals of change — the early warning signs of a shift underway. The process of identifying and analyzing signals allows us to anticipate the development of emerging trends. A cluster of signals indicates a trend is forming. By analyzing the trends, patterns and relationships that may not be immediately apparent are identified. It is important to look at both the macro and micro trends that may have an outsized impact on your industry to inform decision-making and planning.

Macro trends

Macro trends (sometimes called Drivers) have longer lasting periods of influence and are a pervasive and persistent shift at the global level, often in technology, economies or other influences on society at large. For example, an important trend in technology worth watching right now is Web3, a new iteration of the internet that is more decentralized and self-regulated. Let’s say we want to understand Web3 more deeply and how it might impact your industry. We would conduct a comprehensive process of monitoring and analyzing signals, events, and advances in Web3 that could indicate a potential change or opportunity. Through the systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of information from a variety of sources, emerging patterns show how Web3 could impact an industry, organization or department.

Micro trends

Micro trends are faster acting and accelerate change. They give us quicker directional signals of what is changing and help us make sense of the macro trends. If we are exploring Web3 as an important technological driver, then we would look to micro trends in that area. For example, NFTs or the Metaverse, which are all part of the larger Web3 ecosystem but are having different impacts and show us different aspects of Web3’s impact.

Micro trend scanning comes from many places — first hand observations of human behavior, expert analysis and interviews, scanning communities of interest across the internet, varied and global news reports and many more. The result of this process is an organized collection of curated trends about your area of interest.

Making Sense of the Inputs

Once a trend collection has been completed, the information becomes valuable when it is turned into patterns and themes. At this stage, we begin to ask the question: What is all this telling us? This begins the process of understanding potential consequences of the emerging trends.

To start to make sense of the inputs, three dimensions are explored: Time, Impact, and Probability. By looking at the time horizon of the trend, the impact it could have across many dimensions (society, politics, business, etc.), and the level of certainty of its unfolding, a business can begin to map the most important issues now and over the long term.

Once you have scanned the environment by collecting inputs and made sense of them, you are ready to move to Steps 2 and 3 in the innovation Strategize and Shape. This is where scenarios for the future are developed and acted upon in the context of your business. While we are not exploring these steps in this article, you can learn more about the end-to-end innovation process by reading a case study about how Google used the process to reshape their learning agenda.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. Ciela Hartanov is a futurist, organizational psychologist, human behavior expert, writer, and thinker dedicated to reinventing work. She helps leaders create a revolution inside the modern workplace, one aimed at breaking a system that promotes work practices that have existed since the industrial era. She was part of the founding team of The Google School for Leaders and Head of Next Practice Innovation and Strategy at Google, where she developed projects designed to shape the future of leadership and work. She currently runs humcollective, a boutique strategy and innovation firm that helps companies, executives, and teams make sense of the forces shaping the future and prepare strategically.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple PodcastsTuneInStitcherSpotify,  Amazon Music,  AudibleiHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

How Disinformation Shapes Your World

Tara McGowan, founder and Publisher of Courier Newsroom and CEO of Good Information Inc, a civic incubator that invests in immediate solutions to counter disinformation online, shared this article as a companion to her podcast Reality Lost – How Disinformation Shapes Your WorldThis interview is part of the International Leadership Association Series that features guests from the International Leadership Association 2022 Global Conference held in Washington, D.C., in October 2022.

I often say that mis- and disinformation only succeed in a vacuum. When people cannot access good, quality information, they turn to what is available – and in today’s media environment, what is most available are lies and conspiracy theories.

In the world of 50, 40, even 30 years ago, the media ecosystem was highly centralized. Information sprung from one location and was disseminated by trusted sources. Legacy media like national and local newspapers and trusted cable news programs provided an authoritative source for factual information. These outlets served as trusted gatekeepers. They determined what was newsworthy information and what would make it into the collective consciousness of the audience at large.

Today’s reality is much different. The current media and information ecosystem is increasingly decentralized and Americans are more and more getting their news and information from social media. These platforms operate on algorithms that reward emotional and salacious content and exploit personal biases. On top of that, legacy media is shifting. Local newspapers are dying at an alarming rate and national publications put their content behind paywalls and target elite audiences, leaving the average American consumer behind. 

This dangerous perfect storm has allowed for the rise of those information vacuums in which disinformation thrives in the form of online echo chambers. 

People do not live in news deserts – information and news is readily available all over the internet. Rather they are trapped in these echo chambers that feed and are fueled by social media algorithms. Social media is adapting to our changing news consumption behaviors and traditional media outlets are not. Algorithms that are set to feed off of people’s biases create a streamlined flow of bad information into echo chambers, aided by the attention economy—the more you engage, the longer you stay, the more ads that can be sold to the consumer. On top of this, social media users are being served salacious and emotional content because reactivity leads to better performance of posts.

The solution to this is to shatter these echo chambers and fill the vacuums on social media with good, quality, and factual information. In the absence of algorithmic reform and increased regulation of the big social media platforms, we need solutions that play their game to increase the volume and quantity of this good information online.

We can get more people engaged in their local communities and civic responsibilities by giving this information a fighting chance on social media. Let’s make local news and information compete in the algorithm, and use engagement to drive the trusted news that traditional media outlets and trusted journalists are producing in front of the average citizen. 

Good information and quality reporting needs to be packaged in a way that works with algorithms and will engage audiences. Graphics with topline information and skimmable yet informative headlines and informative video clips are easily shareable and effective content pieces. They are also more accessible for the average citizen who may find themselves trapped in an information echo chamber. They are not placed behind a paywall and aren’t boring long-form articles that are written for the pundit and academic classes.

We can adjust how news is distributed so that it’s easily readable in someone’s newsfeed, or as they’re scrolling through Instagram, or checking their emails in the morning. It’s also important to innovate and adapt these strategies to changing trends on social media platforms. For example, with the rise of vertical videos on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, reporting should adapt to match demand from social media users and younger audiences.

Not only are legacy media outlets not adapting to this new reality and media ecosystem, our leaders are also slow to adapt. In order to communicate effectively with constituents and get ahead of dis- and misinformation, leaders need to meet constituents where they are getting their information. They too can break through the echo chambers and get good information into the algorithms.

This idea that the best way to break echo chambers and fight disinformation is by getting more good info in circulation online allows for individual agency as well. We all have the power to share more good, factual content which we interact with on our social channels. 

Fighting the information war in the new and evolving media ecosystem is a systemic effort. It’s going to require adaptation and evolution from media, government, and individuals. But a world with more good info is possible.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tara McGowan is the founder and Publisher of Courier Newsroom and CEO of Good Information Inc, a civic incubator that invests in immediate solutions to counter disinformation online. A former political strategist with an early career in journalism, Tara has seen firsthand how America’s information crisis has contributed to the rising threat of authoritarianism and the deterioration of social trust.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple PodcastsTuneInStitcherSpotify,  Amazon Music,  AudibleiHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

Onboard with Care: Welcoming a New Leader

Brenda Hampel and Erika Lamont, founding partners of Connect the Dots Consulting, a boutique management consulting firm with deep expertise in leadership onboarding, coaching, and team effectiveness share this article as a companion to their podcast Onboard with Care: Welcoming a New Leader.

Ainsley was excited and nervous.  She was starting her new role as senior leader of a sales team for a large, prominent medical device supplier. It was her “dream job” with its scope of responsibilities, opportunities for advancement and being a leader in a purpose-led organization. She had completed all her pre-hire requirements and was ready to get started, but hadn’t heard from her new manager, Richard, since she accepted the job. She tried reaching out a few times but got no response; her HR contact assured her that “everything was fine” and she would have time with Richard in her first week to talk about getting her up to speed.

On her first day, Ainsley shows up at the office and is greeted by the front-deck receptionist who leads her into a conference room. Then a series of HR folks come in and out of the room with additional paperwork and some company information. The last person shows her to her office and politely leaves after a brief tour of the department. Richard is not around and who she thinks are some of her team members are looking at her curiously.

What happened?

Some call it new leader onboarding, or executive transition, others may refer to it as leader “integration” or  executive “assimilation”, but what we know from our more than 20 years’ experience, is that the “Sink or Swim” approach to leadership transition is NOT a successful strategy.

The data still report that between 40 and 60% of leaders who are either entering a new organization or are internally promoted will fail. The most shocking thing about this statistic is that it hasn’t changed much in the last ten years! Organizations are not getting better at onboarding new leaders and teams and business results are taking the hit for this lack of attention to an important part of an organization’s talent life cycle.

What we do know is that companies who onboard their leaders with purpose have a 90% likelihood that their teams will meet their 3-year performance goals, and experience 13% less attrition than if the leaders received no onboarding support.

The model we have adopted and leverage begins with Pre-start, the time during which the new leader has accepted the job, but not yet officially started through about the first six months. This timeframe can be longer or shorter depending on the organizational culture – in larger, more mature companies, leaders are “new” longer than in smaller, start-up cultures.

We know from our work that new leaders need:

  1. Knowledge – about the company, its culture, their roles
  2. Relationships – strong trust built with the manager, team members, peers, and other stakeholders
  3. Feedback – actionable data about how they are integrating into the organization

But, so many organizations, like Ainsley’s, don’t have a formal process for onboarding their new leaders creating a huge missed opportunity for the leader, team, and broader organization.

What can organizations do to start to address this gap that causes millions of dollars in turnover, disengagement, and misalignment?

Start with these 5 steps to up your leadership onboarding game:

 

One: Get Real about Objectives

Consider the big picture when forming your onboarding objectives for your leaders. What are the “pain points” that new leaders typically encounter? Turning those into measurable objectives can help turn-around your onboarding experience. For example, structure in Ainsley’s pre-start phase would have eliminated some of her anxiety and stress. It may have also offered the opportunity to build relationships with her boss, her peers or team members.

 

Two: Make a Plan

Even if your organization doesn’t yet have a structured process, you can create a plan for your individual new leaders. If you are the HR partner, you can have a conversation with the boss to determine the things that the new leader should focus on in their first 90 days, and with whom they need to build relationships. Help the new leader understand why she was hired and what the organization’s expectations are for her. With everyone on the same page there is less room for ambiguity, and it increases both accountability to and transparency of what is expected.

 

Three: Prepare the Team

When a leader’s role has been vacant for a while or there is an interim manager, the transition for the team to a new leader can be tough. As soon as it’s appropriate, let the team know who has been selected, what the leader will bring, and allow for questions or concerns to be shared. If someone on the team applied for the role and didn’t get it, then a separate conversation is critical. Facilitating a version of a New Leader Integration exercise is also helpful.

 

Four: Give Actionable Feedback

Often new leaders are not given feedback and are left to guess how they are fitting in. We created a 360- tool that is launched at about the 45–60-day mark to capture this early feedback and help leaders course correct. Many leaders with whom we worked, have said that this feedback “literally saved them”.  The report shares perceptions of key stakeholders to provide a snapshot of that leader’s onboarding.  The conversations that happen after the data is shared has helped hundreds of leaders see gaps and make changes to address them before the organization decides that they “are not a good fit”. It’s important to note that onboarding feedback is different than performance or development feedback.

 

Five: Leverage Professional Coaching

Most new leaders are hesitant to ask for onboarding coaching out of concern they will be viewed as less competent or needy. This mindset is starting to shift, however, and leaders can—and should—advocate for themselves, especially if it has been awhile since they changed roles or if the role is high-risk/high reward for the organization. Other factors to consider are how long the role was open, if any current team members wanted the role, and if significant changes must be implemented. All these conditions can be potential showstoppers for even the most seasoned executives, and cause churn for the leader, her team, and the organization. A coach will bring process and structure to the onboarding experience while supporting both the new leader as well as his boss in managing the transition successfully.

 

Transitioning into a new role doesn’t have to be painful or costly. Organizations that are intentional about leadership onboarding will reap the benefits many times. Leaders will be able to make the impact they were hired to, teams will thrive and grow, and company goals will be realized faster, potentially exceeding expectations.

Ainsley had to experience the “hard side” of leadership onboarding and won’t have the springboard for success that she could have if her new company had provided more thoughtful planning for her entry. Unfortunately, she is in the sink-or-swim lane now.

 

ABOUT THE GUESTS:

Erika Lamont is an executive coach, author, speaker and founding partner of Connect the Dots Consulting. Connect the Dots is a boutique management consulting firm providing deep expertise in leadership onboarding, coaching, and team effectiveness. Erika brings a distinctive blend of operational experience and leadership development skills to her client base. Erika has held leadership roles inside large organizations such as Riverside Methodist Hospital, part of the OhioHealth Corporation, and Bath & Body Works, a division of The Limited, Inc.—experience that has been advantageous to her coaching practice.

Erika is a Master Certified Executive Coach (MCEC) and an active member of the Association of Corporate Executive Coaches. She is also a certified coach for Marshall Goldsmith’s Stakeholder Centered Coaching and blends her own leadership experiences with the proven methods of best-practice coaching. Erika graduated from Miami University with a BA in Political Science, has two adult daughters, and currently lives with her husband in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio.

 

Brenda Hampel – Strategic thinker. Trusted Advisor. Business leader. Nationally recognized leadership author, speaker and senior executive coach. Brenda Hampel brings these accomplishments and skills to provide senior leaders with the tools, insights and customized solutions that empower their leadership capabilities and strengthen their organization.

Prior to co-founding Connect The Dots Consulting over sixteen years ago, Brenda had already earned industry-wide respect as a premier senior level coach. Today, she continues to help corporate leaders, and academic medical center senior level executives develop and apply strategies to navigate the complex challenges leaders face in their real-world environments.

Having co-authored three well-received books — all published by McGraw-Hill — on topics ranging from onboarding to talent assessment, Brenda remains an influential thought leader in the industry. But her most fulfilling work remains helping senior level management improve their organization through highly effective leadership skills gained from customized solutions that are the hallmark of her impressive approach to coaching.

Brenda, a proud graduate of The Ohio State University, is certified as a Marshall Goldsmith’s Stakeholder-Centered Coaching methodology, and is further certified in multiple assessment tools. When not helping corporate and academic leaders strengthen and expand their leadership skills, Brenda relishes time with her family, often in challenging outdoor activities.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple PodcastsTuneInStitcherSpotify,  Amazon Music,  AudibleiHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You

Betsy Myers, a renowned expert on emerging leadership trends and women’s leadership and the author of Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You, provided this article as a companion to her podcast You Are Enough, You Are Worthy: Leadership Lessons for Women. This interview is part of the International Leadership Association Series and features guests from the International Leadership Association 2022 Global Conference held in Washington, D.C., in October 2022.

 

Our guest, Betsy Meyers, shares her insights about two key leadership questions:

1. Why is it that some leaders challenge and motivate us to be our best selves, while others drain our spirit?  What are the key ingredients of leadership necessary for getting results with the modern workforce and customer? 

Becoming an effective leader—someone who is able to rally others around a cause, who inspires others to collaborate towards a common goal, who can bring people together to make a powerfully positive difference in the world—starts with leading ourselves. The bedrock of leadership is honest self-reflection and a personal commitment to the lifelong pursuit of unblinking self-knowledge.

Being an effective leader often has less to do with knowing the answers, and far more to do with being willing to ask the important questions— and listening to the input, experiences, and perspectives of those around you. The answers are most often right in our midst, just waiting for a leader to recognize, articulate, and act on them.

And finally, good leadership at its core is about the positive feelings it creates. Imagine a world where people felt valued, appreciated, and understood, both at work and at home. It’s a beautiful thought and a leader can truly make a difference when they connect to their hearts and embrace our shared humanity.

 

2. As we elaborate on the topic of feelings, let’s clarify what that really means. How is leadership about feelings? This statement sounds a bit soft. How can leadership relating to feelings drive results?  

Advanced degrees, years of experience, an important title, or access to power do not guarantee that you will be a successful leader. Leadership is about how you make people feel—about you, about the project or work you’re doing together, and especially about themselves. 

Why? Because people do their best work when they feel good about themselves and what they’re doing. When people feel valued, appreciated, heard, supported, acknowledged, and included, they are motivated to bring their best selves forward. This is how initiatives get launched, profits are made, and the work gets done. It’s not just about being nice, it is about being effective.

Most of us don’t think of feelings as being the key to leadership success. It seems almost counterintuitive. But think for a moment about the times in your life when you have been most productive: were those also the times when you felt most valued, supported, and appreciated?

 

The ILI team wanted to elaborate on Betsy’s comments because they strongly support the idea that how people feel at work drives performance, improves customer experience, and ultimately contributes to profitability.

There are several frameworks ranging from the Gallup Engagement framework to Jim Ritchie-Dunham’s Harmonic Vibrancy framework that prove statistically that people who feel good about themselves while at work and feel good about the people with whom they work, are more engaged in the mission and deliver tangibly better results.

Here are a few examples of research studies that support this:

  1. A study published in the Harvard Business Review found that happy employees are 31% more productive than their unhappy peers. The study also found that happy employees take fewer sick days, have lower turnover rates, and are more likely to provide excellent customer service.
  2. Research conducted by Gallup found a 23% difference in profitability between companies with highly engaged employees and those with low employee engagement.
  3. A study by the University of Warwick found that happy employees were 12% more productive than their unhappy counterparts.
  4. A report by the World Economic Forum found that companies that prioritize employee well-being outperform their peers in terms of financial performance.
  5. According to a study by the University of California, Riverside, happy employees are more creative and innovative, leading to higher levels of innovation and a better ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

How employees feel impacts the bottom line – it is part of a path to profitability! By creating a supportive and positive work environment, companies can increase productivity, reduce turnover, and improve customer service, leading to increased profits and long-term success.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Betsy Myers is on a mission to improve leadership by developing leaders and teams who infuse passion and purpose into their organizations by leading from both the head and the heart. Betsy’s insightful keynotes and workshops have inspired and offered practical guidance to executives and managers around the world who want to level up their leadership, retain top talent, and achieve results in the modern workplace.

Betsy is a renowned expert on emerging leadership trends and women’s leadership and is the author of Take the Lead: Motivate, Inspire, and Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Everyone Around You. She currently serves on the Council on Advancing Women in Business for the Export-Import Bank of the United States and has extensive experience in the corporate world, government settings, and in higher education.

Previously, she was founding director of the Center for Women and Business at Bentley University and executive director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School. A senior adviser to two U.S. presidents, Betsy served as President Clinton’s Advisor on Women’s Issues and was Chief Operating Officer of President Obama’s 2008 National Presidential Campaign. She also held leadership roles in the U.S. Small Business Administration.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple PodcastsTuneInStitcherSpotify,  Amazon Music,  AudibleiHeartRADIO, and NPR One.

Three Steps to Help Healthcare Leaders Solve Today’s Challenges

Maureen Metcalf, founder and CEO of the Innovative Leadership Institute, wrote the article as a companion to her podcast with Dr. Anne Klibanski, President and CEO of Mass General Brigham, a Boston-based integrated healthcare system, ng Our Future titled Bringing Healing Home – Healthcare Leadership.

 

The healthcare industry is one of the most challenged industries in the world. Particularly in the wake of COVID, healthcare leaders face a multitude of hurdles: medical staff burnout, insufficient patient rooms in hospitals to meet demand, less access to healthcare for many people, rising operating costs, and so much more.

They may feel insurmountable, but Mass General Brigham — a Boston-based integrated healthcare system — uses three core steps to meet those challenges, and create a more effective, efficient, and equitable system of care in the process.

Step 1. Gather leaders together to create a common vision

Forging a common vision pulls a team’s perspective away from their own silos. By understanding the larger mission and goals of the organization, every department has a “north star” to point their actions to the overall healthcare system’s success. That generates consensus, and every employee, from custodial service to the O.R.’s most elite surgical team, can see how their work contributes to this shared vision of the future.

To ensure the success of the vision, include all stakeholders in the process. Bring together different perspectives from across the organization. Communicate the vision across your entire organization. It’s up to leaders to create a culture of accountability and support for the vision, too. This can include setting up clear performance metrics, providing resources and incentives for achieving goals, and recognizing those who contribute to the success of the vision.

Step 2. Begin with the end in mind: think, design and act from the patient back

The core mission for any healthcare leader centers on one goal: the best possible outcome for every patient. Key to that is challenging the narrative of “we’ve always done it this way,” and finding new approaches to solving both new and enduring problems.

The COVID-19 pandemic turned out to be an unexpected accelerator for such change. It forced people to work remotely, think differently, and suspend what they thought was required in order to provide the best patient care. At Mass General Brigham, for example, virtual care visits went from a few thousand to over two million in just one year. Working back from patients’ need to continue seeing doctors despite quarantine, Mass General took existing technology, innovated with it, and implemented today’s more robust virtual visit system.

Step 3. Accelerate the implementation and use of existing technology to deliver care

This flows directly from Step 2’s COVID lesson. Seeing existing systems and technologies in a new light can have tremendous benefit for patients. Focusing on the common goal helps your team envision ways to reshape treatments, procedures, and delivery of care through both research and innovation.

An added bonus: if your healthcare team is already thinking in new and innovative ways, they’ll be more prepared to continue serving patients well in the next crisis.

 

Dr. Anne Klibanski has proven the value of these steps as President and CEO of Mass General Brigham. Through her leadership, and her team’s dedication, they have created an integrated healthcare system that has the patient at the center, and are constantly working to shape a better future for their patients.

 

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Dr. Anne Klibanski is President and CEO of Mass General Brigham, a Boston-based integrated healthcare system that includes internationally known Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, nationally recognized specialty hospitals, seven community hospitals, a health insurance company, physician networks, community health centers, home-based care, and long-term care services.

Dr. Klibanski’s vision for Mass General Brigham is to build the integrated academic health care system of the future with patients at the center, by transforming care, improving outcomes, and expanding impact locally, nationally, and globally. She has led clinical integration of services across the system, spearheaded the development of new digital platforms to achieve digital care, and overseen the increased investment in leading-edge research since assuming the role in 2019.

 

RESOURCES:

Ready to measure your leadership skills? Complete your complimentary assessment through the Innovative Leadership Institute. Learn the 7 leadership skills required to succeed during disruption and innovation.

Check out the companion interview and past episodes of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future via Apple PodcastsTuneInStitcherSpotify,  Amazon Music,  AudibleiHeartRADIO, and NPR One.