Sunday, April 26, 2009

Lessons from Back Pain

As you can tell from my posting title, this has been a challenging week. If you have ever suffered with lower back pain you know what I am talking about. Since Wednesday morning I have been dealing with varying degrees of discomfort in the muscles that occupy the lower left quadrant of my back. No, I don’t know what I may have done to aggravate or injure myself. Yes, I have received plenty of suggestions from family, friends, and colleagues about possible treatments and preventative actions to take. Meanwhile, I have ignored most of them and chosen to work in spite of the pain. Call me stubborn if you like.

So what does a bout with back pain have to do with leadership? Perhaps nothing, but my experience reminds me how leaders can ignore symptoms and fail to treat the sources of pain in their workplace. Let me illustrate.

In my case I don’t know the real cause of my soreness. Without exploring what is contributing to the ache I can’t take any real steps to prevent a future reoccurrence. Leaders sensing troubles in their office, factory, or distribution center too often choose to ignore the issues behind the pain. Like me, they try to work through the discomfort knowing that at some point there will be a reprieve. While this strategy may prove successful in the short-term it does nothing to protect the leader from a repeat of the same scenario at some future date.

When one muscle in my back is strained or injured the other muscles and tissues react to compensate for the weaker area. In effect, they work harder to keep my body in alignment and able to function. While this seems like a helpful strategy it may actually prolong the recovery period by stressing these muscles as well. In workplace stress the person causing the pain isn’t just hurting their productivity but is likely affecting the job satisfaction and productivity of their co-workers. Because they are forced to compensate for the problem employee’s behavior their stress is increased and the impact spreads deeper and further than may be necessary.

Leaders would do well to pay attention to small signs of trouble and workplace discomfort. They should take more preventative steps to replace ineffective managers or provide them with training and coaching. Employees should be offered access to Employee Assistance Programs or other safe avenues for them to alleviate the stress they may be feeling due to layoffs, reduced hours, or problems at home.

Back pain, like workplace stress, doesn’t need to become a chronic issue. Just as there are effective treatments like yoga and exercise to build stronger more resilient back muscles, leaders can employ training programs, counseling, and coaching to create healthier teams and workplaces. Being stubborn and working through the pain is also an option. Ask me in about a week how that is working for me.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Civil Service


Yesterday I joined a group of business and community leaders on a bus trip to our state capital in Harrisburg. The trip’s purpose was to learn more about how our state government works and to visit one of the more beautiful buildings in any capital city in our nation. A tour highlight was the opportunity to interact in a personal way with our state senator, the Honorable Rob Wonderling, who served as tour guide and luncheon host.

Many of us are more than a little disheartened with the current political leadership in our country. Stories of inappropriate personal and professional behavior often dominate the headlines. There is a perceived disconnect between the policies being enacted and the wishes of many citizens. Success in politics seems more connected to a cult of personality than any real leadership qualities that will get things done. Power struggles are common, with the accompanying bully tactics, backstabbing, and personal attacks. Bipartisanship isn’t a genuine goal, even though it is often touted as an admirable approach to problem solving.

Senator Wonderling represents something different, a true public servant in the midst of a lackluster political landscape. He chose to run for office after a successful business career so he actually knows how to manage and lead. His motivation is drawn from a deep sense of service and his time spent with our group demonstrated this over and over again. We were free to ask him anything and he graciously offered responses to our queries about policy and personal issues. His behind the scenes look at the Senate offices and chamber were replete with little known facts and history, including his own experiences as a capital page.

When asked about the qualities needed to be an effective public servant, the senator’s response reflected his values: being well-read, listening carefully, and having a servant attitude and approach to the work. It was refreshing to have an audience with a politician who was candid about the problems facing our commonwealth and nation without offering pithy sound bites or staid party rhetoric. In fact, the senator pointed out how party affiliation is not that important when getting legislative issues resolved.

Many of the persons in our group were younger leaders who could play an important future role in local, county, state, or federal government. I hope they were inspired to consider public service as a worthwhile endeavor, or even a life’s calling. We need more persons like Rob Wonderling who understand the qualities needed to be an effective civic leader. Political affiliation, money, ego, and fame shouldn’t shape or influence the people choosing to run for public office. We need persons of principle and courage who love their communities and the people they serve; people with a servant heart and a willingness to do what is right.

Thanks, Rob, for your service, your example, and your willingness to share your passion with our group. It’s time for more people like you to get some “skin in the game” and make a difference in our communities and in our world.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Faith

Faith helps us to see and believe the unseen and the unbelievable. This Easter may all who have faith be encouraged to share the Good News. He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

The Importance of Focus

This past week I attended a local Summit event on the topic of childhood obesity where I served as a table conversation facilitator for the breakout sessions. During the many presentations offered by various federal and state officials and recognized experts in the field one disturbing statistic continued to emerge. Despite spending billions of dollars to educate families, schools, healthcare providers, and community agencies about the problem; despite creating dozens of programs to advocate for better eating habits and more exercise; despite research and studies to determine underlying causes; despite all of these noble activities the crisis has gotten progressively worse.

When we face problems, both personal and with our businesses, leaders often fail to focus (to concentrate their attention or effort). This leads to an unorganized attempt to address the issue and only limited success in finding real and lasting solutions. The summit presentations on childhood obesity illustrated this point. Each speaker offered a variety of programs that have been initiated to deal with the epidemic and that is the problem. Wouldn’t it be wise to choose one approach that holds the most promise and have every stakeholder group concentrate its energy to implement that solution?

For example, in Delaware they have adopted a 5-2-1-Almost None healthy lifestyle campaign. It promotes eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily; spending no more than two hours daily in front of a screen (TV, computer, etc.); getting at least one hour of physical activity daily, and drinking almost no sugary beverages (like sodas or energy drinks). The results show real promise and yet there is no effort to take this idea and focus a national campaign around its simple and effective message.

I’m sure there are lots of reasons why this doesn’t occur. One is the ego of leaders who didn’t create the campaign. Another is the political pressure on state and federal officials to spend money and support causes that will get them reelected. One could argue that the message will grow stale in this marketing mad society. Meanwhile the epidemic worsens because leaders lack the courage and discipline to focus on what is working.

Any time real change is attempted, whether on a personal level or in a complex system, the ability to stay focused is one of the keys to success. The vision for change must be stated and repeated on a regular basis. All the leaders or other key stakeholders must be united in their message about the benefits of the change. Every attempt to divert attention must be thwarted if the change is to take root and be fully implemented.

It’s sad to think that a problem as serious as childhood obesity may continue to exist because government, education, faith communities, neighborhoods, and families lack the will to focus on one simple message and the supporting efforts to bring that idea to fruition. As I listened to the presentations and conversations at the summit it is clear we are not yet ready to make that commitment.

You don’t need to make this same mistake. As a leader you can engage your management team, employees, and other stakeholders in process improvement and other change initiatives. When a solution has been identified you can teach everyone to focus like a laser beam during the implementation. By courageously staying the course the organization can move in a new direction. Unlike the disparate efforts to fight obesity you can create a lean and healthy enterprise for years to come.