Latest / Authentic Living / Authentic Leadership Through Recognition Practices with Sarah McVanel

Transcript

Authentic Leadership Through Recognition Practices with Sarah McVanel · Authentic Living

• 0:01
  Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have as conversations about
• 0:08
  things that really matter in our lives.
• 0:11
  And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
• 0:36
  Hi, everyone.
• 0:37
  It's Roxanne Derhodge with authentic living with Roxanne.
• 0:39
  Today, I have a special friend and colleague and Canada's recognition expert served my
• 0:45
  family with us.
• 0:46
  Sarah has been my guests, obviously, a couple times, and it's always a pleasure SarahTech for
• 0:51
  you to spending your time coming in and sharing with us about recognition.
• 0:56
  Thank you.
• 0:57
  Well, any opportunity to talk about authentic leadership and how recognition is a key
• 1:02
  connection to that?
• 1:03
  I'm game.
• 1:04
  So thank you
• 1:05
  for having me on again.
• 1:06
  No.
• 1:07
  I know,
• 1:08
  that you've done a lot of work with leaders and obviously recognition is is what your focus is.
• 1:15
  Let's talk a little bit about the between, kind of authenticity and in leadership and or in
• 1:22
  leadership teams and how that translates down into kind of recognition and the strategies
• 1:28
  that companies kind of might utilize.
• 1:30
  So come tell me kind of what you see out there and you know, so that the listeners can
• 1:35
  understand what's happening out there, pulse wise in our organizations.
• 1:40
  Well, interestingly, pulse wise, as I've been working on revising my first book for ever
• 1:45
  recognized others greatness, the second edition, we're gonna have some really
• 1:49
  interesting data about how the gratitude effect in hospitals and other caring organization has
• 1:56
  gone up.
• 1:57
  It's increased organizational engagement 8%, which it for those of
• 2:02
  us who nerd it out in the human resources and and organizational culture world, that is an
• 2:08
  incredible increase.
• 2:09
  1%.
• 2:10
  You would be dancing the street.
• 2:11
  8%.
• 2:13
  It's virtually unheard of.
• 2:14
  And part of it is because that organizations are authentically demonstrating appreciation.
• 2:21
  Now the verdict's still out if this is sustained, if it's continuing, I'm sure we
• 2:27
  could ask folks in these organizations if they still would answer the same way.
• 2:31
  And, of course, by the time they do the study, the the survey again in a year or 2, we'll see
• 2:36
  if that has maintained and with withstood the test of time.
• 2:41
  What when you drill down and you ask leaders in those organizations, what are you doing
• 2:46
  differently?
• 2:47
  What are you really focusing on?
• 2:49
  It's connecting with each individual as often as they can.
• 2:54
  They're checking in.
• 2:55
  How are you doing?
• 2:56
  They're checking up.
• 2:57
  Is there anything that you need from us?
• 3:00
  And especially in in caring professions where they're overwhelmed and burdened in COVID, you
• 3:07
  think who is the time for that?
• 3:09
  There's just an intuitive knowing is in their Roxanne that when people are struggling, that
• 3:15
  is when we need to put them first and the task list has to come second.
• 3:21
  And that that's what we're seeing right now.
• 3:23
  That's the latest trend, about the increase of recognition and the and the the relationship
• 3:29
  directly to how leaders are showing up right now.
• 3:32
  I just really hope it sustains this way.
• 3:35
  So so what so to clarify then, so you're saying, because they're doing the small things,
• 3:41
  the small bits of connections, taking the time just checking in with people.
• 3:47
  Employees are showing a gratitude increase, just because people are doing the small
• 3:52
  microscopic things to let them know they matter.
• 3:55
  And that in turn has making, employees feel more connected to their to their leaders and
• 4:01
  their leadership teams.
• 4:03
  Probably the gratitude effect is going both ways that that because the organizations and
• 4:08
  leaders are feeling grateful and expressing it, authentically.
• 4:12
  So, I really appreciate you picked up this extra shift.
• 4:15
  I know it's tough.
• 4:16
  How are you doing?
• 4:17
  I know you're just back from having had your positive test and now you're back.
• 4:21
  Her how are you doing?
• 4:23
  It's the specific acknowledgement person by person versus people feeling like a number
• 4:28
  which is often in organizations where authenticity is low and recognitions low,
• 4:32
  people feel like just a number.
• 4:34
  They feel it's very transactional.
• 4:36
  You could replace me with somebody else.
• 4:38
  And if you did, if you found somebody cheaper, you'd replace me tomorrow.
• 4:41
  And, sadly, that is the reality for many people.
• 4:44
  They assume that because that sort of the way they're treated.
• 4:48
  Even if the organization doesn't believe that, it's the it's the way in which that that
• 4:53
  happens, hiring, and and performance appraisals and if it if or or a conversations or coach
• 5:01
  like versus more telling you know, there's there's lots of those those things that are
• 5:07
  shifting a little bit right now.
• 5:09
  And then it creates a reciprocal gratitude effect.
• 5:13
  Like, I really appreciate that you checked in, and I'm I'm glad that you noticed, and thank
• 5:17
  you for acknowledging that this is hard.
• 5:19
  You know, to use the example of health care, which is a lot of my clients are in the caring
• 5:24
  professions, health care being one of them, everyone does the best they can.
• 5:29
  That is why you choose to work in health care.
• 5:31
  It's part of the deal, so to speak.
• 5:33
  And health care professionals are used to giving so much.
• 5:36
  If anything, they they give give give, give, human giver syndrome, I give more then I take
• 5:41
  back.
• 5:42
  We can get compassion fatigued.
• 5:44
  What can help insulate against that is when people feel seen heard valued So don't forget
• 5:51
  to take your break.
• 5:51
  And and thank you so much for delaying your break.
• 5:54
  And, you know, I'm not gonna call you in next shift.
• 6:00
  I I know we're short staffed, and thank you for volunteering.
• 6:03
  We're gonna we're gonna do our very best to fill that fill fill the position.
• 6:08
  So really tuning into what our people are going through and acknowledging the human behind the
• 6:16
  job as opposed to we have a job to do that we need a human to fill that position or that that
• 6:23
  shift.
• 6:25
  Well, that's pretty impressive because, in coaching a couple of, nurses and senior leaders
• 6:32
  in, in, hospitals, a lot of them are saying, and I I don't know.
• 6:37
  This is interesting because they're saying that they're holding their breath.
• 6:41
  Like, because they are so overworked.
• 6:43
  And if they call in sick, they really don't wanna leave their peers you know, kinda in the
• 6:50
  lurch.
• 6:51
  Right?
• 6:51
  So it's interesting that somewhere in there.
• 6:54
  Like, I mean, and we know we've been at this.
• 6:56
  I've lost count now 18 months 19 months into this that, you know, somehow we're recognized
• 7:03
  as human beings.
• 7:04
  This is like an anomaly period, none of us have been through this again.
• 7:08
  There's no template for this that somewhere in there, the element of I'm gonna just show my
• 7:14
  human humanness to someone else, right, because the level of grief that everybody's under, and
• 7:21
  then you kind of I would say you can multiply it by a 100 when you go into the hospital
• 7:25
  environment.
• 7:25
  Everybody's feeling it.
• 7:27
  You know, people have lost family members, you know, everybody anybody that gone through that.
• 7:32
  You know, there's a ripple effect in families, all those things.
• 7:35
  But when you go into the hospital and when you actually see the pain, that's a must be a hard
• 7:42
  level to be at, right, because now not your no.
• 7:45
  You're not removed.
• 7:46
  You're you're going into the eye of the storm every single day.
• 7:51
  And, you know, that's a that's a tough place to be.
• 7:53
  And so it's nice to know that that's happening, overall.
• 7:57
  And to your point, I hope that it continues because, yes, we we stepped up through this
• 8:03
  time, but we really need to, keep those positives because what a nice thing to have to
• 8:09
  feel like I'm being validated just because of who I am.
• 8:12
  And and it's possible by the time people listen to this recording, that that is not going to be
• 8:17
  people people's lived experience because the data of course is lagged, that I'm quoting data
• 8:22
  that was analyzed from data that was collected probably a year ago now.
• 8:26
  It was analyzed a few months ago as I'm writing my manuscript and here we are.
• 8:30
  You know, so there's always a lag time and data.
• 8:32
  We can never It's very challenging to say this is the pulse in this industry today.
• 8:39
  Yeah.
• 8:40
  But I can tell you, though, if we if if we look at this from a micro lesson perspective is that
• 8:47
  when leaders stepped up when people needed it most and they tried to see that what
• 8:55
  individuals needed It worked.
• 8:58
  Not just in that moment.
• 9:00
  I'm sure to help that individual.
• 9:02
  People noticed.
• 9:04
  Individuals ex they expressed it by the time they went and they did their engagement survey
• 9:09
  thinking about what is it like around here right now, and we have a recency bias.
• 9:14
  Any all of us humans have recency biases.
• 9:16
  So, really, when you're doing the engagement survey, it's about what has been happening
• 9:20
  lately as as much as we'd like to believe we're measuring the last year or 2 years, whatever,
• 9:25
  since it's been the last survey.
• 9:27
  It really is the recency effect.
• 9:28
  So what is really happening in the last couple of months and how have I experienced my
• 9:33
  manager, my colleagues, my workplace, my workload, my health and safety and so forth.
• 9:38
  All the drivers related to engagement, people have noticed that when they've been surveyed
• 9:44
  that when there was the greatest need for empathy, for compassion, for understanding we
• 9:54
  were able to rise to the challenge of connecting on a human to human level.
• 9:59
  What I say to you, Roxanne, I think you echo this is where we hope this continues is We
• 10:04
  weren't any less human before COVID.
• 10:06
  We weren't any less human or more human during it.
• 10:09
  We're certainly not now.
• 10:10
  We're not going to be less human later.
• 10:13
  It's just we get sometimes it takes these these experiences for us to remember the things that
• 10:20
  have existed all along that are really fundamental.
• 10:23
  I I know you and I both connect on the level of how are able people able to do their best work
• 10:30
  innovate, contribute meaningfully to the team environment, you know, offer or be willing to
• 10:39
  be promoted despite the fact it could be a greater spotlight on them or or pressure, for
• 10:47
  maybe less not that much more money there's a lot of things that are the stakes are really
• 10:52
  high, and it's it's in a lot of industries, it's easier to be one of the crowd.
• 10:58
  Health care and and insurance and, I mean, I in education, it's a lot easier to be one of many.
• 11:07
  Who do a great job and you can make a direct impact.
• 11:09
  This is what you studied to do.
• 11:12
  This is what you're good at for people to step into leadership out of something they know into
• 11:19
  something that they don't know as well and into something that's more visible and with less job
• 11:24
  security, then it's usually for other reasons.
• 11:28
  Yes.
• 11:28
  Of course.
• 11:29
  There can be ego and money and all of those other things.
• 11:32
  And it it's likely also to try to make an impact.
• 11:36
  It just might be a little bit of a different one.
• 11:39
  So we wanna capitalize on those authentic leaders, those truly human leaders, and we need
• 11:46
  it because we're in the mid of what we're what we're now calling the great resignation.
• 11:52
  And this is across industries.
• 11:54
  People are leaving their jobs They're leaving their field.
• 11:57
  They're going down to part time.
• 12:00
  A a lot of folks are I mean, my family doctor retired during COVID, and and he's something.
• 12:07
  So this is where I'm I'm doing most of my speaking is for those authentic leaders still
• 12:12
  in the audience really wanting to hold on to their peers, if they're an executive group,
• 12:18
  like the one I'm speaking for a little bit later this week, they wanted to hold on to
• 12:22
  their their middle managers about how important they are.
• 12:24
  And they wanna hold on to their staff and not just keep them.
• 12:28
  You'll wanna keep them inspired and motivated and feel appreciated.
• 12:32
  Regardless of the context and the circumstance.
• 12:35
  So recognition is really the easiest way.
• 12:38
  We just have to deliver it in a way that's authentic Good job.
• 12:44
  It needs to be wiped out of our vocabulary because it is become artificial.
• 12:48
  That's why employee of the month doesn't work.
• 12:51
  That's why, sometimes even in organizations with a long tenure, such as such as a hospital
• 12:57
  or or a teaching organization, the the long service awards that appreciating people based
• 13:03
  on tenure, although you don't wanna necessarily get rid of them if you truly have a long tenure
• 13:08
  to organization, it doesn't have an authentic feel to it.
• 13:12
  If you if you show up to a virtual or a or in non COVID live dinner, and you just walk across
• 13:18
  the staging stage and your name is red.
• 13:20
  Well, what about the employee who's been there 30 years?
• 13:23
  Who somebody should say something about them, put their picture up on the slide, share silly
• 13:31
  moments, let them share a speech if they want to, We we don't leverage these opportunities to
• 13:37
  authentically acknowledge the people that contribute so much whether you've been there 5
• 13:43
  months, 5 years, or 35 years.
• 13:47
  It's a bit of a soapbox.
• 13:48
  Can you tell a tiny bit good authentic recognition.
• 13:52
  A a wee bit.
• 13:53
  Just a wee bit.
• 13:54
  Just a wee bit.
• 13:54
  Just a little bit.
• 13:55
  Yeah.
• 13:55
  So let's let's talk about the innovative ways that you've seen leaders showed their
• 14:02
  authenticity through this time because I, you know, I'm sure they, you know, You kinda get
• 14:07
  perceived a certain way as a leader, and I'm I know there's a lot of phenomenal leaders.
• 14:11
  I know I was so fortunate that you introduced me since a fantastic authentic leaders that I
• 14:17
  was able to interview for the book.
• 14:19
  So tell me about what you've seen with these authentic leaders through, not just through
• 14:24
  COVID.
• 14:24
  I'm sure they had a certain amount, but they had to ramp.
• 14:27
  They they just, you know, just it was exponential.
• 14:31
  What kind of things did you see that they did different with recognition through this time
• 14:35
  that made people feel like, Unvaluable and important.
• 14:41
  Yeah.
• 14:42
  Yeah.
• 14:42
  Yeah.
• 14:43
  Well, one is keep your program.
• 14:45
  Don't just, you know, abandon it and say, well, we'll roll back in office or when it's a more
• 14:49
  convenient time, we'll do it.
• 14:52
  I24 call management solutions out of Montreal, Canada, they, their their owner, Gary Blair,
• 14:59
  3rd generation ownership.
• 15:00
  So, you know, not dialing it in.
• 15:02
  That's for sure.
• 15:03
  He is still actively building, growing, supporting the staff and his business.
• 15:08
  And they actually have a chief engagement officer right, health.
• 15:12
  So you can tell this is the kind of passion this organization has if you have a chief
• 15:16
  engagement officer.
• 15:17
  What they have a really strong paper based recognition program, or at least before COVID,
• 15:22
  when there are a 100% bricks and mortar in the same building, that worked brilliantly.
• 15:27
  You write down a note.
• 15:28
  You post it on the board.
• 15:29
  You can hand it to your colleague.
• 15:30
  Give it to their boss.
• 15:31
  You can read it to them.
• 15:32
  It all worked great.
• 15:34
  It very well utilized.
• 15:35
  It was in a normally high turnover industry, and they have the double challenge of meeting
• 15:40
  people in English and French.
• 15:41
  So a bilingual High turnover industry.
• 15:45
  That's a really tough.
• 15:46
  That that's where your culture really needs to be authentic.
• 15:51
  Well, when they all had to because, it was a hotspot for COVID at the beginning in in in
• 15:57
  Canada, in that city, they had to all go virtual very quickly.
• 16:02
  So they they went to the organization that does a lot of their their computer tech systems or
• 16:08
  their communications.
• 16:09
  And they said, like, is there a way of taking this this they call it wow their wow board and
• 16:14
  wow awards?
• 16:15
  And move it virtually.
• 16:16
  And they did that very, very quickly.
• 16:19
  And so it didn't break the habit of peer to peer recognition later to staff and staff to
• 16:24
  leader recognition.
• 16:25
  And they went one step further.
• 16:27
  Not only did they make sure it was virtual and didn't have a time lag so that people still
• 16:32
  felt like, okay.
• 16:34
  Wow.
• 16:34
  So it's becomes it's almost freshens it out, right, because now it's just somewhere else.
• 16:39
  It's in another medium.
• 16:40
  So it actually that was an interesting just phenomenal.
• 16:43
  Is it live that if I give feedback is you've done something phenomenal?
• 16:46
  Oh my god.
• 16:47
  Sarah just, you know, did X Y Z I I put it in because I'm working with you on a project.
• 16:52
  Does it go live immediately in the live stream, or does it go to the recognition officer that,
• 16:58
  puts it on a board that kind of, translates it out.
• 17:03
  Such a great question.
• 17:05
  Never have a bottleneck in your recognition system.
• 17:08
  It should not be vetted approved, reviewed before people can experience it.
• 17:13
  Yes.
• 17:13
  Trust and believe that people are not gonna abuse it, that is true, and it's honest.
• 17:18
  Change it if you have a problem.
• 17:19
  It do not assume that it's gonna be a problem.
• 17:21
  It One of my pet peeves about recognition programs is when there are gatekeepers, when
• 17:27
  there are barriers, because there's all kinds of reasons that we could spend an entire
• 17:33
  podcast about the reasons the things I've had to do to to rebuild organization's recognition
• 17:39
  programs.
• 17:40
  Did remove those those barriers and bottlenecks.
• 17:43
  So, yes, so that's a great question.
• 17:44
  For this organization, it's in their communication It's in their platform.
• 17:49
  So I could if you were you acknowledge me and I was in that system and I was in that location
• 17:53
  of the system, I could see it in real time.
• 17:55
  Oh, wow.
• 17:56
  And it gets better.
• 17:58
  It's and there's more.
• 18:00
  They turned this they decided to turn those acknowledgements into YouTube videos.
• 18:06
  So both in English version and French, and they put it up on YouTube.
• 18:09
  And so now their staff every month because they do a roundup at employee meetings.
• 18:15
  Right, the the all staff meetings.
• 18:17
  And now you can see it, Anne, what a source of pride that is.
• 18:21
  You could share it with your family, you can your customers can now see it, and their
• 18:27
  business is going to be much stronger.
• 18:29
  As you can imagine, who doesn't wanna work with the company?
• 18:32
  Where I can see by looking at their YouTube channel how great their people are.
• 18:36
  They put it on their Facebook channel, their Facebook page, their company page.
• 18:40
  So This is one of the the interesting things about as an organization that was already
• 18:46
  already at a strong culture.
• 18:48
  They were battling very effectively the normal retention and turnover crisis that exists in
• 18:54
  their industry, which further validates authentic leadership, was working well.
• 18:58
  And recognition was a key foundational element to that.
• 19:02
  They used COVID initially was an obstacle.
• 19:05
  They used it as a way to get creative and innovative.
• 19:08
  And now if you ask them, they will not stop doing their videos.
• 19:12
  They will not if they all physically go back in the office together, which it's unlikely they
• 19:16
  that's an organization and a and, an industry that could actually have a blended hybrid model
• 19:22
  based on desires and needs.
• 19:24
  It's it's entirely possible.
• 19:26
  So they can have the paper based.
• 19:28
  They can have the virtual They can have the YouTube.
• 19:31
  They could they'll probably innovate it 18 more times, which is exactly what we need to do to
• 19:37
  recognize.
• 19:38
  Because as as new staff join, they may bring new ideas, have different expectations.
• 19:44
  It may be an opportunity to go back to basic of some of the things that if you've got new folks
• 19:50
  who maybe didn't see the way it was and you can you can try some of those things.
• 19:54
  So So
• 19:57
  many possibilities, though, because I I I I'm thinking from the, relational transparency lens
• 20:02
  of authentic leadership, So, you know, generally, a lot of times, you know, when I was
• 20:06
  in corporate, it was kinda like the front of the house, back of the house kind of thing.
• 20:10
  Right?
• 20:11
  And, you know, but what I hear is that this barrier has now been removed because then if if
• 20:18
  I'm, you know, trying to work with that company, and I'm just trying to get a sense of
• 20:23
  what's the pulse like to work with that company.
• 20:25
  It's out there.
• 20:26
  Like, their employees are talking about each other.
• 20:29
  I can go.
• 20:30
  I can check it out.
• 20:31
  Versus, you know, when I was, a corporate consultant, I would go in quite literally,
• 20:36
  Sarah, and I don't know if you can relate to this.
• 20:37
  And I would, when I would you know, be assigned a new account as an executive, I would
• 20:41
  generally have to go in, obviously meet all the senior people and then talk about the rollout
• 20:46
  strategy, do those types of things.
• 20:48
  And I oftentimes would sit in these towers in Toronto or wherever, and I would be, you know,
• 20:53
  I'm here to see, you know, so and so, you know, and, they wouldn't know who I was.
• 20:59
  And I would sit there, sometimes in the lobby, you know, because they're busy, sometimes 15
• 21:05
  minutes or something.
• 21:06
  And oftentimes I could get a sense of what the corporate culture was just by the interface
• 21:13
  that I would be seeing kinda in that, you know, that lobby, by, by the reception, how they
• 21:19
  answered the phone, you know, how people were kind of walking past each other, those types of
• 21:24
  things.
• 21:25
  Right?
• 21:25
  Like, that was my kind of but this takes it like to a whole other level.
• 21:29
  And oftentimes, what I felt sitting there was what was the context of a culture.
• 21:35
  Well, it's so funny that you give that that example.
• 21:38
  I have not thought about this.
• 21:39
  In 2 years, maybe two and a half years.
• 21:42
  Henry Schein, which is the company I believe they make dental equipment and products.
• 21:46
  Yes.
• 21:47
  You know them.
• 21:48
  So Yes.
• 21:49
  When I was going to meet with their CFO and his EA to plan, they every summer, they do, an
• 21:57
  engagement where they bring everybody together to celebrate their customer service and finance
• 22:02
  teams as as a wave acknowledgement, which gotta love CFOs who get the importance of that.
• 22:07
  And and and and it was true and authentic.
• 22:10
  It wasn't just like, oh, I need to check it off the list.
• 22:12
  It was meaningful.
• 22:14
  And Glenn.
• 22:15
  Glenn and and Sherry.
• 22:17
  I'll never forget.
• 22:17
  Glenn CFO, Sherry, his amazing EA.
• 22:20
  What a dynamo team.
• 22:21
  So what did I as I'm going in there and I'm I'm going to signing signing in.
• 22:26
  I'm looking around and everybody's dressed in in rock and roll outfits.
• 22:34
  Somebody looks like Madonna and somebody looks like Michael Jackson and somebody looks like
• 22:39
  Billy holiday, and there's there's records on the wall and there's a, you know, record
• 22:45
  somebody brought in a record player and I said, I don't know if I'm in the right place.
• 22:50
  The name on the building says where I think I'm supposed to be.
• 22:55
  And she said, oh, no.
• 22:56
  No.
• 22:56
  You just came.
• 22:57
  On our, I don't know what it was, our summer, something, or other day.
• 23:01
  There was a whole there's I can't even remember it because it was so culture specific.
• 23:06
  That it was a day.
• 23:07
  And as they Sherry came down to get me and her funky, I think, was Shania Twain to a Shania
• 23:13
  Twain, she brought me up.
• 23:15
  And I met Glenn.
• 23:16
  I'm like, Glenn, where is your outfit?
• 23:18
  And I
• 23:18
  think he he put on
• 23:19
  a cowboy hat and he said, I'm I am a country music singer.
• 23:24
  Decide which one.
• 23:25
  So, you know, even he tried tried his best
• 23:27
  to, you know, get into it.
• 23:27
  But the
• 23:28
  point is it you could feel you could.
• 23:31
  So here I am going to meet with this company about how do you do an employee appreciation
• 23:36
  event, your annual appreciation event, on a day when it is the annual day where they do a it
• 23:44
  was some contest and they do it like quizzes, and they said, oh, yeah.
• 23:48
  By the way, if you wanna enter the quiz, here's a little, you know, quiz and the draw is at 4.
• 23:52
  And even the guest who would who were there visiting with people that day were allowed to
• 23:57
  participate.
• 23:58
  I could tell I was gonna love this group.
• 24:00
  Yes.
• 24:00
  And and sure enough, I I done events for them twice.
• 24:05
  It's an it's an amazing group.
• 24:07
  So what we do and how we do it speaks volumes.
• 24:11
  And you're right.
• 24:12
  It's so visible that people can see it when when they come to the front lobby, people can
• 24:18
  hear it on the other end of the phone.
• 24:21
  Mhmm.
• 24:21
  People can tell when you apply for a job there.
• 24:25
  So many invisible cultural indicators that we need people who with fresh eyes to tell us that
• 24:33
  there's an inauthenticity match here because we may not see.
• 24:37
  You can't see the label from inside the jar.
• 24:39
  So Yeah.
• 24:40
  Go and be like a beginner's mind.
• 24:43
  Right?
• 24:43
  Go sit in your own lobby and go go sit in your own waiting Not that we should have waiting
• 24:48
  rooms, but that's a whole other issue.
• 24:50
  You know, go go, you know, make a phone call to your own company and see what happens.
• 24:55
  Yes.
• 24:56
  That is what the experience is like for other employees and your customers and your the
• 25:00
  people you serve.
• 25:02
  Right.
• 25:02
  Because I it's, like, what do you call it the what's it called?
• 25:04
  The invisible shopper or the what is that?
• 25:07
  Oh,
• 25:08
  the secret shopper.
• 25:09
  The
• 25:09
  shopper kind of thing.
• 25:10
  Right?
• 25:10
  It's like, because really I I've and what would happen to me is because oftentimes it'd have to
• 25:15
  deal with lots of levels of leadership all the way to the front line because we would be
• 25:20
  leaning we would be rolling it out to the front line.
• 25:23
  It was as confidential service.
• 25:24
  We'd be seeing trends that wasn't happening.
• 25:27
  So I would, you know, go for instance, I dealt with, the lights, union for, the theaters in
• 25:36
  Toronto.
• 25:37
  So guess what they did.
• 25:38
  Right?
• 25:39
  So they took me behind the scenes about 10 minutes before production.
• 25:46
  To see the lion king.
• 25:48
  So here I am, and they said, we want you to see it through the eyes of what we go through.
• 25:54
  And I said, Oh, boy.
• 25:56
  This is gonna be fun.
• 25:57
  I get to see the Lion King, but I get to see it behind the scenes.
• 26:02
  Sarah, the most amazing experience because it really showed me how to look at it from the
• 26:10
  lens of perfection, what they had to create, and my challenge was we'd like you to count how
• 26:19
  many mistakes you see.
• 26:23
  So I'm like, alright then.
• 26:25
  So I'm right on.
• 26:26
  I, like, got my eagle eyes on.
• 26:28
  I did not count once.
• 26:30
  There was 35 glitches.
• 26:33
  I did not see one.
• 26:36
  Because they're so quick at problem solving and fixing.
• 26:39
  They were they're reconstructed, computers behind the scenes that could have good things.
• 26:44
  So, again, from a psychological perspective, it allowed me to see potentially how the, you
• 26:48
  know, how the actors would have to, you know, go on as normal and then how, you know, the
• 26:54
  managers would have to manage them and all those things, but it it it's an aggregate that
• 27:00
  allowed you to see it, right, and what people are doing their jobs from such a high level but
• 27:08
  again, from, you know, the psychological element to recognizing how could we support
• 27:12
  them understanding the pressures of the industry.
• 27:16
  Right?
• 27:16
  Which is yeah.
• 27:18
  And the connection between authenticity and recognition is how do you authentically
• 27:23
  acknowledge wow.
• 27:24
  We overcame 35 issues as opposed to what sometimes happens, which is how did 35 things
• 27:32
  happen?
• 27:32
  We are professionals here.
• 27:34
  How is it possible We had 35 mistakes.
• 27:38
  So it's the the where you come at it by understanding and appreciating the pressures,
• 27:44
  the stress, the you know, that's kinda goes back to that 8% we were talking about.
• 27:49
  So rather than than say, like, you're gonna need to work harder.
• 27:53
  People know that already.
• 27:54
  Instead, it is we appreciate that you're working harder.
• 27:58
  So one of the things I think that we can do as leaders to truly authentically see to to be
• 28:04
  behind the curtain like you.
• 28:06
  At, yes, your job as a leader is to make sure there aren't quality issues and competency gaps
• 28:12
  and bullying and disability and all the things that are that are terrible that you, you know,
• 28:17
  you have a responsibility to make sure that the that you're rowing in the right direction.
• 28:23
  And then if that's not happening in the in the rowing term, they call it ketchup crab where
• 28:27
  you you know, your your your lower shutters in the water, and it could really cause a problem
• 28:32
  if that happens.
• 28:33
  So you wanna be able to catch it before it becomes a really big problem.
• 28:36
  And if you can't do that from up here, you cannot and I'm visually showing you can't go do
• 28:42
  it from up on high in the ivory tower, as you say.
• 28:46
  Looking down in clicky high heel shoes and pin straight suits.
• 28:50
  If you really genuinely want to connect with the people who add the most value in the
• 28:54
  organization, and I'm sorry to say leaders.
• 28:57
  It's not the CEO.
• 28:58
  The CEO's job is very important.
• 29:00
  So CEOs, I love you of huge respect, not qualified to do your job, huge respect for you,
• 29:05
  and who would the customer notice if you're gone tomorrow.
• 29:10
  And for one day, you're only gone for one day.
• 29:12
  The person who if the phone's not being answered or the care's not being delivered or
• 29:17
  nobody gets their mail for an entire day, that's really visible.
• 29:20
  That can create a huge bottleneck in the the whole reason for being.
• 29:25
  So we need to acknowledge by by putting ourselves in the shoes of those people.
• 29:31
  We call it visible leadership and lean continuous improvement.
• 29:35
  It's going to gammas, what they you know, if you if you're actually in the the, let's say, a
• 29:40
  Toyota, they would say, you know, go to gamba.
• 29:43
  You know, it's which refers to us a a circle where you stand in the circle and you watch and
• 29:49
  you study.
• 29:50
  That's what you did.
• 29:51
  You went to Gamba.
• 29:53
  And when I was in a senior leadership role, I would hear on a Tuesday at senior team what was
• 30:00
  broken.
• 30:00
  And on Friday, I would spend it in scrubs or in runners or whatever wherever the quote problem
• 30:08
  existed, that we couldn't figure out how to solve in senior team, I'd go there and I'd try
• 30:13
  to study it.
• 30:14
  And, you know, not only would I come back with greater information, and frankly, sometimes
• 30:19
  Sometimes my clients my sorry.
• 30:21
  My, my peers would respect that and other times it'd create waves, as you can have probably
• 30:25
  imagined.
• 30:26
  And And I'm not criticizing them.
• 30:28
  They have their way of leading.
• 30:29
  This this just I honestly didn't know how it would ever contribute in senior team if I
• 30:34
  didn't go and study what was going on with the people who could understand it.
• 30:39
  Here's what mattered most to me, though.
• 30:42
  The people who were experiencing the pain of that issue not yet being solved or that we did
• 30:48
  not have a good viable solution to They needed to feel that somebody was listening that
• 30:53
  somebody was paying attention because even if it was such a colossal challenge that it was
• 30:59
  even outside of the realm of anybody on senior team being able to fix, such as in Ontario.
• 31:06
  Well, every hospital, you have a backlog of beds.
• 31:09
  Of people in beds and emergency.
• 31:11
  We can't create more beds.
• 31:12
  We can't pull funding out of the air.
• 31:14
  There's lots of things that we could probably do to iterate, and that's good organizations do
• 31:18
  that.
• 31:18
  Good hospitals do that.
• 31:19
  And there will it's it's virtually impossible to have enough money and funding to do
• 31:24
  everything you possibly would ever wanna do for a patient.
• 31:28
  So what we can do is we can make sure that the people providing the care, the one experiencing
• 31:36
  the strain of an overrun emergency department of the families worried about their the care
• 31:44
  about, the hearing infection controls concerns that you have patients who should be isolated,
• 31:49
  but you do not have another isolation room.
• 31:53
  The worst thing that we can do for those people is let them suffer on their own and not go down
• 31:58
  there and say thank you or or ask a question roll up our sleeves and do something about it.
• 32:04
  Undercover Boss is not just a reality TV show.
• 32:07
  It needs to be how we authentically appreciate and acknowledge people because if there's
• 32:12
  nothing you can do in that moment to fix it, you can study it, and you can be with the
• 32:17
  people who are the ones struggling the most with that issue.
• 32:21
  And it
• 32:21
  can be on
• 32:22
  the customer side too.
• 32:23
  Go and spend time with your customer.
• 32:24
  It doesn't have to be the people providing and it could also be on the other side.
• 32:27
  This was such a great interview that we decided to turn it into a 2 part series.
• 32:32
  Be sure to tune in next week for part 2.
• 32:34
  So you don't miss out on the amazing content.
• 32:38
  Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne creating the space positive, healthy
• 32:44
  change.
• 32:45
  Roxanne is a keynote speaker, psychotherapist, and coach to work with Roxanne, visit
• 32:51
  roxannederhaj.com/blueprint.
• 32:55
  We'll see you next time on authentic living with Roxanne.