Many leaders don’t spend enough time thinking and reflecting about their values. Especially in the healthcare industry, the pace of change is so fast that leaders spend the majority of their days reacting to regulatory changes, putting out fires, answering emails and voicemail, and meeting with team members and fellow executives. In this frenetic schedule, leaders don’t make the effort to develop their proper center and end up adopting someone else’s values and worldview with little intentionality. For example, concepts such as “it’s business, it’s not personal” and “don’t get too close to the people you lead” are often accepted by leaders as their dominant worldviews without much reflection.

One way that executive coaches can develop leaders is by helping them connect with their inner beliefs, values and concepts. Deep within the subconscious and unconscious layers of her self, each leader has core values and a worldview that has been shaped by her upbringing, experiences and education. An easy way to think about this is to imagine the core values and worldview as the most inner circle in the center of several layers of circles. The middle layers are made of talents and aptitudes, emotional intelligence, and personality preferences. The outer layers represent the visible behavior and the performance of the leader. This is commonly referred to as the “leadership onion” where outer layers of behavior are “flavored” by the inner layers of values. The inner thoughts of the leader are filtered by the middle layers, and are demonstrated in the outward behaviors that her followers respond to on a daily basis.

Many leadership development and training programs tend to focus on the outer layers of behaviors, without much time devoted to the inner layers of values. That is why it is important for coaches to work with leaders to intentionally examine their values. Let’s take the example of Jack, an intelligent, hard-charging, high potential young leader working in a hospital system. As an administrative resident, Jack built an impressive resume with several successful projects to his name. Speaking up in meetings, delivering high-quality presentations and championing a couple of important initiatives, he caught the attention of the senior leadership team. Within a few months, he was promoted to the position of Assistant Administrator and given significant responsibilities and several departments to manage. With a handful of directors reporting to him, his role grew to include more growth and development of others and less hands-on projects. But some of the departments that were handed to him were already suffering from internal dysfunctionalities and conflicts which led to high unrest and turnover. To compensate, Jack started to micromanage his direct reports and interfere with their small and big decisions. He also began to mistreat his administrative assistant and throw tantrums whenever things didn’t go his way. Within six months, he was staying in his office till 9 or 10 every night, working harder and harder just to keep his head above the water. His bosses recognized that he was struggling and decided to send him to time management sessions and delegation training seminars, which had little impact on his ability to lead his departments effectively.

What Jack really needed was an executive coach. Expert coaching can help him peel his leadership onion and connect with his values and worldview. In the first few sessions, the coach will work with Jack to understand that his behaviors were mainly due to a self-centered worldview based on the need to win at all costs and the premise that everyone should do what he wants them to do. Through some self-inspection, Jack can realize that he had absorbed that worldview from others without any careful consideration. Then, the coach will start asking Jack some deeper questions such as:

• Why are you here?
• What is the purpose of your leadership in the lives that you lead?
• What contributions do you want to make?
• What legacy do you want to leave in the world?

As he considers these questions, Jack may start to realize that his preferred worldview is other-centered. He may intentionally adopt some new values such as humility, compassion, kindness and generosity. Per his coach’s request, he will start writing down his thoughts and reflections in a leadership journal and he will develop a personal mission statement. This change in the inner layers will soon be reflected in his behaviors. Instead of yelling, micromanaging and controlling his team members, he will start to thank, support and develop them. With the help of his coach, he will embrace humility in his leadership not just by focusing his efforts on changing his behavior, but by deliberately reflecting on his values and worldview.

This article is adapted from my book “Intangibles: The Unexpected Traits of High-Performing Healthcare Leaders”.

————————————————————————————————————-
Dr. Amer Kaissi is a Professional Speaker, Executive Coach and an expert on Leadership, Humility & Ambition, Assuming Positive Intent, Psychological Safety & Accountability, Growth Mindsets & Resilience.