June 2024

  • Healthcare and Advocacy

    A few months ago, Julia made a comment to me about advocating on her behalf during labour. I was confused. Don’t we heed the advice of the physicians in the room and do what they tell us? They are the experts, after all. Afterwards, and mostly thanks to our participation in a “birth and babies” class run by Alberta Health, I was educated on the various decisions that typically occur during labour and how a partner’s advocacy on behalf of the birthing parent is critical. The birthing parent is so consumed by labour they may not be able to advocate for themselves.

    Our own labour experience involved a few decisions, which served as an important reminder that despite best intentions, deep expertise, and a desire to help, medical practitioners are no different than those in any other profession: they have their own biases, preferences, and opinions. Not to suggest that is a bad thing, but to acknowledge it as a reality. And decisions in healthcare can certainly be judgement based, involving a degree of subjectivity.

    If I reflect on my own interactions with healthcare professionals over the years, I believe I’ve generally taken a “passenger” approach and deferred to the authority of the professional I’ve seen. And I’m not sure that’s always been the best approach. I intend to take a more assertive approach in the future. No one is as incentivized or motivated to advocate on your behalf than yourself, including your physician, which is why it’s critical to advocate for yourself.

  • Henry

    On Wednesday, June 19, Julia and I welcomed our son, Henry Jack Owen Cord to this world. Fifteen days early! I had a long list of to-do’s I was hoping to work through before his due date and going on leave, including pre-writing some Blog content, which clearly didn’t happen! So that’s all I’ve got this week. It was a good week.

  • Admit it when you’re wrong. Be Accountable.

    There’s a consistent theme among the strongest performers and leaders I’ve worked with. And that is a complete willingness to both admit being wrong, and to take accountability for errors, mistakes, and poor performance. Even when those mistakes might only be partially the individual’s fault. Doing so indicates humility, self-awareness and confidence, and an accountability mindset.

    In contrast, when I work with a leader who often skirts accountability, or who is always ready with an explanation as to why they’ve been unsuccessful due to factors outside of their control, it can be a major red flag. And cultivating an accountability mindset becomes harder the more senior and the later someone is in their career. If a team member struggles to take accountability at age 50, I doubt they are going to get it by 60.

    Let’s use an example. You’re overseeing a large project to install and operate a new piece of manufacturing equipment in your plant. The equipment is delayed. Once it arrives, the installation representative from the manufacturer comes down with a flu and you lose two weeks while the equipment sits idle. Finally, it’s installed but the quality calibration is much more challenging than expected and you lose two months. Eventually, it’s installed, operating efficiently, and ready to produce parts. But the whole process has taken 8 months when the objective was to have it operational in 4.

    Here’s how a weak Operations manager might respond.  “We really did our best, but a series of unfortunate events happened. It’s really too bad, but sometimes, that’s the way it goes. Shelly in Procurement should have given us better information on the delivery date. I told Remy in Quality that we would need more time, but he didn’t listen. I did my best.”

    Here’s how an average Operations manager might respond. “We messed up on this one. We should have added more contingency time into the plan for all these unforeseen events. We won’t make that mistake again.”

    Here’s how an excellent Operations manager might respond. “We made a series of serious mistakes on this one. I take full accountability for the delay. First, we should have reviewed past data on actual vs. estimated delivery date for this manufacturer. Second, we should have had a planned, local backup for the installation. I’m not sure what happened on the calibration, but I’m going to work closely with Remy in Quality to learn what we can so I can plan better for next time.”

    Ultimately, the more you can embrace an ownership mindset and take accountability, the better you will become as a leader. Did someone on your team let you down? Your first thought might be “they suck”. But more importantly, could you have trained them better? Could you have hired better? Could you have set better expectations? It’s challenging but ultimately highly rewarding to take accountability, and your peers, direct reports, and boss will notice.