Rowitz On Leadership

We are entering a critical period for public health and its leaders. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act will impact Public Health in a negative way. Population health issues are mainly ignored in the Act. Clinical prevention is about clinical tests for individuals. Services for seniors through Medicare will also be impacted through the transfer of monies towards other sectors of the health care system. The differentiation between what primary care does and what public health does will be muddied even more than it has in the past. The reality is that Washington politicians do not understand public health and what it does. Public Health professionals and their organizations have for the most part failed in getting the public health message understood in Washington and in our various states. There also seems to be a lack of understanding for why workforce development and the importance of lifelong training is a critical component for the health of the public. Funding for Public Health Training Centers has been cut 80% for next year. This is insane if the public health mission of health promotion and disease prevention is to be maintained. Funding for emergency preparedness and response is also being significantly affected. Health is about primary prevention and support for it is lacking. Our elected officials do not understand the lack of support for this is critical if our quality of life is to be maintained.

I was recently asked to look at leadership and its present challenges to public health. Specifically our challenges are:

In addition to the ACA, an additional challenge related to terrorist events in the United States. Public health leaders have been involved in reacting to these terrorist events and the response to these events. Preparedness activities have become a major activity of state and local health departments since 2001. Leaders have been engaged in specific response activities, the creation of public health plans for all hazard events, conduct of disaster exercises, and the building of partnerships to address community events both natural and man-made. With the Boston marathon disaster, it is clear that these preparedness activities must continue in spite of major funding cuts.

Not much seems to get the support of Congress these days if additional funding is needed. Washington gridlock is an important challenge. There seems to be a major disregard of the concerns of the public. Politics reign and Congress people seem to be bought by major lobbyists to the detriment of concerns of their constituents. Public health leaders seem to advocate for issues without any interest by our elected officials. It is only a crisis event that Congress responds to, but their memories are short and nothing gets done. Our elected officials do not show real leadership.

Even climate change has become political with politicians arguing that climate change is not real. This is in spite of the fact that there are clear indications of severe weather changes occurring. Our future is at stake. Maybe we have to remember what happened to the dinosaurs.

Leaders need to be concerned about the issues of the World and how these issues impact our work and our lives. Just because Congress cuts funding related to public health does not mean that our public health issues go away. We leaders still have to fight for the health of the public. We need to demonstrate that our votes do make a difference.

In these posts, I have talked about a leadership mindset as a way to live your life. It will be a life of creativity and innovation. You will enjoy challenges and be able to see the big picture. Leaders in mind will not be afraid to take risks in order to make life more exciting and full of new experiences worth taking. People with this mindset will see a life dull of choices and opportunities. They are not afraid to build new relationships with others. The status quo is not appealing. Change is good and exhilarating. However, a leadership mindset does not automatically create a leader.

Leadership without followers is not leadership. Most of our leadership activities involve relationships, building and sustaining them, and using them to create change. However, there are many different ways to follow a leader. Followership is tied to the ways people can relate to their leaders. In his 2010 book LEADERSHIP: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION,, the British leadership expert Keith Grint discusses four major types of followership related to commitment and level of independence. The Emperor type relates to leadership in a hierarchy where followers relate to the person above them in the organization. The leader at the top guides the organization, the followers commit to the leader’s vision although the hierarchy shields the leader from those farther down in the organization. The Cat Herder type is a system in anarchy where there is no leader with power to control the cats. The White Elephant type is like a theocracy in which the leader is a spiritual person with God-like characteristics. The fourth type of followership is the Wheelwright in which a leader recognizes personal limits and in which different individuals take on the leadership role as appropriate. This latter type is the one that dominates many of our discussions of collaboration and who is in charge. This latter type can be unstable in that decisions need to be made and decision-making may be difficult in a shared leadership environment.

To be a leader, it is important to live leadership in all domains of life and to work with others to create a positive leadership environment.

In recently reading Nate Silver’s book on prediction(The Signal and the Noise), the difficulty in creating a viable vision for the future came to mind. Most leadership books discuss vision and the importance of creating a vision for an organization through the involvement of a leader in the process are discussed in minute detail. Vision provides direction for an organization. It is generally agreed that a mission creates a foundation protocol and meaning for the organization whereas a vision provides an organization with goals and objectives for the organization over a specified time period. We also know that the shorter the time period, the more the vision is affected by budgetary concerns and the possibility for the vision becoming a reality. The further out we go in time, the more our vision becomes more of a dream than a reality. Following Silver’s rationale, the signal is clear in the short term and less clear over time. Noise or intervening happenings cloud reality and decrease the possibilities of success in attaining the vision over the long run. For example, the economic meltdown during the first decade of this century not only affected the financial bottom-line of organizations, it also affected visionary possibilities for the future. Other crisis events will also impact our organizations.

What this all translates to is that visions and specifically vision statements are not forever. This does not mean that leaders should not create organizational visions. It does mean first that a systems perspective is critical for a leader. A leader must look at outside as well as inside factors that will impact whether our goals and objectives can be met in order to make our vision come to life. We may have to change our goals and objectives to keep our vision in sight or let noise hide the impact of factors which will prevent us from making the vision clear and attainable. Our planning activities need to be ongoing. Our vision as well as our goals and objectives need to be reviewed on a yearly basis and changed as necessary. Leaders become our guide in the process. We know that most predictions fail for some reason or other. New methodologies are constantly being developed to improve our prediction abilities. One simple technique for leaders to use is a percentage chance that our vision will become reality. If the percentage is less than fifty percent, we better get back to the drawing board.

Over the years, I have heard people tell me that leadership is something that can be seen. They go on to say that leaders are easy to recognize and that they know a leader when they see one. The issue is what do we really see when we look at other people leading . For example our political leaders tell us that their opponents are not leaders. I have heard my colleagues and academics from other departments and universities argue that their administrators are not really leaders and sometimes not even managers. I have heard people say that there are those who do things and there are others who teach. Yet, there was a leadership team in one of my leadership programs who created a video which showed that almost everyone from young people to older people can define what leadership is.

Leaders exist in all human societies, but they do not act the same in all societies and cultures. They are clearly affected by the values of the organizations of the communities which they serve. Their leadership styles will also vary. As a writer in the field, I can describe leadership and the characteristics of an ideal leader. Using an historical frame of reference, I can tell you that Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln were great presidents as well as leaders. I can point to great inventors, entrepreneurs, and industrialists and see many as leaders. I can also see people in leadership positions who are clearly not leaders. Thus, I am in a quandary. Will I know a true leader when I see one.? I can define a leader and leadership, but not all so-called leaders will fit my definition. Leaders are clearly defined by context, value orientation, and a number of personal characteristics.

I think the only way out of this dilemma is to tell you what I look for when I see an individual who calls him/herself a leader. First, I want to see a person who is more concerned about my needs than his or her needs or political agenda. I want to see an individual who is neatly dressed and not in clothes that are too extreme. I want to hear a person who is a good communicator. I want to trust the person.I want my leaders to be society’s builders and also work to make our organizations viable and our jobs more secure. I want my leaders to explain to me why change is important. I hope my leaders recognize the importance of our schools and education. I do not want my leaders to constantly blame others who are struggling to make a living. I want to see a collaborator and someone who recognizes the differences between us without always blaming those who disagree with him or her. I want my leaders to let me make choices with which the leader may not agree with. I want my leaders to support my beliefs and not try to destroy them.

What do you expect to see when you determine whether someone is or is not a leader? What does your leader look like? I recognize my leaders when I see them. My dilemma is that it is getting harder to find them.

In a number of previous postings, I have discussed several tools that might be useful to leaders in their personal leadership development. Many leaders have found that reading biographies and autobiographies of leaders have helped then=m see leadership in action in a number of different career tracks. I will be reviewing a number of biographies of leaders in my 2013 book club over the next several months. In this posting, I want to discuss another personal leadership development tool that is very useful but can also be expensive. This tool falls in the family of coaching and mentoring techniques.

Shadowing involves following a leader for a period of time to explore how he or she practices leadership. The shadow needs to see leadership in action. The leader must agree to be followed since the shadow may be seen to interfere with the actions going on or stifle the way the leader and his or her direct reports will respond to key activities and processes. It is important to shadow not only a leader in your field but leaders in other fields as well. The shadow will also need to have time to discuss the happenings with the leader to better understand what has happened in the course of a day or week. During the post-shadowing conference, the leader becomes a coach to better help the shadow understand why certain decisions were made and what are the leadership lessons to be learned.

The leader must be careful to not let the shadow affect the way events happen or change their leadership techniques as a result of being followed. The leader needs to also allow the shadow to talk to direct reports to gain a wider perspective on how leadership works in the shadow organization. A 360 degree perspective as is used in a number of leadership inventories is also useful in shadowing. An example of a few questions that a shadow might use in the post-shadowing conferences might include the following:

1. What are the five events today that you think provide the best leadership lessons?
2. Would you also tell me about the following actions today and why they occurred and the leadership lessons to be learned?
3. What is your primary leadership style and when does it work best and when the least?
4. What do you do to improve your own leadership skills?
5. (For direct reports)-How do you perceive how your boss responded to particular events today?

Information for the shadow-You can clearly add to the questions you ask. You can also discuss particular decisions that you have made and get the leader’s perspective. You can also arrange for the leader to shadow you.

Over the past year, I have been engaged in a major writing activity as well as adjusting to a number of life passages. First, I have been working on the third edition of my book PUBLIC HEALTH LEADERSHIP:PUTTING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE. This edition of the book was unique in that I combined the second edition of the book with my other book on leadership and preparedness. The book was a challenge in that I had to make a number of choices about what stayed in the new edition and what would not be retained. In addition, I wanted to update the book. This meant reviewing all the source material from previous editions as well as adding new material that was not in the other book as well. Another challenge related to some changes due to copyright laws and the necessity to get all new permissions to use content from other sources. Part of this relates to the creation of an e book edition for the book as well as a paperback version(Hardback editions increase costs to a significant degree) Although I believe that books are creative enterprises, they are also impacted by the publishing business. Instructors also want ancillary materials to go along with the book. The ancillaries took me several additional months to create. They include extra cases and exercises, a test bank of almost 500 questions, curriculum content and course outlines, and an extensive booklist for people who want to read more leadership related books. Each chapter of the book needs to stand on its own for instructors who want to create a special book from chapters from a number of books and articles.

While I worked on this third edition, I tried to keep up on my blog. I also retired in 2012 and needed to adjust to my life passage. In retirement, I have given up almost all my administrative responsibilities. I have gone back part-time to my university in order to continue my work on training leaders and leadership. I have also become a snowbird by going south for the winter. I have partially redefined myself and realize that I still like to work but on my own schedule. I will still be a trainer, consult some, and work on some small public health services and systems research. I am reading more fiction than I used to do and seeing movies and going to plays. Life continues to be full and excitement and challenge does not stop with retirement.