January 3, 2025: Bill kicks off the New year with a series on Leadership. In this one he tells a cautionary tale of the isolated leader. Don't be like Bill.
Today in health, it. One of my favorite topics. In fact, a passion project for me, leaders in isolation are sure to fail. We're going to talk about that today. My name is bill Russell. I'm a former CIO. And one of the reasons I'm a former CIO is because leaders in isolation are sure to fail. For 16 hospital system and creator of this week health, a set of channels and events dedicated to transform health care. One connection at a time. Today's episode is brought to you by chromo S imagine a healthcare system where technology works seamlessly in the background, keeping your data secure your teams connected, and your patients at the center of care. Visit this week, health.com/google-chrome O S to learn more. Hey, one last thing.
uations a family can face. In:We have our first ever charity golf classic on March 2nd in Las Vegas on. The Sunday before hymns, we designed the golf tournament. That will be fun for golfer. And non-golfers like, Drexon Sarah made sure of it since neither of them play golf Howard Jeris and I made sure it would be fun for golfers since both of us are avid golfers.
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This is I thought I read this in a book and I thought I read it in a book about Dwight Eisenhower. And conceptually it's there, but the words aren't there. And so then I searched the internet for it and I couldn't find it. It's a core belief of mine now. It's based on knowledge and there's a lot of interconnected reasons why this is true, but it's also personal experience.
I at the 2 29 project meetings, you, if you've attended those. Or if you attend them in the future, you will likely hear me say leaders in isolation or short of fail. I was that leader. So when you get isolated, when you get sectioned off, when you think you're the hero, and you're the only one who can make things happen, it tends to bring about bad things, right?
So you have a limited perspective. You are, you're not enough yourself. You need the team, there's also this. This psychological impact on yourself and there's organizational dynamics at work as well. There's a reality that these challenges that we face are too complex for any one individual. And I want to talk a little bit about this because I think we're at the beginning of a new year. I gave Sarah and Kate a little time. To get situated in the new year before they take the show over again in in a week or so.
So I have today and next week to talk and what I'm going to talk about. Today is this whole concept of leaders in isolation are short to fail, but I'm going to talk about leadership next week as well. And so next week, I'm going to talk about. The four quadrants of leadership that we focus on over here and that we teach and
they are leading yourself. Leadership in a one-on-one capacity. Leading others. And then leading leaders and Megan likes to talk about that as a leading a team of teams. I like to talk about it as leading leaders, because when you lead other leaders by definition, they are leading teams. But today, we're going to talk about this whole concept of leaders in isolation to shore, to fail and why you should avoid it and how you might avoid it. Let me talk a little bit about some of those reasons.
I just rattled off. Limited perspective. One person can't see all the angles of a problem or situation. And you just can't there's too many aspects, especially in healthcare. These problems are so complex. You just can't see every angle around it. There's personal biases and blind spots that will go on challenged.
And one of the things as a leader is when you find yourself not being challenged by your team anymore, you're creating an isolation effect. And when you create that isolation effect, your decisions will be less than they will not be as good. You need decisions that get challenged. You need people that are going to challenge you. And innovation is one of those things that comes from diverse viewpoints and experiences.
It's not necessarily that you, as the leader, don't have a very valuable perspective on this and that you as a leader, won't lead people into these discussions and into these challenges. However it will be that you, it requires you to solicit the input of others to solicit their ideas. In order to get a better solution, to get a better perspective on the problem.
And so I find that leaders in isolation don't have a good perspective. They have a singular perspective. Instead of the opportunity to utilize their team, to see many perspectives to something. Second thing is resource constraints. So no leader. Possessions all the needed skills and knowledge. And I find myself hiring these days for people with different skills and knowledge and background, but also We've adopted the Patrick Lencioni working genius concept.
And it talks about the different frameworks that people come to. Things. Some people are entrepreneurial, some people are process-oriented. Some people are. Our creatives and those kinds of things. And the reason I liked that is because the different working geniuses approach a problem differently.
They look at a problem differently. And because of that they give me a perspective that I don't see. There is a lot of things that quite frankly I know now in my organization, I am not the best one to address it. For example, Megan is so good with process Jeris is so good with relationships and ACS people in the understands. People so well.
And and same thing with Sarah. Sarah sees those kinds of things as well. Directs is such an intuitive. He just, it, he intuits, he sees these problems and he's able to intuitively just understand things. And so I love throwing problems out to that group. Cause you just get such a diverse perspective back. So no leader possesses all the needed skills and knowledge, build that team around you that can give you those perspective. And that you trust it's tough in a turnaround.
A lot of times I go into a turnaround and I look at the team, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is not the team that is going to take us out of this. Now some of those people will be, but some of those people will not be. And it's hard when you're doing a turnaround, because to a certain extent you are isolated when you start. But you have to build that team as quickly as you possibly can. And the other thing about it, quite frankly, it's just time and energy are finite resources. So as CIO, I remember I used to work ridiculous hours. It was dark when I went in, it was dark when I came home. Essentially. Almost every day and you only have so many hours in the day, you only have so much energy in the day. You only have so much time. That you can respond to emails and have relational conversations and work on strategy.
You need a team. So there's just a resource constraint about leaders in isolation. You need other people who can pick up the ball and run with it. There's also a psychological impact and this should not be underestimated. I think leaders put themselves in very dangerous territory. Isolation. Okay. Absolutely leads to fatigue. It can lead to fatigue in a lot of different ways.
Just physically. Fatigue, but Oxford would lead to decision fatigue. You feel overwhelmed all the time. Oh my gosh, there's so much going on. How can I get in front of it? There's also that echo chamber that I was alluding to earlier, where you feel like you're talking in a room and you're just talking to yourself. There's the lack of feedback and there's maybe that's out of an overconfidence in your in your ideas.
Maybe it's from a. Lack of confidence in your team either way it needs to be addressed. Because there is a psychological impact. You will feel alone. Isolation leads to loneliness. There's a lack of feedback. There's an overconfidence in your decisions. You just lose touch with With reality. Cause that's not reality. The world where an isolated leader lives is not reality. They need the other stakeholders.
They need the other people. To ground them. There's an organizational dynamic as well. So leaders. Influence an organization. And I was a part of a, I think we were 30,000 people. 30. Yeah. About 30,000 people. At St Joe's and the reality was a single it leader. With the amount of technology with the amount of influence technologies is having on the system and the individual leader cannot possibly get the message out to how technology is going to change things and make people comfortable with the change that is coming.
You need other voices out there. And so just the dynamic of being able to influence an organization of that size. You can't get the trust and the buy-in that's required and relationship building 30,000 people. You can not have that relationship with 30,000 people. You need to have an effect. Have you leading others who are reaching out to those. So those teams. Teams also need a personal connection with the vision with what's going on and in order to do that to have a personal connection by definition, a personal connection is generally one-on-one.
And so in order for that to happen, you need more ones. To have a relationship. On one and a 30,000 person organization. And and so if you're going to shape a culture, if you're going to change how a culture. Operates with regard to technology, you need others. So there's just an organizational dynamic reality to it.
And then let's just talk about the modern business reality, right? Today's challenges are extremely complex. There's no solo person. We elevate the person we say, oh, you Elon Musk has done these things. I was just at a Christmas party with somebody who works for Elon Musk and he was talking about the team dynamics and how great these teams are.
Now. These teams are specialized teams and working on specific things. He works for space X. And he's he was talking about the launch pad and the chopsticks and cats. He goes. Elon Musk might have the idea, but he's not solving all those problems. There's not a chance. He solving all those problems. But he has teams that are doing those. there are too many problems. The problems are too complex for any one individual. And then just the reality of rapid change needs diverse perspectives, multiple perspectives in order to keep keep you grounded and moving because the environment is changing so rapidly. You need more eyes on the environment. And so those are some of the things. Leaders in isolation or short of fail.
Those are some of the reasons why.
So how can we avoid this? How can we make sure that we don't become that leader in isolation? The first thing is it's about your network. So how strong is your network? How strong is your support? Do you have mentors? Do you have somebody who's mentoring you? Do you have someone you can pick up the phone right now, who you can talk to? Other people within the industry.
Do you have other leaders at your level in other organizations that you can pick up the phone and say, Hey, I need a reality check here. I'm being asked to do this, does this make sense? Having that group of people find if you don't have enough people you trust around, you find them outside the organization, find people you trust that you can have conversations with that can ground you. Obviously your family is so critical here as well, build a strong connection with your family.
I think it's important to attend industry events and conferences. This is why we put the 2 29 project together is to bring people together to solve problems collaboratively as an industry to elevate the best practices. So that. We amplify the best thinking so that they can be implemented across the entire industry. Mentors, strong networks peer groups, leadership forums, like we put on Those informal channels, informal dialogues that you have to get honest feedback.
Find somebody. That really does push back on you. I have a couple of those. And from time to time, I will literally pick up the phone to call that person who I know does not think that I walk on water. And I know that they're going to push back. And I also have people that in certain areas, they pushed back on my thinking because they have a different perspective or a different experience and they want to make sure I stay. On a certain direction.
So build that strong network. The second thing is create feedback loops, create feedback systems, in our it organization at St. Joe's I created a bunch of anonymous feedback mechanisms. Cause I knew based on who I was based on my personality, based on my thinking. That some of the 750 people that reported into me, we're not going to feel comfortable sitting in my office and giving me feedback.
So I created those anonymous feedback. Mechanisms. We also had regular town hall meetings and open forums. And it was interesting in some of those. And I had people essentially tell me, it's you don't know what's going on. And it was good to hear them say, you don't know what's going on.
strategy and say, this is our:, this is what I'm thinking of saying in our first meeting of the year, I'd like your feedback. First of all, you're developing leaders in that process. Second of all, it's keeping you grounded. Next thing, obviously you need to share leadership. Delegate meaningful responsibilities create a leadership team that you can give things to.
That is That's so important. Build a succession plan. Find those people that you are going to be pouring into that they're going to be the next leaders and learn to trust them, learn to trust their perspective cause event. When you're preparing them for is to be a trusted leader. I stay connected to reality. Have candid conversations with frontline staff. From time to time, I had one of my leaders who'd like to sit on the support desk. And he would sit on the support desk and take calls and he would come back to me and say, you won't believe what I heard.
And it's customer calls are great. If you could do that, if you have the time, I highly encourage you to do that. Or if at a minimum, what I did is I reviewed some of those. Calls and those logs. On a monthly basis. Visit different locations, offices, go talk to people, stay connected to reality.
What's actually going on the ground. And then I would say the other thing is. Commit yourself this year to personal growth. Read, listen to podcasts, listen to things. Take courses at 10 workshops, join mastermind groups, whatever it takes. Seek coaching. If that's something that is available to you and something. That you can afford to do.
I think that is great. But I at a minimum have a group of peers. That you can that you can pick up the phone and call. Hey, leaders in isolation are shorter fail. I am the picture of that leader. I had a lot of people around me, but I completely isolated myself.
It doesn't always look like the person's always sitting in their office. I was out and about, and I was doing even some doing some of these things, but. From a mindset standpoint, I'd become isolated. And it led to my last days at St. Joe's. Quite frankly, if you ever want to hear that story, feel free to grab me and I will be more than happy to tell you that story. Because we want to make sure that doesn't happen to you. All right.
That's all for today. Hey, we really want to thank chromo S for supporting this episode. And and supporting our mission to develop the next generation of health leaders. You can check them out this week. health.com/. Google. Dash 📍 Chrome. Oh S thanks for listening. That's all for now.