Next Level Leader Blog

12 Lessons from an Undercover Leadership Consultant

  

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After 7 years consulting with the senior leadership teams of Baptist Health System, Daughters of Charity National Health System, Humana, JCAHO, and many more as the Managing Director for Healthcare, ODi one of the top 3 consulting firms in Healthcare Continuous Improvement at that time, as well as working with the top leadership teams in AT&T, Procter & Gamble, NYNEX, Harte Hanks, and many more, I went "Dark."

That's it. I went undercover. On the inside. I became a senior manager inside of a 6,000 employee, $2B managed healthcare company and then went in deeper, as the SVP for Corporate Services in a fast growth, national, for-profit behavioral health company with 6,000 employees and contractors, growing from $50m to $500m in 6 years and lead executive for Parent Company Relations, with our $10B parent.

I was in so deep, I wasn't sure I'd ever get back, like Johnny Depp in Donnie Brasco .

I spent 8 years on the inside, barely holding on to my identity as the ruff and tumble of organizational politics at the senior level knocked me around, toughened me up, and taught me lessons I could never have learned as an external consultant.

These hard earned 12 lessons have never left me:

1. While you may think you're doing the right thing, others will undoubtedly perceive you as having ulterior motives.

2. There are two types of people in corporations, a. Those confident they can work anywhere and unintimidated by the dangers of getting fired, thus mostly doing the right thing regardless of the consequences, b. Those who decide to retire from the company in which they work (regardless of their age)  - these people will do the most unintelligible things just to survive, even to the point of looking incompetent.

3. There's no end to what you can get accomplished as long as you are willing to not take the credit.

4. There are some people who spend their entire careers studying politics and therefore will rarely be undone by amatures. You would be astounded by their creativity if you ever got the chance to be close to one of them.

5. You only get 6 months to a year to act like an impartial, curious, executive. After that, you're part of the political soup. Even your "oh shucks, it's hard to figure out why we do it this way" questions are taken as focused attacks on colleagues.

6. Well intending leaders who don't take heed of politics soon find themselves dropping through the open manhole, stunned, confused, and determined to get even, only afterwards realizing that they're wiser for the eye opening mugging. 

7. It's better to align yourself with the influential positive forces and take your chances as an upstanding corporate citizen, but always keep the destructive elements in your rear view mirror.

8. Better to invite parent company execs. in for tours, meetings, and special projects to actively draw their attention to things you want and away from the things you want them to stay out of.

9. Nothing big is achieved without a collaborative alliance working day and night to get it done.

10. Never, never, never lose sight of how the CFO views the world. It's his or her voice the CEO listens to before going to sleep every night.

11. There's no such thing as a non-political environment. If you think you're in one that is creative, open, and trusting, wait around to see what it's like after the financials tank.

12. There's always someone everyone loves to hate or mistrust who is in a position of power. Don't pay attention to what they're doing, pay attention to the person who's behind him or her.

13. (Bakers dozen) If no one's commenting on an obvious important issue, chances are they're well informed about what's out of bounds for discussion. Proceed with caution.

There's much more but blogs are supposed to present a discrete number of points if you intend them to be read. It's good to know the rules first before you ignore one that's actually good for you.