Every Leader's Dilemma - Dealing With Heart Issues

You can listen to the message of this article on Episode 015 of our podcast - Leading Transformational Change.

Who would’ve thought that in June 2020, while the Corona pandemic is still keeping the world in its grip and tens or maybe hundreds of millions of people around the world have lost their jobs and their income, another issue would overtake the news cycle? 

The horrific murders over the last few weeks of Ahmad Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd and the ensuing protests have put a glaring spotlight on racism and injustice. 

The picture we see is not pretty. 

Having listened to some very thoughtful conversations on the topic of racism and injustice over the last few days, I have felt a sense of conviction about my own heart.

Realizing the ugly reality that I carry more prejudice and that I’m less aware of my privilege than I would care to admit.

It is beyond any doubt that we need to raise our voices in unison and say that Black lives matter and work towards change that makes that statement more than mere words. I’m very grateful for the people who are patiently taking the time to engage in the conversation and show us a new way and I know that I, for one, need to be learning and listening.

The Dilemma

I think, or at least hope, that a great majority of people would by now agree, that the murder of George Floyd was a senseless and criminal act and that the police involved should be prosecuted. 

However, why it happened and what conclusions our leaders should draw from it, highlights a dilemma that is the topic of this article. 

While this specific situation is being played out on a national and global scene with a lot of political implications, I believe that every leader and HR professional will at some point face a similar dilemma and that if we desire to build sustainably healthy organizations that both produce great results and have a positive impact on the world we better learn from it. At Heart Management we have been advising leaders in organizations on how to think about this dilemma as they were navigating a crisis inside their organizations, precipitated by events that were unrelated to national politics. 

It cuts to the heart of what we believe about ourselves as leaders and the organizations we lead. 

What’s the State of The Heart of Your Organization? 

It can seem like an odd question. But its answer holds greater significance than one might think. The health of the heart provides an important indicator of the future trajectory of an organization.

Whether the organization will thrive in the long-term and what kind of impact it will have on its employees, customers, and community. 

I need to clarify that I’m not talking about a physical heart. But the inner life of your organization and the people you lead. An organization, a system, and even a nation can seem healthy and at the top of its game externally, yet still be suffering from hidden heart issues. Just like a person might seem healthy and strong on the outside and yet be hours away from her death because of physical heart issues. 

The Cost of Not Caring for the Heart

As business leaders, we are rightly very concerned with our typical KPIs. We are also highly attentive to the public perception of our organization because we understand that it will directly influence sales and impact. But we often do not pay even remotely the same level of attention to what goes on inside the inner life. What is being said and done, when we think that no one else sees or hears (something researchers say we neglect at our peril.) What we don’t realize is that the state of that inner life will come to directly build our culture, shape our systems, and set our direction.

The integrity, or lack thereof, between the values we want to project to the world and the values that ultimately drive our inner conversations and decisions will at some point come to the surface. 

The Gift of a Crisis

Throughout the last few years, the Me Too movement, rampant government corruption, and numerous corporate scandals have rattled global conscience and shaken once seemingly untouchable organizations. As I’ve said on our podcast; a crisis offers us a gift of clarity. It reveals the state of our hearts as leaders and organizations. 

Sometimes organizations experience crises because of an outside attack, sometimes just because of one person’s error. But most of the time, there is a deeper, underlying cultural, and systemic issue. There is a heart issue. 

The Broken Pattern

The problem is that, instead of uncovering the root causes behind the crisis, we too often try to cover them up with PR strategies and corporate values that have served as mere Band-Aids—hiding the symptoms temporarily but never addressing their underlying reality. 

I have found that the response often follows a similar trajectory.

1. The leadership denies the issues, shifts blame and attacks the people who are pointing them out (whether media, whistleblowers, etc). Treating the issue as a PR problem. 
2. If the weight of evidence becomes too overwhelming, as in the case of the murder of George Floyd, they admit to the event and try to move on quickly. Just like some would argue that admitting that George Floyd was murdered and persecuting the perpetrators should be enough.
3. If that doesn’t work and the cries for real change persists, they contend that it’s only a very isolated incident, a few “bad apples” that need to be rooted out - as a senior government official recently said about the issue within the US police system.
4. If they still cannot seem to move ahead, they reluctantly put together a ceremony of sorts to reconcile with their accusers and say that they need to work on their values. Then they move on.

The issue with this pattern is that it never forces us as leaders to take responsibility for our own heart and the heart of our organizations.

However great this might seem for our ego, and pride in the goodness of our organizations and institutions, it will ultimately come at a high cost. 

The Cost of Not Uncovering the Heart Issues

In their attempt to cover up, leaders in the business world tend to only deepen the corporate culture issues that in many cases caused the crisis to begin with. Thus harming the trust of employees and, as a result of internal criticism finding its way to the wider world, ultimately their credibility with customers, prospective new hires, and the general public. This failure to look within and act with courageous humility, have far too often had disastrous financial implications. 

We see the tragic examples; in a famous car, maker cheating on emission tests and having to pay billions of dollars in fines. Or an airplane producer whose systemic negligence lead to many precious lives and tremendous financial value being lost. We can see it in the numerous examples of self-serving governments that cling to power, while the economy goes south and their constituents suffer. We see it in a celebrated MedTech startup, valued at billions of dollars, which unravels due to foundational culture issues. As a Swede, I have seen it in recent years in Scandinavian banks that allowed a culture of corruption to flourish in some of their business units, and as the issues became public tried to cover up and shift blame. 

We see this painful reality of serious heart issues in our current moment. Corrupted beliefs, assumptions, and values that have shaped our thinking, our culture, our decision making, our systems, and our institutions.

Time and time again the symptoms have come to the surface but we still don’t seem to be ready to deal with it on a heart level - neither as individuals or as institutions. 

Too often leaders believe that if they only let time pass, things will sort themselves out. Heart issues, however, will not be fixed just because of the passing of time. They have to be dealt with. 

The solution - Courageous Humility

So what is then the solution to this dilemma?

How can we stop letting history repeat itself and begin to deal with the heart issues that hinder individuals, organizations, communities, and even nations from healing and moving forward? 

The answer is of course multi-layered. However, I am confident that a key part of the solution is leaders who begin to practice courageous humility.

• Leaders who can lay aside their pride and their desire to protect their reputation.
• Leaders who resist the temptation to cover up or shift blame.
• Leaders who see their responsibility for creating culture through the example they set and what they accept, condone, and celebrate.
• Leaders who understand that they too, and the organizations they lead, are susceptible to heart issues.
• Leaders who can hold two thoughts at the same time. Understanding that their organizations can simultaneously be great in many ways and still broken in others.
• Leaders who instead of going on the attack are willing to listen, learn, and uncover those underlying heart issues. 

Walking It Out

I have seen leaders and organizations that have chosen the easy route and have kept on trying to cover the heart issues with ill-fitting band-aids. Only to find out over time that the heart issues never healed. 

I have also seen leaders practice courageous humility, deal with unhealthy beliefs and behavioral patterns as well as the systems and structures that have supported them. Leaders who didn’t merely admit that something was wrong, but who took the time to listen and understand why. Who identified the corrupted beliefs and values that had guided their thinking and that had created thought and behavioral patterns in their organizations.

As a result of dealing with the underlying issues, they were able to experience healing and rebuild trust. 

Let's Do It Scared

I hope that we will all choose to practice that courageous humility. I will end with the words of Nelson Mandela.

"I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

As we begin to practice courageous humility, let's not do it because we aren't afraid. Let's do it even if we are.