The Leadership Habit. Lindsay Peter

      This book presents unique insights into the comprehensive subject matter demanded by organization leaders who invest in transforming managers into leaders. Although many of the stories shared within are based on actual events in Crestcom International's global leadership study and interactive training, character identities, locations, or timelines have been changed or may be composites for purposes of privacy and application simplicity.

      CHAPTER 1

      DRIVES FOR RESULTS

      On Monday, the 29th of October 2012, the city of Manhattan in New York lost electrical power from the disastrous consequences of a hurricane. With unceasing rain, the lower floors and elevator shafts of New York University's Langone Medical Center flooded. As the wind and rain shook the windows of the hospital, seven nurses who staffed the neonatal intensive care unit on the ninth floor of the hospital showed how a team can be driven for results.

      Their results were not measured in profitability or common performance metrics, but in saving the delicate lives of 20 tiny babies. When the backup generators failed, the seven nurses with shared focus did what might have appeared impossible.

      All of the infant ventilators and critically essential equipment stopped, triggering emergency alarms. The hospital was dangerously dark from the loss of power. The 4-hour battery backups for the babies in the intensive care unit activated, and the countdown began.

      The nurses did three critical things: First, they accepted the responsibility and accountability for the life-or-death outcome. Second, they asked the right questions. Third, they decided on a rapid response.

      Using the flashlight features on their cellphones, some of the nurses cast light on the isolettes while the others worked furiously to warmly wrap each baby. As they worked, the call came to evacuate the babies, beginning with those with the most severe risk of death.

      One by one, each baby was removed from his or her ventilator and carried through the dark, down nine flights of stairs, and out into the fury of the hurricane. Unable to breathe on their own, the babies needed more than evacuation. Nurses had to breathe for each baby throughout the evacuation by manually squeezing a bag to administer oxygen to the baby's lungs.

      Four or more people closely attended each baby and nurse, monitoring vital signs as they made their harrowing evacuation in the pitch blackness.

      The team synchronized every movement on the stairs by audibly shouting “Step.. Step.. Step!” They coordinated every breath. When the team finally emerged from the dark hospital with a baby, a line of ambulances waited. Up and down, the team of nurses and emergency personnel went in this manner until each of the 20 babies was removed from the flooding hospital and placed in a safe zone miles from the raging storm. Not one baby died that night.

      The courageous example of these seven nurses puts in perspective the capacity of professionals to achieve. While unparalleled in heroism, the intensive care nurses modeled a core competency of leadership – driven for results.

      Employees do not really care about the stated mission and values of your organization. What they care about is how the mission and values come to life in what they do every day. Mission is a wall decoration without execution and results. The why and the what must be reinforced daily to drive employee ownership and achievement. Employees need to understand the importance of what they are doing, how they contribute, and why it is personal.

      Achieving results that create value for your organization and for your clients requires a commitment to execution at every level. All team members need to internalize accountability and responsibility for the results of projects and initiatives assigned to them. Leaders need to be able to ask the right questions to make good decisions that align with the overall strategic direction of the organization. And everyone needs to be held responsible for tracking and measuring his or her goals to ensure that desired results are attained and obstacles cleared away.

      Accountability

      When people are accountable for their own decisions, work, and results, the effectiveness of an organization greatly increases. Of the three keys to driving for results, accountability has the power to lift your whole team to higher performance. Holding yourself and others accountable for decisions, actions, timeliness, and quality differentiates a winning team from an average or failing one.

      The successes and dilemmas associated with managing reservoirs provides an analogy for leaders to consider when assigning expectations to groups or individuals.

      Communities and regions depend on reservoirs as a source of water but also in some instances for flood control. Constructed with dams, reservoirs collect water from rivers, streams, rain, or melting snow and ice. Engineers design reservoirs to operate at peak capacity, to be full of water most of the time. When water exceeds the capacity of a reservoir, the excess water is typically released slowly to ensure that the operation can continue efficiently.

      Water released from a reservoir generates energy by passing through turbines. That is, the balance between holding and releasing water affects the energy created.

      Leaders who drive for results also need the energy that comes from channeling others through monitored and measured deliverables. As accountability becomes a routine part of workplace processes, on-time and quality execution generate energy for the whole team and organization.

      Available water matters most when producing electricity through turbines. Although people might assume that hydroelectric dams always have adequate reservoir water, engineering depends on rivers, streams, rain, and melt to keep a reservoir full to capacity. The steady outflow and evaporation from a reservoir can deplete the water unless the feeders continue to fill the lake.

      Leaders also must regulate the intake and outflow of production expectations on a team. This starts by setting realistic production expectations for employees, and then holding them accountable to hitting those expectations. Without realistic consideration for their capacities or time, it is possible that employees will become drained. The role of leaders who drive for results is to first set realistic levels of output and then monitor and measure workflow to manage the demands placed on employees.

      When your expectations exceed the capacity of your team to execute, accountability and responsibility break down and may fail. If your team feels as though there is no hope for being able to achieve the results you are driving, the system may begin to shut down. Water management and team or project management, however, efficiently produce electricity when the balance is right.

      In the spring of 1983, the Glen Canyon Dam located upstream from the iconic Grand Canyon in the American Southwest nearly burst. An overwhelming amount of snow and ice melt from the mountains pushed water levels