Leading With Purpose: From Manager to Mentor | Kathy Biondi

Kathy Biondi, guest · [01:42]Well, for myself, I definitely take your point that hindsight is everything, and the roles that the leaders experience may make more sense later, in life, and, and so that's to be expected. Every aspect of your career has value, and each and every role, the project that you might be undertaking is bringing you one step closer to a final career role. I definitely have had that experience. And in that final role, the organization or the employer can benefit from the wealth of experience that you've gathered. So, but it's not just experience that must qualify, it's also that added self-confidence. So it's still creating a context for leadership. I think in the modern workplace, it's a shared responsibility for leadership, a type of group think. Sometimes we call that teamwork that comes through when working through difficult Situations together. And this may apply, or the opportunity for this may be better in large organizations, and that was certainly my experience. So although in the moment there were times of high stress, I think overall the decisions that were made and made really through a group discussion were thought through well, and given the resources we had on hand at the time, they still make sense now. So I could probably elaborate, introduce myself a little bit further as per my career. I was almost forty years in the Ontario government. I won't explain every aspect of all these jobs that I had or that one in particular, but really just to comment that I was really pleased to finish with the job as director of management and opera support branch for the correctional ministry. It's a far-reaching branch with, multiple locations across the province and different business streams. Really everything that I had aspired to, to work on and to take leadership over. It was a really big portfolio, and it was quite an exceptional opportunity, but I must give credit to the section managers because they were wonderful. They were highly seasoned in their roles. They knew the work very well, and we, we just gelled. We, we worked very well together. So you might say, well, what did I do? And I think because everything Was functioning quite smoothly. What I brought to that team was, across the branch, a sense of working together, a team atmosphere, and really the accountability through performance management. And not that they didn't have a performance management, requirement, but I did really an enhancement of that through documentation. So I really like honed in on it and made that a vital part of their day-to-day thinking. And that came from my past experiences in other positions.

Kathy Biondi, guest · [04:58]So I do like that phrase leadership and action, because I think leaders must be seen as doers and, maybe most importantly as problem solvers. So one of the things about leadership is it's, it's not an armchair situation. You have to be Ready to roll up your sleeves and to engage with staff and essentially role model what you hope the whole organization will take up as their operating style. So back in my college lecturer days, I actually taught a course on leadership where we reviewed leadership from a textbook point of view, and it included things like what did leaders face and, what were their expectations, successful leadership, and so on. Well, one of the phrases that came out of that was lead by example. That's always stuck with me. I, I think it sums up my own leadership style. Do what I think needs doing, and, things may look simple, as starting on a meeting on time. Just role modeling, appropriate behaviors, efficiency behaviors, accountability behaviors, and creating an example of, all of that and respect for others, for your staff. I found that listening to staff, getting to know the people personally was a huge asset. The success in these organizations I was involved with. And, you know, if a situation came up, as, as ideas started to gel, you had a, a level of, familiarity and trust, and people would come to you and say, well, I think I know how we could fix that. And so that was always very progressive. That was very great. But my point about that being with leaders is that you can inspire staff to get involved in the problem solving. Like sometimes there's the notion of, well, you're in charge, so you figure it out. And, and actually, I didn't experience that all too often because I tended to try to build these relationships. And so it became kind of a group effort. It just wouldn't happen if you don't have a well-established trust and the ability for staff to align themselves with you, and you can turn that challenge into an opportunity. I actually have an example of that from my, correctional services college time. We had a, a shift in government policy and, operating objectives involving creating learning opportunities. For diversity in the workplace. And so to that end, I put it out to my team and we researched some possible program ideas. And the result was a week-long in-service for my own staff at the college and a particular one-day forum for the whole of the ministry if, if they chose to come. And, it was a fabulous success. But, but the funny thing is, folks in the corrections ministry didn't realize I'd actually spent a lifetime before that running meetings back in the agriculture ministry, bringing guest speakers, engaging with community organizations, and, and so it was natural for me to let's, let's do this forum while there was standing room only. The auditorium was packed and we had, very fine reviews from that, even up to the level of the deputy minister.

Kathy Biondi, guest · [14:37]Maybe I could back up a little bit and, and just explain how that scenario evolved, and, just for the benefit of the listeners understanding it a little bit more. One of the things that changed in the 1990s was, you know, government was needing to, downsize, and there were organizational changes, and, and organizational changes happened in the Ministry of Agriculture, where I was, actually in two parts. The first one was, the closing of two of our agricultural colleges, and the actual close date, like, as you say, locking the doors, occurred in 1994. And then, lo and behold, two years, three years later, we were merging with the University of Guelph, we were Colleges were merging with the University of Guelph. So listeners might not realize is that each of these processes took about a year, and I was, in the thick of it both times as one of the affected college directors. I had the responsibility for working through that closure, and, and really there, there was another trait that I think we need to again hone in on is that the, the folks that you work with, if they have a level of trust, then you can get through difficult times like that. So it certainly was a shock the day that I had to read the announcement, and, then the details started to get sorted out, and, you know, I spent a lot of time listening to the concerns of the staff and following up on the questions, but I also spent a lot of time doing. And when I say doing, you know, I'm, I'm there in my office making phone calls, and there was just days of straight phone calls, figuring out, what was going to happen for, this person, that person, working through the big picture aspects, like, you know, the, the physical plant, for instance. We had about eighty staff at, Centralia College, and a lot of them were part-time because they were seasonal lecturers, but I learned a lot about the requirements, the human resources requirements, and, To, to redeploy them. And I do extend an appreciation to my colleague directors who talked about the vacancies that they had, or maybe programs that they wanted to, you know, expand. And there were opportunities that came for just about every one of my staff. So yes, I stayed. I stayed the whole time. And I might say, yes, I stayed for partly personal reasons, but I just wanted to be sure it was a, a very well done closure, that we didn't miss a beat, that we, you know, presented ourselves with. Everything tidied up. But the idea of locking the doors was really odd because it's, it's a wide open campus and it was more like driving out for the last time was really difficult. And we essentially turned it back to government services. That's what we did. So I just wanted to make sure that, you know, I could speak up for the staff and do the best for each of them. And, you know, overlaying some of my own personal values on, well, this person would be very suited to a certain position and things like that. I do take pride that, again, hindsight, things worked out pretty well for pretty much every person.

Kathy Biondi, guest · [20:26]I think you do see the similarity when you think back over your almost 40 years in, in a career. One of those threads for me, though, is education. Because I have a master's degree in education, and in almost every job of, of my experience, I was either teaching or managing a college or coordinating continuing education. In fact, the only position that I didn't have a, a direct, implication for education was the last one, where I was dealing more management and operative support issues. But the subject that I taught when I was at Centri was communications. So education and communications are a couple of the threads that I, I really should, you know, in terms of summary, those were evident really throughout my career, but it brought me, that teaching experience brought me to realize how significant communication is for persons, especially for leaders. So even from the very early days, I, I'd have to say communication is a key element for leaders. And I know there are times when something is highly confidential and you can't talk to staff and, you know, that's happened to me a few times. But if you can share information, it just, diminishes all the stress and, you know, persons can get on with their day. I want to also comment how communications has a lot of formats. And the simplest is, as I mentioned earlier, listening. Listening to people, talking to them. But if I look back now and realize that my spoken and interpersonal communications were kind of the mainstay, I also started to realize I need to write things down. And I didn't think of myself as that much of a writer, but it's easy now with modern communications. We have something as straightforward as email or all the texting. And, so you have a, a documented record of, you know, what this decision was, what was said, what the plan was. And, and I think that's great, and that's another aspect of the communications thread. So it's, it's a skill that I do think leaders need to make a strong point in their portfolio, is the written communication. And I, I look back and I, I, I think I've gotten better as a writer. People, people say my writing's okay, and it, but it wasn't something I wanted to do in the first place, and I wasn't all that keen about it. But now, of course, I, I do a fair bit of writing in different regards. So this is an action. When you write something, it's not just standing there having a chat. You, you have taken a step, and it's an action item that does, organizations can therefore follow up and make a decision based on your report, based on what you, and sometimes I've done this, and, and really I just wrote down what everybody was saying, but then brought it to a meeting, and they said, oh yes, that's what we want to do, that's where we want to go, and then, you know, the, the, the gears kick in and, and, the governance process can take over, and we can actually follow up and get some work done. So I developed that writing skill over quite some time.

Kathy Biondi, guest · [25:42]Yes, I, I was really surprised by the word messy. I'm getting used to it now, but I, I guess when I first heard it, I thought, well, messy, if you're a leader, speaks to being out of control. And, you know, at least that's what I think of first off. Things are, things are falling apart. They're a mess. And, some might say that leadership is all about control, but I, I hope, persons are starting to realize from what I've said so far that I'm not the kind of person who wants to be that militaristic kind of a do this, do that type of a leader. I prefer more the, the team approach and everybody working together on things and then moving things positively ahead, and that will get the work done. And maybe learning something along the way myself and others learning along the way. So, you know, that education piece, from my own formal education, even like just involuntarily, I studied lesson planning, writing course objectives, measuring for results, planning for student success, and certainly a few other things in my education, my own degree. So being clear about expectations and communicating clearly and fully can go an awful long way to getting the job done well and persons involved having a sense of achievement. So if something is getting messy, I would refer to, you know, if you're losing control, one only needs to regroup and go back to the basics. And those basics, actually the same things I learned in my degree about classrooms and formal education, apply really very well to a director in the public service. You need to do clear language, you write the expectations, you engage the staff, and ultimately you celebrate your successes. So the mess can easily be resolved, and it just takes a process, it takes a plan. Until the next thing happens, and then you have to, go back to basics, break it all down and regroup and, redo.

Kathy Biondi, guest · [28:07]Well, this is a great question, and, and you, you're finding me at exactly the right time, because actually just this past weekend, I had a lovely experience, and it was a social setting, and I was talking to young public sector leaders. So I asked them about the reason why they decided to take up a position with the government or the broader public sector, and the answers were varied. But I'd have to say I could have done a flashback, and these persons are all in it for the greater good. They're wanting to give back to the communities that assisted them. They're, wanting to make a difference. They're wanting to be influential. So it's not different than my own story. And it kind of is the circle of life, I guess, story. Now, these were health professionals and, very highly educated. So the other thing is they're all really smart, and I can't put myself into that feature, but I think we're in good hands with this next generation of leaders in the public service. They're keen, they're dedicated. I'd have to say they're workaholics. They'll be still doing something at midnight if it requires that to meet a deadline. And nothing is too big, nothing is too complicated. And they've already, some of them were involved with COVID and working through the COVID situation. As I say, these are health professionals. So they've already exhibited their ability to succeed. To, you know, meet difficult, find answers to difficult questions. But they work together, they problem solve together, and they're, they're providing recommendations for changes to government policy at this sort of mid-career level. And if you were wanting to know if I was worried, well, the only thing I might worry about is that their, their own bosses, those senior leaders, might not recognize the total value of this energy. Now, they need to allow it to grow, to just give them free will to, have input and to listen to what they are offering up as the, the highly skilled and very articulate, young persons that they are in leadership roles now.