 > Email Ken |
Ken Suddaby MD, FRCPC Principal, Leadership
|
‘Leadership Fitness Training’
How do you help draw out that courage? We try to identify right from the start the leaders with the biggest appetites for change. These are people who want to accomplish a lot and who are emotionally self-aware. We help them spread their enthusiasm, to capitalize on it and to have them serve as champions. I assist the leader to help people throughout the organization see what’s in the transformation for them. It would be lovely to believe in absolute altruism, but the truth is that people can’t take on something as stressful and uncertain and daunting as transformation purely for the good of the organization alone. When transformations fail, it’s often because people have bought in intellectually—they understand the decision to transform—but they haven’t made the deep emotional commitment needed to self-sacrifice and work hard at achieving it. The leader has to make a clear and compelling case as to how the changes will be good for each person individually.
You started your career in medicine. How did you end up here? I don’t think of it as such a great leap. I went into medicine and psychiatry because I wanted to work with people. In psychiatry you’re working with people’s minds and the only tool you have is yourself. That attracted me. I studied and practiced in the areas of family systems and organizational psychology. When you get down to it, leading successful transformation is about the people—motivating them to give their best and helping them to deal with their fears about change. My work is about supporting leaders to accomplish this in their companies. There’s a natural fit.
What is the focus of your work? It’s to support the senior executive leading the transformation—to help him or her muster the energy to inspire and motivate others to join in. I help leaders connect with their own personal passion for the desired outcome—to remain positive in the face of what often seems like overwhelming resistance, to make difficult decisions, to have the tough conversations, to hold others accountable. Corporate transformation is the leadership equivalent of running a marathon; I sometimes refer to the work I do as ‘leadership fitness training’.
What do you respect most about clients who undertake transformation, stick it out and see it through? The leaders who really succeed at transformation are the ones who understand their personal passion in life and find a great fit between what they care about and what they see that their organization can accomplish. This requires tremendous self-awareness and personal resolve. It requires focus and commitment. It demands that a high level of energy be sustained for a long period of time. The truly successful transformational leader is a rare bird, a phenomenon of nature. Watching them lead is truly a graceful sight to behold. I am always humbled by the client who aspires to be more than they are, to accomplish more than they have previously accomplished, to face some of the biggest challenges that they have ever faced, and yet to persevere toward success. I always find it to be a deep privilege to work with such leaders.
What’s the most important quality you can bring to transformation as a consultant? Authenticity. If you’re going to challenge others to push themselves, you had better have pushed yourself hard in order to be coming from an authentic place. I personally think that’s a hallmark of Totem Hill; how our team defines itself.
