The Power of Our Values

BreakPoint Solutions formally began operations in September 2017.  The motivation behind the creation of the company, however, had its genesis well before that. One could argue that BreakPoint Solutions was decades in the making given the past experiences of its founders and partners. While some of the players have changed over time, the basic premise of what we do has not. This past winter - working virtually through COVID-19 restrictions - we discussed and cemented foundational elements for us.  

We first concluded as a company, a group of like-minded professionals, that our mission and vision were one and the same:

To awaken and unleash the potential in leaders, teams, and organizations

As a mission, this statement represents our purpose, what motivates us to do what we do. It inspires us to boldly put ourselves out in the world as coaches, consultants, leaders, mentors, and advisors. This is our why; this is why we do what we do. As a vision, it helps guide us to where we want to go, what we want to be known for, and what we want to achieve. It also defines what we hope to help our clients create for themselves and for others. We are motivated and inspired by our clients - by their unrealized or unknown potential; by their commitment, by their journey, by their struggles, and by their incredible successes. Through our work we expect to help them achieve more than they ever imagined possible. And they do.

The why and where are only part of the story. For us the how is just as important. Our how is represented by the values we have revisited in each year of our existence. Each year we have come back to further explore how we want to work with our clients, how we want to be known and remembered by those we work with, and - quite honestly - to attract the types of clients that value what we value. We put our values out there, with our definitions, our interpretation, seeking to convey our personality and our team culture.  If our values resonate with you, your team, or your organization we believe we can do great things together.

In every single case, we have debated the meaning and relevance of these values for us as individual professionals and as a team working together. They powerfully guide our actions and where we choose to work. Our values are:

Integrity

We hold ourselves accountable to our values, principles and commitments. We are authentic and transparent in our work, which leads to strong, trust-based relationships.

Long story short, we strive to walk our talk. We deliver on our promises. And we want more than just a contract with our clients. We actively strive to create strong relationships even to the point where it might actually be forgotten that we are not full-fledged members of a team or an organization. We know each other so well and our mutual respect is so strong that we can act in almost unconscious tandem, while at the same time having the ability to (respectfully) challenge each other in the best spirit of partnership to drive success.

Courage

We believe in the power of human potential. We challenge boundaries by building on our strengths, always experimenting with what is possible, learning and growing through the journey.

We appreciate and understand that the first steps, or the next steps, on any journey can be daunting. Even if the current reality and environment are challenging, it is the evil we know and perhaps what we have become comfortable with. We work with our clients to own their strengths as much as their uncertainty, to push the boundaries of what they perceive might be possible/impossible, and to challenge themselves with "what if?" and "why not?"  Doing is learning. Learning is growing. Growing is achieving. We believe in the power of human potential - your potential.

Collaboration

We are committed to a philosophy of co-creation, understanding there is greater power and possibility in partnerships. United in shared purpose, we move beyond the power of one.

BreakPoint Solutions comes together in the spirit of team and yet is so much more than just a team. We deeply believe we are far more capable, effective, and powerful when we learn from and lean on each other. The same perspective applies in terms of how we believe we work best with our clients. We bring expertise, skills, abilities, and strengths to any engagement, but so too do our clients. We must co-create.  Why? Because our clients have to own, implement, potentially modify, and live with the solutions they've developed. We don't want to be back a year or two from now helping the same person, the same team, or the same organization solve a problem or leveraging an opportunity that should have been attended to in the past. 

Creativity

We challenge ourselves to remain curious. Unique situations call for unique thinking. We believe in the power of innovation, agility, and adaptability. We challenge convention in the pursuit of pragmatic solutions.

Many of us at BreakPoint Solutions are certified executive coaches (CEC). Foundational to a coaching practice is the art of curiosity. We are challenged to be judgment free, to support ourselves and others to challenge assumption and bias, and to dig beneath the surface realities. If 2020 and the beginning of 2021 have taught us nothing, it has taught us not just the desirability, but the necessity, of being innovative, agile, and adaptable. This is also where our varied client experiences and environments prove so valuable. They are a live learning lab. As unique as we all believe ourselves to be - and we are - there is much that can be learned and adapted to a range of circumstances. Critically important is all these creative ideas have to be translated into meaningful action. Innovation must be applied to be useful. Deploy or die.

Fun

We seek to balance productivity and enjoyment knowing they work together to increase personal and organizational effectiveness.

This value is very near and dear to our hearts and souls. Without exception, the coaches and consultants of BreakPoint Solutions bring to the table years of senior level leadership experience gained in large, complex, challenging work environments. And we don't take ourselves too seriously. Our experience is tempered with humility. We know from personal experience how much impact a joyful work environment - or the lack thereof - has on our personal productivity. We spend more time in our work, with each other, and with our clients, than in anything else we do. It had better be fun, it had better allow our passions to shine through, otherwise we can't and won't deliver our best work. It's inevitable. If you are working with us, expect humility, self-deprecating humour, and maybe even a bit of irreverence. We are going to do great work together while making it enjoyable too!

So that is who and what BreakPoint Solutions is all about. We are more than just a name or a sum of our parts. We are an intentional stopping point, a place to pause, an opportunity to help you derive new knowledge, and establish a commitment to a new path or direction. We are a place to help you evaluate what's working, what needs to change, and what you need to do to reset for the future you want.

We are BreakPoint Solutions. And for us It's About Leadership in all its forms.

Want to work with us? Check out www.breakpoint.solutions to find out how we can work together to get you to where you, or your organization, want to be.

______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC

President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions

gregh@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

Good Leadership Requires Good Governance

It's often been said, in one form or another, as goes the leader so goes the company. Rest assured this is not going to be another blog/commentary about Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau, Jason Kenney, or any other potentially polarizing public figure. My focus continues to be on the impact that leadership - for good or for bad - has on the culture and success of an organization. But there is probably not a day, and certainly not a week, that goes by when we don't hear about some (inexplicable? disappointing?) organizational failure that seems to directly link to a leadership failure. 

I would suggest there is something to be said or explored in how these leadership and organizational failures might connect back to the quality and effectiveness of oversight provided by a board of directors.  They begin to set the tone from the top in a variety of ways, in what they do, and what they fail to do. 

I'm not sure how many of us appreciate the role that a board of directors plays in setting direction for large organizations and in helping it achieve those objectives. In most circumstances, public and media focus falls on a leader - a president, a CEO, or another top executive. Ultimately, however, a well functioning board is fundamental to the success of an organization through their decisions, not the least of which is their selection of THE senior operational leader. The quality of their decision making and their commitment to their governance task can have wide-ranging impact.

I have worked with a variety of boards in my 25-year career. I have worked with good boards and not so good boards. I have seen them lose their way in a variety of circumstances, including being burdened with an ineffective Chair, a disruptive board member, uncommitted board members, boards that get too involved in operations, and boards that simply perform a rubber stamp role for what senior leadership wants to get done. Ineffective governance can severely compromise and inhibit the ability of an organization to succeed and fulfill its mandate.

Sometimes boards don't even understand what their key responsibilities are. This lack of understanding or confusion can often arise from how a person is recruited to the board, or the quality of the orientation they receive upon becoming a member. Those boards that function on the basis of being elected have an additional potential challenge of individual platforms (e.g., axes to grind) entering into the equation.

Too often board members can be selected on criteria that may have nothing to do with the kinds of skills that a board requires to fulfill its functions. Instead, they selected because they are part of the same personal network as existing board members, they are prominent community members, they are politically connected, they are major donors, and so on and so forth. None of these factors necessarily make for a good board member. A poor selection process can then be compounded by inadequate orientation to the role of the board. In that circumstance, an individual board member has to either rely on the skills they bring to the table from their life outside of the boardroom, the examples set by their fellow board members (for good or for bad), or they may be left to take what orientation or guidance they might get from senior leadership of the organization. Not the ideal recipe for success.

So what's the starting point for good governance? The first task is to clearly understand the roles of the board. First and foremost, a board needs to focus on setting direction - making clear choices on an organization's vision, mission, values, and strategic directions. Failure to fully engage in this first set of major responsibilities means an organization can easily drift from its fundamental purpose. Failure to develop cohesion around these fundamental building blocks also, and inevitably, leads to conflict between board members that impacts organizational performance and public confidence. Moreover, if there is no consensus among the Board as to vision, mission, values, and strategic directions, how can senior operational leadership be effectively guided or held accountable for performance? 

Second, a board is required to exercise oversight on organizational performance. It is important here to distinguish oversight for organizational performance from managing the organization. Neither the board as a whole nor individual board members (including the Chair) should get involved in managing the organization. The temptation to direct operations is intense, especially for those board members who lead and manage significant entities outside of the organization for which they are a board member. The board needs to remember the organization has engaged operational leaders - the CEO in particular - to manage operational matters. Ostensibly, they have used a robust process for recruitment and selection, have followed up with appropriate performance reviews and feedback, and have trust in the CEO and other management personnel to achieve the board-established strategic directions. If the board lacks such confidence then it has erred in selection, has erred in communicating expectations, or perhaps has not been engaged in managing performance at all. Ultimately, if that confidence erodes, the choice of the board is to more clearly communicate its expectations or remove the CEO. The choices available to the board should not include becoming more engaged in operational decision-making.

That being said, a board must exercise appropriate oversight. It must be clear on its expectations and establish robust and objective mechanisms by which to evaluate CEO performance on achievement of the organization's vision and strategic directions. Moreover, a board would do well to evaluate outcomes and also - at a high level - how those outcomes were achieved. The board has a key role to ensure the values of the organization are fostered and upheld. Every effort should be made to ensure that objective, quantifiable reports on performance are made available to the board on a regular basis. In this regard, the board should avail itself of a variety of forms of feedback to evaluate performance and success in achieving objectives. 

Finally, a board manages its direction setting accountability, its oversight responsibility, and its own functions by establishing policy. These policies must clearly distinguish board function from management function. Just as important, they must describe and detail how the board itself shall function - the role of the Chair and other officers of the board, how decisions will be made, what committee structures, if any, will be utilized, and so forth. This is one distinct way to ensure role clarity and to diminish and manage potential conflicts.

As can be imagined, it is easy for boards to become involved in non-board activities and tasks. Board members can easily neglect the very real work required to ensure proper board functioning. If this high-level, strategic work is not done, or is done poorly, there will be little or no foundation for success for the organization as a whole. 

Boards have very real responsibilities. The tasks they are engaged in cannot be minimized or trivialized. We have seen too many organizational failures in recent years that can be traced back to governance failures. Complacency about board performance is not an option. However, effective governance does not mean becoming more engaged in operational leadership. Nor is it to establish ever more controls and bureaucracy. Boards need to do very real work to understand their roles and responsibilities, establish proper structures to do their work, recruit and retain good members, and set the tone for the values and ethics that will guide the organization.

To achieve operational excellence there must be a foundation of governance excellence. Good leadership requires good governance.

______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC

President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions

gregh@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

Governance Minefields

Leadership at a governance level is often written about and there are more than enough courses and programs out there that purport to certify competent and qualified directors. And yet we still see - and I get up close and personal with - how governance success remains elusive. Significant organizational failures, whether in the public or private sector, are often attributed to a failure in operational leadership, character flaws of the CEO, and a host of other reasons. I suggest, however, that those failures can too often just as easily be traced back to inadequate governance process and even understanding about what governance is or should be.

I'm going to give you my experience on what I see as some of the most common minefields that boards and individual directors should watch out for to reduce the chances of governance, leadership, and organizational setbacks and failure.

One: Governance Philosophy and Framework. Boards need to spend significant time and energy on clarifying what governance means for them and what it entails in terms of their interactions with the CEO and operations. Too often boards and incoming directors operate under the assumption that the skills, abilities, and experiences they have acquired in other environments somehow magically imparts to them the skill to become effective board members. Too often this also means you have as many perspectives on what the board's role is as there are board members. The board needs to engage in a deep and engaged discussion about how they will fulfill their collective responsibilities as a board. The implicit understandings and the potential differences of opinion have to be surfaced, debated, and solidified.  

Two: Recruit and Select with Purpose and Intent. One of the challenges that boards increasingly face in the modern era is the challenge of diversity and inclusion. While many boards have developed skills matrices and other processes to fill out their ranks as vacancies arise, there are still unseen biases in place that perpetuate a homogeneity in board composition. Boards must increasingly challenge their own paradigms, challenge their assumptions, and confront their biases as they recruit and select new board members with an eye to the future challenges their organization may face. More of the same might support harmony, but is likely inadequate to support change in a dynamic environment.

Three: Wear the Right Hat. Boards need to pay attention in their recruitment, selection, and orientation efforts to the perspectives and mentality of wanna be board members. Are these new board members animated by a singular issue?  Do they have an axe to grind? Are they at risk for conflict-of-interest scenarios?  Can they identify potential blind spots or biases?  In my experience, these types of conflicts and biases move well beyond direct and personal financial benefit as so many might assume. Individuals might be trying to right some perceived wrong from past experience with the organization (e.g., a family member's bad experience), a desire to change the values and culture of the organization to align with personal values, or even believing  they are more qualified to be the CEO so they will "dig deep" into operations to get things right.

Four: Do Your Work. Aspiring to be on a board - or at least to being an effective board member on an effective board - means you have work to do. I still encounter too many board members who view their simple membership on a board or attendance at board meetings as service enough. They believe their presence is contribution enough, or that a trite - and maybe even the odd relevant comment - once a board meeting fulfills their obligations as a board member. This is no more than check-box governance or social club participation. Regardless of the size of organization, board work should be seen and undertaken as a significant responsibility. Stand up or stand aside. Read your agenda materials before the board meeting, participate in board committee meetings as designated, and bring forward your unique perspective to the benefit of the organization. 

Five: Evaluate Board Performance. While many board members might be quite prepared and excited to evaluate CEO and organizational performance, they can become quite twitchy when the subject of board evaluation is broached. As a group of peers - and perhaps accomplished professionals in their other lives - they fear the challenge or consequences of evaluating each other and/or being evaluated themselves. But, in my view, they have a responsibility to model a commitment to evaluation, self-improvement, and growth that I expect they have for the rest of the organization. What can help boards carry out this function are a number of things: a) a transparent and authentic discussion of the purpose of such an evaluation; b) an agreed-upon and relevant structure and process for the evaluation; and c) objective, third-party support for supporting the assessment. These elements can take a lot of the fear and mystery out of the evaluation while at the same time making the process and results credible.

Six: Sustaining the Board. One could argue that this minefield could be considered an outcome or offshoot of several of the items noted above. The point to be made here is the board, not the CEO or operations, has to sustain, grow, and cultivate the governance philosophy, framework, and its culture in a very intentional fashion. To me this process takes several forms: a) reviewing and affirming the governance philosophy and framework on a regular (and not less than annual) basis; b) a structured approach to review board policies and procedures; c) engaging in professional and personal growth and development activities; c) onboarding new board members (and not simply handing incoming board members the orientation manual...); and d) being available as mentors to new board members.  

Seven: Manage the CEO Partnership. The single most important relationship a board has to manage is the partnership it should have with its operational leader. I like to talk about this through the use of a visual that shows two overlapping circles. In the middle, there are the shades of grey to be actively managed. So I don't view the the roles of board and CEO as being completely and utterly distinct and separate. They have a shared responsibility to protect and advance the organization. And they do have to fulfill this obligation in a trust-based partnership. Too often boards or individual board members gravitate to polar extremes. On one hand they can default to a far too personal a relationship with their operational leader, blindly trusting the CEO and not keeping their eyes on real performance of the organization.  On the other hand, other board members see their role as one of forensic auditor in every board meeting or even requiring on-site, random, operational visits to interrogate staff and clients alike about organizational performance. Neither approach is appropriate, nor will it create an environment conducive to operational excellence.

Being on a board or pursuing a board appointment represents a significant commitment and responsibility.  The small listing of landmines above is not intended to dissuade anyone from pursuing a board appointment. The work is both critically necessary for organizations large and small, in the private and public sectors, and can be incredibly rewarding and informative. Just appreciate it is a critical role and it requires significant effort to do the role justice.

It's About Governance and It's About Leadership!

______________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC

President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions

gregh@breakpoint.solutions 

www.breakpoint.solutions 

780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

 

So, you think you can grow your business without HR?

As a business owner, have you ever stopped to consider how many hats you might be wearing on your entrepreneurial adventure? Many business owners have their fingerprint on everything in the early days to ensure quality control and consistent messaging. Understandably so, it is their invention. But as businesses grow, owners need to evaluate where their time is best spent and where it makes the most positive impact to their business. 

 

If I look at my own HR start-up, I am not only supporting clients with HR solutions, but I am also the strategist, the visionary, the marketer, and face of my brand. I have quickly learned that – unfortunately – I am not Wonder Woman and I cannot do it all. Although sometimes the thought of having an eighth day in the work week sounds like a good idea. Instead, I leverage my time with a Creativity Consultant who collaborates with me to format and edit documents, proposals, and surveys. She also takes care of webpage management and supports my social media presence. And I work with an accountant who handles my bookkeeping. It takes a village to bring my vision to life and by partnering with SMEs (subject matter experts) or professionals in their field, I feel freer and stronger to focus on the things that matter most to me.   

This reminds me of the evolution of one of my childhood passions. Growing up, I loved to sew, and I started to learn how when I was nine years old. You should have seen my first sewing project! It was a short skirt with strawberry-printed fabric. I was thrilled in my choice of fabric and it was just fabulous! As a child, I had lots of time to dedicate to sewing, so I completed many projects for friends and family. Over time, I saw how sewing, like other leisurely pursuits, takes time. Fast forward to today, and even though I know how to sew and alter clothing, I choose not to do it. My time is a valuable commodity and I want to invest it in areas that bring me the greatest value. As a result, I outsource this work to a skilled seamstress who provides high quality service to me. It truly is a win/win partnership. 

So, when do you start to leverage SMEs to maximize your time and continue to add life to your business? Most business owners readily hand over their receipts to a bookkeeper but will only occasionally look to an HR professional for support. 

When I have connected with business owners and other leaders, they have said, “When I reach threshold XYZ, I will engage HR into the business”.  There is a point in time, and it is not as far down the road as you think, when adding an HR professional can be especially valuable. You only need basic minimum requirements to involve HR. For example, when you have more than two employees on staff, you need to start to think about team dynamics and if employees are working well together, if they understand their roles, if they know how their work contributes to the overall vision, if they know what is expected of them, and if they know they matter.  Like when going out to sea, you need to have some basic equipment, like an anchor and compass because without it, you are placing your safety at great risk. The same applies to the success of your business: HR could be considered basic equipment and helps to keep your business afloat.

Now, I get it, when wearing the HR hat, you may not see any issues. So, you may be wondering why you need HR and when the right time is to leverage it. Is it when you have all your systems in place? Think you may get sued? Have concerns your talented staff will leave? Rely on Google to find your answers? Are spending hours dealing with people matters which you may not be passionate about? 

Have you weighed the risks of continuing to manage HR on your own? If you are spending a lot of your time on HR functions, what tasks get dropped? What are you not doing that you should be doing? Another way to look at the risks of taking on HR tasks is to analyze where you spend most of your time. Is it on business development, client relations, running day-to-day operations, marketing, or employee relations matters? Where would you rather be spending your time?  If you could make a shift, what would you see as the positive and tangible impact to your business?  At the end of the day, by trying to do it all, there are no savings; in fact, it is actually costing you.   

HR is an organization’s human resources multiplier. HR increases team effectiveness of teams and of the workplace, they leverage employee performance, and help shape human potential. People are the heart of the organization and HR is the glue that connects people and performance. HR professionals are natural champions to cultivate a rich employee experience. 

Why not make your business better and leverage HR to manage your employee relations and maintain compliance, to set up or update your HR infrastructure, to explore HR solutions that fit your unique needs, to tap into subject matter expertise, and to evaluate and elevate your employee experience? Whether it is fractional HR support or interim HR leadership, you will gain time to focus on advancing your vision and increasing overall performance in your business. Let HR be your organization’s HR multiplier that will positively enable your business to make improved decisions around what matters most: PEOPLE. 

  

Driven by connection,

Rita Filice

Rita Filice, BCOMM, CPHR
Partner, BreakPoint Solutions
ritaf@breakpoint.solutions
www.breakpoint.solutions
780-250-2544

Rita thrives on connecting people, leveraging human resources and delivering performance.  She is a collaborative and accomplished HR leader who values authentic connection, meaningful conversation, and her positive energy and outlook make anything possible.