The heart-led leader How living and leading from the heart will change your organization and your life

Tommy Spaulding

Book - 2015

In his first book, It's Not Just Who You Know, former CEO of Up with People Tommy Spaulding talked about the power of building genuine and lasting relationships both personally and professionally. In his new book, Spaulding turns his focus to ourselves -- to who we are. Authentic leaders, Spaulding says, live and lead from the heart. The values and principles that guide our lives and shape our ability to lead others is far more important than our title, or our ability to crunch numbers, or the impressive degrees we display on our walls. To effect true transformational change, heart-led leaders draw on the qualities of humility, vulnerability, transparency, empathy and love. Illustrated with stories from his own life, and from some of t...he exceptional leaders he has met and worked with over the years, Spaulding unpacks what those qualities mean, talks about the 18-inch journey from the head to the heart -- from our intellect to our emotions -- and shows us how to incorporate them into our careers, into how we manage and lead others, and into how we live our lives.

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Subjects
Published
New York : Crown Business [2015].
Language
English
Main Author
Tommy Spaulding (author)
Item Description
Includes index.
Physical Description
xii, 238 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN
9780553419030
  • Introduction: Love-driven results
  • Part one: becoming a heart-led leader. Who you are matters ; Rule #45: Do right ; From the what to the who ; The heart of Texas
  • Part two: The 18-inch journey. From the head to the heart
  • Part three: Leaving a heartprint on the world. One heartprint at a time ; The circle of who ; Making a wrong a right: Ethan's story ; Second daughter: Nikki's story ; Conclusion: Win for tomorrow.

Who You Are Matters One of the people who taught me the most about being a heart-led leader was a man named Anthony D'Aquanni. Anthony was a hair stylist in White Plains, New York, just across the Hudson River from my hometown, Suffern. Anthony wasn't wealthy, and he didn't have a high-profile public career. He spent much of his life as the owner of a small business that he and his wife, Helen, opened not long after they were married in 1940. The two of them were seldom apart. For decades, Helen would wash and color the hair of their clients, while Anthony cut and styled. They worked hard, bought a modest home, raised four daughters, and, later, doted on 14 grandchildren. They somehow made every one of them feel like the most special person in the world. Anthony and Helen never missed a school play or a sporting event or a Scouting ceremony. Their grandchildren grew up watching the two of them hold hands, kiss, laugh, and dance in their kitchen. At Christmas gatherings, Anthony always gave the same toast. "Never forget the three most important things in life," he would say. "Family, family, and family." That was the measure of Anthony's success, the love of his family. Then one day Helen had a stroke. She survived, but the doctors told Anthony his wife would never walk again. They suggested moving her into a nursing home. The two of them had been married for 55 years, and Anthony couldn't bear the thought of being without the love of his life. So he visited Helen every day and worked tirelessly with her on her physical therapy. He was the first visitor to arrive each morning and the last to leave every night. Eventually the staff gave him his own key. Anthony was the only non-employee in the nursing home's history who could come and go as he pleased. After months of determined effort, he proved the doctors wrong. Helen walked again. Their elation was short-lived, however. Three months later, his wife suffered a second stroke. Helen never walked or talked again. But, remarkably, if anyone sang "You Are My Sunshine" to her, she was able to sing along. It was, after all, Anthony's and Helen's song. Two years after Helen's first stroke, Anthony learned he had an inoperable brain tumor. He died at the age of 82, leaving behind his wife of 57 years (Helen would live to age 89 before passing away). Before Anthony died, a long string of family members came to say goodbye and to tell him they loved him. "Everyone keeps telling me that they love me," he said to one of his daughters shortly before he died. "Show me!" Those were his very last words: "Show me!" Don't just tell me you love me, show me. Anthony could utter that message because he had lived it. He had shown Helen he loved her by being present for her every day of his life. He was always there for her, always in tune with what she needed, even in those final years when she could give very little back to him. But his love and devotion were never about what she could give. For Anthony and Helen, it was always about what they could give to others--to their children, their grandchildren, their clients, their friends, their community, and, most of all, each other. That's how you build relationships that last forever. Through his words and his example, Anthony taught me invaluable lessons about life and leadership. And I was lucky enough to be able to spend many years absorbing these lessons. That's because Anthony D'Aquanni was my grandfather. What I admire most about Anthony is that he took what he was given in life and made the absolute most of it. And isn't that what we should all aspire to do? Whether you're the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or the sole proprietor of a small business, an award-winning journalist or the secretary of your church newsletter, an Olympic athlete or a stay-at-home parent, all we can ask of ourselves is that we try to live our lives, at work and at home, as a true expression and reflection of who we are. My grandfather wasn't wealthy or famous. He didn't have political power and he didn't run a large corporation. But he knew exactly who he was and what he cared about. As he showed me through the way he lived his life, it doesn't matter what titles or awards or accomplishments you've accumulated or placed on your mantel. Success is about building hearts, not resumes. Success fulfills us only when we focus on our passions, when we care as much about others as we do about ourselves. When we lead with our hearts. Because who you are matters. Rule #45: Do Right "All we have are our hearts and minds. If these hearts and minds aren't taken care of, what kind of company are we going to be? We need to create an environment where people's hearts and minds can thrive." That statement, for me, is the epitome of heart-led leadership. It was spoken by the CEO of a billion-dollar company who is committed to growing profits, expanding market share, and satisfying shareholders. A CEO who is committed to accomplishing these things as a heart-led leader. The individual who said those words to me is Tee Green, one of the most authentic, humble, and service-oriented leaders I've ever met. He is the CEO of Greenway Health, a medical software company based in Carrollton, Georgia. Over the past several years, I have spoken in various venues to the company's executives, employees, and customers and have gotten to know the organization fairly well. Greenway is not just an industry leader in the field of electronic medical records; it is also known for its exceptional service and its caring attitude toward clients, employees, and communities. I experienced this firsthand when I was at the company's annual conference recently and saw Tee speak to 3,000 Greenway customers. After introducing a new product line, he said: "Look, I'm the CEO. The buck stops here. If anyone here has a problem with our software, or a question about it, call me. Here is my cell phone number." And Tee then gave his personal cell phone number to the 3,000 attendees. That is putting yourself on the line for your product. That is caring about your customers. Tee founded Greenway with his father in 1998. The company provides software to physicians, pharmacies, and other health care providers so they can electronically manage medical records and revenue cycles. Greenway also specializes in health care analytics--the use of software to interpret clinical studies, analyze the efficiency of care, or utilize genetic information to develop better treatments. His father is now retired from the firm, but Tee has helped Greenway become one of the country's top providers of medical software. For a while, the company was growing at a rate of 30 percent a year, and although that rate is not sustainable forever, Greenway is still growing rapidly--just last year the company hired 450 new personnel, and now it has 1,700 employees. Greenway went public in 2012; two years later it was bought for $644 million by Vista Equity Partners, to merge it with Vitera Healthcare Solutions, another medical software company. At the time, Greenway was working with 15,000 health care providers in the United States; Vitera had a client list of 85,000 providers. Mergers take place all the time in the business world, but there is an aspect of this deal that is not so common: the new company is called Greenway Health, the software products are marketed under the Greenway brand, and the new CEO is none other than Tee Green. Now, how many times do two companies merge and retain the name and the management team of the smaller company? Not often. When I asked Tee about this, he was his typical humble self. "Well, I think Vista Equity just liked our road map," he said. "They liked where we were driving the company." But mergers are about hard-nosed business decisions. Even though Vitera was six times the size of Greenway, Vista Equity was not just giving preference to Greenway's products or "book of business." It was buying into the Greenway brand and into Greenway's concept of heart-led leadership. It was buying into the who, not just the what. I don't have any particular knowledge of medical software, but I am passionate about people and servant leadership. And, based on my experience in working with hundreds of companies and thousands of executives, I can tell you that Greenway is run by some special individuals. For one, I don't think I've ever been greeted more warmly by staff members at any company than I have been at Greenway. But the distinctiveness of the company's culture goes beyond mere friendliness. It's apparent when you walk into a meeting with Greenway executives how much they care about each other, and that they are dedicated not only to growing their company but also to ensuring that the organization maintains its character for the long term. "We wanted to build a generational company that would be around for decades and be able to make a true impact," Tee told me. "We wanted to fundamentally change how health care was provided. At the same time, we wanted to attract people who would build a career here, not just stay a few years and move on. I wanted to build an organization that employees would be proud to be a part of. "Look, anyone can build a company and then sell it a few years later and make a lot of money," he said. "But is that really what it's all about? I'd rather do something for the long term and build something that lasts." Mike Hairston, executive vice president for sales, and Eric Grunden, vice president for professional services, have worked with Tee for years. Mike first met Tee when they were students and fraternity brothers at Auburn University; he has worked at Greenway almost since its founding in 1999. Eric has been with Greenway for more than a decade. I spoke with the two of them one day in an effort to get more insight into Greenway's brand of heart-led leadership. Mike shared a story from the company's early days that, to him, symbolizes what Tee and Greenway are all about. "This happened shortly after I started here. One of the first sales I made was with a company in Mississippi, and we had some of their employees come to Georgia for training on the new system," he told me. "While they were training, one of the women got a phone call that no parent wants to receive. She found out her son had been killed in a car accident. Well, Tee heard about this and he immediately ran out of his office and went down the hill to the training center so he could console this lady. Then, within an hour, he had somehow secured a private plane to fly her back to Mississippi so she could be with her family. "Now remember, this is when we were just starting out and Greenway didn't have a lot of staff or financial resources. But Tee felt it was important for us to support this woman in her time of need. Then a week later, he came into my office and said to me, 'I feel like I need to go down to Meridian, Mississippi.' So we went there together and we visited the woman who had lost her son. Tee gave her a long embrace and sat there and talked with her for some time. "That's the sort of action that comes from the heart of a person. Tee has always had this heart, and it shows in the way he built the company. I believe that companies take on the personality of their leader. If your CEO is brash or dishonest or egocentric, then you wind up with a company that is brash, dishonest, or egocentric. If your CEO has a heart for serving others, then you wind up with a company that has a heart for serving others. And that's what Tee is all about." Eric Grunden also told me about an incident that illustrates Tee's distinctive style of leadership. "If you're ever in a meeting with Tee, you see that he uses a whiteboard a lot," Eric said. "And he writes a number down in the corner of the board. So in one of my first meetings with him, I noticed that number on the board and asked him what it was. I guessed that it represented the number of employees at the company. 'You're close,' he told me. 'It's the number of families that are represented by employees who work here.' "Well, that just says it all about Tee. That sort of caring for the families of his employees. It really hammered home for me that I'd chosen the right company and the right leader to work for." Mike and Eric told me about what has become known at Greenway as Rule #45: Do Right. "One time, we came up with a list of 60 or 70 words or phrases that represented what we wanted to be and to achieve as a company," Mike said. "Number 45 on that list was 'do right.' And that has become a phrase that we use all the time now at Greenway. We try to remember Rule #45 because we want to do right by our families, our customers, our co-workers. It's hard sometimes when you're also facing financial pressures to think in these terms, but Tee feels that you should look at everything through the lens of 'Am I doing the right thing?' If you are, then it's the right decision." Do right. Those two words sum up what Greenway Health is all about. And they are what heart-led leadership is all about. As part of doing right, the company has tried to be cognizant of its responsibility to give back to the community. In fact, to me, Tee's greatest success as CEO of Greenway Health isn't in building a billion-dollar company but in fostering a partnership with Rapha Clinics, a nonprofit organization that offers free medical services to people who cannot afford health care. The first Rapha Clinics were founded in Georgia by Sue Brockman. For years Sue worked on little more than a shoestring budget and a prayer. Tee met Sue in 2012 and discovered that she was managing two medical clinics in Temple and Bowdon, Georgia, with ancient computers and little funding. He believed Rapha's mission of providing free health care to residents living below the poverty line was a perfect way to show Greenway's commitment to giving back and its belief that everyone should have access to quality medical care. So he decided to help. Greenway organized several fund-raisers for Rapha and provided the organization with free medical software and training. The company also recruited volunteers to work at Rapha, looking both among its own employees and among Greenway customers. Some doctors who use the Greenway software now volunteer as staff physicians at the clinics. Excerpted from The Heart-Led Leader: How Living and Leading from the Heart Will Change Your Organization and Your Life by Tommy Spaulding All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.