Succession Planning
an interview with Dr. Trish Holliday
What is your strongest characteristic you think has made you a great leader?
I believe that leadership, at its fundamental level, is about relationships. Much of my success as a leader is a result of my focus on building and maintaining a relationship with those I lead. As the Assistant Commissioner and Chief Learning Officer
(CLO) for Tennessee state government, I have to make decisions that are not always readily accepted with enthusiasm. Many decisions require individuals doing things differently from how they have always been done, and many struggle with such change. I have a strong desire to build a relationship that creates a partnership that can remain strong in the midst of change, and even in conflict. I had the opportunity to practice this characteristic in my former career on the mission field working with impoverished families, as well as in my current role as CLO in state government. I feel I have the ability to get to the “heart of the matter” and repair and reestablish damaged relationships due to misunderstandings. This has enabled me to continue to build many lasting relationships and establish an extensive network of partners and key stakeholders. The mantra, “We’re Better Together”, sums up my approach to leading.
Tell us a story of something you have done as a leader that has impacted or inspired others.
One of my often repeated phrases is that leaders must be continually learning. I consistently share this with my colleagues, and even give presentations about the importance of lifelong learning. I recently put this into practice by returning to university and earned my Doctorate in Education with an emphasis on Learning Organizations and Strategic Change. It was a challenging journey of going full time to school while working fulltime and sustaining a healthy family life! The experience has been very rewarding and has improved my ability to be successful in my current role as CLO.
What I didn’t realize is how this would impact others. Just recently a human resources director shared with me how he decided to return to college and earn a Master’s degree late in his career because he saw what I did, and realized that it is never too late to learn and grow. The opportunity to inspire others is an awesome outcome of my role as CLO for the State. I currently work for an amazingly visionary leader who inspires me to be able to “pay it forward” to other leaders in state government.
The lessons you’ve learned this year from your leadership experiences
We are going through many enterprise-wide changes in state government. As part of some of those initiatives, I have learned that culture change is hard – sometimes very hard. What has enabled me to be successful during those changes is the need to both provide clarity of the direction for the change, and to bring resisters in early to engage them in the change process. Both of these lessons have provided me with an ability to help create “buy in” from all levels of the organization and across the enterprise as to why change is needed, and to identify those who will resist the change effort. Knowing who the resisters are helps a leader create an engaging and collaborative strategy that can help create buy-in and to realize the change is beneficial to them and the organization.
One tip or word of wisdom you can share on what made you a great leader and can help others
I believe that in being a leader one must always honor the past contributions of leaders while you set new directions for the future. As a personal example of this, once I assumed a leadership role in my current organization, leaders before me, including my father, George Bass, had carved out a division with the Department of Human Resources that focuses on the advancement of leaders through an accelerated, focused development approach. What he and many others had accomplished opened the door to developing leadership programs designed to improve the knowledge and skills of state leaders. I am thankful to them for laying the foundation for such forward thinking as I have been able to build upon their vision. I would encourage all who enter into a leadership role to ensure that care is taken to not overlook, intentionally or not, the contributions made by previous leaders.
In your personal view what has been your greatest leadership accomplishment?
As CLO for the State I have the responsibility and privilege of leading the enterprise-wide leadership development program known as LEAD Tennessee. As we became aware of the need to create a bench strength of leaders as part of our overall succession plan, we developed the LEAD Tennessee program – recipient of the 2010 IPMA-HR international award - to meet that need. This program received sponsorship from the Governor’s office, along with his executive Cabinet leadership. Now in its 7th year, we are developing over 100 leaders per year in key leadership competencies who will be ready to step into mission-critical roles in the future. With this program, we are creating a strong team that is ready to meet the challenges state government will face in the coming years.
This interview was originally published by HR.com in 2016.