16 Leadership Lessons From A Life of Service
Dale Singer was the Executive Director of the Renal Physician's Association (RPA) from 1995 through 2022. RPA empowers nephrology professionals through leadership development and mentorship, regulatory and legislative advocacy, and development and promotion of best business and care delivery practices. During her 27-year career at RPA, she positively changed the face of the organization by always looking for gifts and opportunities in every circumstance. Best-selling author Shirzad Chamine, in his book Positive Intelligence (2011), calls this approach the Sage Perspective. While it seems to have come naturally to Dale, she never stopped learning or pushing herself past her comfort zone.
In April 2022, Dale and I explored her leadership and the career she loved. Her inimitable wisdom, in four categories and sixteen lessons, is a blueprint for exemplary association leadership. Dale reminded me from the start of our conversation that being a professional association leader is a unique role. She said, “it is not the staff’s organization; it is the members’ society. I was there shepherding things through the process so they would shine.” Effective association leadership requires the selflessness that Dale embodied. Her capacity to tap into the Sage Perspective and influence others to come along with her distinguishes Dale’s accomplishments.
KNOW YOUR CORE VALUES AND LIVE THEM EVERY DAY
1. The work is imperfect, and trust matters.
Dale said the two primary responsibilities of an association executive director are building and cultivating an ongoing relationship with the Board of Directors, who are association members too. Unfortunately, Dale never found an "ideal board of directors that was consistently phenomenal.” However, she understood it was her job to find a way to work successfully with those volunteers. The investment was not always easy, but it contributed to invaluable reciprocal loyalty.
2. Even if you disagree, find your voice to work together.
Dale honed her confidence to take strong positions she felt were needed. When peer associations disagreed on a policy position, she observed it often was “connected to the roots of the associations and why they formed in the first place.” For example, RPA focused on the socioeconomic impact of decisions on the independent medical practices of the doctors, while other associations concentrated on research, treatment, etc. They would agree to disagree and seek ways to explain their positions around the interest of their joint memberships.
3. Hold a balanced viewpoint in every circumstance.
Dale constantly looked for creative ways to keep nephrology and kidney health visible alongside more controversial topics in Washington, DC, politics. She reflected as an association professional that "no matter how you feel personally about the issue, you need to be balanced and objective, consider the impact on all sides." This belief guided her recommendations to the RPA Board of Directors to form a political action committee to tackle advocacy differently.
4. If it feels exciting, keep going.
Dale believed influential association leaders love the challenge of fitting together complex puzzle pieces. She said, “As long as the organization is growing - exceeding budget goals and staff is performing - the work still felt exciting, or I could find a way to keep it exciting. I was always thinking about using the changing external environment to our association’s advantage.”
KEEP ENVISIONING AND STRETCHING TOWARD A BETTER FUTURE
5. Take responsibility for the future you want to see.
Dale was jazzed about the up-and-coming leaders she mentored and the fellows, new physicians, and association board members she empowered to influence their professions during a dramatic and transformational change in health care. It was her priority to help association colleagues find direction in their careers and doctors succeed in their private practices. When she retired, it was surprising to her how many people connected to share a story about how Dale influenced them in some impactful way she did not know.
6. Never stop driving for future excellence with steps head strategies.
High performance drove Dale. She expected that the association would succeed, first by her team doing their best and second by continuously looking forward to what they should provide to their members. She continuously scanned the environment and predicted how it might impact the association and its members. For example, over the three-plus decades of her career, Dale saw that the most significant shifts were in data capture, data analytics, social media, and digital marketing, and developing the capacity of her staff to recognize where the association needed to be in these changing areas.” She was constantly learning and stretching through the support of external vendors. And the competitor in her loved that in proving themselves repeatedly, larger and more prominent organizations were often surprised at her team’s originality.
7. Transparently involve the Board of Directors in risky decisions.
Dale regularly asked the Board of Directors powerful questions, so there were never negative surprises. One was how vital an address was in Washington, DC. When the Board said the location was unimportant, Dale focused on finding an affordable, attractive office with Metro access in a community with a positive public school reputation. It made the difference in attracting and retaining the right talent. And it gave her the flexibility to be available for her children.
8. Teach Board members how to think strategically.
Dale initially felt frustrated about the board meeting format, educating new board members and helping them think beyond transactional details to association strategy. Finding the right president to support and recommend the change took time. Then once the Board moved in this direction, it took intention and educating new board leaders to maintain it. A couple of helpful practices were adding an evaluation at the end of every board meeting and the Board and individual members annually assessing their performance.
CONTINUOUSLY DEVELOP AND RESPECT YOUR CONNECTIONS
9. Engage your competition as your partner.
Dale was a savvy networker. She experienced an association as a community of peers, which spilled over to her view of the association industry. She said, “the value of associations is the connecting and information sharing in formal and informal ways you do not get anywhere else.”
With a more significant competitor association, Dale crafted a strategy that included meeting with the CEO several times a year and bringing the senior teams of both organizations together at least twice yearly. She also subscribed to and read all of their publications. While both association leaders were strategic about what they shared, they kept the lines of communication open and benefitted from mutual respect. And when the competition generously borrowed their ideas, Dale laughed. Her staff was an excellent counterpoint to any frustration she might have felt. They would say, “others copy great things - good on us.” Focusing on flattery always won out.
10. Good partnerships require effort and intention.
Dale was a masterful collaborator. She understood that an association’s staff could never serve all the needs of its members without many partners and volunteers. And she also understood that those relationships needed to be structured, cultivated, and managed to ensure everyone felt valued and had a good experience. Most importantly, she knew it was imperative that everyone believed in their purpose for coming together as part of their respective missions and why they would be stronger together. Her tips for successful partnerships are a) clearly define partners’ roles and duties that align with respective talents, b) map out in advance ways of solving problems and communication systems, and c) objectively define the milestones that define mutual success.
11. Relationships are the joy of the job. So, be a collector and build them.
Dale’s attitude was that you could never know how someone might play a role in your professional life, so being available to learn about them and their interests and scheduling time to check in regularly was well spent. She found it was invaluable to nurture a cadre of people she could call on for advice and recommendations.
12. Use your influence generously.
Dale told me the most significant thing she learned was that she underestimated the power and potential a professional membership association can have on a person’s career trajectory. What Dale delighted in the most was contributing to the nephrologist’s success. And she felt the most significant reward was when a member said, "I have it on my calendar when you told me to call this person because when I did, it was life-changing.”
USE YOUR IMAGINATION RELENTLESSLY
13. There is no limit to how creative and resourceful you can be.
Dale knew growing the association tent bigger could be in everyone's best interest. You only had to be thoughtful and strategic in your approach. For example, the Corporate Patrons Program she helped establish provided a way for the medical industry to provide financial support for medical education, give input, and get a strategic perspective on the direction of the nephrology profession without imposing undue influence. Her careful thought into the program design resulted in more than $20 million of support over 22 years.
14. Be creative to be with your family.
Dale took a significant pay cut to become RPA’s first CEO and negotiated a three-day workweek for the first five years in the role. It enabled her the flexibility she desired to be available for her young children, Michelle and Josh. She also thought strategically about how to grow the association structure over time and build a talented and capable team so that everyone had a reasonable work/life balance and time for recharging away from the challenging work.
15. Fulfilling career opportunities are everywhere if you are open to them.
Dale took a winding path to become an association professional because she graduated college with other ideas in mind. There was a hospital internship, an alumni connection that opened the door to a project manager job at the National Kidney Foundation, a master’s degree, exposure to strategic planning and public hearings as a consultant, and her husband Andy seeing a classified ad for an association executive director position that he thought “read like her resume.” He convinced her that a stamp was a small and worthwhile investment to make.
16. Even if the business case for professional associations is hard to make, it is worth never giving up. The far-reaching results are often priceless.
Dale watched throughout her career how professions and industries changed dramatically; it was a labor of love to grow the association she led. She worried that giving back or paying it forward may not be a standard for the next generation, where family life may be a bigger priority, and she saw a whole new set of strategic issues about sustaining and growing the industry as the next opportunity to explore. For Dale, the power of associations is in the in-person opportunities where ideas and possibilities grow out of conversations that unfold organically.
Dale was my dear friend and professional colleague for 47 years. We regularly shared ideas, consulted each other for perspective, and agreed never to work together contractually because we did not want anything to interfere with our deep mutual respect and friendship. She was one of my greatest cheerleaders, never missing a chance to refer a business opportunity, support me through a hard time, or celebrate my success. I like to think I did the same for her. With great sadness, we lost Dale to lung cancer on June 28, 2022. She leaves a legacy of wisdom and love for everyone who knew her. ***
If these lessons in leadership interest you, let us explore how we might work together. If you want to grow in your leadership or strengthen your team or association's performance, connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/denicehinden to schedule a complimentary discovery and co-creating conversation.
Denice Hinden is President of Managance Coaching, www.managance.com. Her mission is elevating association executives’ and senior leaders’ results and joy by leading consciously, creating trusting conversations, and cultivating thriving organizational cultures. She co-creates impactful, custom engagements for individual leaders and teams.