CLIENT SPOTLIGHT | Debra A. Canales, CAO, Trinity Health - Part 2 of 2

Last week, we met Debra (Deb) Canales, the Chief Administrative Officer at Trinity Health, the fourth largest Catholic health system in the US. Deb has been working with the Blue Mesa Group’s Micki McMillan for more than five years—first as a student in Naropa University’s executive coaching program, now as a client. If you missed our conversation with Deb last week, you can check it out here.

1. What is the key way a leader can keep employees fully engaged?

The Holy Grail around effective leadership is realizing that people want to feel valued, they want to know (not just hear) that their opinions count and they want to be at the table helping to influence things. As leaders, if we provide those things, our people stay with us because they feel cared for and they know that their work is meaningful. Yes, those are the emotional equity things, and, certainly, you have to have the economic equity pieces also. But if you have economic pieces in place to be competitive and to be at par with everyone else, at the end of the day, it’s those relationship pieces that keep employees engaged. And as leaders, we definitely control and influence economic equity. 

2. Why is it important for leaders to break away from daily operations and embody “the being” rather than “the doing”?

You’re “being” strategic when you’re responsive, current, focused, acknowledging all of the environmental factors and able to respond with the right approach. It’s about full presence, an awareness of all the clues so that you can respond effectively. You can’t get caught up in checking off boxes or following all the old procedures because that’s the way it’s always been done. You need to listen, pause and reflect. You need to calibrate.


When people witness the embodiment of a leader being, it empowers them to be their authentic selves. It also sets the stage for their capacity to try on new roles and be creative, eliminating fear and making room for innovation. When leaders exhibit this strategic approach, it sets the stage for their teams and organizational success.

3. How can leaders realize this change of mindset and change their behaviors so they are less tactical and more strategic?

Leadership is not about completing busy work, which is “doing.” “Being” is more akin to observing the 80/20 rule, where 80 per cent of my time is spent in planning or reflecting. I’m listening and evaluating factors. I think of it as slowing down to speed up.


That’s been my whole platform at Trinity Health, moving managers and teams from transactional to transformational behaviors. If we’re going to be recognized as a leader in the health care sector and be part of health care reform, we have to unfreeze and change behaviors across all aspects of our business. After all, what begets success today will not beget success tomorrow. And how we achieve our goals is just as important as the outcome.

4. Last week, you mentioned one of your chief challenges as a leader was learning to communicate succinctly, “to be brief, be brilliant and be gone.” Is it appropriate for a leader to coach colleagues in effective communication techniques? And if it is, how can they go about it?

I do think it’s appropriate. I believe that I can teach my colleagues to communicate completely, yet succinctly. It benefits them, me, our clients and patients and our organization when people can see the difference between communicating well and not-so-well.


I see great value in executive coaching programs with coaching dialogue where people see two experts in action—real, live practical examples where people are modeling the preferred behaviors. I call out my staff when I think they could communicate more effectively to take advantage of a teaching moment. I often invite them to make a statement and then reenact it for them in a more effective way. At our summit for the chief human resource officers across our ministry earlier this year, I invited them to break into groups to devise a strategy for the next fiscal year and present it to a mock leadership panel. The difference in how the first group presented compared to the last group was like night and day. I could see how they learned from the modeling and the constructive feedback from their peers.


So, yes, it can be done in a way that is constructive and empowering, not condescending.

5. Let’s switch gears and talk about work-life balance. As a high-level executive, how do you integrate your professional life and your personal life so you can be your best in both roles?

Well, I’m still working on this one—it’s definitely a learning opportunity for me. What I have been doing is making time for exercise and meditation or other contemplative activities. I’ve been spending time with my executive coach to reflect on my performance and I practice conversations that help me get grounded in preparation for big events or important conversations. When you get right down to it, though, for me, there isn’t work and life—there’s just “life.” It’s not a balance—it’s an integration. I hope I’m the same Deb at work as at home. It’s about the alignment of the head, heart, and feet. I try to be consistent, my whole, authentic self in that I’m the same person with frontline staff as I am with senior executives, and I always like to have fun.

Many thanks to our client Debra Canales, Chief Administrative Officer at Trinity Health, headquartered in Novi, Michigan. If you missed our conversation with Deb last week, check it out here.