Mahesh Prajapat for Fun & Free FRIDAYS: Leadership

Speakers: Mahesh Prajapat, CEO, Elia

Mahesh Prajapat: OK, so I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about leadership. And the question is, what are the key issues that leaders need to be paying attention to, to impact the system, to serve families better? So here's what I want to say about leadership because leadership in child welfare is impossibly difficult and it's difficult because the system is so badly broken. So I really believe you cannot address the issues of child welfare by tinkering with the edges. So by tinkering with the edges, I mean, you know, maybe start a new program, develop a new partnership, look at your recordings and get a new recording system. I think that the system itself is so broken that it requires fundamental whole system change. So when we think about things like child welfare investigates families that need help. Child welfare has outcomes for hildren that they serve. For many, many, many 10, 30, 40 years that have that are horrible outcomes for the children that experience child welfare services. Child welfare removes children from their homes and families and communities as a manner of keeping them safe. So when you have a system that is so broken I do not believe that you can fix that type of a system as a leader by, by making small changes. I think you need to take a big swing. And I think you need to really commit to comments such as we will no longer raise children. You know, we will no longer investigate families that need help. We will pay absolute attention to outcome data about disproportionality and how we serve marginalized families and how marginalized families are all over our child welfare system with outcomes that indicate that they are not being served well. So as leaders, I think we really, really need to take some big steps and make some bold statements about what it is that we're going to do. But let me tell you why I think as leaders that is so hard to do and I'm going to tell you why by telling you a quick little story. So I worked in child welfare for about 27 years. And it was my very final day in child welfare and I'm leaving the building. And I'm leaving the building after what I would say with humility was a very successful career where I made some really good changes. I achieved some really great outcomes. Really reduced the number of kids that we had in care. It got our financial house in order, develop numerous partnerships, raised millions of dollars of of private equity to start programs, et cetera, et cetera. But here I am on my very last day in child welfare and I'm going to the elevator and a few people are with me. And we're saying goodbye and it's quite emotional. And I'm and I'm thinking about everything that my career has offered me as as I step onto the elevator, say goodbye. And it's a very emotional moment as people are saying goodbye to me. And I know that I'm leaving for the very last time. So the elevator doors close. And there I am in the elevator alone and I'm paying attention to the very, very, very first thought that goes through my head. And the very first thought that goes through my head is not about all the good things that I've done. The, the families that I've helped, the people that I've met. Literally, the very, very first thought that goes through my head is I survived. I survived. I didn't get fired from a job. I was never on the front page of the paper. I was never through an inquest. I, I really just felt a huge sigh of relief as those elevator doors closed and I am exiting child welfare intact. And that's actually very significant because it reminded me the pressure that we feel every day in the job as leaders, to not make a mistake. So now here we are in this environment where we are so deathly afraid of doing something wrong and not wanting anything to go wrong. Yet, we are responsible for making such courageous decisions and changing a system that is so broken. And I think that as leaders that's very, very hard. So we have to pay attention to our emotions, we have to pay attention to what drives us. We have to pay attention to fear. And in that midst, you have to have tremendous, tremendous courage. So as leaders, I would ask you to pay attention to all of those things, pay attention to the things that drive your behavior and never lose sight of the end goal of meaningful change.