9/24/2018 0 Comments An Applicable Approach to Leading Your Practice - A Follow Up on Primal LeadershipEarlier this summer (July 17) we sent out a piece titled, "How Do You Lead Your Practice," which was based on the popular book, Primal Leadership, written by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatz, and Annie McKee. The purpose of that piece was to give a brief glimpse into the different types of leadership skills and stress the importance for us, as doctors and the leaders of our practices, to learn and utilize all of them. (If you missed that piece or need to freshen up on the topic, click here!) There are some topics that can be addressed and then you can move on. We do not believe that leadership is one of those. It takes time and intentionality to truly apply the things learned in the realm of leadership. For example, how do you become a visionary, coaching, affiliative or democratic leader? As doctors, the majority of our practice operates outside of our field of vision. We spend the lion's share of our time with patients or in our office and typically only see our staff in weekly meetings, in passing, or when problems arise. This means that we only get a few opportunities to have an impact on those in our charge and we have to make the most of it. Leading our practices well cannot be done on paper or with systems and processes. It has to be us, the doctors, setting the tone. We wanted to take another dive into Primal Leadership to see how we can all become better emotional leaders in our practices. According to the Goleman, Boyatz, and McKee, this all starts with understanding the emotional component of leadership. The Emotional Component of Leadership How easy would being a doctor be if all you had to do was practice optometry? What if you never had to hear about front desk personnel, billing, EMR/EHRs, etc.? Ok, now let's get back to reality. In the 21st Century, being a doctor isn't just about the patient. Goleman, Boyatz, and McKee write that "Gifted leadership occurs where heart and head -- feeling and thought -- meet. These are the two things that allow a leader to soar. All leaders need enough intellect to handle the tasks and challenges at hand. However, intellect alone won't make a leader. Leaders execute a vision by motivating, guiding, inspiring, listening, persuading and creating resonance." "However, intellect alone won't make a leader. Leaders execute a vision by motivating, guiding, inspiring, listening, persuading and creating resonance." In a practice setting, every person in the building, you included, are an emotional mixture of everyone else you have encountered that day. But here's the kicker: Your emotions, as the proverbial "practice CEO,"carry a greater weight than everyone else's combined. A few negative emotions from you can derail the entire practice for days on end in the same way as a few positive emotions can right the ship. In fact, Goleman, Boyatz, and McKee reference a study on 62 CEOs and their top managers which found that "the more positive the overall moods of people in the top management team, the more cooperative they worked together and the better the company's business results." Individuals in your practice will have good and bad days, but Goleman, Boyatz, and McKee write that "leaders must drive the collective emotions in a positive direction and clear the smog created by toxic emotions whether it is on the shop floor or in the boardroom." To do this, the authors tell us that a leader must be emotionally intelligent. Emotionally Intelligent Resonance Goleman, Boyatz, and McKee make it a point to draw distinct lines between emotional dissonant and resonant leaders. A dissonant leader is described as "out of touch and create wretched workplaces" all while being unaware of the effect they have on their staff and surroundings. The goal here is equip all of us to become resonant leaders who "are attuned to people's feelings and move them in a positive emotional direction." A resonant leader is one who possesses emotional intelligence and is able to produce an overall comfort level with his or her staff and make work more meaningful. Here are the four dimensions of emotional intelligence according to Goleman, Boyatz, and McKee: Self-awareness
The authors encourage leaders to use the pacesetting and commanding styles sparingly but have outlined how emotional intelligence can be utilized in the remaining four. Let's take a closer look... Emotional Intelligence Applied to Leadership Visionary Every leader has a vision. The challenge is articulating it to your team. A practical example of a visionary in action would be a doctor telling his or her staff, "I want us to reduce patient waiting time by an average of 10 minutes per patient. Let's make it happen!" This doctor clearly has a vision for the practice that involves better and faster customer service, but visionaries are all about the "what" instead of the "how." They know where they want to go, but leave it up to their employees or management to get them there. For this to work, a leader must utilize empathy and inspiration. A vision cannot be force-fed to a team or to an employee. The ability to sense and understand what someone in your charge is feeling is absolutely key in pushing them toward your vision. Is your team or employee actively engaged as you are sharing your vision? Are they receiving it or are they skeptical? Do they have questions they are hesitant to ask out of fear? These are things that a leader has to feel and understand using empathy. If missed, a vision can easily be derailed. The visionary leader allows his or her staff to innovate and take risks, but this approach will likely fail without the proper inspiration. Inspirational leadership is crucial to the visionary style because it is the engine that drives the team toward the desired result. If you are a visionary leader, how are you inspiring your team to achieve your goals for your practice? Are you empathizing with them in order to understand how they feel in order to point them in the right direction? Use your gifts as a visionary to paint a picture of the finish line for your practice and utilize empathy and inspiration with your team to drive them forward. Coaching While a visionary leader takes a more hands-off approach, a leader who relies on coaching prefers one-on-one time with team members. When spending individual time with an employee, identifying their strengths and weaknesses and leveraging them for positive outcomes in your practice is key. As you can imagine, this isn't a process that a leader can coast through. A high level of emotional awareness is very important. What makes the individual tick? What do you see in their personality that makes them an ideal fit for a certain position? What are they feeling or thinking? It is easy to get the coaching and commanding styles of leadership mixed up. Issuing commands to your team with no explanation and empathy is a disastrous approach. Coaching is more like counseling and focusing on an individual that you want to help develop as a key part of your practice. Generally speaking, individuals on your team will know and understand the basics of their role in your practice. Taking time to coach select individuals on the nuances of their role and your practice will result in exponential growth for the individual and, in turn, your practice. In your practice, it is never as simple as processing a patient's billing or performing an eye exam. It is an intricate process that is made up of small details. These details can be fine-tuned with the proper coaching from a leader. Affiliative Simply stated, an affiliative leader is all about positive interactions with the team. Everyone should have some affiliative leader tendencies because this approach builds bonds within the team. Goleman, Boyatz, and McKee (once again) highlight empathy as the key to affiliative leadership and note that this approach pairs really well with visionary leadership. While no leader can afford to always be affiliative, stating your mission, setting standards, and letting people know how they are progressing toward the practice's goals in a positive way will serve your practice well. Democratic For most of us, there comes a time when a situation arises and we aren't quite sure what we should do. You could figure it out for yourself, make a snap decision, or utilize a democratic form of leadership to involve your team in the solution. To do this well, Goleman, Boyatz, and McKee encourage leaders to be great listeners and willing collaborators. As Growth Lab CEO Ramit Sethi says, "There are no egos. The best idea wins." That's right... even if the idea isn't yours! It takes a special leader to encourage teamwork and collaboration in these settings, but you need to bring your own influence and vulnerability to the table as well. Once you lay the problem out and ask for help, you are basically admitting that you haven't been able to come up with the solution on your own. This isn't a sign of weakness! Instead of seeing you as less of a leader or weak, your team will rally around you and work toward finding the best solution for your practice. Think back to a time when someone you respected (a parent, friend, or mentor) asked for your input on a complex problem. You probably felt empowered and closer to that individual as a result. What wouldn't a leader want to create opportunities for this in their business? A true democratic approach will bring your team together and, in most cases, your practice will benefit. Conclusion One of the biggest takeaways from Primal Leadership is the concerted effort it takes to build oneself into a well-rounded leader. No business, especially a medical practice, can survive on autopilot. Realizing our own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to leadership and being willing to learn what our team needs from us as leaders will have a significant impact on our practices. What are your thoughts on Primal Leadership? Is there a leadership philosophy you have successfully implemented in your own practice? We would love to hear about it!
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