Transcript Rules of Engagement Some Expectations for SOMC Leaders

Rules of
Engagement
Making the Case for Clarifying
Interpersonal Behavior Expectations
for Organizational Leaders
A Presentation for Holzer Medical Center
Kendall L. Stewart, M.D.
July 23, 2004
What is the point of this presentation?
• Most organizational leaders
know how they should
behave.
• But it’s easier to misbehave.
• And since everybody from
executives on down are often
behaving badly, misbehavior
is frequently accepted as the
norm—or inevitable.
• Many leaders don’t even
realize what they are doing
or how destructive their
behaviors are.
• We can do better.
• And we should.
• And we must.
• After listening to this
presentation, you will be able
to
– Identify three characteristics
of high-performing
leadership teams
– Describe three common
interpersonal behaviors that
undermine organizational
excellence
– Give three compelling
reasons why clarifying your
expectations makes sense
– List three practical
strategies for successfully
developing and deploying
your own “Rules of
Engagement” in your
organization
What are some of the characteristics
of high-performing teams?
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Every member of the team is
relentlessly focused on performance.
Members are always slightly
uncomfortable.
Members trust each other.
Members are honest with each
other—without being hurtful.
Members hold themselves and each
other accountable.
Roles are clearly assigned but
interchangeable.
Members value and discuss different
perceptions openly.
Each person’s distinct contributions
are recognized.
Members love working in this
energizing context.
The best idea is the boss.
Rank has little to do with it.
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Members are fiercely loyal to each
other, but neither awed nor
intimidated by their colleagues.
Members talk to each other instead
of about each other.
Risk taking and mistakes that
produce learning are encouraged.
Such teams are usually
characterized by organized chaos,
not practiced choreography.
The team gels in response to some
daunting task.
Team members challenge each other
openly, and this encourages
innovation instead of resentment or
hurt feelings.
Members fully understand the
enabling power of positive emotional
arousal and the destructiveness of
negative emotional arousal.
What are some of our most common
inappropriate interpersonal
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We talk about each other instead of
talking to each other.
We fail to confront each other when
we should.
We conduct our real meetings after
the meetings.
We fail to recognize that emotional
arousal is a danger sign.
We use our positions of power to
intimidate instead of facilitate.
We indulge in temper tantrums in
the workplace.
We support inept and negative
leaders when we should extrude
them.
We fail to hold each other
accountable.
We avoid conflict instead of resolving
it.
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behaviors?
We avoid asking the hard questions
for fear that we will hurt each
other’s feelings.
We fail to make our expectations
clear then react resentfully when
others don’t read our minds.
We tell people what they want to
hear instead of taking a clear
position and sticking to it.
We avoid discomfort and drift when
we should be paddling furiously.
We settle for mediocrity when we
should be demanding more of others
and ourselves.
We blame others for our feelings and
behaviors.
We make impulsive decisions before
considering all of the options.
We procrastinate instead of acting
promptly.
Why might it make sense to clarify your
“Rules of Engagement?”
• It would acknowledge the problem.
• It would demonstrate your resolve to
face up to it.
• It would hold you accountable for
your own behavior.
• It would help you clarify your
expectations of your colleagues.
• It would encourage appropriate
confrontation throughout the
organization.
• Over time, your clarification will
weaken this critical barrier to
achieving exceptional organizational
results.
What are some strategies for successfully
deploying your own “Rules of Engagement?”
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Recognize this issue as an
opportunity for improvement.
Select an executive champion.
Make the case that this issue should
become a priority.
Obtain executive staff commitment.
Review the interpersonal behaviors
of high performing leadership teams.
Identify your interpersonal
behavioral strengths.
Identify your opportunities to
improve (OFIs).
Specify those common interpersonal
behaviors that would need to change.
Identify the key barriers to change.
Encourage executives to agree on a
draft document.
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Obtain broad-based support.
Keep the guidelines simple and brief.
Make them understandable and
practical.
Make a public commitment to
conform.
Begin by changing your own
behavior.
Confront each other when you slip.
Recognize and celebrate incremental
success while acknowledging that
“change is hard.”
Clarify your expectations for new
leaders.
Seek feedback about whether the
organization’s leaders “walk the
talk.”
Extrude those leaders who refuse to
embrace these guidelines.
Select an executive champion.
• Why should you?
– Executives are frequent barriers
to organizational success.
– They set priorities and allocate
resources.
– Like everyone else, executives
long for comfort, and they are
not likely to change unless
someone makes them
uncomfortable.
– A determined executive makes
her peers very uncomfortable.
– You need the leverage with your
peers.
– One of the executives needs to
take the point if this effort is
going to succeed.
• How can you?
– Identify an opinion leader.
– Choose and executive with some
behavioral insight.
– Find someone who is committed
to the pursuit of excellence.
– Avoid executives who regularly
misbehave.
– Recruit champions by making a
compelling case.
– Make it their idea.
– Guarantee them the support
they will need.
– Convince them you are in this
for the long haul.
– Build this joint effort on an
existing relationship.
Make the case that this issue should
become a priority.
• Why should you?
– You have no chance of
sustaining a cultural change
without making this case.
– There is no more time in the
day.
– Everyone is already busy
doing stuff they think is
important.
– Executives are exceptionally
set in their ways.
– Executives think they
already know what the
organizations priorities
should be.
– Few of us change without
some sense of urgency.
• How can you?
– Acknowledge the competing
priorities.
– Highlight the problems
caused by the status quo.
– Recall recent examples of
flawed leadership behavior.
– Emphasize the emotional
cost of continued avoidance.
– Illustrate organizational
benefits of less dysfunctional
interactions.
– Find an emotional hook to
promote engagement.
– Ask for their help.
– Agree on next steps.
– Establish a timeline.
Identify the key barriers to change.
• Why should you?
– Acknowledges the resistance
triggered by change
– Confronts the challenge of
sustained behavioral change
– Identifies negative,
incorrigible leaders who
must be confronted—and
possibly extruded.
– Enhances leaders’ credibility
– Spotlights behavior that has
become acceptable
– Gives hope to frustrated and
discouraged leaders
– Signals the malcontents that
their days may be numbered
• How can you?
– Convene a group of positive,
engaged leaders.
– Describe the objective
clearly.
– Admit your own resistance
up front.
– Face reality.
– Learn to tolerate the
discomfort that facing reality
occasions.
– Focus on behavior, not
suspected motivation.
– Write the barriers down—
and discuss strategies for
overcoming them.
– Remain positive.
What can you conclude?
• Your interpersonal behaviors are huge factors—for good or ill—in
the pursuit of organizational excellence.
• Inappropriate and destructive leadership behaviors are
distressingly common, and these behaviors are often go
unchallenged in the workplace.
• The chance to identify, formalize and begin to comply with our
own culturally-specific “Rules of Engagement” is a substantial
challenge and opportunity.
• This is not easy. If it were, it wouldn’t be such a problem in most
of our organizations.
• All leaders must face this issue.
• And they will either make up their minds to behave more
appropriately, or they will stymie their organization’s success by
their avoidance and cowardice.
• Every leader has the obligation to reflect on the consequences of
his or her behavior and to confront his or her colleagues about
theirs.
Where can you learn more?
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De Vries, Manfred Kets , “Leaders Who Make a Difference,” European
Management Journal, Vol 14, No 5, October 1996
Katzenbach, Jon R. and Smith, Douglas K,. The Wisdom of Teams,
HarperBusiness, February 2003
Kur, Ed, “The Faces Model of High Performing Team Development,”
Management Development Review, Volume 9 Number 6, 1996, pp. 25-35
Londino, Fiore, “Developing High Performance Teams,” Lightwave, June
2002
London, Manuel and London, Marilyn M., “Tight Coupling in High
Performing Teams,” Human Resource Management Review, Volume 6,
Number 1 1966, pages 1-24
Stewart, Kendall L., et. al. A Portable Mentor for Organizational
Leaders, SOMCPress, 2003
Stewart, Kendall L., “Physician Traps: Some Practical Ways to Avoid
Becoming a Miserable Doctor” A SOMCPress White Paper, SOMCPress,
July 24, 2002
Stewart, Kendall L. et. al, “On Being Successful at SOMC: Some Practical
Guidelines for New Physicians” A SOMCPress White Paper, SOMCPress,
January 2001
Stewart, Kendall L., “Bigwigs Behaving Badly: Understanding and
Coping with Notable Misbehavior” A SOMCPress White Paper,
SOMCPress, March 11, 2002
Stewart, Kendall L., “Relationships: Building and Sustaining the
Interpersonal Foundations of Organizational Success” A SOMCPress
White Paper, SOMCPress, March 11, 2002
How can we contact you?
Kendall L. Stewart, M.D.
Medical Director
Southern Ohio Medical Center
President & CEO
The SOMC Medical Care Foundation, Inc.
1805 27th Street
Portsmouth, Ohio 45662
740.356.8153
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.somc.org
www.KendallLStewartMD.com
What questions remain?
www.somc.org
Southern Ohio Medical Center
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