Transcript The Anxiety Disorders Some Practical Questions & Answers

Leadership
Fundamentals
Ten Practical Strategies for Passionate
SOMC Leaders1,2
A Presentation for the SOMC Medical Care
Foundation, Inc. Leadership Team
Kendall L. Stewart, MD, MBA, DFAPA
January 5, 2011
1I
view this as a crucial communication.
allow me to make my case. Please consider adopting these leadership strategies. Please ask clarifying questions.
2Please
Why is this important?
• During the past two decades,
SOMC leaders have
produced and sustained
some exceptional results.
• That’s why leaders exist.
• How did we do it?
• What have we learned?
• What insights would we like
to pass on to the leaders who
follow us?1,2
• This practical presentation
will summarize ten of the
most important strategies
we have embraced.
1With
• After listening to this
presentation, you will
– Have an increased
appreciation for how hard
being an effective leader is,
– Realize that—because it is so
hard and so few are willing to
pay the price—leadership is
one of the most rewarding
ways to spend your life.
– Be able to identify three
practical strategies that will
enable you to achieve and
sustain exceptional results.
– Be able to explain how to
deploy these strategies in the
work environment.
this talk, I am beginning to pass the baton to the next generation.
it may seem premature, now is the time for you to begin your own succession planning.
2While
What ten leadership strategies
should you embrace?
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1Many
Focus on results.
Become a process improvement expert.
Manage yourself first.
Field the best-possible team.
Remind yourself that most of the work
in the world is done by average people.
Extrude net-negative people.
Embrace discomfort.
Learn to manage crises while striving
prevent them.
Think, innovate and act.
Manage physicians effectively.1,2
physicians are looking to BS you, game you, intimidate you or some combination of the three.
employ these strategies because they work; think hard about that.
2Doctors
Focus on results.
• Why?
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It’s why leaders exist.
We all tend to forget this.
This makes people uncomfortable.
(Energizing) discomfort is a very good thing.
A relentless focus on results will set you apart as a
leader.
– It’s a also a huge competitive advantage.
• How?
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1Always
Begin every meeting by inquiring about results.
Focus on the results that matter.
Insist on comparative data.
Expect perfection.
Always ask about the plan.
Always ask about the task list.
Hold everyone accountable.1,2,3
know your current performance metrics, what’ve you’ve done, what you’re doing and what you’re going to do.
your colleagues to know these things too.
3If you don’t volunteer, someone will likely ask.
2Expect
Become a process improvement
expert.
• Why?
– Processes are the ways things get done in life.
– If you keep doing the same things, you will keep getting
the same results.
– In spite of this obvious truth, most people will keep on
doing the same things.
– Leaders have the power to improve processes.1,2
– Don’t let that power go to waste.
• How?
– Identify and critically examine the process that is
producing the current, imperfect result.
– Consult the process owners.
– Suggest improvements in the process.
– Find a process improvement champion; you may be it.
– Push back hard on the resistance you will get when you
do.
– Insist that people give the changed process a reasonable
chance.
– Keep on improving your processes.
1You
will hear and learn about many process improvement models.
SOMC Improvement Model is Seize an Opportunity and Make a Change.
3At a deeper level, we primarily follow the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) or PDSA (Plan, Do Study, Act) Model.
2The
Manage yourself first.
• Why?
– You can’t manage others until you do.
– Everyone is watching whether you are
practicing what you preach.
– You will not be a credible persuader unless you
do.
– You cannot hide your moods—and people take
them personally.
• How?
– Recognize that as a leader you are always on
stage.
– Acknowledge that everyone is watching.
– Accept that what the people around you want
most is predictability and an even temper.
– Recognize your arousal.
– Exit the stage and contain it immediately. 1,2
1This
2I
became crystal clear soon after I moved to Portsmouth.
was mowing and garage sale hobbyists were parking on my grass.
Field the best-possible team.
• Why?
– It’s the only way to achieve and sustain
exceptional results.
– Because it’s so painful, only a minority
of leaders will pay this price.
– This creates a significant opening for
you and your colleagues.
• How?
– Accept this as your chief fiduciary duty
to the organization.
– Prop up your colleagues when they
weaken—and they will.
– Ask them to prop you up in return when
you weaken—and you will.1,2
1We
accept this reality without question in the world of sports; at work, where excellence really matters, we avoid it.
people who are sincere and doing their very best is the hardest part of being a manager.
2Replacing
Remind yourself that most of the work in
the world is done by average people.
• Why?
– Because it’s true.
– The management literature about
turning everyone into stars is nonsense.1
– This approach is neither necessary nor
desirable—and it won’t work.
• How?
– Ruthlessly assess everyone’s strengths
and weakness—including your own.
– Play to everyone’s strengths.
– Ignore their weaknesses unless they
significantly impact organizational
performance.2
1Following
Studer, we were poised to divide all SOMC into three categories.
is another SOMC innovation to which we aspire; human beings appear to be preferentially wired to focus on the
negative.
2This
Extrude net-negative people.
• Why?
– This is only way to field the best-possible team.
– If you don’t, you will fail as a leader.
– If you tolerate these corrosive folks, your best people
will get fed up and leave.
– When you show that you mean business, some of the
troublemakers will leave on their own.
– Others will behave better.
• How?
– Identify the net-negative people who report to you.
– Consult with your fellow leaders and colleagues to
make sure.
– Confront them.
– Give them a fair chance to shape up—and stay
shaped up.
– When they fail to do so, act.1,2
– Require your leaders to do the same.
1Many
2We
SOMC leaders believe this painful process is the key to our sustained success.
began with ourselves.
Embrace discomfort.
• Why?
– Above all else, we all long for comfort and seek to avoid
discomfort.
– But people only change when they feel uncomfortable.
– Successful leaders feel uncomfortable every day.
– And they make the people around them uncomfortable
too.
– It is not easy to get this exactly right.
• How?
– Focus on results.
– Face reality.
– If you do, you will find plenty to feel uncomfortable
about.
– Talk about your discomfort.
– Confront your colleagues when they grow complacent.
– Ask hard questions.1,2
– Hold yourself and others accountable.
1
2
“Why are more than 80% of SOMC employees overweight or obese?”
“What exactly are SOMC leaders going to do about that?”
Learn to manage crises while striving
to prevent them.
• Why?
– Crises will happen.
– If you don’t prepare for them, you will manage them
badly.
– If you don’t prevent them, you will get a lot more
practice in managing them than you want.
• How?
– Prevent crises by anticipating them and intervening
early.
– Convene the management team quickly.
– Acknowledge arousal and calm down.
– Try to identify the real (or most pressing) problem.
– Seek accurate information.
– Clarify your goals.
– Identify your options.
– Doing nothing will frequently be the best option.
– Communicate, communicate, communicate.
1Real
2Our
teams are the byproduct of some huge task that can be accomplished no other way—often during a crisis.
team’s first real tests were extruding net-negative executives and the prison hostage crisis.
Think, innovate and act.
• Why?
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The tasks in your jobs are endless.
You can never complete them all.
But you will feel compelled to try.
If you fall into this trap your task list will
consume you.
• How?
– Schedule time to stop and think.1,2
– Are these the right tasks?
– When your results fall short, you must change
something.
– Identify the result you want.
– Imagine how you would accomplish that in the
perfect world with no barriers.
– Design and deploy an improved process.
1Some
of our best thinking occurs during working meals on business trips.
you are interested, send me an email message requesting the Safety and Quality Focus Group white paper from
December 2010.
2If
Manage physicians effectively.
• Why?
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It’s no secret.
Physicians can be difficult.
Power really does corrupt.
The bell curve applies to us too.1,2
And insecure people with special status can be very,
very needy, demanding and annoying.
• How?
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Make your expectations clear up front.
Accept our feelings.
Accept us as we are—if you can.
Focus on our strengths.
Be clear about whether you are informing,
consulting or seeking our consent.
– Never underestimate the power of published
comparative data.
1We
2We
cannot recruit only star physicians; the top ten percent is only ten percent.
will sometimes settle for physicians who will turn out to be net-negative.
What are some next steps?
• Carefully consider whether these practical
leadership strategies make sense.
• If they do, make a commitment to embrace them
and to conform your personal attitudes and
behaviors to them.
• Recognize that this will be hard and that it will
demand patience, persistence and the adoption
of a leadership lifestyle. 1,2
• Begin by completing a rigorous SWOT analysis
of the business unit you lead.
• Make yourself and each other uncomfortable—
starting now—and for the rest of your
professional lives.
• Commit to lead by example.
• Focus on results.
• Learn to make a compelling case for change.
1Most
2We
SOMC leaders say would say they spend an average of 50 hours each week in the pursuit of exceptional results.
balance our personal and professional lives by weaving them together; there is no bright line for leaders.
Where can you learn more?
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Join the discussion about practical approaches to more effective
leadership on the SOMC Leadership Blog.
Learn more about Southern Ohio Medical Center here.
Review and download this presentation and related presentations
and white papers here.
Read Results That Last: Hardwiring Behaviors That Will Take Your
Company to the Top to review some leadership strategies that
successful health care executives have embraced.
Learn more about how to confront others effectively by reading A
Portable Mentor for Organizational Leaders.
Review practical techniques for conducting crucial conversations in
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High.
Consider adding the practical and comprehensive Successful
Manager’s Handbook to your personal library.
Reflect on what sets great organizations apart by reading Good to
Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . And Others Don’t.
Are there other questions?
www.somc.org
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