The title of this piece comes from a collection of Dilbert cartoons published in 1999. Having worked in health care for 45 years, I have worked for many people who were in leadership positions. Fortunately, the vast majority were good to work for. On the other hand, some (I can count them on one hand), made you often feel like the gentleman above.
From the good leaders, I learned to understand and apply such things as team building, using critical thinking and analysis, finance, coaching employees, dealing with difficult issues (such as layoffs or workplace violence), and a host of other helpful skills.
From the not-so-great leaders, while they may have had and could at times effectively use many of the above-mentioned skills, the takeaway for me was often based upon the Adult Learning Principle of "How It's Not Done".
Without mentioning any names (although some among you may recognize the individual, who is no longer in a leadership position), here are some examples of things I learned but chose not to adopt:
1) Have a meeting to have a meeting. For me, meetings without purpose are a major turnoff and waste of my time. I prep for meetings that I facilitate; plan an agenda, start on time, guide discussion to stay on track, etc. This leader started off by often being late and often seemed to be making things up at the moment. It was frequently painful.
2) Annual employee evaluations are very important. When I worked in non-union environments, and evaluations were connected to pay raises, employees saw some value to them and had some motivation related to them. In union environments, where pay raises are negotiated and take place regardless of the evaluation, employees are less motivated. I remember one employee (in a union environment) saying to me during the meeting the discuss his evaluation, "Why should I excel? I get paid the same for being mediocre." I prefer to have in place a system in which feedback is provided in the moment. Some places have eliminated annual employee evaluations, and I support that idea as long as the feedback system is in place.
3) Hear, but don't listen. A frequent comment I heard made about this leader is that the individual "just doesn't listen." One example of this occurred when a service was being offered regionally, so employees would have to leave work to drive to the site to receive the service. The leader wanted the service providers to come to the employees work site. I was instructed to contact the person coordinating the service and request that the service be provided at our work site. The person responded to my email, explained why the system was regional, rather than coming to each individual site (making perfect sense) and politely declining the request. This was passed on to the leader, whose response was "Ask her again." Sometimes, the answer is no and you just need to move on and find another way. For this particular leader, the skill was lacking.
4) If no one agrees with you, look around until you find someone who will. This leader had a proposal that no one in the "leadership group" supported. The solution? Hire a consultant who generates a report which (amazingly) says that the leader's idea is a great idea and should be implemented. While some consultants can be useful in some situations, this was clearly a case of the consultant saying what she was paid to say. From my perspective, if everyone around you thinks you are wrong, perhaps you should re-evaluate your position on this issue. Giving up and walking away is sometimes the most prudent thing but, for this leader, it was not a skill the individual chose to exercise often enough.
5) If the news isn't good, manipulate the data or change the vocabulary or eliminate the discussion. This leader had data on an unpleasant topic broken into two categories, and sent data from only one category up the chain to that individual's leadership. Needless to say, things looked better then they actually were. For a major project that was under-resourced and not going well, I was prohibited by the leader from saying anything negative about it in meetings (I am thinking the same thing happened with some of my colleagues). I have this thing about being honest, so I found this philosophy and approach to be a bit distasteful.
6) Just because you can't rationally explain why you want to do something, it doesn't mean it's not a good idea. Common sense would tell you that, if you want people to support an idea, being able to present a rational reason as to why you want to do it is a no-brainer. This leader had an obsession with wanting to reduce the workforce. I have gone through instances in hospitals where the decision was made to reduce the workforce to reduce expenses, but the expectation was never to do so without also making some changes in how services were delivered. This leader obviously did not or could not put together the complete plan, but also could not let go of the change.
While there are multiple other examples I could give, the takeaway is that some people end up in positions of leadership where they are not successful, and people around them have to work in an environment that can often be frustrating and toxic. In this particular case, as Yoda would say, "The Force is weak in this one."
Even though I stepped in it while I was there, I learned.
From the good leaders, I learned to understand and apply such things as team building, using critical thinking and analysis, finance, coaching employees, dealing with difficult issues (such as layoffs or workplace violence), and a host of other helpful skills.
From the not-so-great leaders, while they may have had and could at times effectively use many of the above-mentioned skills, the takeaway for me was often based upon the Adult Learning Principle of "How It's Not Done".
Without mentioning any names (although some among you may recognize the individual, who is no longer in a leadership position), here are some examples of things I learned but chose not to adopt:
1) Have a meeting to have a meeting. For me, meetings without purpose are a major turnoff and waste of my time. I prep for meetings that I facilitate; plan an agenda, start on time, guide discussion to stay on track, etc. This leader started off by often being late and often seemed to be making things up at the moment. It was frequently painful.
2) Annual employee evaluations are very important. When I worked in non-union environments, and evaluations were connected to pay raises, employees saw some value to them and had some motivation related to them. In union environments, where pay raises are negotiated and take place regardless of the evaluation, employees are less motivated. I remember one employee (in a union environment) saying to me during the meeting the discuss his evaluation, "Why should I excel? I get paid the same for being mediocre." I prefer to have in place a system in which feedback is provided in the moment. Some places have eliminated annual employee evaluations, and I support that idea as long as the feedback system is in place.
3) Hear, but don't listen. A frequent comment I heard made about this leader is that the individual "just doesn't listen." One example of this occurred when a service was being offered regionally, so employees would have to leave work to drive to the site to receive the service. The leader wanted the service providers to come to the employees work site. I was instructed to contact the person coordinating the service and request that the service be provided at our work site. The person responded to my email, explained why the system was regional, rather than coming to each individual site (making perfect sense) and politely declining the request. This was passed on to the leader, whose response was "Ask her again." Sometimes, the answer is no and you just need to move on and find another way. For this particular leader, the skill was lacking.
4) If no one agrees with you, look around until you find someone who will. This leader had a proposal that no one in the "leadership group" supported. The solution? Hire a consultant who generates a report which (amazingly) says that the leader's idea is a great idea and should be implemented. While some consultants can be useful in some situations, this was clearly a case of the consultant saying what she was paid to say. From my perspective, if everyone around you thinks you are wrong, perhaps you should re-evaluate your position on this issue. Giving up and walking away is sometimes the most prudent thing but, for this leader, it was not a skill the individual chose to exercise often enough.
5) If the news isn't good, manipulate the data or change the vocabulary or eliminate the discussion. This leader had data on an unpleasant topic broken into two categories, and sent data from only one category up the chain to that individual's leadership. Needless to say, things looked better then they actually were. For a major project that was under-resourced and not going well, I was prohibited by the leader from saying anything negative about it in meetings (I am thinking the same thing happened with some of my colleagues). I have this thing about being honest, so I found this philosophy and approach to be a bit distasteful.
6) Just because you can't rationally explain why you want to do something, it doesn't mean it's not a good idea. Common sense would tell you that, if you want people to support an idea, being able to present a rational reason as to why you want to do it is a no-brainer. This leader had an obsession with wanting to reduce the workforce. I have gone through instances in hospitals where the decision was made to reduce the workforce to reduce expenses, but the expectation was never to do so without also making some changes in how services were delivered. This leader obviously did not or could not put together the complete plan, but also could not let go of the change.
While there are multiple other examples I could give, the takeaway is that some people end up in positions of leadership where they are not successful, and people around them have to work in an environment that can often be frustrating and toxic. In this particular case, as Yoda would say, "The Force is weak in this one."
Even though I stepped in it while I was there, I learned.
