MHA Service Corporation Professional Search Services, Stephen O’Connor, Senior Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . .June 2008

In this issue:

The 7 Traits of Effective Leaders: How Many Do You Share?
Four Signs of Potential Leaders
Staff Matters: Message to Readers
Adopt the Characteristics of Motivational Leadership
Avoid These Six Leadership Traps
Professional Search Services: Management Recruiting for the Health Care Community

 

The 7 Traits of Effective Leaders: How Many Do You Share?

Are leaders born or made? Can you learn superior leadership skills? No one is sure, but experts have noticed seven specific actions that successful leaders carry out, regardless of the organization or cause they lead.

Effective leaders...

  • Make others feel important. If your goals and decisions are self-centered, followers will lose their enthusiasm quickly. Emphasize their strengths and contributions, not your own.
  • Promote a vision. Followers need a clear idea of where you’re leading them, and they need to understand why that goal is valuable to them. Your job as a leader is to provide that vision.
  • Follow the Golden Rule. Treat your followers the way you enjoy being treated. An abusive leader attracts few loyal followers.
  • Admit mistakes. If people suspect that you’re covering up your own errors, they’ll hide their mistakes, too, and you’ll lack valuable information for making decisions.
  • Criticize others only in private. Public praise encourages others to excel, but public criticism only embarrasses and alienates everyone.
  • Stay close to the action. You need to be visible to the members of your organization. Talk to people, visit other offices and work sites, ask questions, and observe how business is being handled. Often you will gain new insights into your work and find new opportunities for motivating your followers.
  • Make a game of competition. The competitive drive can be a valuable tool if you use it correctly. Set team goals, and reward members who meet or exceed them. Examine your failures, and celebrate your group’s successes.

Adapted from the Toastmaste

 

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Four Signs of Potential Leaders

It’s a critical management question: Which employees should get the most development focus to foster the next generation of leaders? Spot high-potential talent by screening for these growth factors:

  • Big-picture thinking. That means folks who go beyond the parameters of their position to offer up innovative ideas or help distill complex directives into actionable orders.
  • Curiosity and eagerness to learn. Look for employees who always seem up for new challenges and embrace educational opportunities.
  • Empathy and strong social skills. Keep an ear out for careful listeners who ask clarifying questions instead of jumping to conclusions — and otherwise demonstrate a desire to understand different perspectives and the people who hold them.
  • Emotional balance. Such workers are mature for their age, take constructive criticism well, learn from mistakes, bounce back quickly from adversity, and temper their optimism with a realistic perspective.

Adapted from “Mining for Hidden Gems,” by Chris Watkin, in The Hay Group Leade

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Staff Matters: Message to Readers

by Stephen O'Connor

This will be the final issue of SEARCH.

Since October of 1992 this monthly newsletter has provided Human Resources professionals in the Michigan health care industry with useful information on topics related to recruitment, retention and workforce planning. This is the 187th consecutive and final issue. It has been an attempt to combine some practical tips on best practices with a little humor along the way. As organizations in our industry continue to modify their service offerings in response to customer demands and shifting resources, it often happens that programs are eliminated (and often new ones created) to better align services with available resources.

The MHA and the MHA Service Corporation are no exception. It has been decided that the Professional Search Services program that I have had the privilege to manage since 1991 will be eliminated, effective June 30, 2008. I am not retiring. I am searching for a quality organization where I can bring value by being of service to a new group of people engaged in a worthy cause.

As I write this, it occurs to me that this could well be the last time I have a forum like this to express my thoughts and recommendations. So I ask your indulgence as I take advantage of this final opportunity to opine about the psychology and pathology of the workplace.

One of the benefits of experience and retrospect is some understanding of the truths about human relations, particularly the workplace. Let me list some of the realities I have come to embrace about people and their behavior.

  • Most people just want to be listened to. Actually, it’s pretty easy.
  • People operate on feedback. Positive reinforcement is important.
  • Good managers surround themselves with people who are smarter than they are.
  • If you have the choice to be right or to be kind — be kind.
  • A manager’s job is to help people grow.
  • You manage resources, but you lead people.
  • The workplace is a mirror: it will reflect back to you what you project.
  • Words are important. Use them with precision, care and forethought.
  • Being of service to others is the way to forge relationships that work.
  • The way to get what you want is to help others get what they want.

And my personal favorite, “Always tell the truth. That way you don’t have to remember anything.”

It has been my privilege to serve the Human Resources professionals who toil every day in our healthcare facilities as they “take care of the people who take care of the people.” I hope that I have contributed, in some small way, to the efficient staffing of our Michigan health care organizations for the betterment of the communities they serve.

Steve O’Connor
June, 2008

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Adopt the Characteristics of Motivational Leadership

What distinguishes great leaders from average managers? According to Barry Maher, author of Filling the Glass: The Skeptic’s Guide to Positive Thinking in Business (Kaplan Business), great leaders exhibit these motivational characteristics:

  • Self-awareness. Motivational leaders understand that they can’t sacrifice themselves — and their families — on the company altar. People are more positive when they’re surrounded by positive people. So these leaders are wise enough to begin the quest for positivity by attending to their own needs, which makes them more upbeat and gives them the strength to help others.
  • Salesmanship. Dictators dictate, while leaders sell. People don’t follow great leaders because they have to; they follow because they want to. Rather than issuing edicts, leaders find a way to get managers, colleagues, and employees to buy in to their vision
  • Synergy. When people truly function as a team, they share equally in the team’s wins and losses. While it’s important to offer constructive feedback and recognition to each worker, motivational managers are careful not to undermine the team by unfairly singling out individuals for the lion’s share of praise or blame.
  • Supportiveness. Motivational leaders look for opportunities to help workers grow, succeed, and simply feel better about themselves and their efforts. They’ve learned that carrots are more effective motivators than sticks.

 

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Avoid These Six Leadership Traps

Eager to reach your full leadership potential? Sidestep these self-defeating traps identified by change management expert Morrie Shechtman, author of Fifth Wave Leadership: The Internal Frontier (Facts on Demand Press):

  • You embrace the theory of scarcity. A belief that resources are limited leads managers to hoard power and desperately grab at any business opportunity. By adopting the theory of plenty, leaders see potential resources as unlimited. This enables them to choose opportunities strategically and seek out rewarding collaborations.
  • You’re conflict-averse. Challenging workers to excel breeds conflict, but it also leads to innovation. Managers also must confront any employee action — or inaction — that harms the team.
  • You ignore workers’ personal lives. Effective leaders offer help when they see employees’ personal lives interfere with their work and when work negatively impacts their personal lives.
  • You’re quick to intervene. Workers can’t grow with managers hovering over them. Don’t assist with challenging tasks at the first sign of struggle.
  • You’re overreliant on personal charisma. Leaders must step off their pedestals and encourage team successes. Otherwise, employees will “come to see themselves as followers — not as future leaders,” Shechtman contends.
  • You’re an unreliable barometer. Good managers offer clear, consistent responses to important news and events. “That means someone who reacts negatively to anything that goes against company values and positively to anything that is in line with those values,” Shechtman says

 

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Professional Search Services: Management Recruiting for the Health Care Community

Steve O'Connor, SPHR,
Senior Director

Professional Search Services

Stephen O’Connor, SPHR, Senior Director
MHA Service Corporation
Professional Search Service

Corporate Office:
6215 West St. Joseph Hwy.
Lansing, MI 48917
(517) 663-5755
E-mail Address: soconnor@mha.org

 

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