Month: June 2018 (Page 2 of 2)

Any serious study of servant leadership will lead the student to the work of Larry C. Spears.  Spears’ work, based on the seminal work of Robert K. Greenleaf, has been focused on understanding the nature and character of servant leaders, and his publications include the following ten characteristics that he posited were “…of critical importance – central to the development of servant leaders.” (Spears, 2010, p. 27)

1. Listening – listening receptively with the purpose of identifying what others want, but also listening and reflecting on one’s inner voice
2. Empathy – learning to understand, accept and recognize the uniqueness of others
3. Healing – the intentional healing of oneself, relationships with others and making them whole
4. Awareness – includes general awareness and self-awareness with the purpose of understanding situations and context
5. Persuasion – seeking to convince others rather than coercing, building consensus
6. Conceptualization – requires the discipline and practice to have vision for the future and articulate it
7. Foresight – utilizing experience from the past within the situations of the present to predict the outcome of the future
8. Stewardship – viewing the organization in trust for the greater good of society
9. Commitment to the Growth of other people – every person has value and deserves to be invested in personally and professionally
10. Building community – lead the way to building a community in the organization

There are many different actions that leaders can take to effectively coordinate a group project to a successful outcome.  I have selected two actions that I think are critically important and that I believe highlight how the ten servant leadership characteristics proposed by Spears can be incorporated into and enacted in servant leadership.

1. Listen to the people who do the work, and act on their recommendations where possible. Dreams and a vision for the future are imperative for an organization to grow, and leaders must practice but leaders must marry conceptualization with listening to those who are fighting the good fight on the front lines.  The employees understand the work.  The front line staff will know what steps in the project can be implemented right away, and what steps will need to wait.  The employees will have done some problem solving that leadership is not even aware of and will have solutions and ideas based on objective experience rather than just conceptualization.  When employees are listened to, and heard, leaders are able to use persuasion rather than coercion because the team members become invested in implementing their own ideas and solutions.  When leaders listen there is an awareness of the skill sets and knowledge that others bring to the project and leaders can encourage and optimize the use of these skills and knowledge, thereby committing to the growth of members of the team.  An equal exchange of information and ideas between leaders and employees builds community within the team and once achieved the majority of the team members become invested in the success of the project.
2. Seek to know and understand what has been tried in the past and how. This action may be specific to environments like health care where there is often a mix of long term staff and new staff, and a lot of turnover in leadership.  Leaders need to listen and understand what has been expected of the staff in the past.  Leaders need to be awareness of the environment – if there have been a lot of projects in the past the employees may be experiencing change fatigue.  If staff were expected to participate in projects in the past with no ability to provide input into the work, a new project may present the opportunity for a leader to show empathy and facilitate healing in others and the team.  It also may be an opportunity for a leader to further develop self-awareness, being intentional about how they are coordinating the project and reflecting on why they are coordinating the project and if this meets the criteria of stewardship.  Seeking to understand what has, and has not, worked in the past, and the reasons why will assist a leader in developing foresight to know what the outcomes of this project and future projects will be.

There are many actions that could, and should be taken by leaders when coordinating a project in their context.  What actions do you think are most important?

Reference

Spears, L.C.  (2010).  Character and Servant Leadership:  Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders.  The Journal of Virtues and Leadership 1(1)     25-30.

The study of teams is of particular interest to me working in a health care role.  The majority of patient care is delivered by teams – whether it be an emergency team, a surgical team, or any number of other interdisciplinary teams.  Effective teams provide exceptional care, and this is what leaders in health organizations aim for.

The two critical functions of team effectiveness are performance and development (Northouse, 2016).  Performance is demonstrated by the achievement of goals and objectives that are recognized for quality.  Development is demonstrated by team cohesiveness and by individual members meeting their own needs while still meeting the objectives of the team (Northouse, 2016).

Larson and LaFasto (1989) listed eight characteristics of effective teams (as cited in Northouse, 2016).  Effective teams must have the following:

1. A clear, elevating goal that is worthwhile, important, and can be realized.
2. A results driven structure that defines the task design, team composition and norms of conduct.
3. Competent team members that exhibit technical and interpersonal competencies.
4. A unified commitment so that individuals develop a sense of unity and identification.
5. A collaborative climate that enables team members to focus, take risks, trust and compensate for each other.
6. Standards of excellence that create positive pressure for all to perform at the highest standard.
7. External support and recognition that include the provision of resources, rewards, education and information.
8. Principled leadership that allows team autonomy but is observant enough and discerning to act when necessary to restore team performance or development.

Hackman (2012) proposed that there are six enabling conditions for team effectiveness, and these are  posed as yes/no questions (as cited in Northouse, 2016). Many of these conditions overlap with Larson and LaFasto’s eight characteristics.  The questions that need to be answered by the team, or by team leadership are as follows:

1. Is it a real team?
2. Does it have a compelling purpose?
3. Does it have the right people?
4. Are the norms of conduct clear?
5. Is there support from the organizational context?
6. Is there team focused coaching?

I had the opportunity in 2013 to receive training and visit the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, WA.  I was able to observe effective and exceptional team functioning, and this opportunity was truly a turning point in my career.  In 2002 Dr. Gary Kaplan, the CEO had applied lean principles learned from Toyota, and together with his senior leaders developed the Virginia Mason Production System^TM – a system that demands excellence in patient care.  The center was able to define their compelling purpose and the clear, elevating goal via their strategic plan which had been visualized as a pyramid with the patient at the top (Kenney, 2011, p. 4).  The right people, competent team members and a unified commitment were identified through the Virginia Mason Medical Center Physician Compact (Kenney, 2011, p. 9) in which five organizational and five physician responsibilities are outlined.  Organizational support and principled leadership were demonstrated when the CEO and the senior leader team committed to learning lean principles, becoming certified, and then committed to training for every existing and new employee.  Norms of conduct and standards of excellence were made clear when leaders were required to be present and available to front line staff and provide team focused coaching and employee recognition in real time.  For more information, visit here.

Principled leadership is committed to the team and intervenes only when the team requires the input of the leader.   Zacarro, Rittman, & Marks (2001) identified four processes by which principled leaders influence their teams (as cited in Northouse, 2016).  The cognitive process assists the team members to understand the problems, the motivational process sets the standards and helps the team achieve them by building confidence and capacity, the affective process sets clear goals, achievable assignments and strategies to eliminate stress, and the process of coordination allows the integration of activities by matching skills to roles, strategic prioritization, monitoring feedback, adapting to environmental changes.

I was able to experience the positive influence of the motivational process when in the role as the music leader in my former church.  The music team consisted of volunteer instrumentalists and vocalists, and the performance and engagement of the team had stagnated.  The senior pastor set new standards for the music, inspired us to rise to those standards, equipped us by sending us to conferences and workshops, worked alongside us as an instrumentalist, and encouraged and recognized us when each new level in technical performance was reached.  The team was able to play and sing technically difficult pieces with excellence as a result, and there was a renewed sense of ownership and passion that developed in the entire team.

Teams that function well can accomplish much; teams that are dysfunctional can be destructive.  Having studied the work cited in this chapter, I can now identify what characteristics or conditions were missing in the teams that were not effective.  Have others also experienced dysfunctional teams?  Can you identify why?  Have you experienced exceptional teams, and can you identify why?  I look forward to the discussion.

References

Kenney, C.  (2011).  Transforming health care:  Virginia Mason Medical Center’s pursuit of the perfect patient experience.  New York, NY:  Productivity Press.

Northouse, P.G. (2016).  Leadership: Theory and Practice.  (7^th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications, Inc.