Leading Ways: Entering the Conversation with Leadership Savvy

It is true that anyone can lead from wherever they sit, but if you are not the designated leader, it may  be difficult to enter the fray and offer your contributions. New leaders, quiet leaders and those who  have worked as an individual contributor in a research, policy or clinical role often find it challenging  to push their way in, and their valuable contributions are left unsaid. If it is extreme, this reluctance  can be career limiting.  

Here are some scenarios and possible strategies and language to help in these situations.  

1. I’m on a larger team and a fellow team member presents a design idea at our technical  review meeting. She is very enthusiastic about it and would like it resourced. I have some  concerns about the complexity of the design and worry difficulties in executing these ideas  will bog down the resources. It's an interesting idea, but I would like to refine it (to a  simpler design), but do not have a quick recommendation and don't want to discourage  more ideas.   

   Entry Strategy: 

   First, you want to affirm the idea and its potential. You could say, “I really like this idea because it  … (give reasons)  

   For instance: “uses new technology, approaches a persistent problem in a creative way, makes good use of a valuable partnership, builds off of another project that was a success, would use Dr.  X’s talents that we do not fully utilize, and any technical things that you think are solid. 

   Second, you want to show support and understanding in the light of your proposal. You would  say “And while I fully support going forward, I do think that a little more work on the design might  make it more competitive for resources when compared with other ideas being discussed.” Or “I  like this, but I think we would be more successful if we got buy-in from others by a) simplifying the design, for instance … (demonstrating that you understand the project and support it, but have thought about this or b) considered doing this smaller-scale set of experiments to demonstrate that the technology will be applicable or that we can make the adjustment efficiently in workflow, etc.  

   Third, you want to buy time to do a little more thinking, but still be seen as supportive. You  would say, “I hope I’ve been clear that I’m generally supportive of this proposal and would be happy  to expand on my suggestions or sit down with you to push on some of these thoughts.”

2. I am attending another project team meeting whose agenda is very packed. I would like to give my perspective on a technical problem after one of the presentations. Several people quickly comment and ask questions that require longer answers. I opt to not speak up at  the meeting and follow up by email so that the meeting can keep on time.

   Entry Strategy: 

   Well, the clock didn’t bother the chatty people, but you are not that guy or gal or even want to be, so you would say. “I know we are short on time (indicating that you do even if others don’t) and appreciate the commentary, another way to approach this problem is…” – then give as succinct a  general description as possible, even saying something like, “by using the approach that was developed in Mary’s lab last year. I will share more details with the group in a follow-up email.” This takes 15 seconds, I timed it, double to 30 seconds and you can be guilt-free that you didn’t use up time. But you’ve done a lot: 

   1. Expressed understanding and interest in the project  

   2. Shown it has value  

   3. Complimented the chatty on their input, and a little chastisement for running on

   4. Offered the nub of your idea for all to see  

   5. Given yourself time to flesh it out 

   6. Leave the expectation of an email that they then are more likely to pay attention to.  

3. At my project review presentation, a senior deputy disagrees with my strategies to tackle a specific problem (or recommends an idea that isn't fully fleshed out). I don't fully agree and need to quickly decide whether to engage the deputy or dismiss by saying that we will consider their recommendation.  

   Entry Strategy: 

   Let’s just say this person could be named Bill. What you want to do is to let them know you have heard them, let them know that you will give the input due deference in due time, not commit to anything, and move on.  

   So, you would say “Bill, as usual, all good thoughts (they may be no more than that, thoughts, so don’t overvalue them) “as I take these ideas and the input from the rest of the group and think it through for next steps I might come back to you for a bit more on… (really good here if you can  take a piece of what he said that was helpful something like, “yes, I will add page numbers…” Then,  “Thank you all for your help on this. Now I’d like to move to …”  

   The reality here is that not everything out of everyone’s mouth is important or needs a deep response. But it always helps to let them know they have been heard. You will need to develop a  sense about whether or not it is truly important to the person, has any real value (which might take time), and how it ranks in priorities. This last one probably requires you to crank some reputation and seniority considerations into the analysis.  

4. At another team project's review presentation, I don't necessarily agree with the technical direction/strategies/design, but I also don't want to interrupt and come across as criticizing. 

Strategy: This one is tougher, and you need to ask yourself is the “juice worth the squeeze.” You are probably not the person who needs to speak up just because you have a different way of seeing things to impress others. Assuming that it is important or possibly helpful to offer your perspective you could think through what the more effective way is to be heard here, speaking up or following up with an email.  

Entry Strategy: But assuming that you want and need to speak then you would take the one thing  that is most egregiously wrong with what has been proposed and say, depending on the level of the  issue in one of three dimensions: direction, strategy design, one of the following:  

Direction: “I really like the design for this undertaking, and it looks like you have spent good time  developing that, but I’m still not getting how this fit into our current portfolio commitments, so  could you go back and touch on that again for me (if you can more closely target this for them all  the better) 

Strategy: “Really great project thanks for bringing us all up to date on this. I think it clearly will help  (our portfolio commitments, your Project Team, etc) and I think some of the experiments show creativity and focus, hard to achieve always. But I do have a question or two about (why you are  waiting for a low-level technical review or why this before that or if the full range of the steps have  been thought through)”  

Design: “This is an interesting project, and I can clearly see the value thanks for sharing it so thoroughly, I am curious about one thing however, what was your thinking behind choosing a) to use technology X over Y or Z or b) altering our standard methodology from X to Y. 

In all of the above, these are the general steps you want to take as you enter a conversation as a leader. 

1. Signal that you are all on the same team and working toward shared goals.

2. Compliment them on whatever you can and thank them for their hard work. 

3. Be positive.  

4. Express gratitude. 

5. Be supportive of their overall undertaking or intent, if you can.  

6. Be curious and raise your concern in the form of questions, “Help me understand? Why did you…? What was behind your conclusion”  

These six make your comments more welcome and palatable and are likely to make it easier for you to offer the general perspective you need to share. To incorporate this into your leadership skill set,  think about the phrases and translate them into words that you are comfortable with, but do the same work. Then just start practicing until it just becomes the way you are in a group.

Leading Ways: A Changing Work Landscape

I just got my first Pfizer vax in March, so like others, I’m itching for this year to be over. But that  could just be a reaction to the vaccination.  

Before we jump from 2-D back to 3-D there are some leadership things to keep in mind about work  and how we do it.  

1. What did we learn this year and how do we carry forward what has been valuable? I believe  it is pretty amazing that things we thought could never be done- telemedicine, vaccinees in  less than a year, about half the work force working remotely- happened because we had to.  This should tell us a great deal about how quickly we can change when we need to and how  amazingly productive and useful the technology that surrounds us can become when needed.  Take some time with your team to identify what you’ve learned and what you want to keep as we go forward. 

2. The best accommodations to the virtual world have been when we took the time to be  creative and rethink through what we were trying to accomplish and then use the tools to  do things differently, rather than just cram old patterns into the new formats. I have been a  part of efforts using both approaches and the former feels like a significant act of  reinventing and doing things better, deeper and often faster. The latter, just forcing old ways  into virtual spaces, were and remain awkward and strained. The takeaway here is to figure  out how to keep the innovative spirit and use the best tools for the outcomes desired.  

3. As the return starts some of our workplaces will be zombie sites – half alive and half dead.  Anticipating this reality for everyone, the early returners, those late to the party and the ones  that might always stay away for whatever reason and providing the opening for discussion  and sharing will help as new work ways will be invented. This points to the reality that all of  this will be dynamic and uneven and will require a leadership response for accommodating  the discussion, recognizing the shifting feelings around this, applying the lessons learned and  encouraging the new ways to form. 

4. These dynamics are likely to present the opportunity for workplaces that are creative  hybrids of the face to face and distant. We have had some of this in the past, but it is likely  to be more pronounced, accepted, fruitful and necessary in the future. Again, the leadership  watchword here is to think through what is needed and what is the best way to accomplish  it, not to default to the office workplace, business trip across the country, or working only  with existing staff resources. 

5. This leads to the reality that the leadership skills needed in a virtual world are not going  away. Mostly leadership is leadership on the screen or in person, but there are real  differences and maintaining and continuing to grow the skills for leading at a distance for  ourselves and others will be important. If you need a starter discussion on these skills go to  Quick Takes for a series done last summer as a place to begin. 

6. As we went into this worldwide challenge last year, we were moving in such uncharted  territory that most leaders were aware of the need to double down on communications.  This current switch may seem more familiar and the need for reaching out seem less  pronounced. It is not. To check back on your crisis and change communication skillset check this post from last year on that topic.  

7. I think that a year away from the day-to-day reality of work may also hasten some of the  Boomer retirements as many of us reflect on some of the lessons that might have been  learned this year, including home is not so bad, the world doesn’t stop when you are not at  the helm, you are not nearly as facile at that technology as you thought. Little things like that.  Organizations and leaders will want to anticipate these changes making sure that some  succession thinking is going on, that the response takes into account the new work landscape  and even how retirees can be more creatively used within that landscape. 

8. Finally, this is a particularly auspicious moment. Many things have changed and is important for leaders to be very intentional about the opportunities that are afforded by the new environment. This will require them to create ways for all of their staff to engage, express their preferences, share their new skills and expectations and be willing to foster and sponsor deep changes in how we organize, conduct and evaluate work. Do not miss this window through inattention.

Leading Ways: Importance and Art of Delegating

As managers move into leadership roles one of the most difficult things for many of them to do is properly delegate. As most leaders have risen “up through the ranks,” they’re very familiar with all the details of a department’s functions – how everything works and how it is “supposed to be.” However, they are often no longer tasked with personally contributing to the work product or even running the functional area, but in leading and that is impossible without effective delegation at a level beyond what they did as a manager. 

Developing and using good delegation skills is essential to being a successful leader. It saves time, it develops individuals on the team, it prepares everyone for uncertain times, and it serves to motivate and inspire. Most importantly, it provides time to the leader to do the high-value work in building relationships, setting directions, creating new approaches, and sustain a viable culture that is expected of them. But it has to be done in the right way. If done poorly, many of the opposites of these things happen and effectiveness as a leader declines. 

Why Don't "We" Delegate More Often?

 Just about every leader can improve their game by improving their delegation effectiveness, and this begins by getting some insight into what keeps them from delegating more effectively. Here are some common “reasons” for not delegating. 

• It is easier to do it myself

• I don’t trust others to do it the right way

• I lack confidence that it will get done right or on time

• I am insecure in my position

• I like doing the technical parts of the job

• “They” will only be happy if I do this job

• I like it the way I do it

• No one has the skills that are needed or my level of experience

• They don’t have time

But when work is not effectively delegated the whole organization suffers, including the leader that is not delegating. There are the results of faulty delegation: 

• Leader works too hard

• Leader doesn’t get the right things done

• Leader doesn’t develop others and misses the use their time and talent

• Leader does not get around to the “higher end” parts of our job

• There is no time for reflection or long-term planning

• Leader does not achieve a sustainable work/life balance

Benefits of Delegating Well

The benefits to the leader are the reverse of the results list just above. If the leader delegates easily and with skill the impact will significant. They will have more time to get to the priorities of their position. They will also have time to invest in their development and in delegating opportunities for the development of those around them. And they can get back the time needed for moving toward a healthy work-life balance. 

Direct reports also benefit from a good regimen of delegation. If delegation is tied to a well-constructed development plan it can lead to improved skill, a better understanding of the work, higher levels of engagement and motivation, and greater overall satisfaction. 

The larger organization also benefits as the people that make up your team are being deployed at their highest level of performance. A well thought through delegation and development plan is also the foundation of succession planning for every position on your team, including the leader. Teams, units, and groups that have an effective delegator as a leader make better decisions, communicate more easily, and have higher levels of productivity and satisfaction and lower incidence of burnout and turnover. 

How to Delegate Well

Understand what is being delegated – This might sound ludicrous, but it is likely that case that things that are ready for delegation are things the leader could do in their sleep, so they may not be as aware of the nature of the work as you were the first time they did it. To improve, the leader needs to put themself in that beginner frame of mind and recall important skills, valuable context and underlying anxieties that you faced and give the person receiving the task a heads up on these. It is also really useful to ask how much of this is task delegation and how much is responsibility delegation. Always be stretching toward the responsibility end. 

Understand personal delegation strengths and weaknesses – Much of this is related to the level of self-awareness of the leadership profile. As a leader do you focus more on the people or the work? Are you more creative or button downed? Do you tend to be anxious when losing some control of a situation? Do you like to be leading from the front of the room or behind others? The more you know yourself the more effective you will be in the next two steps of delegation. 

Tailor the delegation to them – There are three considerations here. First, what are the strengths and capacities that are needed for this task, and how much risk is involved? The delegation may need an experienced perspective, so giving the delegation to a novice will not be a good choice, even if they might have a great stretch opportunity. Second, knowing something about the leadership style of the person to receive the delegation will make things more successful. Do they like a lot of direction or less constraint? Are they naturally an open communicator or do they need prodding to offer details? Finally, some insight into how this person learns best will make the delegation better, but also enhance what they learn from the experience. Are they more experiential or do they do better when they are fully prepared? Do they learn better visually or verbally? 

Tie it to their development – The best way to share a delegation is in the context of giving another person the chance to learn a new skill or try on a new role. Every delegation will not have a significant development dimension, but most have more than we typically think. The only way to uncover this is by being clear about the development priorities of the people that work for you. Having a development list for each direct report that is focused, tied to the assessment of performance and goals, aligned with the unit, group and company goals, shared and transparent is an essential step in effective delegation. Not every aspect of a delegation will have development potential but try to make at least a third to a half of every delegation be a stretch assignment. For more assistance on developing others go to this link. 

Communicate – Be crystal clear on what and when with less emphasis on how. Establish timeframes, goals, and sub-goals if needed, and how the project will be measured. An important part of this is making sure that the person that has received the delegation knows how much information they need to share about their progress, how often, and in what format- i.e., email updates or fact-to-face summaries. At first, be clear and descriptive about what is needed. As their work on the delegated project develops, switch to more questions to guide them and to draw out their critical thinking skills. One important step that is often skipped is the de-brief. A few minutes to review lessons learned, problems encountered, improvement in self-knowledge, and the always useful “What would you do next time,” will multiply the value of the delegation for them and their performance in the next delegation. 

Get out of the way – Better development is possible if the direct report is able to be as independent as possible and the supervisor receives what they need. To do this be sure that as delegator you: 

• Give the person a whole task to do.

• Ensure the person understands exactly what you want them to do.

• Provide the resources and authority to get the work done.

• Share your vision with them.

• Identify milestones when you want feedback about progress.

• Identify the measurements or the outcomes desired.

• Encourage them along the way, let them know how you see it good and bad.

• Thank and reward them when it is over.

Improving delegation skills is a quick way to make substantial improvements in leadership effectiveness. 

Leading Ways: Mindfulness and Leadership

“The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouting of a ruler among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one bungler destroys much good." Ecclesiastes 9: 17-18

Last month during a coaching session I was asked a simple, but befuddling question: “How can I be a more mindful leader?” Such a good concern. I believe deeply that good leadership springs from being mindful. I have spent much of my professional life trying to understand how this becomes manifest in the ways we lead. But a simple answer to this simple idea was not ready for me that day. Often, we think of mindfulness as being a lifelong undertaking, and it is, but the truly mindful life always begins with a single first act. It can be confounding when it is thought of as a thing, rather than as a process that is never complete and always unfolding to new insights, truths, and depth. But describing a process is not at all easy. I also think that many who walk a path toward a more mindful life are reluctant to speak about it as this journey is intensely personal. But if these qualities are to have efficacy in the public realm it is important to bring them to that place. So, here are some preliminary thoughts on where the path begins. 

1. I believe that mindfulness requires some type of meditative practice. This does not mean that you need to give up all worldly goods, join the ashram or even sit on a meditation cushion. But to become more mindful will require developing a part of your inner life that allows for introspection, reflection, and a calming perspective. All religious traditions have a meditation path the Hindu and Buddhist traditions are perhaps best known, but the Qabalah practice in Judaism, the contemplative Christian, and the Sufi path in Islam all include a practice of mindfulness that enhances the spirit. A meditative moment can be a simple as taking five minutes and bringing life back into a calming frame, but a longer dedication to a particular practice, one that might have been tested for a millennium will produce a deeper capacity for mindfulness.

2. Mindfulness is also served by containing the ego, that sense of our self that engages and reacts to the swirl of the world around us. Separating ourselves from this noise and seeking true understanding is where much of the thought behind the religious traditions listed above and the heart of western philosophy since the axial age of Plato and Aristotle have been focused. All of the elements in this list are deeply interrelated and one of the reasons for meditation and contemplation is to gain just such a hold on our ego. When this happens, we are on the path to self-acceptance which is absolutely essential for mindfulness to emerge. And with this, the emotional triggers that can rule our days are no longer as sensitive and reactive. With this peace comes acceptance of others, ready forgiveness, and patience. Each of these serves mindfulness.

3. A mindful presence is a curious presence. Most people think of mindfulness as a quality that brings us to understand and value others. And it is, but the curiosity must be conveyed in a manner that is other accepting, non-judgmental and supportive. Such an attitude can only be conveyed by those that have the calm of a reflective mind and an ego that is not stumbling about in the conversation. Most leaders do not fully understand that they are more valuable with well-formed questions and careful listening, then needing to know all the answers. Being able to be in the moment with others, to invite them into your calm and acceptance, is a valuable part of the mindfulness of great leaders.

4. A generous spirit is a mindful one. Our culture, fed by ego, leads us to grasp and compete, measuring our individual victories to the detriment of our working together for collective goals. It also leaves us disconnected from others and fearful that we will lose something valuable. But generosity actually produces more gain, more security, and more of the genuine human connectedness, something we have selected for over the millennia. I have found the generosity and gratitude lead to a grace that reinforces our acceptance of self and fosters trust and openness in others.

5. Finally, and this is more of an outcome of mindfulness than a part of the path to it, is joy. Mindfulness opens the heart to happiness, celebration, and spontaneity and this leads to that most desired of human actions, deep fulfilling laughter. Mindfully letting go of judgment and accepting self and others, lets us see the foibles that are inevitably part of our human life, and instead of being defeated by them, we see them for what they are the silly strivings of imperfect beings reaching for perfection and once we accept our fate, turning what could have been a remorseful tragedy to healthy comedy.

A path to mindfulness can make life richer and more fulfilling. But it takes practice, study, and dedication. There are many resources to help in this quest, but I’ve found these readings to be helpful on the five topics discussed here. While each is relevant to all five themes, they are arranged in the order of which topic they principally address.

Gunaratana, Bhante, Mindfulness in Plain English, Wisdom Publications, Boston: 2011.

Chodron, Pema, Comfortable with Uncertainty, Shambhala Publication, Boston: 2002.

Hanson, Brian, Buddha’s Brain, New Harbinger Publications, Oakland CA: 2009.

Schein, Edgar, Humble Inquiry, Berrett-Kohler, Oakland CA: 2013.

Grant, Adam, Give and Take, Penguin, New York: 2013.

Greenleaf, Robert, Servant Leadership, Paulist Press, Mahwah, NJ: 1977.

Haidt, Jonathan, The Happiness Hypothesis, Basic Books, New York: 2006.

Leading Ways: Improving Critical Thinking Skills

One of the most challenging skills to teach is critical thinking. But it is a common observation when I work with supervisors as to why they do not delegate more. Mentors often see the lack of critical thinking skills as a common career-limiting deficit, and coaches frequently identify poor critical thinking skills as the source of other leadership problems that beset the people they work with. Even if the senior supervisor, mentor, or coach has great critical thinking skills themselves, the knowledge is often more tacit and difficult to make explicit as an objective pathway for improvement.

But the development of critical thinking skills can be made more transparent by establishing a definitive set of questions to structure the analysis of the situation and choice of the next action. I think they offer a good way to develop these skills in those around you and perhaps even useful for you.

1. State the general purpose as clearly as you can of the work before you - answering the question, doing the task of completing the project. Why am I doing this? What am I trying to achieve? From the Greeks to our day the role of aim in purposeful action has been essential. We think in terms of causal links toward those aims and being clear about the target helps deliver the arrow.

2. To achieve this purpose, it is essential to have a more immediate goal that can guide behavior and action. Has the goal been clearly stated and understood by all relevant parties? Does it make sense that this goal will lead to achieving the stated purpose? Are their competing goals that offer an alternative path to the purpose? What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of each of the different pathways to the purpose?

3. Once a goal is selected list the linear steps to get the work done. What needs to be done technically to achieve the goal? This is a pretty straightforward undertaking that should not be over thought. If you want to achieve something short or long term, what are the steps that will be needed to achieve this result?

4. Put the question, task, or project into a broader context or framework. There are many choices for these frameworks. Strategic, academic, personal, or a methodological process all offer different frames for evaluating a course of action. Each has a distinctive set of values, rules, returns, and risks. As it turns out there are multiple ways to understand, value, and act on something. Partly this is an ordering of aims. Am I doing something as an end in and of itself or am I doing it instrumentally to achieve a higher or more valued goal? The context is also a vehicle for communication with others about the work and their role in it.

5. Assess the reasonableness of the aim, goal, process, and their fit to the broader context. This is the heavy lifting of critical thinking and the work involves several important steps. The first awareness of the first four steps aim, goals, steps, and context through proper observation and attention. Next, an evaluation of the logic of these. Do they fit together? Will the steps lead to the goal? Does the aim achieve what we desire? What evidence have we or others offered to support these four questions? What is the value of this information?

   Is it more fact or opinion? Have we chosen the most valuable context in which to place them? Just to name a few of the most important considerations. Finally, does this have fit from top to bottom in a consistent and systematic fashion? Sometimes this step involves a “sniff” test, the formal logic is there, but something seems a bit amiss. It is a form of reasonableness, but it is a balancing of our purely rational thinking with intuitive judgment.

6. Speculate about the political context of the work you are doing. Imagine this from the perspective of others how they will see and value this undertaking. This involves empathy, the capacity to place yourself into another’s shoes, with understanding and acceptance. The easiest of all questions to ask of this is “how would I feel or react if I was on the receiving end of this?” The more you can suppress your bias and prejudice when answering this will increase the value of what you get from this process. We usually think of empathy as being directed to another individual. When its object is another organization or part of an organization, we call it situational awareness, but it is the same process. However, this may take some inquiry and investigation to know what the other group values, fears, aspires to and what they think of our past, present, and future.

7. Humans have the capacity to think backward and forward in time and this capacity can be used to improve your critical skills. This capacity is how we put all of the insight into the items above into a useful array of thought and action. It goes something like this:

   • Where am I going with this work (proxy here for a question, task project)?

   • What steps will I need to take to get there?

   • Why is this valuable, past, and present?

   • Is all of this reasonable?

   • If I take these steps, who will be happy, and who will be annoyed?

     Given my answers to these, what do I need to know to understand what is needed next? Is it more information or am I ready for action?

8. Check your biases. First, try to see what filters you bring to understanding the work. For instance, you may be very familiar with this type of work and have done it many times before. If that is the case, you may not be open to recognizing the potential value of the perspectives of others. Or you may have a preset bias about the value of the contributions of a certain type of people determined by their training, status, age, gender, or other irrelevant characteristics. This unconscious bias will lead to not valuing their contributions. Try to recognize which filters you have, and we all have them. Second, check the biases at the door. Don’t let them cloud your thinking. Finally, as most if not all bias is unconscious, the best way to improve critical thinking is not by our will, but by structures, such as, outside review, second opinions, obligations to include certain information, that can force a diminution of the bias.

These suggestions can be used to improve your critical thinking skills or the skills of those that you supervise, mentor, or coach. The first step is awareness of how you think about a work project. It is helpful to keep a journal and frame the work described above in one place. Asking someone you supervise to do the same can help them enhance their skills. Review their process with them and make suggestions about ways to expand their thinking.

A Guide to Mentoring and Developing Others

Mentoring

Mentoring and Leadership

Mentoring has become a highly visible technique for adding value to the development processes for individuals and for the organizations where they work. Creating a mentoring culture and enhancing the mentoring skills of all leaders is now a part of the effort to enhance the creativity, innovation, satisfaction, and success of the health care organizations.

The benefits from creating this culture and building the skills to sustain it are numerous at all levels. For the individual leaders being mentored, it creates an easier on-boarding process to being successful in the job they are doing. Rather than leaving this process to trial and error, the mentor can help the developing leaders to understand what skills and abilities will be needed for success and also assist in ensuring that these skills are developing in an appropriate and timely manner. By reducing the anxiety around this process, leaders can focus more time and energy on developing those around them. The mentor’s team gains in the process because once the skills of developing others and building collaborative and supportive environments are learned, they will carry over to the culture of the rest of the group. All group members will benefit from more emphasis on collaboration, improved communication, supportive professional development, and a decrease in the distractions that can derail individuals and teams. For the senior person, learning the context and skills of being a better mentor will mean more efficient use of time, as trial and error development efforts are replaced by systematic and informed efforts. It will also mean improved skills for developing others in the organization and in project teams due to an increased emphasis on important organizational discussions, collaborations, and development. The entire organization benefits when leaders learn how to be productive, creative, and successful thereby contributing more and sooner to the overall goals of the company. It also contributes to the creation of a culture that supports success, employee engagement, and builds overall attractiveness to join the organization.

In brief, the goals of this mentoring initiative are to:

•  Enhance the proportion of leaders that produce creative, innovative, and impactful change.

•  Build skills of mentors in order to achieve the first goal, but also make efficient use of their time and engage them more fully in building a collaborative and supportive culture.

•   Enhance the dynamics in units, groups, and teams so that they can more effectively support each other’s leadership and change work.

•   Contribute to an overall culture in the agency that is supportive, collaborative, innovative, rigorous, and successful.

This Guide

This guide is a first step in a broader effort to upgrade the skills of mentoring; to hold leaders accountable to develop and use effective tools and techniques for mentoring, and to continue to emphasize and support the creation of collaborative, innovative, supportive, and successful cultures across the company or organization.

The guide has three parts. The first part looks at mentoring in general and the characteristics of successful mentoring. The second part is a review of the five steps that are needed to be a successful mentor. These steps are:

1.   Become self-aware of mentoring strengths and development needs.

2.  Build and sustain supportive relationships in mentoring.

3.   Learn a pathway to becoming successful in health care organizations.

4.   Assess the development needs of others and give effective feedback.

5.   Assist in the creation of a development plan for improvement.

The final part of the guide will examine how the skills and insights of being a better mentor can be applied in enhancing the quality of communication, collaboration, innovation, and success for the entire group or team.

Part One: Mentoring in General

Many of the general characteristics of good mentoring are a part of successful mentoring in any organization. These include: building a supportive relationship, focusing on specific job and general career development, and changing the dynamic of the relationship, as development needs change.

Supervisor and Mentor - The senior person playing the mentoring role will often be the person who also serves as a supervisor for the person being mentored. This can cause conflict between the need to develop a trusting and supportive role on the one hand, while also being the person who will make an assessment of annual progress for the employee.

However, any conflict that seems to be a part of these roles can be eliminated or at least minimized by taking a few proactive steps.

The first thing to do is acknowledge that there might be times that these two roles may seem in conflict. Open and candid discussion of issues, from both sides, can go a long way to making sure that there is as much alignment as possible. Another important step is making sure that clear goals and benchmarks for success have been developed and are fully understood by both sides. Sometimes this can be difficult and the conversation between mentor and mentee can gloss over differences. It is better to push for clarity early and often to make sure that there are no surprises at the time of the annual review. The supervisor-led goals for development and the mentor-led goals for success must be completely aligned. It will be necessary to deal with some topics and issues that are different, but any conflict between them needs to be surfaced as the goals are being set, as opposed to discovered at the end of the year. There is more to be said about relationships later in this guide, but making sure that the relationship is open, trusting, and improving can go a long way to resolving the supervisor – mentor split. 

Individual and the Team - Another tension in mentoring is the one between the needs of the individual and the needs of the team, unit or organization. Some leaders have been trained to work as solo contributors. Many of the rewards in organizations are given for individual effort and achievement. In addition, many people pursuing clinical careers have self-selected into the career because they do not perceive it as heavily dependent on the politics of group or teamwork. While the supervisor – mentor issue might be resolved in great measure through the establishment of clear goals, open and frequent communication, and the development of a good relationship, the pressure to advance research as an individual contributor may nonetheless be incommensurable with the needs of the project team at times. The solution may involve more of a balancing act than a resolution. Here are a few tactics that can help to create a better balance:

•  Look for work that fits within the project teamwork.

•  Be clear about the pathway for developing into a successful leader within the organization. There is a great deal of time wasted by young leaders who do not know what this pathway is and learn by trial and error. This is very costly.

•  Be disciplined with time allocation and management. Setting specific research goals, limiting team contributions to what is absolutely necessary, and limiting new collaborations until a good balance between individual and teamwork has been achieved are all ways to ensure that the valuable resource of individual time is wisely balanced.

Creating a Supportive and Challenging Culture - The creation of a supportive, yet challenging environment is addressed in other parts of the guide, but it deserves a few comments in this section as well. To create and actively participate in such environments is characteristic of a successful career pathway. Creating such an environment for all of those on a team is an essential part of being a good mentor. But the environment must achieve the dual goals of being supportive and challenging. Finding the right balance and then consistently reinforcing it is a big challenge and one that is successfully met when leaders at all levels are clear about the direction and goals of the organization. Modeling the expected behavior of acceptance and support, coupled with challenging inquiry and curiosity helps create the right environment.

Step-by-Step Mentoring

Becoming a better mentor is a process not unlike being a more creative and successful leader. Obviously some people already have the competencies and skills needed to be an effective mentor, but most of us need some help along the way to actually achieve the goals we have in this domain.

This guide offers five steps that can assist you in improving your skills as a mentor. The first step is to understand what you bring to the process. What are the particular ways that you approach the world, interact with people, get inspiration and insight, do your work, and channel your drive and energy? Being a successful mentor is driven by how well you understand, accept, change when needed, and effectively use yourself to achieve the goals of mentoring. Developing this self-knowledge is an essential step in being a good mentor.

Good mentoring involves more than just the technical process of sharing information. It is fundamentally about developing a solid and supportive relationship in which information can be shared both ways in a trusting and supportive manner. Without this relationship dimension, the very best insights and observations about another person’s development will be wasted because without trust the messages will not be heard, fully understood, or valued.

The third step is to have an understanding of the pathway to becoming a successful, creative, and innovative leader. Learning a general set of principles for this path is the starting place for this, but it does not mean that the task can be achieved by slavishly following a cookbook guide. There are some principles that will need to be considered to help a young leader understand the path to becoming successful. And there are similar ones for you to follow in becoming a successful mentor.

Good organizational work requires a feedback loop and mentoring does as well. This is a two-step process of assessing what is needed and providing feedback in ways that can be heard and understood. Good mentoring means, in part, making accurate assessments of what is needed for the next steps of improvement on the path to being a creative scientist. But it also means being skillful at giving and receiving feedback so that the mentee is fully engaged in the process and accepting the input in ways that grow their commitment and enthusiasm for the work.

Finally, this work must be intentional. A shared plan for development must be a part of the process. It needs to be visited often and updated as needed. And it needs to provide the benchmarks for when success has been achieved and when more effort is needed. Most of us want to be better. Those that set and measure goals achieve this end. 

The next few pages will provide more details to more fully understand these steps. To review, effective mentors:

•  Are self-aware about their understanding of mentoring and the skills needed.

•   Value the relationship with the mentee and know how to build it.

•   Understand what the pathway to being a successful leader in your organization involves.

•   Use skills for assessing what the mentee needs and gives feedback accordingly.

•   Use a tool for setting a development plan and actively coach toward those goals.

Competencies of Effective Mentors

To begin the work of being a better mentor, it is important to have in mind an image of an effective mentor that looks like in your organization. Here is a list of competencies derived from successful individuals and organizations that are recognized as having effective mentorship cultures.

•  Develop a trusting and supportive relationship with leaders in your charge.

•   Focus on what it will take for them to be successful.

•   Balance your role of supervisor and mentor. Ask them to help.

•   Develop your own understanding of what a successful career pathway looks like in your organization.

•   Understand how to adapt this model to individual needs and differences.

•   Be able to give priority to innovation and creativity over management and supervision.

•   Communicate with the person you are mentoring in a clear, courageous, honest, and frequent manner.

•   Know how to assist your mentee in the creation of a development plan. Be able to review and adjust the plan as needed.

•   Be able to give positive and negative feedback in a supportive fashion and in the right balance.

•   Help elevate the level of leadership through challenging discussions.

•   Assist your mentee in developing networks both inside and external to the organization.

•   Include your commitment to their success in your role.

•   Define how you view the mentoring relationship and invite them to share their perspective.

•   Share your professional experiences and struggles candidly.

•   Only discuss your own experiences, not that of others, unless the examples are given anonymously.

•   Positively reinforce actions that are effective and responsive to missteps with curiosity and discussion, not judgment.

•    Share some part of your non-professional life and create an environment where they do as well, but be aware of your and their personal boundaries.

The Five Steps to Better Mentoring

1.    Self-Awareness

It might seem odd to begin this process with a consideration of what you bring to the mentoring process, but mentoring is a relationship and therefore a two-way dynamic. There are a couple of things that will be useful to you as you think about your role as mentor.

The first is to examine what your definition and experience of mentoring is. Is this a new concept that you are unsure of? Do you have positive models of mentoring in your past? How valuable do you believe this process is or can be? Do you have a clear picture of how effective you are as a mentor? All of these issues will inform how you approach the task. To get an assessment of your image of mentoring, make a list of those attributes that you think all good mentors should have.

The second part of the self-awareness equation is the preferences for the various dimensions of a relationship. We all have a set of preferences on how we like to be in the world. Some of these have a big impact on mentoring. Some of the key preferences that play into mentoring are:

•   How much do you like the situation to be controlled?

•   How much do you like to have that control?

•    Do you prefer the big strategic picture or the details and operational concerns?

•    Do you like to keep things open, or do you prefer to close every issue with a decision as soon as possible?

•    Are you more extroverted or more introverted in your communication style? • 

•  Do you enjoy the relationship parts of professional life or more of the work itself? These and other qualities will inform how you approach working with others and mentoring.

The third part of self-awareness is how your preferences fit with those of the person you are mentoring. This fit is important not because you or they need to change, but because creating awareness will give insight into whether or not either side of the preference equation is getting in the way of an effective mentoring relationship. The senior person will need to take the lead in shaping and leading this conversation.

Self-Awareness Practices: 

•   Develop your own list of effective mentoring practices using the competencies above. Share this with a colleague who you believe is an effective mentor. Ask them to add things they think are important and give you feedback on what you do well and where you might improve.

•   Ask a former direct report to give you feedback on your mentoring skills. Be sure to tell them you are trying to improve, so strengths are appreciated, but improvement areas are the most helpful.

•   Use behavioral data such as MBTI or FIRO-B to help develop a “mentoring profile” of how you are likely to approach mentoring. Use the large categories discussed above to start with.

•   Share your list of mentoring competencies with your supervisor and ask for input on key development areas for you.

•   With the same list, ask your supervisor for additions from their perspective on what good mentoring looks like.

•   Try to assess the person you are mentoring and what preferences he might have around key areas of communication, control, etc.

•   Share and discuss these with the person you are mentoring; sharing your understanding will help you develop a better sense of theirs.

•   Ask the person you are mentoring to give you feedback on your mentoring style after they have had some time to assess it and you have had time to develop a supportive relationship.

•   Develop your own plan for improvements that you would like to make as a mentor. Share it with your supervisor or a colleague. Make sure the plan includes very specific improvement goals.

Relationship

The relationship between the mentor and the initiate may be the most important dimension of being a good mentor. A good relationship can overcome other deficiencies and lead to the opportunity to solve problems together.

In clinical, research, academic, and scientific settings we often observe two types of relationship problems.

The first is the “feelings are not part of this work and I will just act like they don’t exist” problem. Here the senior person acting in a mentor role gives all types of feedback without first establishing a relationship that is trusting and safe. In this setting, the feedback cannot help but be taken personally, and bad things start to happen.

The second is just the opposite. Not having confidence in the relationship, the senior person fails to pass along any feedback from fear that it will damage the relationship and the recipient might become too emotional. They end up not passing along information that is vital for success, and this pattern of miscommunication and lack of clarity brings down the relationship and the progress that is needed by the mentee.

To address both of these and other problems, it is best to begin a mentoring relationship that establishes trust and safety. Here are a few things that can help establish such an environment:

•   Clearly establish that your role is to partner with them to further their success.

•   Be clear as to your definition of the mentoring relationship. Establish how you would like to work together on this and invite them to share their perspective.

•   Share your professional experiences and struggles candidly.

•   Only discuss your personal experiences and not that of others, unless the examples are given anonymously.

•   Positively reinforce actions that are effective and respond to missteps with curiosity and discussion, not judgment.

•   Be open to sharing some part of your non-professional life and create an environment where they do as well, but be aware of your and their personal boundaries. 

A good relationship always goes two-ways. There are certainly going to be power, age, experience, and role differences between you and your mentee, but the more you can work to develop a shared environment in which communication and feedback go both ways, then the stronger the relationship will be and the more effective the mentoring. Without this shared approach, the mentor can become too dominating and the mentee too passive for significant change to take place.

In an effective mentoring relationship all interactions need to characterized by honesty. But two warnings to the mentor are important here. First, honesty will only be effective if the mentee believes that you have her best interest at heart. Otherwise the candid comment will be heard as critical of her as a person, not good advice on how to be a better employee.

Establishing that trust before you take on lots of “constructive” suggestions is essential. Also, mentors can be direct and honest with things that need to change, but less forthcoming with observations about success and positive developments. Both are important.

To be supportive as a mentor does not mean that everything you say or suggest is always positive. It does mean that all of your words and actions are contributing to making positive progress toward a goal that you and your mentee have agreed on. This will at times mean that you will be offering critiques of actions. Sometimes this will be in areas that you have already gone over in the past that point out where additional or different work still needs to be done. When doing this it is important to do three things:

1.  Remind them that you both have agreed that getting this right is important.

2.  Tell them that you are always going to give them candid feedback, even when it is hard because such feedback promotes their success.

3.  Develop the next experiment for improving their work. Keep moving and do not fixate.

Relationship Practices: 

•   Practice being curious rather than judgmental.

•   Be aware of body language and facial expressions when engaging with the person you are mentoring.

•   State clearly that your job is to help them be successful.

•   If something needs to be said, don’t delay, share it. But do so in the context of curiosity and improvement.

•   Share some dimensions of your personal life and experience so that the relationship can move beyond just the professional.

•   Leave the conversation open so that they feel safe to share some of their life experiences as well.

•  Make sure that the relationship develops in a way that is safe for them to participate fully.

•   Be courteous.

•   Allocate time to develop the relationship and give it time to develop.

The Path

There is a pathway to being successful in your organization and an essential part of your job as mentor is helping your initiate learn how to best navigate the path along the way to their success. The first part of helping with this pathway is making sure you understand it yourself. Do you have good answers, opinions, or insights into these questions?

•   What is good leadership and how is it different in your organizational environment?

•    How do the values of being in your organization make for a leadership pathway that differs from other types of healthcare organizations, companies or academia?

•    How do you balance the excitement of individual spontaneity and creativity with the responsibility of operating in a highly regulated environment?

•    What are your practical suggestions for how to achieve this balance?

Assessment and Feedback

Assessment is an essential part of mentoring. It evolves over time as new skills are developed, new demands come forward, and you develop a deeper relationship.

Initially, the assessment will require three things and you already have one of them in hand. By developing a good understanding of the sequence of competencies, skills, and abilities needed to be successful you will have the baseline and context to make an assessment. At the outset, all you need to add to this is your assessment of where your initiate is on this scale and, importantly, where they believe their abilities and development needs lie.

This data collection process needs to be handled carefully because if done clumsily it can seriously impact the newly developing relationship in a negative way and make you less able to be an effective mentor. That said, you do need to get started.

One easy way to do this is to have a conversation with your initiates early on and explain the skills needed for success in the early years. This should be your version of the first phase of the “path” described above. Your task is to take this generic list and translate it into a

specific pathway for them to follow a successful career. It should be more focused and specific in the near term and lead to more general goals in the more distant future.

Once you have a sense that they have a good understanding of these criteria you might ask them to take a first pass at assessing where they stand on these criteria. They need to see this as an opportunity to grow in a supportive and trusting environment.

This is probably all of the assessments that you will need to make in the first six months. However, you will want to keep notes of where you see some development opportunities to be shared in a conversation after that period.

There may be some concerns that you see from the first day, but by letting them set the agenda for development, within the context of your criteria for success, you will assist in building their investment in the process and their sense of trust in the relationship. There will be plenty of time and opportunity to get to these later.

Creating a Constructive Feedback Environment

Before specific mentoring feedback is given it is helpful for mentors and leaders to work toward the creation of a constructive feedback environment. Such an environment creates the shared expectations that both parties involved have shared goals, values, culture, and expectations. The mentor is the principal person to establish such an environment, but when it is successful, both the mentor and their charge contribute to sustaining the environment.

Creating such a constructive feedback environment requires actions by the mentor. Here are four elements that are important to such a culture: 

1.  Clear sense of purpose and common ground – All mentoring relationships need this as the first step. What are we to expect from each other? How does this fit with my broader work and job responsibilities? How will the balance between mentor and supervisor be achieved? 

2.   Acceptance– Most people come to new ventures with some anxiety about acceptance and performance. Some of this is constructive and produces effort, but it is important for the team leader to create an environment of acceptance and trust. Otherwise it will be difficult to mentor in a situation without it seeming judgmental on a personal level. This leads to defensiveness, cover-ups, and emotional outbursts, as the feedback seems more personal than professional. The ideal place to be is: “We are in this together and it is in all of our interests to address the issue.” 

3.   Two-way nature of most situations- Almost every situation and dynamic in an organization that is problematic and requires feedback has two sides. Unfortunately, most of the two-sided discussions people have are focused on fixing the blame on one side or the other; the famous “he said she said” dynamic. There are situations where one person or group has acted in a unilateral and conscious manner to be dishonest or harm another or subvert a process, and these should be dealt with accordingly. However, for the vast majority of problems, the two sides perspective points to the reality that each side has contributed something to the situation and these elements need to be teased out and addressed.

4.  Expectation of improvement – Every person being mentored must go into the situation with the expectation that improvement is always possible.

Giving and Receiving Feedback

Remember, a constructive feedback culture goes both ways. Therefore, learning how to both give and receive feedback is essential. Here are some general rules to keep in mind.

Giving Feedback

Be confidential – Feedback is always given in private and is a conversation between you and the person receiving the feedback. Do not bring a lot of other people into this conversation by representing their feelings or attitudes.

Be supportive – The point of the feedback is improvement so that the person receiving it can improve and be successful in a work setting. Being non-judgmental is a major part of this. Be encouraging and non-threatening. Attacking in any way will just make the person defensive, resentful, and likely to not hear any of the things you want to say.

Be clear – If it is important to offer feedback, then it is important to be clear about what you want to say. Here are some steps to clarity:

•   Think about it beforehand.

•   Share it with another person who is outside of your work setting.

•   Question your own motivations in giving the feedback.

•   Figure out what outcome you would like.

Be timely – Nothing is worse than waiting until the annual review to give feedback on something that was important, but happened six months ago. While it is important to be timely, it is also wise to remember to give yourself some time to cool off if the item of feedback you want to share has brought out an emotional response in you.

Be focused on a specific behavior or situation – General feedback is generally a fuzz ball when the feedback giver is uncomfortable with what needs to be said. Just say it. A clear, short non-judgmental message opens the door for a conversation to solve the problem.

Anything else opens the door to lack of clarity, emotional response, and inappropriate escalation of the significance of the problem.

Describe, don’t judge- Your job is to raise the issue and broaden the understanding. If you have already decided what caused the problem and what needs to be done, then you are not giving feedback, you are passing judgment. This is where the famous “I” statements can help. You don’t give up your opinion or what you have observed, but you are signaling that it is only one perspective and you are inviting them in to share their view. Remember to not generalize or make absolutist statements such as “You always do that.” Don’t make a simple situation worse by overreacting.

Direct the feedback to changeable behavior- Observing that someone might be smarter about something is not really helpful feedback. Observing that they were quick in making a judgment and reacting, and that others including you seemed to be offended by this action, is an observation they can consider and perhaps do something about.

Don’t lead with advice – Feedback is not advice-giving. It is sharing observations about a situation. After that is understood and valued, then it is possible to guardedly offer advice. In a constructive feedback culture the advice is generally asked for right away. A helpful question for the feedback giver at the outset of feedback is, “Are you getting the results you want from this approach?” Let the other person answer and then explore alternatives.

Check it, briefly –It is quite all right to check to see if the feedback is understood, but do so briefly. After two checks the questioning becomes abusive as in “What part of this don’t you understand.”

Remember that constructive feedback is always given to help the individual who is receiving it. The more the feedback comes across as supportive and helpful, then the more successful it will be. This does not mean that continued inattention does not require more specific requests for change from the manager, leader, or co-worker. But such a response should always be reserved until needed.

Receiving Feedback

Receiving feedback is as important as giving it. If you are truly going to create a constructive feedback environment, then it has to go both ways and as with giving, you are the best at modeling the behavior. Here are a few rules of thumb for receiving feedback.

Don’t be defensive – The moment you become defensive it stops being feedback and becomes, well, a defense. All information flow stops and the value of the feedback plummets. The temptation will be to explain away the feedback, but if someone is doing a good job and telling you that when you act a certain way they feel threatened, it does not help for you to say: “You don’t understand, I didn’t mean to threaten you.” You did and you need to hear it.

Question to understand, not to dismiss – It is important for you to fully understand, so after they have gotten the first parts of it out, give them a break by calmly asking questions that indicate you want to understand the situation.

Determine if the feedback fits – You have the option of deciding this on your own. But don’t do it in the moment. Thank them for the feedback. Tell them it was helpful and then take a day or two to think about it. What you want to understand is to have some insight into what behaviors you are projecting that create the reaction that the feedback giver is reporting.

Share your thoughts to the feedback – Obviously this is not a license to over react, but if you are troubled by the feedback then tell them. Your face will show it anyway. But do let them know that you value their taking the time and thinking enough of you to give you the feedback.

Decide what changes to make (if any) – You don’t have to make any accommodations, but you need to have good reasons. If you never make adjustments, then you will cut off their efforts to help you out.

The Plan

Without a plan for change, much of the mentoring work will amount to a series of conversations, perhaps interesting, but not very effectual in improving performance. Moving this work forward will require intentional efforts at improvement. The easiest way to accomplish this is to establish a pattern of assessment, review, goal setting, frequent informal check-ins on progress, and periodic review that is a part of scheduled conversations.

The last thing that the mentoring process needs is the addition of another bureaucratic form that is more burdensome than help. However, the process does need to have some formal shape so that goals and activities to pursue those goals can be written down and shared. This also gives a written record for review after a quarter or two.

The form below is suggested as a place to begin as you and your mentee develop a plan that fits comfortably with their development needs and your approach to mentoring. The plan should be used as a tool to capture the discussions you have, formalize goals, and review progress throughout the year.

Sample Career Development Plan

Name:

Date:

1)  Career Goals

Long Term Career goals: This should be medium to long range in focus and very aspirational.

Examples: Lead a Medicaid policy division at the state level. Become an expert in drug discovery with sustained record of high impact contributions. Organize and lead an effort to incorporate social determinates of health in the operation of a clinical organization.

Near term goal: This should be a goal that is achievable within three years.

Example: Lead a policy development and deployment effort in next two years. Get promoted to a Project Team Lead role within the next two years.

2)  Review of current achievements

Education and experience:

Current leadership contributions:

Organizational contributions:

Documentation of achievements:

3)  Identification of areas for growth and plan to address:

Identification of leadership growth areas:

Example: Better feedback skills- Get input from direct reports, take feedback course, and practice with one individual.

Creating a Mentoring Culture

It might seem odd that the last section of this mentoring guide is about creating the culture of a unit, team or organization. After all, mentoring is essentially a one-on-one affair with the mentor providing coaching and support to the developing junior person. But if the values of collaboration, support, open inquiry, and the excitement of doing the work are not reinforced in the larger culture, all of the great mentoring will be for naught because the values and the work simply will be reinforced and sustained over time.

The good news is that taking the work of being a better mentor and enlarging it to being a better leader is an easy extension of many of the same skills that are at the core of mentoring. As a senior person in the organization, you are responsible for leading teams that carry out projects, operate labs, and provide service functions. These teams need to exhibit the same values and practices that are characteristic of good mentoring.

What do we know about what makes a good team? There is an interesting set of research from a similar technology company that can offer some insights. In late 2015, a team from Google People Operations (Google speak for HR) released their work to unlock the secret of successful teams. Julia Rozovsky, one of the analysts on the team, described the work this way:

“Over two years we conducted 200+ interviews with Googlers (our employees) and looked at more than 250 attributes of 180+ active Google teams. We were pretty confident that we'd find the perfect mix of individual traits and skills necessary for a stellar team -- take one Rhodes Scholar, two extroverts, one engineer who rocks at AngularJS, and a PhD. Voila.

Dream team assembled, right?” 

The research actually came up with a surprisingly different set of characteristics. The team membership mattered far less than the team dynamics of openness and safety of the culture, accountability to each other, clarity of role and goals, and the intrinsic meaning and impact of the work.

The five dynamics of successful teams in this research are: 

Psychological Safety – Is this an environment in which full engagement with the work by every team member is encouraged? The keys were whether or not the team left any member with a feeling of security and free to ask questions, venture novel ideas, or be creative without fear of embarrassment. Is there a team leader that understands and models the creation of trusting and supportive relationships among team members, who are respectful and helpful to each other while they create work that aggressively pursues the work goals of the team?

Dependability – Do the members of the team trust that everyone is fully engaged? Does each member complete their work on time? Dependability means that every member brings the very best to every task and that they are committed to producing the highest quality work. Is there a leader that models that dependability and also - when needed - is an accountability agent?

Structure and Clarity – Are the goals, roles, and processes of the team understood, valued, and adhered to by every member? Establishing the direction, responsibilities, and basic operating principles contributes to the core hygiene of any team. Establishing them early and reinforcing them when needed is essential. Is there a leader in place who can coherently articulate the work that is being done and how it should be shaped? Can the leader work with the team in a manner that engages them across their different orientations, backgrounds, training, and interests? 

Meaning of Work – Does the work have inherent value for every member? This value may be different from the perspective of each member, but each one must see and believe that it is worth it. Is there a leader in place that can connect the work of the team to the larger goals of the organization?

Impact of the Work – Do all members of the team believe that this work contributes to the overall goal of the team and do they see how this fits into the overall strategic work of the organization? If I value the work, then I want to think that it valued by the team and the overall organization. Is there a leader that can create an environment where every member understands their value in doing the work of the team, fully sees and supports how their work contributes to the overall work of the organization, and is able to make significant contributions?

For the most part, one of the benefits of work within clinical care organizations and Medicaid agencies is that the work is meaningful and that it has attracted a large number of people who are about advancing this mission. Much of this opportunity comes about by effective leadership that can create various kinds of teams that have fidelity with the following three principles: safety, accountability, and clarity.

Ensuring safety in a team – Much like building relationships in mentoring work, creating a safe and supportive team environment means being fair, exhibiting the behaviors you would have all team members express, being curious rather than judgmental, and focusing on the work and problems you face (not others). It also means recognizing real contributions and achievements when they are made, giving corrective feedback in confidence, exhibiting professional values in all interactions, and focusing on the human connectedness that all effective teams develop, exhibit, and demonstrate as they carry out their work.

Demonstrating accountability – To perform as effectively as possible there will need to accountability demonstrated by all team members. It is the team leader’s job to model that accountability, hold themself just as accountable as everyone else, and also share this role with other team members as the team develops. Accountability is both about the work that is done and how the work is done.

Championing structure and clarity – Lack of clear goals, no rules for decision-making, inability to foster creative conflict, and no assignment of roles or responsibilities can all be debilitating to the work of a group. The leader must balance the need to shape these with the necessity of engaging the entire team in creating direction, order, and rules so that the work can get done with as little drama as possible.

Observing and Measuring Success

Being a good mentor and developing a team culture that is supportive is an important undertaking for all leaders in the organization. You may have the commitment to this and even new skills to use, but how will you know that progress is being made? Here are some suggestions to help interpret the overall progress of the group.

•   How often do leaders voluntarily share ideas – is this increasing or decreasing?

•   Is there an even balance in how much of the conversation is dominated by you vs. them?

•    Do they ask you questions?

•    Do you observe that collaborations between people in your group are increasing, particularly when they come about without you suggesting them?

•    Are you learning new things from them because they are sharing their science?

•    Do meetings feel safe and relaxed?

•    Do discussions at these meetings have the potential to go in new and creative directions?

•    Do all team members engage in giving positive feedback and help when they make suggestions?

•    Do you welcome the interactions with them because of the positive tone and active engagement with questions?

•    Can you point to a change that they have made in their leadership because of feedback you have given them?

For individual mentoring, assessing progress against the detailed goals of the development plan is a good way to assess annual and even quarterly effectiveness of mentoring. For the team or group, it may be helpful to write down goals for the group such as more active engagement by them (and less by the leader), or a goal number of active collaborations across the team. Another tactic with the group would be to ask them to help set goals for the group and suggest ways to measure progress.

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Quick Takes During COVID-19 Series

Ep 1: Developing Others When No One is Around

With COVID-19 forcing organizations to work from home to flatten the curve, developing others has become a challenge. In this episode, I, PhD, MPA, a leadership development expert speak with Hilary Kennedy, program director for Medicaid leadership at the National Association of Medicaid Directors about strategies Medicaid leaders can use to continue developing their staff at a distance. View accompanying tip sheet and video:

Ep 2: Delegating While Working Remotely

Delegating projects or tasks during a pandemic means doing so virtually, which creates obstacles that would not be there if it were in person. In this episode of Quick-Takes for Medicaid Leaders Amid COVID-19, I speak with Hilary Kennedy, program director for Medicaid leadership at the National Association of Medicaid Directors, about ways state leaders can improve their delegating skills to better serve their staff and provide opportunities for personal development while working remotely. View accompanying tip sheet and video:

Ep 3: Building and Using Relationships during COVID-19

Working remotely during COVID-19 can make relationship building a challenge. In this episode of Quick-Takes for Medicaid Leaders Amid COVID-19, I, a leadership development expert, speak with Hilary Kennedy, program director for Medicaid leadership at the National Association of Medicaid Directors, about opportunities for state leaders to create and foster relationships virtually. View accompanying tip sheet and video:

Ep 4: Using Emotional Intelligence to Influence

One of the greatest challenges for those in leadership roles is learning how to influence without formal authority. In this episode of Quick-Takes for Medicaid Leaders Amid COVID-19, I, PhD, MPA, a leadership development expert, speak with Hilary Kennedy, program director for Medicaid leadership at the National Association of Medicaid Directors, about how state leaders can leverage the skills associated with being emotionally intelligent to influence change on a personal and organizational level. View accompanying tip sheet and video:

Ep 5: Addressing Employee Underperformance

Underperformance in any situation is a complex and challenging issue for leaders to address whether working in-person or virtually. In this episode, I, PhD, MPA, a leadership development expert, speak with Hilary Kennedy, program director for Medicaid leadership at the National Association of Medicaid Directors, about tips to address employee underperformance while working virtually — though these tips are just as effective and relevant in person, as well. View accompanying tip sheet and video:

Ep 6: Addressing VUCA as a Leader

The COVID-19 pandemic, economic uncertainties, and the racial injustices left unaddressed for generations have led to the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment we are all working within today. In this episode of Quick-Takes for Medicaid Leaders Amid COVID-19, Hilary Kennedy, program director for Medicaid leadership at the National Association of Medicaid Directors, and I, a leadership development expert, and share five tips for leaders to address today’s VUCA challenges within their organizations. View accompanying tip sheet and video:

Ep 7: Using Vision as Coherence During Unsettling Times

To ensure all levels of an organization have a leadership vision, Medicaid leaders must be able to provide coherence to those around them. In this episode of Quick-Takes for Medicaid Leaders Amid COVID-19, Hilary Kennedy, program director for Medicaid leadership at the National Association of Medicaid Directors, and I, PhD, MPA, a leadership development expert, discuss how vision coherence is important for effective leadership. View accompanying tip sheet and video:

Ep 8: Pivoting to Strategy During COVID-19 and Beyond

Once past coping with immediate needs during difficult times, Medicaid leaders must be able to pivot to develop strategies that can guide the organizational response in the coming months. In this episode of Quick-Takes for Medicaid Leaders Amid COVID-19, Hilary Kennedy, program director for Medicaid leadership at the National Association of Medicaid Directors, and I, PhD, MPA, a leadership development expert, discuss the need to develop strategy and provide a framework for Medicaid leaders to consider when making decision on strategy. View accompanying tip sheet and video:

Ep 9: Enlisting Others to Achieve Goals

An effective leader needs to know how to enlist others to achieve goals, but this can be a new challenge when everyone is working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode of Quick-Takes for Medicaid Leaders Amid COVID-19, Hilary Kennedy, program director for Medicaid leadership at the National Association of Medicaid Directors, and I, PhD, MPA, a leadership development expert, discuss best practices for enlisting others to achieve goals, including a list of tactics to avoid. View accompanying tip sheet and video:

Ep 10: Dealing with Extended Sheltering During COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, most of us remain sheltered at home. Many people are becoming fatigued by the loss of boundaries between work and personal time — especially as summer is often a time to recharge. In this episode of Quick-Takes for Medicaid Leaders Amid COVID-19, Hilary Kennedy, program director for Medicaid leadership at the National Association of Medicaid Directors, and I, PhD, MPA, a leadership development expert, discuss practical tips to combat the challenges of extended sheltering time. View accompanying tip sheet and video.

Leading Ways: How You Lead When it Really Matters

"It was the time when they loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity."

Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

1. Take the lead – Right now we need leadership and we need action, not an overreaction. Things are moving, but if they are not with your organization get ahead of them on travel, meetings, contact, and where we work. Your response, not overreaction will make everyone feel that things are being done. Ask them for commitment and action as that will give them more of a sense of efficacy. Better now to ask forgiveness than permission. This is the test of real leadership.

2. Affirm the uncertainty – It seems uncertain because it is. Affirm that. This is not the time for false bravado, half-truths and saying it will be fine. None of these will make it better, they will only feed the uncertainty and doubt. A few months ago I wrote about leading in uncertain times. It might be good to do a quick review of these tips on how you show up now when it is hard.

3. Connect to others – As the quote above reminds us, this is a time for the connection to others, at six feet of course. We are at our best when trying times turn us to others. And we will all do better when we pull as a team and watch out for one another. Make sure that you encourage this basic human sentiment in your words and actions and find those better angels in each one of us.

4. Value Priorities – This is the time when we will see what really must be done, do it and extend grace to ourselves and others when some things are not done. Real leaders understand and act on these principles. Try to remember that these priorities could be established, and work is done, and life does not fall apart when the world gets back to some sort of normal and apply some of that to how you lead.

5. Avoid the bunker – Yes you are working at home away from your colleagues, yes, the kids are there, yes, it is dislocating to be out of your routine, but do not isolate yourself from life. Get outside, play with your kids, read that book that has been waiting, do the simple things that make life worthwhile. While you may be physically isolated, do not isolate yourself from those things you love. 

These are going to be challenging times, let all of that leadership strength shine through.

Regaining Trust

There are lots of ways to get better at building and sustaining trusting relations. One specific activity that can lead to growth in this area is taking the initiative to make peace with someone that you have not gotten along with in the past or someone who you feel may have been disappointed in you or your work. Here are the steps. 

1. Identify the person that you would like to have a better relationship with. 

2. Start a journal where you note the steps you are taking, the feelings this is creating in you, the reactions of the other person and its impact on you. 

3. Identify the things that you believe influence this relationship in a way that makes it difficult for both of you. This could be a dishonest exchange from the past, different styles, competition, aggressive or passive behavior. 

4. Think about the positive qualities that this person has and the positive contributions that they make to the organization and the work or others. 

5. Schedule an appointment with the person and give them a heads up that you would like to discuss if you should improve your relationship and how you can go about it. 

6. In the conversation with them be honest, “I don’t think we have always gotten along and I would value seeing if we can change this for our mutual benefit and for the organization.” Stop there and see what you get back from them. 

7. If you get an affirming response that they agree, let the next step be to focus on positive ways to improve as you go forward, do not go back into the past and issues just now. If you see hesitancy or reluctance, ask them to think about it and let you know if it is something that they might value as well. 

Leading Ways: Trust

In an exercise on trust, when asked to identify a situation when trust was lost, 90 percent of participants chose a situation when they lost trust in others. The honesty and courage of the small minority that so readily acknowledges the reality that the distribution of trust loss should be 50-50 between us and others is encouraging. But most of us do not so easily see that we are not as trusting as we seem to ourselves, that others have failures that have nothing to do with trust and that trust which seems so absolute is really a quite slippery leadership quality. 

Is Trust an Absolute?

The answer to this seems pretty straight forward, either I can trust you or I can’t. But the reality is murkier. In one experiment conducted overtime, individuals who were judged by themselves and others to be of “high integrity” acted dishonestly to benefit themselves when they thought that their actions would be anonymous. This carries over to the realm of power as well. If individuals have more social or economic power or perceive themselves as having more, a perception that can be triggered as simply as being described as a “manager” in a behavioral game, then they feel justified to act in a more self-interested manner. They often do not recognize their behavior, but can become very critical of other, less powerful, individuals who are acting in the same manner. In other words, there is a tendency for power to corrupt. 

Improving Trust

Trust certainly has something to do with character, but it is messaged to others by actions. Here are some leadership practices that will lead others to trust you more. 

• Always advocate for others and recognize them for their work. 

• Deliver on commitments and when you cannot not – apologize, explain why and ask what can be done to remedy the situation – if at all possible do it in person and as soon as possible.

• Minimize how much you talk about your role and your contributions. 

• Be clear and forthright in communications, decisions, addressing conflict and raising difficult issues. Do not judge these situations exclusively from your perspective, but seek understanding from others. 

• Do not be a “pleaser” by overly bending and adjusting the message for different groups and individuals. Say what needs to be said, being sensitive to where they sit. 

• Ask questions and care about the answers. 

• Do not over sell. Do not over commit. Do not say yes when you know it should be no. Do not shade or embellish. 

• Keep confidential matters confidential. 

• Admit mistakes. Never blame others. Take responsibility. Tell people what you learned from the mistake. Solve the problem as it is. Move on, in a humble manner. 

• Be as consistent as possible and when you change a position or understanding of an issue, share the change with those that will be impacted and tell them why you have a new view.

• Balance and understand that there are different perceptions of all actions. In the extreme, one person’s creative action can be seen by another as an unprofessional or unethical act. 

• Be mindful of the situations identified below, they can lead to you being a less trusted leader.

When You Might Not be Trusted

Yes, you are trustworthy, but are there situations when trust in you might be more suspect? Trust is in part a cultural derivative and it changes over different cultures. In dynamic times something that looks to you like a creative response to a pressing problem may look to others to be an unnecessary rush to judgment and violation of a norm of sacrosanct cultural borders. If so, you might look to be untrustworthy:

• When you have power or formal authority over others. 

• When things are changing.

• When the goal, roles, process, success, or rules have been poorly defined.

• When the situation involves individuals and groups with highly diverse backgrounds, perspectives or aims.

Rebuilding Lost Trust

We all make mistakes and mistakes around loss of trust when you are responsible will be a situation that all leaders face. It is hard to admit our culpability in this area because it seems like such a character flaw. The real flaw comes in not addressing the issue in a forthright manner. Here are some considerations. 

• Acknowledge the mistake and apologize. 

• In doing so, do not blame yourself. You are a competent, caring individual, but you are human and make mistakes. 

• Do not try to explain the situation away, but it is fair to share why the situation was challenging. Careful here to not talk too much about matters that are confidential, blame others or make it seem that anyone in this situation would have done the same thing as you. 

• Indicate what you have learned from the situation and how you will apply the lessons in the future. But do not over-promise such as, “this will never happen again.” Better to say, “I have learned that I need to share my uncertainty about outcomes with you, rather than being overly optimistic.” 

If you want a bit of leadership practice on trust, try the following one page homework assignment. And, let me know what you learned.