For starters, I think this was a breathe of fresh air from writing essays or group presentations. It allowed me to really analyse and reflect over my own behaviour and leadership skills.

The readings helped me look at my leadership story through different lenses and what I could have done to improve the situation. Even though my example is a positive one, but I still feel their is always more I could have done !

Being an extrovert and someone who is more inclined to talk to someone in person, blogging was never my cup of tea. I tried to start a blog about 3 years ago, but couldn’t sustain it. I rather talk to someone about my experiences and get their feedback about it. My family is probably my first resort with whom I find solace and feel safe to talk about my day.

I did enjoy getting feedback from Julia and Ana. Both of them asked some good questions that I didn’t consider and helped me dig deeper into my feelings and actions. At first ,  i was a bit hesistant of what I write as I wasn’t sure how it will land on them. However, after the first blog entry, it became easier and I enjoyed disclosing my true feelings/thoughts for my colleagues to read.

When i was reading Ana’s and Julia’s  blog entries I found lot of similarities in all 3 of us and how we viewed leadership, which highlights the fact that we all want similar characteristics in a leader; 1) someone who is compassionate/ 2) someone who is able to manage his emotions 3) someone who is willing to deal with change effectively.

It was a pleasure doing this exercise!Thank to Ana and Julia for this great experience! Thank you to Nancy for providing this opportunity 🙂

What Happened?

The implementation was not as smooth as I thought it would be. Techs and clerks were still unsure of which spots were to be used as no-shows. I felt as though my policy was a failure and everything was going wrong. However, we all make mistakes, what counts is that we learn from them.

I asked my team to provide me with feedback and we would bring them up in the next meeting.  At the next meeting, I acknowledged the difficulties the techs had to face and apologized for some of the mistakes that were made. In addition, I asked my team what worked well for them. What didn’t? I listened to their feedback and we as a group decided that some no-show spots were not feasible to scan an inpatient it and hence we revised the no-show policy. So after 3 revisions we got the no show policy just right and so far it has been working great.

Lessons Learned

• I learned that listening to my team and understanding their needs and concerns is the best way to build relationships. I felt that by being open to my team’s suggestion, I had a warm approach, yet at the same time I was firm that the no-show policy is something that our department will be moving forward with.
• Change efforts can only occur when you have everyone on board and the team takes ownership of the issue. As a leader my job was to bring everyone on the table and help guide them in the right direction.
• Like in the Charlotte Beers’ case, when Charlotte said in any change movement “ 1/3^rd are supporters, 1/3^rd are resistors and 1/3^rd are apathetic. I realized that the resistors can become your biggest assets and strengths, if you work with them. Sometimes by framing the issue in the correct manner, people can have a change of heart.
• From the reading “becoming the boss” it states that building committees or group-based forums is an effective way to allow teams to problem solve. As the new leader, my developing the committee I gave my team the opportunity and space to discuss ideas in the open. Such group activities help to instill a team spirit where there is no ‘I’ but rather a “We”. This approach showed that I had no favorites and reduced the effort of me going to everyone individually to convince them of a change effort.
• The article “ultimate leadership task” tip #8 states that you have to learn to be flexible, be committed to life long learning and be open to continuously improving yourself.  The no-show policy was a challenge when we first implemented it. The process put all of us including me out of our comfort zone but it also ended up building our team dynamics and relationships. We were  willing to learn from our mistakes and improve.

This was my first major change project that I implemented. Looking back, the process helped me become a better listener, better communicator and a better leader. I learned a lot about my team, their personalities, needs and wants. I feel grateful to be part of such a great team!

I believe I exemplified self-leadership in this example by the following:

a)    Being a Listener and Open to learning- Self Awareness

Self-leadership involves that the person is aware of his or her own limitations and is always ready to learn and improve. In the reading “The Ultimate Leadership Task”, author Richard J. Leider states that the change starts from the the heart; where the heart is made up of two words hear and art. In other words, the art of hearing or listening is necessary for change.  By creating a committee, I was able to hear and learn from my team and use their input to create a no-show policy. The monthly staff meetings gave me an opportunity to get staff feedback and discuss possible solutions. Our implementation process was a learning process and I used the feedback from my team to revise and improve the no-show policy.

Instead of assuming that I knew everything and doing it on my own, I listened to the needs of my team and addressed their concerns to become an effective leader.

b)    Emotional Control- Self-Management

 As a new leader, I was under a lot of pressure to deliver results, develop trust with my team and gain their respect. Self-leadership is when you are aware of the pressures that surround and you are able to take control and make the right decisions. Like the article title “Is it better to be loved or feared”, the same question dawned on me whether my email, where I will institute the policy change on my own, would make my staff happy or make things worse. I was emotionally drained and frustrated with all the staff complaints, and was inclined to act without thinking. Thankfully at the moment, I took a big deep breath and reflected on my actions and their impacts.

The article by Cuddy, Kohut and Neffinger (2013) mentions that we work hard to demonstrate our competence by taking the solo route to show others we can tackle any challenge.  Initially I was compelled to show how I had the solution to this problem and could fix everything. However, my self-reflection made me understand that even though I could enforce the policy on my team but it would damage the relationship with my team. Hence, the decision to seek advice from my mentor demonstrated that even in the stressful times I can manage my emotions to ensure that I make the right decision.

c)     Motivating others

Leaders, who are aware and appreciative of themselves, will be aware and appreciate of others. By knowing themselves they are better able to appreciate, and motivate others potential.  In the example, in leading change I need to be aware of my team’s attitudes and reactions. Conger (1998) in his article The Necessary Art of Persuasion states that“…to persuade meaningfully, we must not only listen to others but also incorporate their perspectives into our own.”

I think by incorporating all the different stakeholders in the committee helped me persuade my team towards the goal of creating a no-show policy. The decision to include the resistors in the committee was a way of giving them importance; even if they were not in favor of the change, they added value to the team and the discussion. Surprisingly, in the committee discussions the resistors provided valuable suggestions and actively participated in the entire process.

a)  If you think the leader did a good job of leading change, what did they do well? Give at least 3 specific examples of how they led change effectively, and why these made a difference.

I believe the change initiative was successful but not easy. This leadership challenge, where I had to institute a new policy that would transform an aspect of my team’s job routine is an example of a change on a departmental level. From the reading “Leading Change”, the author, John P. Kotter created a framework for guiding organizations through change. If we analyse the case, it becomes evident that this small policy change follows many of Kotter’s 8-steps.

For purposes of this question, I want to focus on only 3 steps that I believe made this change effective:

1)    A leader to lead the change.

1. For change to be effective it requires a leader who is able to lead the change. John P. Kotter makes the case that “ change, by definition requires creating a new system, which in turn always demands leadership” (Kotter, 2007)
2. A good leader is one who is passionate and an active supporter of the change. In my case, as the new supervisor, I had an opportunity to address an issue that had been festering for far too long.  When I was just a sonographer, I was one of the team members who would also scan during a no-show even if it was not expected of me. I could relate to the feeling of unfairness that some of my staff felt and I too wished we had a policy where we can deliver patient care and evenly distribute the workload.

2)    Collaborating to build coalitions

1. Kotter defines this step as “assembling a group with enough power to lead the change effort.” In my case, it was the committee that was created with all the stakeholders that would be eventually driving this change. Since this change would result in the technician scanning more inpatients, it was crucial that the team was supportive of this change. Furthermore, by involving the resistors in this initiative, it sent a signal to the staff that everyone was on board and believed in this change.

3)    Communicating and Continuously Improving

1. No matter how much planning one does, until the change actually occurs no one can be 100% certain if it will actually work out as planned. When we first implemented our no-show policy there were was still some confusion and some aspects did not pan out the way we thought they would. I knew that the change would initially be a bit bumpy but at the same time there were some aspects of the policy that I realized looked good on paper but were not pragmatic.
2. My attitude was that we can only improve by learning from our mistakes. For the next 3 monthly staff meeting, I asked staff to provide feedback on the no-show policy, asking them “How we can make this no-show policy better?” This provided an opportunity for my team to present their thoughts and discuss of what is working well and what is not working well.  We continued to fine tune and revise our no-show policy ensuring that we strike a balance between staff satisfaction and effectively utilizing our no-show spots.
3. I believe allowing the staff to communicate their thoughts and reaction regarding this policy implementation provided the opportunity for me as a leader to understand my staff and continuously improve our change efforts.

Leadership Challenge

It had been only four months since I became the supervisor of my department and I was confronted with a major issue that hadn’t been addressed for many years. It was my first major challenge as a leader and I wanted to take this issue and make into an opportunity.  I knew that if I was able to improve this process, I would gain my team and manager’s respect and trust.

Background

The echocardiography department at the royal jubilee hospital is primarily an outpatient lab. About 80% of our patients are outpatients while the rest are in-patients. Patients have their appointments booked at a specific time and they arrive about 15 minutes early to check-in. The procedure is performed by sonographers and can take anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes.  If an outpatient does not show up for his scheduled appointment that slot is left empty and is labeled as a “No-show”.

In the past, a no-show spot was left empty and sonographers would take a break or use that time to catch up on previous patient reports.  Hence, a no-show spot served as a benefit to the sonographers. However, only one or two the dedicated sonographers would go do an in-patient during a no-show spot.

There was no clear process in place of what staff was expected to do when there was a no-show. In addition, some of the sonographers felt that it was unfair that only some sonographers were scanning a patient during a no-show while others just relaxed. There was added pressure on the department to meet its acute inpatient needs and the no-show spots seemed like a perfect opportunity to utilize those spots for an inpatient.

What made matters complicated was that the sonographers, due to the nature of their job, have a high injury rate. Inpatients are more difficult to scan then outpatients. Hence, sonographers were less inclined to do an extra in-patient.

Challenge

As a leader my challenges were

a)      Utilize these no-show spots and meet some of our inpatient needs

b)      Create a fair process that staff will commit and adhere to.

c)       Not to increase sonographer injury rates

As the new supervisor, I was under lot of pressure to address this long pending issue and find a solution. My initial reaction to this situation was to write out an email to everyone stating that we will now be utilizing the no-show spots and everyone was expected to scan an in-patient during a no-show spot. Then I realized that this may not be the best route to take as staff would react negatively to this abrupt change.

To get a different perspective on this issue I decided to consult the previous supervisor, who is retired and is also my mentor. I wanted to learn from his experience, what worked for him and why he did not choose to address this issue.  His advice was to me was “Ali, you need the staff to take ownership of this issue! Or else you will be upsetting the entire department and you do not want that!”

Taking his advice, in the next staff meeting I announced that I will be creating a no-show committee made up of sonographers (junior and senior) and clerical staff (they are the ones who book and schedule the patients). Some staff volunteered themselves and I also asked two staff members to be part of this committee as I knew that, among the group, they would demonstrate the greatest resistance to this change. By having all the different stakeholders in the meeting and my goal was for the entire department to be united and buy-in to this change. I knew that if this committee was able to come up with good recommendations, each of these members will then help other team members to get on board and there will be less resistance to the change.

I setup an hour long meeting with this committee and using the “What, Why, Who, Where, and How” framework, all of us reviewed the current state of the no-show process.  As a facilitator, I set clear expectations in the meeting, defined the goals, which were to a) reduce our no-show rates b) create a fair no-show policy c) not to increase staff injury rate, and asked the committee to remain future focused i.e. how can we make things better?  I was a bit anxious that this committee may end up debating not come up with any pragmatic solutions. However, the committee surprised me as the sonographers and clerks discussed all the “what if “scenarios and came up with a list of changes and recommendations; some of them that even I hadn’t considered.

I wrote up the meeting minutes and asked the committee to review them, in the event if I missed any points.  Afterwards, I presented these recommendations to my manager and solicited her guidance on how to implement this change.

Before the next staff meeting, I submitted a copy of the recommendations for all the staff to review. In the staff meeting, I gave staff the opportunity to ask questions, give feedback and clarify any points.  As expected, I hardly had anyone raise any issues or concerns regarding the recommendations.  The team was less resistance to this new no-show policy as they felt they were creating this change and they took ownership of the change. However, this was not the end; the implementation of this policy would have its own unique set of challenges.

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