A633.4.3.RB – Changing Dynamics of Leadership
The shift
in leadership is happening more and more today as we see many organizations
that are restructuring themselves, kind of reinventing if you will, to be
better than before. I believe a lot of it has to do with more and more people who
work the front lines on a daily basis, standing up and saying enough is enough.
More employees are becoming frustrated with their organizations because the
people who were picked to lead them do not know the solutions to most
problems. This leaves the lower level employees wondering what the heck
happened to knowing and understanding the job at hand no matter what that job
may be.
Some
companies deal with this by hiring and promoting from within their organization
(I have seen this in some retail stores, as I have worked for Dick’s Sporting
Goods). This way a manager knows how the organization works from bottom to
top and can actually come up with solutions instead of playing that charade of
hoping no one asks them a question they cannot answer. Having someone who
starts out at the “bottom” and works their way up can actually help upper
management get a better grip on what is happening in their own
organization.
There has
to be open communication from the top down and from the bottom up. We have to ask
questions and not bluff our way out of it with some ideal of what we think is
the right answer. With more organizations becoming more complex, we have
to be able to adapt and change by asking questions, blurring that line a bit
between leaders and followers and understanding how to stay in the know instead
of getting lost in the management mentality. Getting feedback from your
followers lets them know that you want their suggestions and thoughts of what
works and what does not. Leaders cannot hide behind their big desks and
expect their organization to run smoothly.
One way
to do this is to be the example of what you want. If you expect your
front-line workers to know how to perform certain functions, you, as the leader
need to know how to do this as well. For example, it has been my
experience with different jobs, where managers expect results from their
followers, but when they are asked to demonstrate a task of anything in
particular; they are unaware on how to proceed. How can followers rely on
their managers to help them when they do not know the answers themselves?
In my
organization there has been a lot of changes recently that I feel were made to
better serve the patients as well as the organization itself. Hiring and
putting different people in charge of different areas will have a positive
impact overall. A big part of change comes from the fact that my manager is
that type of leader that everyone wants to be like or are jealous of because of
how well she gets alone with everyone and how welcoming and helpful she can be.
She started as a medical assistant and worked her way up to practice manager
and was recently selected as the Vice Presidents of the Podiatry Medical
Assistant’s organization. She truly leads by example and never says she cannot
help us. She makes time for our problems and us, whether they are personal
or work related. Additionally, she has never yelled when you mess
something up, but instead, she will ask you how can you fix it and how you can
make it better next time. My manager empowers her employees and there is open
communication. She also gets our feedback and asks us questions. These
are the things that help make a good leader great.
She also
asks what challenges we each face and what we think can make it better. For
example, we send out many emails explaining changes that happen and we follow
up with training so that medical and front desk assistants can get the
information shown to them in a training setting, where they can feel they can
ask questions and get clarification as needed. All these things are what will
make a good organization better and help everyone embrace changes for the
better.
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