Lead Article:
Leadership Minus Courage Bankrupts Company Performance
 
By Katharine White MS, CS, CPHQ

At no other time in recent history has the need been greater for leaders to overcome fear and build their “bank of courage” to move ahead in this economic downturn. The tendency to give in to fear and “hibernate”, waiting for spring, will effectively bankrupt a company's potential performance. The truth is, it doesn’t take an economic downturn to suffer the effects of leadership fear. The downturn only amplifies the negative impact of a leader who tends to hold back from taking action even when it is for the best. Leaders who are hampered by fear tend to understate what is necessary to get results through people; that is, they under-manage and under-communicate then wonder why results fall below the line.

Common leadership fears are that the employee won't like it if instructions are too direct; that leadership will be viewed as too demanding; that persons in hard to fill positions will “quit”; that delegation is destined to fail since the leader's way is better; that others will misunderstand motives; that co-workers will be unsupportive if leaders take an unpopular, yet necessary stand and so on.

Employees in this environment are confused, un-engaged, and less than highly productive. Given these impacts, leaders would be wise to harness, transform and overcome fear by building their "bank of courage", effectively securing company performance now and for the future.

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What does Courage look like?

Famous examples of courage are described in Profiles in Courage, written in 1956, where John Fitzgerald Kennedy related the stories of 8 senators who showed astounding integrity in the face of overwhelming opposition. They adhered to their values, and took a stand based on conscience and not the popular vote. In your own backyard, who has been willing to take a stand, despite detractors, toward the achievement of a common good, in the face of diminishing resources, difficult decisions and dissenting opinions? Surely examples come to mind. Hopefully those examples represent, in part, current leaders in organizations whose ability to personify courage directly impacts on securing a brighter future for their employees and customers.

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When does Courage fail?

There is no shortage of scenarios in which leadership courage is at risk for failure. Here are some of those examples: It can fail when a manager witnesses an employee being verbally abusive to a colleague, and does not intervene; when the CEO ignores the suggestions of his or her team, but espouses empowerment; when some company favorites are rewarded and others are not, even if the performance measures fall short; when a dysfunctional VP is allowed to erode the spirit and productivity of a division unabated; when too little time or resource is given to implement a quality educational program, but the team is expected to still produce improved results; and when customers are faulted for poor satisfaction scores, due to an assumption that they just must expect too much.

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What does building Courage mean?

While some individuals are naturally more courageous than others it is possible to build competence in Courage.

The behaviors that comprise Courage, derived from the Checkpoint 360 of Profiles International, Inc., are: instilling trust, providing direction and delegating effectively.

The Courageous leader instills trust, provides direction and delegates effectively. Behavioral descriptors of each element are described in the box below.

Leadership Behavioral Descriptors The Second C - Courage

Instills Trust -- Can be trusted to keep promises and confidences is honest and ethical truthful in communication

Provides direction -- Establishes clear expectations and manageable workload plans the steps required to accomplish objectives while keeping focus on overall vision

Delegates Effectively delegates appropriate jobs to appropriate people

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How does a Leader build Courage?

To build courage, others must first trust you as a leader. In so doing, you feel supported, more willing to take risks, step up to challenges and provide direction.

As you take risks, provide direction and delegate effectively, your courage rises. The following are recommended steps to build courage as referenced in the 5 Cs Leadership Curriculum.

Step 1 - Build Trust - Do what you say you will do

Step 2 - Set Direction - Be bold on setting clear goals

Step 3 - Delegate Effectively - Believe in others to take on tasks and hold iron-clad accountability

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What steps do you need to take to build your "Courage bank"?

To answer this, ask yourself these questions:

For Step 1: Do you communicate truthfully now versus holding back when an employee is performing incorrectly? Do you address disrespectful communication right away instead of when “conditions are better”?

For Step 2: Do you provide a compelling vision and plan for your department/organization or neglect articulating it? Do you make the tough decisions and communicate them because the buck really does stop with you or do you "string employees along" while they flounder with confusion?

For Step 3: Do you delegate the tough tasks and overcome your tendency to “hold on”? Do you press through mounting resistance, requesting new behavior on a needed change even when you feel like giving in?

Answers to these will give you a “gut check” on whether you need more development in these areas.

Consider this: Shortfalls in courage can literally bankrupt a company’s performance. Getting results through people requires leaders to build their "bank of courage" through instilling trust, providing direction and delegating effectively. After the recessionary wave has swept through our companies, it will be those who demonstrated courage in the face of these adverse times will be on the “highest ground.”

Avoid bankrupting performance by building courage; the dividends will pay off exponentially.


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If you would like to learn more about the initiatives, (including the 5 C’s Leadership curriculum), that will transform your organizations culture to one of higher quality, satisfaction and safety, visit www.healthcarerenaissance.net for Health Care organizations and www.lighthousePSI.com for business.

Stay tuned for upcoming publications that will look at other competencies in more detail and apply them to case scenarios for deepening understanding of the importance of these as keys to Navigating Leadership.

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- Beta Test Site Search

Health Care Values: Patient Safety First© Program recently released by Lighthouse Performance Strategies, Inc is looking for a beta test site:

Introduction: Health Care’s credibility is being challenged by the backlash of avoidable patient care errors, hospital acquired conditions, inconsistent care and service quality and patient dissatisfaction. Growing a solid Culture of Safety and Quality will firmly root an organization to establish credibility by achieving success measures of optimal patient safety, consistent care quality, improved employee engagement and ultimately financial viability.

Health Care Values: Patient Safety First© is an organizational development and training initiative that creates a solid communication and accountability infrastructure for sustaining excellence. The 5 C’s© Leadership Curriculum, coupled with Performance Outcomes Sustainability Coaching (POS Coaching©), are core interventions that help leaders hold accountability on key Culture of Safety and Quality values based behaviors, resulting in the achievement of any Health Care organization’s defined success measures.

Beta Test Invitation: Lighthouse Performance Strategies, Inc. is seeking a Health Care organization, who is committed to care/service and leader excellence. The setting may be acute, ambulatory, physician office practice, home care, long term care, or behavioral health or companies that are suppliers to Health Care such as medical equipment or IT.

The leadership team must be open to innovation, have a "burning platform" for change, be willing to allocate resources (time, attention and beta test funding ) to invest in leadership development, and be willing to coordinate the beta initiative with already existing improvement activities to achieve program synergy toward the achievement of success measures. Must be willing to participate in a combination of in person and virtual delivery.

The beta test organization will have a pre and post-assessment to determine efficacy (outcomes) and the publication of an associated white paper.

For more information, please contact us.

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- Mentoring Mastermind Group

We have found that getting from an idea i.e., "Mentoring is a good idea" (see our Flashbyte on this subject), to creating a culture in which Mentoring is a successful developmental way of being and working, involves a journey. That journey is in essence an experiment. If you would like to join like-minded individuals in the journey to harvesting employee, educator, and student engagement from a mentoring culture, please sign on!

If you are interested in joining an upcoming Mentoring Master Mind Group Session on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 1:00PM Eastern, please register here.

For more information, click here.

And please visit our Mentoring MasterMind blog!

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If you would like more information on the Healthcare Values: Patient Safety First© consultative process for Helth Care, or Business Values: Customers First © please contact:
Lighthouse Performance Strategies, Inc. www.lighthousePSI.com
1-401-632-4237

Learn more about Healthcare Renaissance Consulting at our website: http://www.healthcarerenaissance.net/