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Advice from the Experts
Experts address the professional concerns of healthcare executives.
Reed L. Morton, Ph.D., FACHE
Marilyn Moats Kennedy
Q.
My state hospital association has recently established
a mentoring program. I am considering becoming a mentor,
but before I commit, I want to be certain I have what
it takes to be successful in this role. What must one
do to make a mentoring relationship succeed?
Mentoring is a voluntary learning relationship in which one professional
contributes to the professional development of another.
When mentoring first became an accepted learning strategy
in the workplace, relationships deemed “successful”
were those founded on similarities between the partners.
It was almost as though through the relationship, the
mentor nearly produced a clone. With today’s rapid
rate of change in the field, however, mentors must focus
on preparing the next generation of healthcare leaders
for an increasingly complex and uncertain environment.
To this end, mentors must be facilitators more than commanders.
Perhaps the most important guidance mentors can offer
is to ask their proteges to take responsibility for developing
their own agenda and then to push it forward. Don’t
try basing the relationship only on your agenda. An exemplary
mentor is one who listens attentively, poses thought-provoking
questions, and offers challenges. This means making yourself
available during your meetings by focusing totally-intellectually
and emotionally-on your protege’s needs. If you can
commit yourself completely to the mentorship, you will
earn the trust of your protege. And trust is the real
glue of the relationship. Knowing that he or she has your
confidence will give your protege room to explore without
fear. To build this trust and confidence, you should reserve
judgment until the appropriate time for providing feedback.
Then, your feedback should be constructive, both in content
and in its delivery.
The most successful mentoring partners develop clear expectations
of each other. They create and adhere to a schedule of
meetings that both parties treat as a priority. After
establishing goals at the beginning of the relationship,
they then work together to create a plan to reach those
goals. For example, a protege may be reluctant to deal
with conflict. The mentor may suggest ways to learn about
conflict management and scenarios that might ensue from
attempting to manage conflict positively. The protege
can then try a new approach and debrief with the mentor
on the results.
With trust in the relationship, it will be natural to establish
benchmarks to gauge whether the arrangement is succeeding.
For example, at your first meeting, both you and your
protege should spend one minute writing an initial response
to the statement, “Tell me about yourself.”
At the end of your mentorship, do the same and compare
your opening statement with your final one. Examine how-or
if-these statements have changed and what role the mentoring
relationship has played in that process. The significance
of the mentorship in your experience-developing leaders
for the mentor, developing as a leader for the protege-will
be important information that differentiates you from
other executives. You may decide at this point that you
are satisfied with your accomplishments in the mentorship,
or you may want to continue and redirect your plan. In
this case, be prepared to be flexible. Do allow some room
for discovery and change, both in the goals and the steps
for achieving them.
Clarity of purpose and commitment of time and energy are the key
ingredients for mentoring success. There should be no
expectation that the mentor will deliver the protege a
new job as part of the experience. Both parties, however,
should expect that they will emerge with greater insight
into how to lead and how to develop new leaders. Remember,
organizations succeed when colleagues behave as leaders
even without holding formal leadership positions.
Reed L. Morton, Ph.D., FACHE
Director, Healthcare Executive Career Resource Center
American College of Healthcare Executives
Q. My boss recently retired, and I was her designated successor.
She had held the job for 20 years and developed a huge
organizationwide network. She could call on almost anyone
for a favor. My peers are now my subordinates, and they
are not responding with much enthusiasm. How can I take
control of the job and overcome the inevitable round of
comparisons?
Before this litany becomes your eulogy, count your assets. Your
new boss obviously believes you can do the job. Don’t
even hear those who say you got the job because you outlasted
the other candidates, would work cheap, or were a favorite.
Instead:
Partner with your boss. You require his/her back-up and support
while you take control. Even if your former boss told
you everything he/she thought you needed to know before
retiring, only your new boss can give you the power to
do the job. Don’t even consider running to your old
boss with questions and problems; you’ll convince
your subordinates that the job’s too much of a stretch.
Present your priorities in writing to your new boss. List
deadlines and get his/her agreement that you’re on
target. Inevitably, a newly appointed boss assumes that
the higher-ups want business as usual. Not necessarily.
Your current boss can now make changes and will.
Set parameters for subordinates. They expect business
as usual. Imagine their surprise when you meet with each
one and explain how his/her job will change. If you tell
them what to expect and how to manage you, their adjustment
to your style will be easier. Explain your hot buttons.
Let there be no surprises. The more you share your expectations,
the easier the transition.
Network. You must maintain all your ex-boss’s contacts. They
need you as much as you need them. Even though you are
swamped, make time for lunch and/or coffee with new peers
and important support people every day. You’ll need
breaks almost as much as you need contacts. Once a week
have coffee or lunch with the troops. They may be feeling
overwhelmed or confused, too. They will tell you so if
given a chance.
Pace yourself. Don’t let the need to show you’re
in control make you rush to take on too many projects.
You may think that you’re under enormous pressure
to produce a quick, splashy success, but most likely,
this pressure is self-imposed. Your boss probably has
a more humane, reasonable timetable.
Correct mistakes immediately. The essence of control is whether
people do what you ask. If you announce changes in process,
output, or content, and someone continues in the old ways,
explain again what you expect and then ask, “Can
you live with it?” If the person agrees, that problem
will not arise again. You may find one or two people who
will tell you quite candidly that they don’t want
to change and are looking for new opportunities inside
and outside. Give them your blessing and assistance.
Shirk the border wars. Your new peers are as curious as
your subordinates to find out what you’re made of.
A group of managers who are pressing a particular issue
may see you as an ally who could tip the balance in their
favor. Avoid them and their cause unless death from extreme
stress is your first goal. The first rule of peer relationships
is to keep them at arm’s length until you have control
of your job.
Keep your sense of humor. Even if every nerve ending in
your body is tingling on red alert, don’t let it
show. A subordinate who calls you by the old boss’s
name should be subject to the dog bite rule. One bite
is allowed, the second will be punished. If you’re
left out of a meeting, don’t obsess. Watch to see
that it doesn’t happen again.
Both large and small organizations loathe change. The infrastructure
had 20 years to become accustomed to your boss; give it
at least three months to adjust to you.
Marilyn Moats Kennedy
Managing Partner
Career Strategies
This article is reprinted from Healthcare Executive.
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