Healthcare
leaders work in complex and continuously changing environments. The challenges
in this environment require new levels of leadership effectiveness. Leaders who
capitalize on complexity have the capacity to supplement Either/Or problem
solving skills with Both/And thinking.
June’s story
illustrates developing leadership effectiveness using a polarity lens.
Feeling the
pressure to meet performance improvement goals, June noticed herself becoming increasingly
impatient with her staff. She asked for
help to ensure her staff implemented her well-developed strategy and completed
their tasks. Before discussing this,
June agreed to explore her experience of being impatient and the impact it was
having on her and the team.
During our
conversation, June became aware that her impatience was connected to her need
to control the outcome of the project in order to be recognized for the
achievement and avoid the embarrassment of failure. This awareness shifted
June’s perspective from wanting to control the outcome to ensuring she was
being an effective leader. We discussed
this dilemma and tension using the lens of Polarity Thinking.
Polarities
are “An interdependent pair of values or alternative points of view that appear
different and unrelated, competitive, or even opposite, but in reality need
each other over time to reach outcomes neither can reach alone.” (Wesorick,
2016 p.6) Polarity Thinking supplements Either/Or problem solving with Both/And
thinking.
June was
experiencing a common leadership polarity:
Task AND Relationship. Task and
relationship each have a pole in the polarity and each have important values
and benefits. However, when one pole of
a polarity is overemphasized to the neglect of the other pole, over time, the
result will be to experience a negative, defeating energy; a vicious energy
system leading toward a deeper fear. June realized her impatience was due to her
overemphasis on task to the neglect of relationships driven by her fear of failure
and letting her team down.
When we find
ourselves in the energy of the downside of the pole we have overemphasized, we
have a natural tendency to course correct.
June acknowledged when she notices herself becoming impatient it is a
warning sign for her to evaluate how she is leveraging Task AND Relationships
and adjust her energy accordingly.
As June recognized
the impact her overemphasis on task was having on her team, she described what
she and her team were missing out on by not leveraging the value of
relationships. When they trust and support one another, they know their
achievement far exceeds what any one of them could accomplish alone. When both
Task and Relationship are leveraged a virtuous energy system is created that
leads to the teams greater purpose of creating a thriving workplace.
At the end
of our conversation June shared she was grateful for her new awareness that
being an effective leader required her to have the knowledge and skills for the
tasks to be accomplished AND self-awareness to recognize when there is a
problem to solve or a polarity to leverage.
Part 2 of
this blog will explore problems to solve and polarities to leverage along with
a Polarity Map® and Five-Step
S.M.A.L.L process for individuals and teams to leverage polarities.
References:
Wesorick, B. (2016) Polarity
Thinking in Healthcare: The Missing Logic to Achieve Transformation,
Amherst, MA: HRD Press Inc.
Blog post submitted by: Danine Casper, MHA, St. Joseph’s Adjunct Faculty Member HA 511 Leadership in Health Administration. Danine is also a Leadership Coach and
Consultant. www.aponicoaching.com
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