...is part of a series which previews the new skills Amtrak’s leaders are developing as part of the Amtrak Leadership Development Excellence (ALDE), Part 1 program. Amtrak’s newest leadership development program ALDE, Part 1 uses the DiSC assessment to help our leaders improve productivity, teamwork and communication. Leadership styles may be described as: Dominance: Focus on results, the bottom line; Influence: Focus on influencing or persuading others; Steadiness: Focus on cooperation, sincerity, dependability; or Conscientiousness: Focus on quality and accuracy. DEFINITIONS Leader: A person who leads or commands a group, organization or a country. Leadership: The action of leading a group of people or an organization (guidance, control, direction, management). Leadership Traits (according to INC. Magazine) These are 9 Traits That Define Great Leadership: Many leaders are competent but few qualify as remarkable. 1. Awareness: Leaders understand the difference between managing a group and being a follower within that group. Once they accept this, it will form their image, their actions, and their communication. They will conduct themselves in a way that sets them apart from their peers--not in a manner that suggests they are better than others, but in a way that permits them to retain an objective perspective on everything that's going on in their organization. 2. Decisiveness: All leaders must make tough decisions, it goes with the job. They understand...
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...individual accountable day in and day out for his and her own tasks. Holding a person accountable for their actions can also assist in creating accountability for the department, unit, organization, and industry level of the organization. Accountability is considered to be a performance management system to improve and measure quality in the health care industry (O'Hagan & Persaud, 2009). “The good leader works hard to make sure that there is little transfer of accountability from the staff to the leader when it comes to accountable decision making” (Porter-O'Grady & Malloch, 2007, p.116 ). In order to be accountable an individual must be direct with his or actions, decisions and outcome, and in the health care industry there is lack of clarity when it comes to actions, responsibility and results, it is up to the leader to form the ideas that will support the decisions being made. Being accountable is when a person knows what his or her work is worth. Employee’s accountability is measured in the health care industry by setting goals that can be tracked, and employer feedback is also helpful. The "U.S. Office of Personnel Management" (n.d.) website discusses how setting specific goals for each employee will help measure the employees’ performance accurately and most of all fairly; by doing it this way the leader or manager will notice if there is a problem that needs immediate assistance or needs to be addressed all together, and each employee is held accountable. Make...
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...were the historic developments leading to modern group practices? How may the recent passage of health care reform legislation affect group practices in the future? Please take 1-2 significant developments such as accountable care organizations (ACOs), medical group homes, etc. and relate them to the future of physician group practices. The evolution of Medical Group practice began with Mayo Clinic during World War I. There is no exact date when this started but has become a very import aspect of the health care delivery system. Organizations such as the American College of Medical Patrice Executives (ACMPE), Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) and American College of Physician Executive (ACPE) were established in support of group practices. Group Practice defined by the American Medical Association is “the provision of health care services by a group of at least three licensed physicians engaged in a formally organized and legally recognized entity; sharing equipment, facilities, common records, and personnel involved in both patient care business and management”. In the early days the AMA was very concerned about group practices and the challenges they would likely to encounter. Some of these concerns included the relationship between employers & employees, prepayment of medical services which could potentially threaten the integrity of the physician patient relationship. Another concern was the involvement by group practices in consumer controlled health care cooperatives...
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...common goals. Groups evolve into teams when the group works actively together to achieve a common purpose for which they hold themselves collectively accountable. In turn, high-performance teams are those teams that have strong core values, have specific performance objectives, have the right mix of technical, problem-solving, decision-making, interpersonal skills, and possess creativity. This paper will explain how a group can become a high-performance team. This paper will also include the impact of demographic characteristics and culture diversities on a high-performance team. Introduction Groups are important sources for performance, creativity, and enthusiasm for organization. Becoming a high-performance team not only takes a collective workforce among the members, but a good leader. An effective group achieves high-levels of task performance, member satisfaction, and team viability. In turn, high-performance teams are those teams that have strong core values, have specific performance objectives, have the right mix of technical, problem-solving, decision-making, interpersonal skills, and possess creativity. High-Performance Teams High-performance teams start with having the members that contain skills required to succeed. In addition, the leader creates clear and precise rules for the team. Managers set the expectations of team goals and the members of the team carry out this goal collectively. One the biggest difference of a group and a high-performance...
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...Are Leaders Born or Made? For centuries people have debated whether leaders are born or made. Several decades ago researchers started trying to answer the question. The debate goes on, even though we know the answer. It turns out to be a little of both. Leaders are sort of born and they're always made. Knowing the details will help you develop effective leaders for your company. Leaders are Sort of Born It seems like there's only one thing that a person needs to actually be born with in order to be a leader later in life. That's intelligence. A leader needs to be smart enough. Effective leaders aren't necessarily the smartest people in the room or the company or even on the team. But they have to be smart enough to do the job they're assigned. What's more important is what kind of person the potential leader is when he or she becomes an adult. The person who emerges from adolescence into young adulthood has the psychological and character traits they'll demonstrate for the rest of their life. Some of those matter for leadership. By the time a person becomes an adult we can tell if they can help other people achieve results. That, after all, is what we expect leaders to do. We expect them to achieve success through a group. We expect them to help their subordinates grow and develop. By the time a person becomes an adult, we can tell if they want to achieve objectives or if they just want to go along and take it easy. We expect leaders to be responsible for achieving results...
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...working is an important concept of the society wherein few people work together towards a common goal. In American culture, working in teams often considered contrary. Marvin Weisbord, author and organizational development expert, mentioned that, “Teamwork is the quintessential contradiction of a society grounded in individual achievement.” Still building, leading and organizing successful teams considered as a critical leadership task. It is always challenging to have people work together closely to achieve specific tasks in any team environment. The team is “a group of individuals who work together to produce products or deliver services for which they are mutually accountable.” -- Mohrman et al. The team is “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” -- Katzenbach and Smith The team is “two or more people who must coordinate their activities to accomplish a common goal.” -- Shonk High Performance Teams are always working collaboratively and effectively across the organization to accomplish given team tasks and objectives, delivers the competitive results quickly enough to remain as top performers. There are challenges such as team conflicts, obtaining maximum results from the teams and managing highly diverse teams – maintaining teamwork mentality as well capitalizing on the diversity of talents, skills, knowledge and personalities within the team...
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...to Strong Leadership (thus a Great Manager) 1. Develop trust and credibility (trustworthiness, dependability). When people trust you, they will be more inclined (willing) to follow you. If they follow you, and you have all the pieces of the puzzle in place as described throughout this course, you will succeed. A leader builds trust by considering the “good of all” when making decisions. Leaders do not abuse their power, but build trust by using it properly. Trust fosters (encourage, nurture, promote) collaboration, which contributes to openly sharing information, which then creates a solid team who supports each other. Trust is based on the respect and expectations of a leader who cares and acts with compassion (pity, mercy, sympathy) in a most positive way. With trust there is: • Honesty • Integrity • Compassion (pity, mercy, sympathy) • Fairness • Good relationships Incorporating (combining) these five traits (quality, characteristic) will help guide you on the right path to strong leadership. 2. Share the vision with absolute clarity. Leaders need to share the vision of what they want their department to achieve. For example, a leader might share a vision like, “We will be a world class customer service organization that provides the benchmark (criterion for measuring the level) for customer satisfaction.” To get others to see and understand your vision, you need to motivate and inspire with the same enthusiasm and positivity you have inside you...
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...The Most Successful Leaders Do 15 Things Automatically, Eve... http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2013/02/18/the-most-s... Glenn Llopis, Contributor I share the immigrant perspective on leadership & workplace innovation LEADERSH I P | 2/18/2013 @ 9:22AM | 1,440,230 views The Most Successful Leaders Do 15 Things Automatically, Every Day Leadership is learned behavior that becomes unconscious and automatic over time. For example, leaders can make several important decisions about an issue in the time it takes others to understand the question. Many people wonder how leaders know how to make the best decisions, often under immense pressure. The process of making these decisions comes from an accumulation of experiences and encounters with a multitude of difference circumstances, personality types and unforeseen failures. More so, the decision making process is an acute understanding of being familiar with the cause and effect of behavioral and circumstantial patterns; knowing the intelligence and interconnection points of the variables involved in these patterns allows a leader to confidently make decisions and project the probability of their desired outcomes. The most successful leaders are instinctual decision makers. Having done it so many times throughout their careers, they become immune to the pressure associated with decision making and extremely intuitive about the process of making the most strategic and best decisions. This is why...
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...Lencioni, president of The Table Group and author of multiple management books, including "The Advantage" and "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team," discussed the behaviors of healthy and successful organizations. Mr. Lencioni began the discussion by noting that any successful organization must be smart and healthy. Usually, the "smart" side of the equation takes up 98 percent of leaders' attention, not devoting as much energy to maintaining the organization's health, which includes minimal politics and confusion, high degrees of morale, high productivity and low turnover. "Most CEOs say they would give a left leg to have healthier organizations, but it's hard to measure," said Mr. Lencioni. It's more emotional and behavioral, and many leaders find it safer and more objective to improve the "smart" side of things. Unfortunately, it's the often-ignored health aspects of an organization that determine its success. "I have yet to go into an organization and say, 'This could be a great organization, if only those executives weren't so dumb.' Every one is smart enough to be successful, but they're not healthy enough to tap into that knowledge," said Mr. Lencioni. Here are four things Mr. Lencioni said healthy organizations do: 1. They build and maintain cohesive leadership teams. 2. They create clarity by answering six simple questions (which are listed below). 3. They over-communicate. People have to hear things seven times before they believe it. Most leaders don't like to over-communicate...
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...#1 Honesty and Integrity Great leaders create an organizational culture built on these two core values and hold all employees accountable to them. Without honesty and integrity as fundamental cornerstones of an organization, they will rarely succeed long term. And creating such a culture starts at the top of the organization. Everyone watches the leader and takes their cues as to what is acceptable behavior. Effective leaders must also be trustworthy. They are recognized for always telling the truth and for practicing the highest standards of ethical conduct. Subordinates believe them and do not feel that their leader has hidden agendas. Good leaders readily admit their mistakes. Although difficult to do, this shows they are honest and can be trusted. Great leaders show they have the best interests of the company in mind rather than their own personal gain, by making good on their commitments. They hold themselves accountable for their actions and decisions, and encourage their employees to do likewise. Transparency is also important, even when there is bad news to share. Employees know when things are not going well. Trying to put a positive spin without acknowledging the organization’s difficulties will cost the leader his or her credibility. Sharing both the bad and the good creates deeper trust and respect. #2 Outstanding Self Awareness A leader must understand their own strengths and weaknesses. All of us have faults and instinctive behaviors that...
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...Democratic decision making is when the leader gives up ownership and control of a decision and allows the group to vote. Majority vote will decide the action. Advantages include a fairly fast decision, and a certain amount of group participation. The disadvantage of this style includes no responsibility. An individual is not responsible for the outcome. In fact, even the group feels no real responsibility because some members will say, "I didn't vote for that.". Lack of group and personal responsibility seems to disqualify this style of decision making; however, the democratic style does have its place in business. Autocratic decision making is when the leader maintains total control and ownership of the decision. The leader is also completely responsible for the good or bad outcome as a result of the decision. The leader does not ask for any suggestions or ideas from outside sources and decides from his or her own internal information and perception of the situation. Advantages include a very fast decision, and personal responsibility by the leader, for the outcome. If an emergency situation exists, the autocratic style is usually the best choice. The disadvantages are varied and sometimes include less than desired effort from the people that must carry out the decision. If the employee is personally affected by the decision but not included when the decision is made, morale and effort may or may not suffer. It is not always predictable. If the outcome for the decision is...
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...The Wisdom of Teams Creating the High-Performance Organization by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith Take-Aways • Teams always outperform working groups of individuals when the teams are properly understood and supported. • Many managers don't understand teams and most don't act on what they do know. • To really come together as a team, a group needs a performance challenge. • This high-performance team must have a clear, specifi c purpose that is distinct from the purpose of its larger organization. • Team success depends on having the right mix of skills, not the right personalities. • Team achievement requires discipline. • Forming teams requires time; driving them to high performance takes enthusiasm. • Make team success more likely by sharing work approaches and behaviors, and by communicating frequently and clearly. • Real teams are uncommon in the upper levels of companies due to organizational structures, demands on executive time and hierarchical assumptions. • Teams go through a natural life cycle, from separate individuals, to a coalition, to a higher performance mode in which members care about one another. The Fundamentals of Teams Managers think they know what teams are. Most understand that their organizations’ need for good teams may be growing in the face of increased change and its challenges. However, often they either don’t know what it takes to make a team function well or they don’t apply what they do know, even when it is...
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...economy by setting higher standards for schools. To enforce these standards, legislatures are creating high-stakes assessment systems that hold schools accountable for student achievement. In response to this initiative the president of the United States, Barack Obama, has created an initiative called “Race to the top”. This program was developed to give school districts financial incentives to improve failing schools and motivate educators about attaining these expectations. In addition, this “race to the top” initiative will increase the emphasis of accountability on teachers and school leaders. More than ever, in today’s climate of heightened expectations, principals are in the hot seat. They are being scrutinized on their ability to improve teaching and learning. They need to be educational visionaries, instructional and curriculum leaders, assessment experts, disciplinarians, community builders, public relations experts, budget analysts, facility managers, special programs administrators, and expert overseers of legal, contractual, and policy mandates and initiatives. They are expected to broker the often-conflicting interests of parents, teachers, students, district office officials, unions, and state and federal agencies, and they need to be sensitive to the widening range of student needs. A principal is usually held accountable in formal and informal ways for school outcomes by their superintendent, the school board, the staff, and the parents. The primary administrative...
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...Many companies have embraced executive coaching and mentoring as their main approaches to promote development initiatives. But in today’s businesses these do not address the real-world, group dynamics that executives must contend with. Behavior within a group in the organization can be influenced by group dynamics, interactions, group cohesiveness, the work environment, social influences, and leadership. We will explore each of these elements of group behavior within an organization. Groups Dynamics “Group dynamics is the area of social science that focuses on advancing knowledge about the nature of group life” (Johnson & Johnson, 2009, pg.1). Understanding group dynamics in the business world allows companies to change their focus and production to meet the new challenges of a global market. Companies today, rely on teams of employees to help develop, design and initiate new products. Not only do these teams work together in the same location, they are able to work across the country or around the world. Group dynamics can also enhance leadership development. Group based leadership requires leaders to work in unison so they may develop executive skill sets, tackle real-world challenges in real time, provide one another with high-value feedback, and enhance their interpersonal communications. Achieving Mutual Goals through Positive Interdependence “Positive interdependence exists when one perceives that one is linked with others in a way that one cannot...
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...organization. The effectives of leadership and management influence the success of the organization. Leaders guide the direction to the group, and the managers focus on the achievements of the organization. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the personal views of leadership, differentiate between management and leadership and explain the characteristics of an effective leader. Personal Views of Leadership In my opinion, the leader must have the potential to motivate the team members. A leader must be able to communicate effectively as well as have good listening skills. In my Personal view, a health care leader must be able to make detrimental decisions, able to work in a diverse community, culture, people and yet maintain tenacity and professionalism. My preference is to work with a leader who respects a healthcare professional, and not function on the basis of dictatorship whereby nurses are comfortable approaching the head with their problems or concerns. A leader needs to be consistent, visionary, confident, assertive, yet fair and open-minded so that the team members trust them, and together they attain the goals and be a success. Leadership and Management There is a close relationship between leadership and management, but they have different concepts. A leader is one who impacts others and uses interpersonal skills to achieve the goal. The organization employs the manager, who is responsible and accountable for accomplishment of the goals of the organization (Sullivan...
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