~~Leadership in the Dental Practice
Made it, Ma! Top of the world! Cody Jarrett, White Heat (1949)
Vivian: Why did you have to go on?
Philip Marlowe: Too many people told me to stop. The Big Sleep (1946)
In this series of blogs, I’ll be discussing Leadership. I’ll address the following traits and skills that good leaders must have:
• Motivating & Inspiring Others
• Listening Skills
• Recognizing and Meeting Needs
• Retaining Valuable Employees
• Understanding Personality Types
In this month’s blog, let’s talk about the generalities of leadership.
Both of the quotes above come from a little book that my wife gave me a few years ago, Take the Gun. Leave the Cannoli. A Wiseguy’s Guide to the Workplace. By Kurt Luchs. In this book, he takes lines from famous gangster films and applies them to how to get along in the workplace. I enjoy the book because I’ve worked with a lot of “wiseguys’ in my career.
The two quotes above come from the chapter, Getting Ahead: Tips for Success (Luchs, 2003). What do we learn from the quotes above? From Cody Jarrett, we learn to watch out, because success may blow up in our face (if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll understand). The quote by Philip Marlowe teaches us that if we follow orders, we’ll go far. “Don’t follow them and you’ll go a lot farther.” (Luchs, 2003)
Unfortunately, the world seems to believe success is a product of leadership. While it’s certain that many successful people are also leaders, I’d guess that a small majority are “managers”. Being a leader and being a manager can overlap, but there are leaders who are not managers and many, many managers who are definitely not leaders.
You see, a leader is out in front, while managers are all over the place. A good example to look at is the shepherd vs. the sheepherder:
A shepherd:
• Leads from the front
• Sets the example
• Knows the sheep
• Owns the sheep – in this analogy, we’ll say, “Takes ownership”
• Cares about the sheep’s well-being.
The Sheepherder:
• Drives the sheep from all sides:
o Managing up (making the boss happy)
o Managing sideways (making sure those he/she considers to be peers are happy)
o Manages down (pushes, drives, and disciplines subordinates)
• Often does not set the example, which requires being out front, but, rather expects subordinates to “do what I tell you, when I tell you, how I tell you, and only if I tell you”.
• Not only does not know the sheep, but really doesn’t care, as long as they are staying in line. The only ones that receive the manager’s care are the boss, and the peers.
• The manager usually does not take ownership, unless all the sheep get home safely. If they don’t, it was the coyote’s fault; or the stupid sheep wandered off and got themselves in trouble.
• The manager cares only about the successful completion of tasks. The sheep’s well-being is of no consequence and is subordinate to the task. For example, I once had a manager give us a large task on Friday afternoon and tell us it had to be finished by Monday morning. When we complained about the deadline, he said, “That’s okay, you have all weekend to get it done.”
How would the leader-manager have handled that situation? Perhaps like this: “Folks, I’m real sorry, but I received a last minute assignment for us to have this project done before noon on Monday. I’m sure you can see how important it is, we’re in a bind because our new account hit us with some deadlines at the last minute and we need to provide them what they need, or they’ll lose some very important business. How long do you all think it will take us to finish this? Would you like to work late tonight and see if we can wrap it up Saturday? Yes? Good. I’ll have pizza brought in and no matter where we are at 9 PM; we’ll call it a night and be back here at 7 in the morning. I’ll bring the bagels. Is it okay with the rest of you if we excuse John just for this evening? His daughter is performing in the school play.”
Get it?
Now, being a leader-manager is not the same as being a leader/manager. Al Capone was the latter. From “Leave the Cannoli”, “You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.” (The Untouchables (1987). Luchs then adds, “And the bigger the gun, the fewer the kind words you’ll need.” (Luchs, 2003)
A leader-manager has a balanced mix of the best attributes of both. The leader/manager will assume whatever persona thought necessary at the moment to get the job done. This is ingenuous and leads to a lack of trust from subordinates.
In my blog from November, 2013 (Bleiweiss, 2013), I quoted a simple definition from Grace Hopper, RADM, USN “You manage things; you lead people.” She went on to say, “We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership. It might help if we ran the MBAs out of Washington.”
Now, lest you think that I’m saying that managers have no place in an organization, I quote again my blog from November 2013: "Now, please keep in mind that managers are a necessity in an organization, but when they only “manage” and do it in the way of the archetypical managers who are, “safe, conservative, predictable, conforming organization men and team players, dedicated to the establishment.” (Nibley, 1994) The culture will stagnate, workers will become unhappy, and mediocrity will become the norm." (Bleiweiss, 2013)
In summary, what do you want to become, a leader, or a manager? Well, we’ll discuss over the next few months how to be the best of both. By being the best of both, your practice will naturally flourish financially, in worker morale, and patient satisfaction.
Works Cited
Bleiweiss, R. K. (2013, November). Leadership vs. Management. Retrieved February 2, 2015, from leandentalsolutions.com: http://www.leandentalsolutions.com/blog/comments/leadership-vs-management
Luchs, K. (2003). Leave the Gun. Take the Cannoli. A Wiseguy's Guide to the Workplace. Bellevue: Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Nibley, H. (1994). Leaders & Managers. Classic Speeches, Volume 1. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University.