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cnelligan -> Welcome to the Therapist's Coach Forum (July 6, 2005 5:02:00 AM)
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Teams have always fascinated me. Perhaps “growing up” in an acute rehab hospital with authentic leadership and a true transdisciplinary approach I was never meant to lower these great expectations. Ever since this experience I have continued to be intrigued by what truly unifies a group of people working together and why some teams are winners and some never quite get there. My experience on the Moss Drucker Brain Injury Center got me completely hooked on the concept of a winning team. The leader there, part researcher, part clinician, part father and physiatrist set the tone for over 30 individuals to form and perpetuate a confident team.
One of my favorite reads in 2004 was business guru, Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s book Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End. From the simplest of ball games to the most complicated business situations, she explored the common element in winning - a basic truth about human nature: People rise to the occasion when their leaders help them gain confidence to do it. How does she define confidence?
Confidence truly is an expectation of success.
When a person or a team expects success, they are willing to put in the effort to achieve it. It is confidence that attracts investments from a team…not just financial investment, but their time, energy, loyalty and commitment.
Kanter writes about the three cornerstones of confident and winning teams. Through years of research with such organizations as Continental airlines, Verizon and the New York Yankees, she points to the cornerstones of accountability, collaboration and initiative.
Accountability means that people take personal responsibility; seeing where one’s responsibility lies. They face facts and feedback honestly, being able to admit mistakes quickly and do something about them. Accountability comes from honest, accurate facts and knowing what responsibility a person can take for acting in light of those facts. Accountability provides a firm foundation for confidence. You can be confident in leaders if you know leaders are telling you the truth. As a leader you build accountability around your people. You put the facts out on the table. You hold up the mirror of accountability. You show people where their performance fits in with the goals of the your clinic, your unit or your multidisciplinary team.
Collaboration is the second of Kanter’s cornerstones. It means teamwork. It means support. Confidence builds when you feel that you can count on the people around you and when they feel that they can count on you. But what is important is not doing everything together as a group, but whether you know what your team members are capable of. You respect other people for their strengths.. A great leader ensures that we understand each other’s discipline, clinical expertise,unique abilities and the like.
Finally there is Initiative. Unless there is permission and encouragement for people to take the initiative and feel that their actions can make a difference there is no confidence in the systems, in each other, and in the leader. It isn’t a secret that leaders don’t do it all by themselves. Initiative leads to innovation. It leads to new ideas and the right kind of risk taking. People need to be able to feel that they are supported in being active, in making contributions. Our basic need for meaningful work. In our field in the purest sense it would seem like a no-brainer but when we impose systems without some freedom it can slowly erode the meaningful work of getting patients well and back to their lives.
So it would seem confidence is truly confidence in others. Are you as a leader fostering these cornerstones in your present Team, Clinic or Organization? What steps could you take to create more confidence?
I welcome your comments and questions.
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