Searching for managerial, leadership skills along the yellow brick road

Healthcare Purchasing News, August, 2005 by Walton Justice

Most of us got into this volatile healthcare management arena because of our technical skills and not because of our managerial and leadership skills. For example, I learned technical or logistical skills via training as an Army medical supply officer. My managerial or leadership skills were of secondary concern, although they were a large part of my annual fitness evaluation. And what about the many clinicians who were promoted to supervisor or manager because of their excellent clinical skills but had little or no managerial or leadership training?

Just like Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion, we are in search of who we are--and who we are determines how we will manage and lead.

For example, Dorothy was afraid she had lost her way home, the Lion was searching for courage, the Tin Man was in search of a heart, and the Scarecrow was in search of a brain. So we have four distinct characters, four distinct personalities and four distinct patterns of action and attitude that behaviorists, psychologists, and others have studied for centuries.

Psychologist David Kiersey, in his book, Please Understand Me, talks about temperament, character and personality. There are two sides to personality temperament and character, which is of ultimate importance in leadership roles. Temperament is a configuration of inclination, while character is a configuration of habits.

Character is disposition; temperament is predisposition. Our brain is analogous to a computer--temperament is the hardware and character is software. The computer is the physical base from which our character emerges, which places an identifiable fingerprint on each individual's attitudes and actions. This underlying consistency can be observed at an early age, long before individual experiences or social context, our software (character) has had time or occasion to make its imprint on each of us.

Temperament is the inborn form of human nature; and character is the emergent form, which develops through the various interactions of temperament and the environments to which one is exposed. Kiersey asserts that temperament, character and personality are configured, meaning that not only are we predisposed to develop certain attitudes but not others, certain actions but not others, and that these actions and attitudes are unified.

Let us analyze these types, beginning with the most famous of all personality models--the Myers-Briggs. There are four basic themes: Extrovert (E) or introvert (I), intuition (I) or sensation (S), thinking (W) or feeling (F), and judging (J) or perceiving (P).

In 1962, Isabel Myers published The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and explained her four types of personalities: The SPs or artisans, the SJs or guardians, the NTs or rationals and the NFs or idealists.

From this there are 16 temperament "types." They are the following: INFP, INFJ, ENFP, ENFJ, ISFP, ESFP, ISFJ, ESFJ, INTP, ENTP, INTJ, ENTJ, ISTP, ESTP, ISTJ and ESTJ.

Now that we have a foundation for analysis and brief description of the various temperaments, let us look at management and leadership functions and traits. For those of you who have had a Fundamentals of Management, Business 101 or similar course, you will remember the four functions of management:

Planning--short and long term; organizing--line, staff or matrix; directing--taking charge of the department or organization; and controlling--implementing various techniques for managerial control.

Here's how various authors of management books compare and contrast management and leadership characteristics.

Adapting the catchphrase "You're a redneck if..." of comedian Jeff Foxworthy, author Marlene Caroselli, in her book, Leadership Skills for Managers, writes "You are a manager if:

* You direct work, rather than perform it.

* You have responsibility for tilting, firing, training and disciplining employees.

* You exercise authority over the quality of work and the conditions under which it is performed.

* You serve as a liaison between employees and upper management.

* You motivate employees and contribute to a culture of accomplishment.

But "You are a leader if:

* You believe that, working in concert with others, you can make a difference.

* You create something of value that did not exist before.

* You exhibit positive energy.

* You actualize.

* You welcome change."

Caroselli notes that leaders possess the following traits: Courage, pride, sincerity, adaptability, influence and multilingual abilities.

Leadership guru Warren Bennis, in his book, On Becoming a Leader, writes that leaders come in every shape, size and disposition (i.e., the temperament models), but they all seem to share some of the following descriptors: A guiding vision, passion, integrity, curiosity and daring.

Scott Snair offers another perspective on traits of leaders in his book, West Point Leadership Lessons; Duty, Honor, and Other Management Principles. He gives 10 leadership traits, which were learned from his days as a West Point cadet and as an Army officer: Duty, honor, country, mission, insight, execution, strategy, proficiency, loyalty and change.