Influential leadership involves taking action on problems or opportunities that others are unwilling or afraid to consider—and doing so right now. After making a decision, the influential leader knows how to inspire others to action. You can secure the cooperation of your staff through encouragement or fear; either approach can get the job done. If you choose fear, however, you also will be opting for more staff sick days, more dissatisfied patients and, perhaps, an unnecessary lawsuit. But if you choose encouragement, you will nurture an atmosphere of teamwork, communication and respect—all factors that contribute to both the practice’s bottom line and the long-term satisfaction of all. By employing the following management strategies, you can build a productive and profitable practice that is founded on communication, empathy and respect.

Who Gets Respect?
Effective leaders know that influence has a great deal to do with respect. And in order to get respect from others, you must display respect in everything you do; indeed, how you think of others dictates your actions toward them. A good leader knows that everyone is sensitive to feeling respected and creates a workforce that embodies a mutual respect between its members.

Another key to leading with influence is having empathy; empathy in leadership is not so much a technique as it is a quality built on learned skills that provide an environment for understanding and a meeting of the minds. In the same way we furnish our offices and homes, it is with empathy that we provide an atmosphere for understanding. By being empathetic toward others, leaders get a true sense of what is important to each team member. They are able to energize the work group and emphasize a person-to-person response that engenders trust, loyalty and good old-fashioned hard work.

Hone Listening Skills
One team member I know used his influence by simply summarizing what the team was doing, what they were saying and what they were deciding. Every 20 minutes or so, he would look a little perplexed, like the TV character Columbo, and say, “Let me see if I have this right. Are we saying . . .?” His colleagues would then look at one another as if it were a new, unique and valuable contribution to the meeting. Using this technique, he guided the group and became one of the most influential members of the team.

When your staff feels as though you understand and listen on an empathetic level, they will feel great support from you—and you don’t have to agree, simply listen. Seek feedback early and often by, for instance, having an employee suggestion box. Provide a forum for positive group input and discussion. Bring people together for advice, work and projects. Before announcing major changes, ask employees for their advice.

Consider honing your listening skills on all levels; this can add to the bottom line in many ways. Not only will you be forewarned of crucial stumbling blocks, you will gain more team support. And this enhanced sense of community will pay big dividends down the road.

Empower Staff
Successful teams don’t develop overnight. While some groups need a strong leader, they also may need to learn the skill of dialogue and input. Assess the needs and skill levels of your group, and then help them move from one level to the next.

As a leader, your job is to elicit ideas from team members for optimal learning to happen. This is not to say that you must agree with or act on every idea. The task is merely to elicit ideas in order to create a dynamic learning environment.

Adults learn best when they are active learners. They are more likely to implement what they themselves have researched and learned. Why not ask staff to develop and implement ideas for improving the welcome and sign-in procedure or minimizing waiting-room time? Why not empower them to help you create the new employee handbook or orientation manual?

Is It Your Nature to Nurture?
At a recent meeting of physician executives, the participants were asked to identify examples of some of their best creative leaders, as well as some of their worst leaders. The best leaders listened, bestowed responsibility, showed confidence, used humor and had other characteristics that seem to be embodied by good leaders we all know.

The worst examples were portrayed as self-seeking, mean, angry and more. The remarkable part of the exercise, however, was not what the participants said, but how they said it. When asked for their “bests,” one by one they politely gave descriptive words. In discussing their “worsts,” however, the audience couldn’t talk fast enough—a flipchart was filled in a matter of seconds. Asked about this phenomenon, one participant said, “Well I guess it’s always easier to remember the bad stuff than the good. We all do it all the time.”

Perhaps the most successful leaders think differently. It is possible that concentrating on the negative simply isn’t an option for the best leaders among us. Effective leaders may actually have a way of screening out the negative. Instead they rely on those positive skills and activities that will help them influence others.

Consider your children’s excellent preschool teachers. When you get to watch them interact with your children, aren’t you in awe of their influence and their ability to guide and nurture? Or consider the teachers of your preadolescents. The best ones do things differently from those you don’t admire so much. They all teach the same subjects, but differently. Consider your mentors and teachers, the ones you would recommend to your family. They went to the same schools as everyone else, but they must have learned something different along the way—they perfected something that makes them special.

Be Known for Doing
Every leader is continually under pressure to become better. Each responds in the way he or she knows best. Some rise to the challenge; some fail. Worse yet, others remain the same. Have you known leaders who fail to become better over time? Do you have some on your staff who are ordinary or mediocre? Are some colleagues not quite up to par?

There are few guarantees in life—only commitments. Extraordinary leaders don’t make promises; they fulfill them. If you really want to be special, be known for doing. The thank-you note in your own handwriting, the wake you attend and the unexpected phone call all make a difference in how others regard you.

______________________________
Find Time to Communicate

Being an influential leader also means building trust with every member of the team. Trust can only be established with communication, which takes time.

At a recent meeting of physician executives, one doctor viewed a video that mentioned direct talk and direct contact with coworkers as a valuable tool in making an organization work more efficiently. Afterward, he said, “I wish it were that way for us at our place.” He went on to describe an organization that had so formalized the communication process that it had all but eliminated “just talking.” For this physician executive, the basics of conversation, interaction and common talk had become a longed-for luxury. In what others call ordinary, he found the extraordinary.

Sometimes in small practices, we as the managers feel we must do it all. Must we? We mistakenly believe that we really can do it all. Worse, we believe that the simple gestures we associate with relationships are not as important as “the meeting” or “the agenda” or “my time.” We instead place importance on the content, the tasks and the paper. We think that the more technical expertise we acquire, the more our leadership will be enhanced. It is as if we believe, “When they see how much I know, they’ll follow me to where I want to go.” Followers who perceive this message frequently say under their breath, “Oh, no!” (For tips on time management, see last month’s Practice Perfect at www.eyenetmagazine.org/archives.)