Lessons in management and leadership
Periodically, I reflect upon things I鈥檝e learned, experienced and discovered along the way, things that might somehow lighten the next person鈥檚 journey. If I could identify a single item that was missing from my educational experiences, it would be that we are expected to garner our needed life skills from outside sources. Things like managing money, negotiating, balancing business and personal time, and figuring out what really matters and what is just noise.
For example, many professionals are typically not exposed to courses or information on how to run a successful business. I read in an article from TIME that veterinarians have one of the highest suicide rates among professionals. Besides having to deal with the sadness of helping pets cross over the proverbial rainbow bridge all day, they weren鈥檛 taught how to run a practice and pay off their school debts. I鈥檝e known plenty of professionals who are in similar situations. At least the NFL has recognized this issue and offers their players some classes on how to avoid bankruptcy.
Qualitative thinking vs. quantitative thinking, emotional quotient and politics are not typically taught enough in college or even in middle school now where civics seems to have completely gone by the wayside. What I am suggesting, however, is even more sophisticated. For example, no one taught me how to navigate hospital board members, or auxiliaries made up of prominent luminaries鈥� spouses, or friends鈥� groups, and each one of those organizations provided me with countless sleepless nights. I once met a military officer who wasn鈥檛 promoted because his wife had upset someone in a group of adults where she volunteered. Politics.
Then there鈥檚 the old spots on a leopard theory. Those spots don鈥檛 typically change. That was a big one for me because I had taught junior high students for 10 years, and there was always a chance you could help them find ways to make positive improvements.
I once had a highly paid consultant tell me that at least 10% of your employees will never change or embrace whatever your philosophy might be. His advice was to quickly help them find jobs somewhere else. That was probably one of my hardest and most costly lessons. I kept trying over and over again to give people chance after chance because I thought they would change. They didn鈥檛 and won鈥檛.
Guerrilla warfare is another thing that鈥檚 not touched on in school. Everywhere you go, you will not only find those recalcitrant employees, but you will also come in contact with the under-the-radar, passive-aggressive guerrilla fighters who will do everything they can to undermine your attempts to move things forward. In their mind, it鈥檚 the spirit of 1776. Unless you can find a way to convince them they are part of the change and that the change will benefit them, you鈥檙e going to be facing attacks from behind every rock and tree.
And if you are put into a position where you must terminate someone, be direct. As Brad Pitt said in the movie 鈥淢oneyball,鈥� 鈥淥ne shot to the head is better than three to the chest.鈥� I鈥檝e tried deep, sincere compassion in these situations, but remember, you are firing them, and that鈥檚 what they remember.
One of the most profound things I鈥檝e learned is that there are fundamentally two types of people in the world, the givers and the takers. There are people who will do what鈥檚 right and just, who care about goodness and kindness. Then there are those grifters who see all of us as marks to profit from and take from at any and all costs. If you can identify what type of person you鈥檙e dealing with from the beginning, it makes it easier to understand how to move forward.
Finally, always remember the problem is never the problem. The wounded ones are probably carrying more baggage than a Samsonite luggage store.
Stay focused on your goals.
Nick Jacobs of Windber is a health-care consultant and author of two books.