In this edition of Leadership Today, we talk to Karen Moore, RN, currently CEO at Kindred Hospital Parkview, Springfield, MA.
Karen tells us how she began to define herself as a leader and how her perspective evolved through some challenging leadership experiences. MMI worked with Karen when she was at Baystate Franklin Medical Center, Greenfield, MA, making the transition to the COO/Chief Nursing Officer position. Karen served as Vice President of Patient Care Services, then as the hospital’s interim President before taking on a senior leadership position as COO/Chief Nursing Officer. She assumed her role as VP of Operations after heading a hospital-wide reorganization. Karen also served a term as President of the Massachusetts Organization of Nursing Executives (MONE).
MMI: Karen, you served as interim President for the Medical Center before the new President came on board. How did that experience influence your career path?
KM: One of the things I confirmed was that I wanted to broaden my scope beyond patient care services. I wanted my next step to be a COO position. When I met with the new President to discuss the direction of the hospital, it became clear that I shared his vision as to quality and operational efficiency. He wanted a strong operations person to run things, so he created a combined COO/Chief Nursing Officer position and asked me to take it on.
MMI: Was it easy for others, especially those who had worked with you before, to continue to see you as head of nursing?
KM: I recognized that I had to be seen as a credible leader for the whole organization, while still giving nursing the attention it needed. I knew I had to work across the organizational silos.
The challenge for me as I transitioned was, “What is this new role?” I recall commenting that as COO/Chief Nursing Officer, someone could either be visible and vibrant, or absolutely invisible because you’re working through others.
MMI: Another challenge for many new senior leaders who make the transition from operations to an executive role is moving from “expert” to strategic thinker. Did you face this as well?
KM: Not really. Being strategic wasn’t very difficult for me – when I was VP of Patient Care Services, I was in a very strategic position because nursing is such a key aspect of hospital operations. In my new role, it was more about strategizing and then putting strategy into action and working across the organization.
MMI: What were some of your first moves as a senior leader?
KM: As COO/Chief Nursing Officer, I brought in a consultant to help develop an organizational assessment and get feedback from across the organization. We uncovered several issues, including the need to create clear accountabilities and work more effectively across divisions. We needed to change the hospital’s culture.
We did a major reorganization and created a Director level. We structured it so that the Director of Patient Care Services, Director of Surgical Services, and Director of Outpatient Services reported to me in my new role as Vice President of Hospital Operations. The Directors of Human Resources, Finance, and Quality reported directly to the President.
Another thing I did was create an operations leadership team that included the six Directors. The team’s focus continues to be improving how we work across the organization.
MMI: How has becoming a senior leader changed you?
KM: I used to think that being a leader was what you did. Then I realized that it was who you are. It’s not profound. But the privilege of being in a leadership position is a big one. You need to appreciate that you are being trusted in such a critical role.
Who you are means so much to the organization. People are watching you all the time and take cues from you.
As a leader you need to look at how you work with people. You have to set up clear accountability – people want and like to be held accountable. You really need to understand the difference in accountabilities going from Manager, to Director to VP to CEO. You have to let others take on your old accountabilities and assume new ones as you move. There’s often a lack of clarity and responsibility at each level and it can be very helpful to be coached through that.
MMI: How did you create clarity and accountability in the new organization?
KM: We brought in Mike Martorella as a senior executive coach to help me look at the organization I’d set up and establish accountabilities. We also developed my leadership presence and communication strategies, which changed the way I met with the operations leadership team.
At one point Mike gave me a communications exercise to do with the team which was very effective in communicating change. Over several working sessions, I asked the team to reflect on what we didn’t want, what we wanted and what it would feel like when we had it. Then the team was able to articulate its vision and direction and allow it to happen as people understood and got on board.
MMI: Let’s talk about MONE (Massachusetts Organization of Nursing Executives). You were approached to become President at a time when the organization was facing a very difficult time. Some people counseled you not to take the position. Why did you take it?
KM: Several colleagues told me that I shouldn’t take it because I’d be seen only as a nursing executive, not as CEO material. Mike said that of course I should do it, because it was a visible leadership role.
MMI: How did it work out?
KM: It was a phenomenal experience. I recently completed an 18-month term, serving at a time when staffing ratios were an incredibly divisive political issue. As President, I was responsible for working on MONE’s approach to the issue.
MMI: Tell us more.
KM: We worked with the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) to run focus groups of CEOs and nurse leaders to explore staffing issues. Based on what we learned, I led the MONE board through incredible change, developing a new vision and strategic plan.
As MONE President, I had to operate in what were new arenas for me – like the State House, where I had to persuade key legislators to see our point of view on staffing ratios. I also debated union leaders on the issue.
MMI: You were confident in yourself as a leader and ready to take on these challenges?
KM: Yes. Because of the work I’d done with Mike Martorella, I was comfortable facing these challenges. I had more confidence and communicated more effectively.
I’d learned from Mike that whether I had to communicate with one person or 10,000, I could use the same strategies: cutting to the chase, speaking from the heart, having a clear purpose, getting to the point. I knew how to get in touch with what was important to me. When I’d worked with Mike, I practiced these skills all the time.
MMI: How did the MONE presidency help you prepare for your next step as a senior leader?
KM: In those 18 months as MONE President, I did more to prepare for a CEO role than ever before. It was a big stretch outside my comfort zone. There are things I’ll never be afraid of again; I now know I’m able to approach a situation and get what I want out of it. I believe it’s my role as a leader to advance issues and get them on the table.
MMI: How did your leadership benefit MONE?
KM: MONE had a 20% increase in membership because people liked the board’s new vision and direction. The relationship between MHA and MONE changed for the better.
MMI: MHA created an award for leadership excellence for you. Tell us about receiving the award.
KM: The MHA award came as a total surprise to me and was most gratifying. It was presented at the annual dinner, and I was asked to come up and give a speech with no preparation. I had the advice and suggestions from Mike on my mind the whole time. I recognized the opportunity and knew the audience. I knew what I wanted to say to the CEOs. Later, others told me I gave a wonderful speech – and it had been off the cuff.
Good coaching is lasting – if done well, you get the tools and skills to handle something like the MHA awards after the coaching has ended. It’s not like going to a seminar and forgetting everything the next week.
MMI: Any final thoughts on leadership?
KM: In the end, how you treat people and build trust is the most important thing. It doesn’t matter if you are talking to a housekeeper or the organization head. Leaders with good integrity and operating principles can never stray from them. You are held to these high standards. You have to deal with tough issues, sometimes, for instance, expressing disappointment in others. When they trust you, you can expect and achieve much better results.
MMI Communication’s mission is to guide senior executives as they navigate the challenges and complexities of their leadership journey. The company offers individual, face-to-face executive coaching and additional resources that support and strengthen its clients’ leadership capabilities. MMI clients become focused, credible leaders who articulate their vision, and inspire and align their organizations to achieve lasting results. For more about MMI Communication, visit www.mmicom.com or call 908.233.6265.
How Facilitated Questioning Can Cue Leaders to Act on Their Values
Client
The manufacturing division of a global Fortune 100 technology corporation
Situation
Although the division’s production team was working its hardest and doing good work, it was missing deadlines, which hurt corporate financial performance. Division executives knew that because of upstream problems in design and prototyping, the team often spent too much time modifying the manufacturing lines so that product met client specifications. This caused production rates to slow. The executives were also aware that team members, who were highly skilled specialists, were overworked and morale was low. They wanted to take care of their people and fix the process problems, and do it in a way that was in line with corporate core values.
The MMI Approach
There are no ready-made answers, especially when an organization is as complex and fast-paced as a global Fortune 100 company. In this case, the manufacturing division’s executives recognized the need for change, but needed direction and fresh ideas.
Our approach was to facilitate a session with the executives and guide them through a series of seemingly simple questions that were asked and answered thoughtfully in a safe environment. We have found that this approach leads to the “mental explosions” that move participants to new levels of understanding and better decisions as leaders.
Results
The fundamental question for these executives was, “how do we create an environment where people want to do their best work?” The breakthrough came when they realized that as leaders, their actions said everything. They had an obligation to communicate honestly and clearly and consistently follow through on what they said they would do, if they wanted their people to do the same. They had to instill confidence so their people would be encouraged to do their best work. The executives realized that to foster change, they had to listen actively with the mindset, “What did we learn, how can we apply it now and move forward?” As leaders, they had to set the example.
The executives also acknowledged that their people wanted to know they were making a difference with their work. Individuals wanted to feel connected to their work, and have a sense of personal accomplishment as well as a sense of community and the bigger picture. The executives committed to offering public recognition for successes.
Another session outcome was that the executives committed to making an ongoing conscious effort, holding themselves responsible to reflect each day on the question: “What can I do today to make this a better environment?”
After this facilitated session, the executives went back to their own people and held similar meetings to discuss their leadership commitments. Within several months, the work environment became very different. People felt valued and motivated to do their best work, and executives were supporting team efforts by publicly recognizing and rewarding accomplishments. People began to stretch themselves to achieve more than they had before – and more than they had thought possible. The team was able to shorten process development times dramatically and began to meet production deadlines more easily.
Client Feedback
“We were all smart leaders, looking at things the way we normally do. Mike came at the issue from a different point of view, asking us questions that opened the conversation to deeper and better solutions.” – Vice President/Plant Manager
Daria was a newly appointed COO of a medical center who came to me with a problem. She was in the office at 5AM almost every day, left late, and brought work home most weekends. Yet she felt that she was accomplishing little and didn’t have time to succeed as a leader. In my work as an advisor to executive leaders, I find that many of them, like Daria, fall prey to particular phenomena that I call the time vampires. These are all the time-wasters that suck valuable time from your work day and hinder your path to successful leadership.
Here’s how you can defeat the time vampires that lurk in your office:
Identify your time vampires. Start by becoming aware of what robs precious time from your day – it could be excessive meetings, endless emails, overly dependent employees. These don’t let you get done what you want to accomplish as a leader. Ask yourself, “What is sucking time from my day?” Daria, for example, realized that her weekly staff meeting were held out of habit, with no agenda, and sometimes ran for hours with little focus. This meeting was a major time vampire for Daria.
Change what you say. Do you talk about “spending” time? Talk instead about “investing” your time, because time is finite – you’ve got it, and then it is gone. Once you treat time as the valuable commodity that it is, you will find that you will think twice, like Daria learned to do, and invest it where it will bring you the most value.
Practice assertive calendaring. Learn to make conscious choices about your time by asking yourself, “What do I need to do now? Is this the right thing to do for what I want to accomplish?” As I worked with Daria, we began to see that her calendar was controlling her. Daria began to take a more active role in planning and prioritizing what made it onto her calendar. She began to make conscious choices about how she invested her time and began to schedule time for her priorities. And as for her biggest time vampire, the weekly staff meeting, she learned to put the right people together at the right time to discuss projects, and knocked this agenda-less, routine meeting off her – and her staffers’ – calendars. She kept the lines of communication open by asking her staff to provide her with scheduled 5-minute weekly updates for key projects. When it was important to have a full staff meeting, one was scheduled.
Daria also learned to plan time for interruptions. She wanted to maintain an open door policy but not all the time. She found that when she wasn’t always available, her staff often found ways to solve problems successfully without her intervention.
Use the 20-minute rule. Any high priority project can seem overwhelming when it is staring at you head-on. Start by blocking out 20-minute chunks of time on your weekly calendar and dedicate them to initiating your priority project. You might want to invest your first 20-minute session reflecting on project priorities. Think about what you want to do; how important it is; who will be involved; what actions are required; and when you want it to be done. Also note what you will and will not do. At the end of 20-minutes – stop. At that point decide if and when you will commit additional time. You make the choice.
When I work with high potential managers, I coach them to use at least one 20-minute block of time each week to plan and reflect as if they were a senior manager – Would they see the situation differently? What is the most important issue? What contribution can they make now to be a more effective manager?
Commit to start and stop times. Make the most of the minutes in your day by using the simplest tool of all – a clock. Before you start a meeting, for example, make a promise to end on time. Meetings will be more productive when they start and stop on time and you will show respect for the valuable investment of others’ and your own time.
Plan to succeed. What are your time vampires? You can keep them at bay by making conscious choices about how you invest your time. Start now.
This article is based on presentations Mike Martorella, Founder of MMI Communication, gave as a resource expert to the New Jersey area Renaissance Executive Forums. MMI Communication offers individual, face-to-face executive coaching as well as additional resources that support and strengthen our clients’ leadership capabilities. MMI clients become focused, credible leaders who articulate their vision, and inspire and align their organizations to achieve lasting results.
The sCORESM Model gives us a useful aid to gauging how well leaders present themselves.
Start by choosing someone you regularly see or are familiar with from business, your community, politics, the media, etc. Then observe how they present themselves, using the criteria below. Using the sCORE Model.
Use a scale of 1 (poor) to 10 (outstanding).
Name of Person You're Observing: ________________________________________
Speaker Style
_____ My first impression
_____ Personal appearance
_____ Took a moment to greet me (verbally or non-verbally)
_____ Established eye contact
_____ Used natural gestures
_____ Non-verbal expression (body language)
_____ Paced the presentation
_____ Used examples/stories
_____ Used appropriate vocabulary
_____ Had vocal variety
Commitment
_____ Connected to the information
_____ Prepared for the presentation
_____ Had a point of view/position
_____ Thoughtful
_____ Spoke from the heart
Organization
_____ There was a clear plan of material: beginning, middle, and end
_____ Framed key message with a strong opening statement
_____ Content points supported key message
_____ Logical
_____ Concluding remarks: summarized, clarified, set direction/action
Relevance
_____ Found the best way to present to the audience
_____ Increased understanding
_____ Provided value
_____ Meaningful
_____ Important
Engagement
_____ Aware of the audience
_____ Held my attention
_____ Tuned in to me
_____ Listened to verbal and non-verbal responses
_____ Adapted to the situation
Back to Leaders Notes
Go to Example
MMI Communication’s mission is to guide senior executives as they navigate the challenges and complexities of their leadership journey. The company offers individual, face-to-face executive coaching and additional resources that support and strengthen its clients’ leadership capabilities. MMI clients become focused, credible leaders who articulate their vision, and inspire and align their organizations to achieve lasting results. For more about MMI Communication, visit www.mmicom.com or call 908.233.6265.