Susie is doing well at her job. For months, she has consistently produced five times more than anyone else. Coincidentally, we need a supervisor for her department. Let’s promote her!
Is this a common scenario in your organization or has it been in the past?
In the homecare industry, employees are notoriously agile in the technical skills area, as depicted in the scenario above. Rules and regulations change daily, and processes consequently do, too, which requires staff to be nimble and resilient. Once someone perfects a job function, they are typically promoted to supervisor or lead. This is where the provider often runs into trouble. Just because someone is good at performing their job, they aren’t automatically qualified to be a leader.
Leadership needs go beyond technical skills.
“While technical competence refers to the specialized knowledge and skills acquired in a specific area, leadership competence encompasses the ability to lead, motivate and inspire teams,” said Dragana Milica Nikolic, author of “Technical Competence vs. Leadership Competence.”
Confidence in performing a job function is valuable, but doesn’t mean you can automatically motivate others to do the same. Showing positivity and enthusiasm toward your work, however, is a step in the leadership direction.
Here are some tips good leaders know.
1. Meet them where they are.
What is leadership behavior beyond the technical skills? Leadership embodies many layers of skills. Some of them include seeing others for who they are, not what you want them to be. In the end, it’s not about you—it’s about them. The more you meet team members where they are and show up for them as individuals, the more you can help them grow and develop.
This seems intuitive, but is often overwhelmed by the “If we can do it, they can do it too” mentality. How an individual best works to meet a goal may vary. Finding what makes them tick is the key. For example, some are visual learners. Others prefer auditory or kinesthetic instruction. Translated into home medical equipment (HME), a visual learner would want to see step-by-step instructions with images or diagrams of how to change someone’s payer, whereas someone else might need auditory directions. Either way, you still arrive at the same answer. One way is not better than the other; it is merely different.
2. Make them feel important.
A universal key to coaching and leading people is to make them feel important. Giving a person some of your time will help them feel worthy, valued and important. Simple gestures like a text or email when you see them doing something worth meriting can go a long way. This includes meeting one-on-one with staff regularly to learn how they are doing and how they feel about their progress at work. Providing staff with what they need to succeed when they ask for it shows you care about their future.
That is leadership behavior.
3. Be vulnerable.
As a leader, you should show staff you make mistakes like everyone else. This allows them permission to be vulnerable and admit when they are wrong. The key is to solve the problem and learn from mistakes to prevent recurrence. A culture that learns to grow from mistakes creates space for risk-taking and teaches a valuable lesson about how to get up when we fall.
4. Celebrate the wins.
Acknowledge your staff for their achievements, big and small. This celebration shows you relate to them and encourages them to grow more. After all, success breeds success. Human nature tells us if we receive praise for a job well done, we become motivated to strive for more. Staff should become even more productive as you show them you are inspired by their development, and some may begin to mimic your leadership qualities.
When showing gratitude, it must be genuine and warranted. When they solve a problem they brought to your attention, praise them for alerting you of the situation—and more importantly, for fixing the issue. Problem solvers are often analytical thinkers and may be your future leaders.
This type of positivity becomes contagious. In fact, the more positive you are, the more positive they will be. Celebrate wins with gestures like bringing or sending someone their favorite coffee drink; that shows them you took the effort to find a reward they like. Those little touches will endear you to them. Finally, a thank you note (or text or email) recognizing an employee for a specific reason goes a long way.
4. Invest in mentorship.
Staff members who show interest in advancement should be provided with mentoring and coaching. Providing interested employees with opportunities to develop their leadership skills gives them credibility and provides them with a sense of deserved value.
When coaching rising leaders, focus on strengthening weaknesses and bolstering existing attributes. Eventually, the person will learn to guide and lead others. After all, the goal of the leader is to grow the next leader.
Start by giving the potential leader additional responsibility. This could be facilitating a meeting, mentoring new employees or even collaborating to implement a new regulatory change. See how well they do, where they need further development and how others respond to their leadership approach. Engagement is the goal, and it will work for both the leader and the staff.
Conclusion
Talented technical skills, while necessary, don’t necessarily make a person your next best leader. Rather, someone adept in coaching and guiding staff to meet their goals and potentially become their replacement is what we need in HME companies today. This takes relationship building and vulnerability along with constant collaboration, teaching and training.
Exhibiting behavior that others emulate is a sure way to know that you are an effective leader beyond the technical skills. Make this a focus of your attention this year, and you will reap the benefits. Benchmark this before and after and watch your company flourish.