Sharon B. Buchbinder
Flora Fauna was promoted from a floor nurse to nurse manager of a surgical services floor at Happy Days Hospital (HDH), a 400-bed community hospital known for excellence in nursing care. The CEO of HDH believes the best managers come from the best clinicians because they are close to patient care issues. Flora was selected for promotion over three other nurse applicants because of her excellent scores on patient care, team work, and her course work toward her master’s in nursing administration. Delighted with her promotion, Flora decided to take charge immediately and called a meeting of the staff who reported to her.
At the gathering she asked people for input on what they would like to see changed. When one of her former coworkers spoke up and suggested that they hire another full-time RN, Flora crossed her arms, frowned, and shook her head. “No, no, no. Too expensive. That just isn’t possible.” She looked around the room. “Do any of you have ideas that won’t break the bank?” Silence fell over the room like a heavy blanket. “I don’t understand. All you guys ever do is complain about being overworked. If you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem. I can’t be expected to fix everything by myself. If you don’t have any reasonable ideas, then we might as well finish this meeting.”
Unbeknownst to Flora, her boss, Ida Caresalot, happened to be near the open door and heard everything. Ida waited for the staff to disperse and invited Flora to come to her office.
“Flora, I think you have a lot of potential. Right now, you would benefit from a leadership coach. We only offer this type of mentoring to people we believe will become good leaders in our organization.”
Flora was floored. She just got the job and already she was being told she had to be retrained. On the other hand, Ida said this was an investment in Flora’s future with the hospital. She took a deep breath and asked, “What’s involved in this coaching?”
“You would have a 360-degree evaluation by family, colleagues, and stake-holders using a survey that assesses Emotional Intelligence (EI). We know managers who have strong emotional intelligence skills outperform those who don’t. We don’t do this just to be nice. It’s good business. EI encompasses self awareness, self regulation, self motivation, social awareness, and social skills, and within each of these areas, specific skill sets.”
Flora agreed to participate in the EI360 and EI coaching. When she read the results of the EI360, the following scores upset her:
- Adaptable/Flexible (60%; normal range 64–80%)
- Communication (62%; normal range 66–83%)
- Emotional Self Awareness (70%; normal range 61–81%)
- Empathy (65%; normal range 61–80%)
The feedback on empathy was most distressing to her, despite being within normal limits, because she was a nurse and in the “helping professions.” She assumed she excelled in that competency. Didn’t she always ask her people for input? Wasn’t she always available? Or so she thought. Clearly, others did not see her the way she saw herself.
At Flora’s first one-on-one session, her coach asked what she wanted to get out of the experience. Flora said, “I want to be a better listener.”
The first month, the coach had her focus on her listening skills. Flora had one-on-one meetings with every member of her staff and asked what she could do to make their jobs better. She kept a notebook of observations of when listening experiences went well and when they went poorly. After a two-week time period, Flora found her best listening and best outcomes occurred when
- she was prepared with script, notes, data, lists, and plans;
- she trusted the other person; and,
- she was calm and relaxed.
Flora also found her worst listening and worst outcomes occurred when
- she felt under attack or sandbagged;
- she was told her facts/perceptions were not real; and,
- old history was dredged up, and was not relevant to the current situation at hand.
Flora scheduled a second meeting with the entire staff for the following week and hoped she’d do better this time.
Discussion Questions
- What is going on in this case?
- What is the nature of the organizational behavior problem?
- What are three things contributing to this problem?
- Why do you think Flora behaved the way she did at her first staff meeting?
- Based on the information provided in this case, what do you think Flora should do in preparation for her next meeting? What other resources might she want to bring into the meeting?
- Have you ever had a manager who could have used EI coaching? Is this something you think you would like to take advantage of for your own leadership development? Provide your reflections and personal opinions as well as a rationale for your responses.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Borkowski, N. (2011). Organizational behavior in health care (2nd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Buchbinder, S. B. (2009, July 29). Emotional intelligence and leadership. Retrieved from http://blogs.jblearning.com/health/2009/07/29/emotional-intelligence-and-leadership/
Buchbinder, S. B., & Shanks, N. H. (Eds.). (2012). Introduction to health care management (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
The Consortium on Research for Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. (2009). The emotional competence framework. Retrieved from http://www.eiconsortium.org/reports/emotional_competence_framework.html
Fallon, L. F., & McConnell, C. R. (2007). Human resource management in healthcare: Principles and practices. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Goleman, D. (1998, December). What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review, 76(6), 93–102.
Goleman, D. (2006). Social intelligence. New York, NY: Bantam Books.
Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. L., & Rapson, R. L. (1993). Emotional contagion. Current Directions in Psychological Sciences, 2(3): 96–99.
Morrison, E. E. (2011). Ethics in health administration: A practical approach for decision makers (2nd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
