“What Interests the Boss, Fascinates Me”
“What interests the boss, fascinates me.” My former colleague, the CNO of a regional health system, used to say this often. While I didn’t love her choice of words, the spirit behind it still resonates with me.
What our boss asked her about in their 1-1’s, drove what she focused on.
It began with patient/customer satisfaction, expanded to productivity, and then to organizational excellence in every dimension.
While her “style” of leadership was quite different than his, her (eventual) shift to a focus on demonstrating results was because that was:
- what he asked about,
- what he expected,
- what he honed in on during each and every 1-1 meeting,
- what he always brought the conversation around to, and
- how he shaped the agendas of our leadership team meetings.
It was not where she would have gone naturally in her role and leadership approach, but it is “what interested the boss.”
And so, she came prepared to their 1-1s and our leadership team meetings with the numbers, with results, with evidence to show how things were going and where she needed support.
As a leader…
What do you ask about? Are you consistent?
What do you expect your folks to bring to meetings? How do they know of your
expectations?
How do you ensure that those with whom you work know what’s important? How do you
signal when there has been a shift in priorities?
Are there certain things that you always (or frequently) inquire about?
A corollary…
Another colleague, at that same organization, invited me to join her in a second interview with a candidate who was in the running for a director level position to manage several key clinical programs.
She wanted me to lay out for him our approach to organizational excellence, our organizational priorities, and how directors developed annual operational plans that aligned to the strategic priorities of the organization.
She wanted to ensure that he had a good understanding of how things worked at our organization, and how we were always seeking to create alignment among and across programs in order to achieve organizational results.
After having described our approach, she asked him if he had any questions for me. He politely thanked me for taking the time to meet with him, then turned to her and said that he didn’t plan to work that way. That instead he would come in and do an assessment of the programs and set the priorities in that way.
After a few clarifying questions to ensure that she understood what he was saying, she let him know that’s not how we work here. That we focus on advancing goals through collective and aligned efforts.
We were grateful for the clarity of this conversation. He would not be a good fit with how we worked. She wished him well in his job search. End of conversation.
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Kathy Letendre, President and Founder of Letendre & Associates, advises organizations and leaders to create their excellence advantage.
Contact Kathy by phone or text at 802-779-4315 or via email.