Leading from the
Middle
3/28/14
Janet Bickel
Career and Leadership Development Coach
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN MEDICAL COLLEGES
Top
Middle
Bottom
Constituents
Constituents
Please Assess Yourself:
Do I make effective use of meetings?
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•Is my understanding of my institution becoming more
sophisticated?
•Am I expanding my circle of colleagues?
•Am I increasing my capacity for handling conflicts?
*Am I increasing my capacity for communicating with
individuals very different from myself?
*What am I doing to develop a more accurate sense of my
strengths and weaknesses?
Leading from the Middle
*Study how people interpret their roles
*Try to see your assumptions and ask more questions
*Differentiate between what you can and cannot influence
*Discover and build on shared commitments
*Limit indulgence in righteous indignation
*Reflect on and learn from surprises and feedback
*Expand your comfort with uncertainty
*Improve your relational communication skills
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Please reflect
then discuss in Pairs
*Which of these skill areas are
most important for you to be
improving?
*What steps can you begin
taking?
Why is Leading often harder
for Women and Minorities?
• Under-estimate their own abilities
• Need to please, make others comfortable
• Less likely to be effectively mentored
• Less “social capital”
• Fewer role models
IN PAIRS: What are your observations
about this question?
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Organizational
POLI - TICS
(many)
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN MEDICAL COLLEGES
(blood sucking parasites)
What does Power mean to you?
What are your assumptions about power?
-----------------------------------------------------------Categories of power:
*positional
*expertise/competency
*relationships with stakeholders and connectors
*strong connection
– with a deep purpose
“Influence” Self-Assessment
1) How effectively do you?
•Inspire innovations
•Listen to unfamiliar as well as familiar voices
•Encourage collaborations, connect people
•Notice and recognize others' contributions
•Bridge all kinds of differences
2) How might you expand your influence in the
directions of greatest meaning to you?
How do we become more skilled at handling conflict?
*reframe “conflict” as “differing interests”
*see disagreement as opportunities to learn
*question your own assumptions and storylines
*recognize tendencies to overemphasize
interpersonal dimensions and underestimate
organizational factors
*become more versatile
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CONFLICT MANAGEMENT STYLES
Collaborate
Accommodate
Compromise
Avoid
Compete
Concern for self-interest
Source: Thomas-Kilman Conflict Mode Instrument
How do you relate to
authority figures?
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idealize?
resent?
avoid?
over-depend on?
automatically defer to?
superhuman effort to please?
compete with?
persuasively stand up to when
necessary?
effectively partner with?
“Managing Up”
* Develop a pattern of interaction with your
boss that produces desirable results
* No whining
Seek to understand her:

Goals, priorities, pressures

Limitations and blindspots

Preferences re communications
NB: You don’t need to like your boss
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN MEDICAL COLLEGES
From your boss’s point of view:
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What will you do for me tomorrow?
Do you communicate effectively?
Do you keep the boss informed?
Use boss’s time well?
Do you express appreciation?
Solicit and use feedback?
Bring solutions to problems?
How do you handle disagreements?
Relational Communications Skills
• Self-monitoring
- Notice when you're over-reacting
- Pause and discern what hooked you?
• Inquiry and Listening
- Ask questions that encourage the other to go deeper
- Listen “generatively”
• Expressing Views/Advocating
• Explain your reasoning and intent [eg “This is why I’m
raising this and how I arrived at this conclusion”]
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Automatic Listening
Generative Listening
•Right/Wrong
•What could make that
possible?
•Win/Lose
•What could that allow
us to do?
•Agree/Disagree
•What goals could that
idea advance?
•Good/Bad
•What do you see that I
don’t?
•Either/Or
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•Say more
Ask trustworthy colleagues for feedback
*In what areas do I tend to over- or
under-function?
•Any observations on how well I listen?
•Do I present ideas in an effective manner and invite
discussion?
•How well do I handle challenges to my ideas?
*Do I communicate about problems in ways that
facilitate engagement?
*Do I relate better to some kinds of people than
others?
See: What got you here won’t get you there by Marshall Goldsmith
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APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY
What we pay attention to grows and we tend to
find what we look for
AI taps into issues people care most deeply
about and surfaces possibilities
Ask:
*what’s going well?
*what is working and how can we do/have
more of it?
*how can we have more
effective meetings?