10.10.09
Leadership Style is a Life and Death Matter
Saturday, February 1, 2003 was a tragic day for United States citizens and all individuals throughout the world who love the pursuit of manned space travel. During its reentry, NASA’s space shuttle, Columbia, blew apart in pieces across the North Texas sky early that Saturday morning killing all seven crew members.
The ensuing Columbia Accident Investigation Board discovered the major physical cause of the disaster. It resulted from a large piece of foam that fell from the booster rocket hitting the leading edge of the space shuttle’s left wing during takeoff. Before the disaster and within a day after Columbia’s launch, several engineers on the team presented evidence of the potential damage to different NASA managers. In at least five documented cases, however, NASA managers dismissed or ignored the potential problems. Linda Ham, the Columbia mission management chair of the flight was specifically singled out for not approving additional data collection and analysis to validate the extent of damage that occurred during the launch.
In August 2003 after completing its studies, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board criticized NASA for not taking the foam strikes to the space shuttle more seriously. The Board concluded that NASA had a management culture that discouraged technical engineers and other employees from sharing safety concerns with their managers. The conclusions of the investigation were as critical of the NASA management culture as they were the technical problems. This was one of the unfortunate outcomes of a leadership style that does not include listening.
I was curious about this phenomenon in which workers are reluctant to share information with their managers. I asked one of my colleagues, who was an intensive care nurse from one of Austin, Texas’ best hospitals, “Did the leadership style of the physicians in Intensive Care make a difference in the effectiveness of the patients’ care?”
She answered, “Yes, without a doubt.” The physicians who supervised with a more side by side and participative style got great assistance from the intensive care nurses and other support staff in the hospital. The nurses offered to write-up patient chart notes for these doctors ensuring accuracy and timeliness in the patient’s records. In addition, if the nurses saw the doctor prescribing a medicine or treatment that they thought was wrong, they would speak up and tell the doctor their concern. The Side by Side doctors would either say, “Wow, I am so glad you mentioned something. You are correct.” Or the doctor would say, “Well, normally you are correct, but this time with this patient is unique.” And the intensive care physician would go on and give the nurse advanced training in what was different in the current situation. The Side by Side doctors had a supporting team.
On the other hand, my colleague described a sad, potentially lethal situation in the intensive care unit that involved the traditional authoritarian, top-down doctors. When the authoritarian doctor made a mistake, the nurses did not dare say a word. They knew they might be yelled at or even reprimanded by the doctor. Such doctors would hurry in, examine the patient, make their pronouncements and hurry out. The nurses and other support staff did not offer to help such a doctor.
Let us not be too critical of NASA or authoritarian intensive care doctors when the same criticism of people playing “hide the ball” is present in our own organizations. Last year I was consulting with an organization that was achieving average performance. One of the brightest employees in the company observed a problem that if it could be solved would make the company an extra $25 million in a short amount of time. He struggled about whether to share the problem with his boss, because he knew his boss did not like to hear problems. The boss viewed problems as a personal indictment of his leadership style. The bright employee decided not to share the problem with his boss. A short time later he was saddened when his boss was fired for lack of performance.
Employees all over are playing “hide the ball” from their bosses because of the fear of retaliation. The fear of employees to share bad news is wide spread. A 2000 American Management Association Survey presented the news that 755 survey participants reported a failing grade for senior managements’ performance in eliminating fear in the organizational culture. NASA and hospitals’ failure to lead in ways that support open communication from employees is indicative of many U.S. organizations, maybe even yours. The above examples have caused me to reexamine my own leadership style.
Let us all be sure:
- We are asking for and listening to the ideas and opinions of our staff;
- When we disagree with our staff members ideas, we take the time to explain why things may be different this time; and
- We thank employees and others, including our customers, when they share a problem or criticism with us.
If you see visions of “hide the ball” behavior within yourself and would like to learn more, you may find my award winning book Side By Side Leadership helpful. At a minimum, I hope that you will give me your thoughts and comments. We at Side by Side Inc. are always excited to hear what people think. We are committed to delivering leadership training and materials that deliver real bottom line results. Thank you
Copyright Side by Side, Inc. 2009