{"id":11746,"date":"2023-05-24T08:43:05","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T15:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/?p=11746"},"modified":"2023-09-28T10:21:54","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T17:21:54","slug":"discovering-the-essence-of-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/discovering-the-essence-of-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering the Essence of Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Discovering the Essence of Leadership<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>When people think of leadership, they often imagine a shining star\u2014this kind of leader is a team of one. In truth, authentic leadership involves relationships where the leader takes cues from employees. This kind of leader is anyone who looks to the people around them and considers ways to make their jobs easier. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Ask Fuel First answers a question to better understand leadership:<strong> How can I create effective and meaningful relationships with my employees?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Ask Fuel First - What is the Essence of Leadership\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/830690295?h=d8fbf4b0ba&amp;dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"1400\" height=\"788\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Experimental Leader<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When Jim Fedio, Director of Professional Development at Fuel Medical, talks about leadership skills, he always tells the story of his first leadership role. After graduating from college, Jim worked as an entry-level claims processor for an insurance company. There were hundreds of employees divided into 30 departments, each specializing in processing a different type of health insurance claim. After several months, he felt like he still had no idea what he was doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To his surprise, Jim\u2019s manager asked if he would be interested in supervising one of the claims units. He remembered thinking that he must be doing something right if they wanted to promote him\u2014and excitedly accepted the job. That excitement, however, was short-lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jim\u2019s promotion was given to him not because he was good at his job, applied for the role or was the best person to be in charge. This leadership role was given to him because he was the most likely NOT to succeed. He was given a department of 15 part-time college students working the swing shift that was set up as an experiment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it was failing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Error rates were out of control, production levels were not even close to meeting expectations, and the department cost the company a lot of money. Jim had no idea that this department had so many issues when he took the promotion. He only found this out many years later when a friend higher up in the company told him that the department was slated to be shut down. For political reasons, they couldn\u2019t close it. Instead, they hired someone inept to run the \u201ctoxic\u201d department into the ground. That someone was Jim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It didn\u2019t take Jim long to figure out that the main problem was the people on the team. They were bright and capable but didn\u2019t care about the job\u2014it was simply a paycheck. They were doing just enough to get by and not get fired. They had no teamwork, no motivation and not a lot of respect for their new supervisor. That\u2019s when Jim went out and bought his first book on leadership, <em>The One Minute Manager<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the greatest lessons he learned from that book was to listen to employees. So, he applied this in his new role. When an employee approached him with an issue, he would listen to their concerns and ask questions. The first fundamental question he asked was: \u201cHow would you handle this situation?\u201d The employees in the toxic department were taken aback because no one had ever asked their opinion before. By asking this question, Jim heard their concerns and showed them he was a partner in the department\u2019s success. This approach to leadership was diametrically opposite to the previous supervisor\u2019s style of direction and micromanaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201ctoxic\u201d department now had a leader who was part of the team. The employees didn\u2019t work <em>for<\/em> Jim; they worked <em>with<\/em> him. This simple change made a huge difference. The employees became invested in the outcome of their work because they felt valued. After a year of hard work, that department shed its \u201ctoxic\u201d title and became one of the most productive departments in the entire organization. And Jim has been on the leadership train ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s the Difference Between a Manager and a Leader?<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/3-aff-allaboutyou.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11749\" width=\"347\" height=\"231\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/3-aff-allaboutyou.jpg 1254w, https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/3-aff-allaboutyou-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 347px) 100vw, 347px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Many leadership workshops start by debating the difference between managers and leaders. They ask if you are a manager or a leader. The truth is that you do both. Demonstrating that you are a good manager is probably how you got into your leadership role. You\u2019re good at what you do. You\u2019re good at managing the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><em>Time or Resources<\/em>: You know how much you have, understand the constraints and leverage them in the best way possible.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Systems or Processes<\/em>: You make quick and effective decisions based on data and analysis.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Projects Assigned to You<\/em>: You build a plan and follow it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In your role as a lead, supervisor or manager, you are STILL going to be measured on how well YOU execute all those things. That won\u2019t change. But as a leader, you are now also responsible for other humans in this process. And as soon as you insert humans into any one of those situations, the dynamic changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Your Evolving Leadership Skills<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019re not just dealing with people. You\u2019re dealing with personalities, diversity and differences of opinion, all of which are great things. At times, though, that can make managing a process more challenging, like the \u201ctoxic\u201d department that wasn\u2019t motivated. And then things change when you think you have it figured out, such as Jim\u2019s solution of asking questions. However, the processes change, you experience staff turnover or you have more work than your team can handle, and you\u2019re back to square one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you plan to stay in leadership, you must evolve. This goes for those who\u2019ve been a leader for years and those who are new to the role. Very few people who are promoted into leadership roles can follow their intuition and become outstanding leaders right away. It takes time and patience. Great leaders learn that leadership is a mindset\u2014they continually grow with their employees and organization. When you think about a great leader you\u2019ve worked with, you can probably identify some behaviors you can emulate. These behaviors begin with the proper mindset, where relationships make a world of difference to both the leader and the employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discovering the Essence of Leadership When people think of leadership, they often imagine a shining star\u2014this kind of leader is a team of one. In truth, authentic leadership involves relationships where the leader takes cues from employees. This kind of leader is anyone who looks to the people around them and considers ways to make&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","header_content":"","schema":"","fname":"","lname":"","credentials":"","position":"","tenure":"","department":"","location":"","apply_url":"","placeID":"","no_match":false,"name":"","company":"","review":"","address":"","city":"","state":"","zip":"","lat":"","lng":"","phone1":"","phone2":"","fax":"","mon1":"","mon2":"","tue1":"","tue2":"","wed1":"","wed2":"","thu1":"","thu2":"","fri1":"","fri2":"","sat1":"","sat2":"","sun1":"","sun2":"","hours-note":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,113],"tags":[],"article_type":[12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11746"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12102,"href":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11746\/revisions\/12102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11746"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fuelmedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=11746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}