The need for flexibility can be particularly vexing for nurse managers, one expert says.
"I am a registered nurse and just recently changed jobs due to a bad manager in a clinical setting," says a nurse who works in the cosmetic services field. "There were multiple reasons, but the biggest was that the manger just could not do her job." And, she notes, she wasn't the only one to leave - two other non-clinical staff members also recently left. "Ultimately, it hurts the patients and the doctor's productivity to have this type of turnover," she says. Barb Przybylowicz, LPN, has had boss experiences, too, and noted these experiences aren't all bad. , LLC, in Amherst, OH. She said she's had her share of bad boss experiences over 34 years of nursing. But, she adds, "Looking back I am grateful for these experiences because that is what made me a great boss as I worked my way from clinical areas of nursing to director."
Managing Nurses
Of course, few organizations - especially healthcare organizations - don't value the importance of ensuring positive relationships between managers and employees. Lee Vikre is senior vice president of organizational development and consulting at BestCompaniesAZ in Mesa, AZ. The company focuses on helping other companies that want to build "great place to work" cultures, and specializes in healthcare. "While managers in general have a significant impact on the workplace, bad bosses have an even stronger effect in healthcare," noted Vikre.
Why?
"Nurses have to give of themselves more than most workers, so they need to receive more respect and caring in order to provide the required level of care to patients," she says. Jill Jarufe, MBA, a nursing recruiter with Kaye Bassman International, in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, agrees. "In my opinion, nurses are a very unique and special group," she says. "Typically, what is most important to nurses and their leaders is having managers who are really focused on patient care and quality." In addition, she said nurses highly value flexibility around their work schedules.
That need for flexibility can be particularly vexing for nurse managers, said Jackie Larson, vice president of client services at Avantas, an Omaha, NE-based labor management consulting and technology company specializing in the healthcare industry. Larson noted that up to 70 percent of many nurse managers' time can be taken up by scheduling and staffing activities to accommodate absences, both planned and unexpected. The challenges of managing nursing staff in healthcare environments can be significantly compounded, said Jarufe, by the fact that nurses "by nature, are caregivers so what they look for in their leaders is someone who can be somewhat flexible and sensitive to their personal situations." Not all are.
What Makes a Boss Bad?
Bad bosses, said Jarufe, are those who demonstrate a lack of flexibility, are insensitive to personal situations, tend to micro-manage and lack the ability to articulate a compelling vision to their staff. The inability to seek and act upon input is also a common trait among ineffective managers, she said. .Healthcare organizations should be concerned about the quality of their management staff for both their employees - and their patients. "Higher levels of patient satisfaction are found in hospitals with happy nurses," said Vikre. In addition, noted Asher Adelman, founder and CEO of eBoss Watch, a career resource for evaluating employers and job candidates, "unhappy employees are a lot less productive than happy ones, which negatively impacts the organization." And, sometimes, they leave.
"That comment that 'people don't leave their jobs, they leave their bosses,' is very true," saids Adelman. "Employers should make sure there's a positive, healthy, respectful work environment." Unfortunately, bad bosses are everywhere said Roberta Chinsky Matuson, author of Suddenly in Charge (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2011), and they come in different versions. They include:
•The indecisive boss who tells you to do one thing, then questions why you're doing exactly what they said to do. "It can be maddening, as you can waste hours trying to please someone who simply can't be pleased," said Chinsky Matuson.
•Bosses who play favorites. "It seems like no matter how great a job you do, the boss's pet will do better. Very demotivating for those who don't make the favored employee list," she noted.
•Micromanagers. "These are the bosses who believe no one can do things the way they can do them." Good managers represent the flip side of these attributes, said Leigh Steere, co-founder of Managing People Better, LLC, in Boulder, CO.
Attributes of Effective Managers
Good management requires knowing how and when to use two broad skill sets, Steere said. They are:
•relating, which encompasses relationship-building behaviors: asking, listening, including, coaching and encouraging; and ...
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Posted By: Jen Fad
Sunday, August 19th 2012 at 10:12PM
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