Storytime: a tenacious turnaround for one seemingly lost cause.
An emergency medicine physician I know was in trouble. Despite being a very, very good doctor—we’re talking high performance around medical decisions and exceptional patient satisfaction scores—they weren’t really nailing it as a boss. They lacked the fundamental skills needed to communicate and manage medical staff with aplomb.
How do you change your reputation for being overly direct, fast, and without curiosity? How do you mend the professional relationships that have become so dysfunctional and strained that you have been placed on performance counseling by the hospital? How do you turn the tide on the inevitable outcome that comes when you have more formal complaints against you than any one securely employed person should ever have?
Even if you’ve never received a poor performance review or been told to become a better boss “or else,” it’s easy to relate to this story. We’ve all been there, wondering why just being great at the job itself isn’t enough. Why can’t I just be the very best at the role and not worry about how it lands all around me?
But life doesn’t happen in a vacuum, not even for emergency room doctors. If you’re relying on a team to get things done, then they need to be able to rely on you.
Luckily, we aren’t just “born this way.” We all have the power to learn a new skill, improve our bedside manner, and boost our EIQ, or Emotional Intelligence.
If this story hits you right where you live or you want to go deeper on this story of transformation, check out this 304 Client Success Story / Case Study Improving Workplace Relationships and Creating Positive Feedback Loops here.
Yours in connected storytelling and terrific turnarounds,
Jen