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. . . Ever had the experience of wanting to jump into a
conversation or meeting and assert your opinion because you can
barely stand it that people are soooo obviously going down the
wrong path and it's making you boil ...
Our
Need to Be Right Could Be a Drag to Creativity
by
Francine R. Gaillour, MD, MBA, FACPE, Executive and Career Coach
for Physicians
If
I hadn't learned this lesson the hard way over and over myself I
wouldn't be bringing it up, but ....
As
physicians, we're smart and we think we're right a lot of the
time. And we're verbally pretty tough on other people during
meetings.
(If
you immediately said to yourself, "but we usually are
right", then you must go directly to doghouse for a short
time out.)
What
is the True Objective of a Meeting?
I'm
bringing this up in the context of meetings, because that's
where most of the trouble occurs.
Contrary
to popular thought, the objective of most meetings is not
trivial: We gather in order to make something happen, to create
something out of nothing, to make decisions that affect the
future of many lives, to bring together people with different
perspectives and hammer out a solution to a complex problem.
Key
point: Hammer out a solution, not each other.
It's
not about whether you are smarter or know more than the other person,
but can you collectively create a breakthrough?
Can you launch a project, improve safety, automate your office,
initiative a new service, reduce the budget, design a product, form a joint
venture?
Key
point: Being smart is not enough.
Your
end-result is highly dependent on:
a) The collective brain power in the room, and b) Your
ability to meld your thoughts and perspective with
others.
Key
Strategy: You can be vocally and visually passionate
about your ideas and opinions and still be productive and
collaborative.
It's
the melding of ideas that's a challenge for many physicians, so
here are some suggestions for being passionate without shutting
down everyone else.
Three
Ways Be Constructive in Group Settings And Still be a Strong
Vocal Advocate for Your Ideas:
| #1 |
Manage your
passion by using the phrase "this is something I
feel strongly about" or "as you can tell I feel pretty passionate about this."
By signaling that your emotional crescendo
reflects your passion, not disdain for the other, you
foster melding of ideas. |
| #2 |
Listen to
other ideas (this is so obvious I almost cringe at
writing it down) and give them the benefit of being
right by saying "that could work" before
launching into your own ideas. Practice that
phrase before your meeting. |
| #3 |
Take
frequent breaks as a group. During the break it is
likely that
smaller side-bar "idea-melding" conversations
will occur that will not happen in front of
the larger group. This is a good face-saving in
preparation for
compromise. |
I
can recall many loud, high-powered, highly charged, and YET
productive meetings, where all the participants felt excited to
contribute their ideas and where something new was created or accomplished.
It is like watching ideas elbow each other for air-time and
dominance. Rather than being a "drag" on us the
participants, these types of meetings foster creativity and
solution-development.
Being
smart is good, and in fact it's real good. Now learn how to apply
your smarts for the greater good. Toss your ideas into the
ring and let the ideas slug it out without your personal need to
be "right."
Francine R. Gaillour, MD, MBA,
FACPE, is an Executive and Career Coach for Physicians. Dr. Gaillour
specializes in helping physicians who are venturing into new territory
as leaders, entrepreneurs, and career adventurers. She
can be reached at (206) 686-4205, francine@physicianleadership.com
or use the
Contact Form
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