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Common Management Errors
AUGUST 19R7. VOL. 46. NO 2
AORN JOURNAL
Common Management Errors TIPSFOR EXPERIENCED AND NEW MANAGERS Janet S. Wilson, RN
A
s an OR nurse, Helen did an excellent job, but when she became OR director, everything went downhill. She found she could not manage her peers effectively. Helen is typical of many excellent OR nurses who move into management positions. They find that their experience managing patients does not fully prepare them for managing their peers. There are similarities,but managing peers requires an entirely new set of skills. Thus, nurses who do not have a management background need to obtain additional knowledge. Many nurses learn management skills through trial and error, but there are easier methods. Management skills can be developed by attending management workshops and seminars available from university continuing education departments, graduate programs, business schools, professional associations, and independent educational institutions. Many books and articles have been written about how to manage people. This article describes the most common management errors. Experienced managers can use this article to evaluate their management style, and new managers can learn to recognize and avoid these errors. (See “Do’s and Don’ts of Good Management.”)
communication, and conflict resolution. By using these skills, managers can create an ambience in which employees are willing to cooperate to achieve common goals.* The role of a nurse manager can be compared to that of a coach. A coach does more than call plays during a game. A winning coach has to understand strategy and tactics and be a combination of an inspirational leader, authority figure, mother hen, and father confessor.3 Not using performance as the basis for evaluation. The core of any manager’s job is to organize and motivate personnel to meet the goals of the OR. When managers lose sight of this goal, they are likely to waste time and energy by becoming involved in staff politics and conflicts as well as nonessential tasks. Management becomes less difficult when performance becomes the focal point; personality conflicts, interpersonal bickerings, and political hassles become secondary to maintaining performance. This makes managing easier, and managers can concentrate on having the staff perform according to the objectives and goals that have been established. For example, when two staff nurses are involved in a conflict, a performance-
Common Errors Not knowing what managers do. Some nurse managers simply do not know the range of what needs to be done. Planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting are just some of the skills that managers need.’ Others are team building, negotiation, 268
Janet S. Wilson, RN, MA, b an ass&tant professor, Uoiversity of Oklahoma College of Nursing Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City. She received her bachelor of science degree in nursingfrom Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY; and her master of arts degree in psychiatric nursing from New York University,New York City.
A OR N JOURNAL
AUGUST 1987, VOL. 46, NO 2
Do’s and Don’ts of Good Management Do
Don’t
Plan ahead Delegate tasks and responsibility Use praise when it is deserved Smile-your staff will take the cue from you and mimic your attitude Make your expectations clear by telling your staff what your standards are When criticizing an employee, do so constructively and in private, and limit it to work performance Listen to what your staff tells you Share information from the administrators with your staff and vice versa Support your employees; if they have legitimate grievances, stand up for their rights Limit socializing with the staff because it hinders your authority as the boss Set a good example about getting the job done Acknowledge an employee’s contributions When you make a mistake, admit it and use the mistake as a learning opportunity Accept risks as inevitable Look for performance results in self and in employees
Change your decision to delegate Fake praise Expect your staff to automatically know what is expected of them Blame others for your mistakes Get hysterical over deadlines or problems because this is transmitted to your staff Be inconsistent about employee promotions, salary increases, or vacation requests Be a “people pleaser”-remember that not all your decisions will be popular Encourage social relationships with staff members because it becomes hard to supervise a friend Change everything at once when you are in a new position Try to get the last word in just because you are the boss Threaten employees-it is a poor motivating technique and the results do not last Use guilt as a motivator-it only angers people Get bogged down in details Discuss confidential subjects of one employee with another
oriented manager need not feel responsible for resolving their problem, but rather, points out how their problems are affecting their work performance and asks them to work out a solution. Many managers use performance appraisals as a means to evaluate and give constructive criticism to the staff. The appraisals are effective only if managers clearly tell the staff what they expect of them, and if the appraisals match the expectations and objectives of the unit. If the appraisals do not have anything to do with expectations of the managers, problems will exist. One problem that many managers encounter is supervising and evaluating staff on different shifts. To successfully evaluate employees, managers must know their staff. They cannot just
put marks on an evaluation form. Managers can resolve this problem by delegating the job of managing staff to supervisors on those shifts, who are then responsible for evaluations. Losing sight of organizational goals and objectives. It is not uncommon that managers in hospitals lose sight of the primary goal and For example, an experience goal di~placement.~ OR manager pursues the goals of the OR without taking into account the overall goals of the institution. Managers can lose sight of the overall goals because they become involved in the mechanics of the job. Instead of performing lowpriority tasks, effective OR managers ensure that the goals and objectives of the OR correspond with the overall objectives of the hospital. Setting 269
AORN J O U R N A L
AUGUST 1987, VOL. 4
‘
e
Delegate as much work as possible, remembering not to just delegate the task, but the responsibility, too. goals on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, and five-year basis provides an orderly structure to ensure that goals are accomplished. It is best if managers review the hospital goals to ascertain if they correspond with their personal career goals and objectives. Those objectives are the basis for their performance as well as for the performance of their staff. To help staff members achieve their best performance, effective managers ensure that the staff members know both the goals and objectives of the OR and the hospital. Lack of delegation. Management is the art of getting work done through others. Gen George S. Patton is known for saying, “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them whar to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”’ Many managers try to accomplish too many tasks themselves and do not distribute the work evenly. Many do not delegate work because they think that, “If things are going to get done, you have to do it yourself.” Others do not delegate work because it will not be done “right.” By delegating, managers can learn new ways of accomplishing tasks from their staff. You can learn to depend on others without abdicating responsibility for the overall outcome by using the following tips. Select your staff carefully and actively recruit nurses to the OR. When there are special projects, select nurses based on their past performances. Get to know those staff members you will be depending upon, and let them know you. This way you can share common goals and how to achieve them. Delegate as much work as possible, remembering not to just delegate the task, but the responsibility, too. Be generous with praise when it is warranted and constructive with criticism. Praise helps motivate the positive behaviors you want to see in your staff. 270
Schedule regular feedback sessions to evaluate how your staff is handling the responsibility. This helps avoid crises and also keeps you informed.6 Lack of planning. Many managers go from crisis to crisis and never really feel that they accomplish anything. By not planning for the future, they create another set of problems. A national survey reported that 65% of the respondents condemned the crisis management style of their companies.7 Management by applying “Band-Aids’”” to the problem takes its toll on both employees and managers. When a crisis occurs, employees and managers experience job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, lateness, chronic complaining, and burnout. By using the following guidelines, you can avoid crisis management and have a framework in which to make everyday decisions. Schedule planning sessions regularly to develop short- and long-term goals. Develop objectives, budgets, policies, procedures, and standards that will be the foundation for your plans8 Seek the assistance and advice of others to help develop plans and gather data. Involve your staff in the planning. Keep the plan simple and put it in writing. Obtain the necessary approvals for implementation. Hospitals are hierarchical organizations, and managers need to negotiate approval for major programs. Make a pilot run of the plan to smooth out the kinks. No plan is perfect, and time will be needed to revise it. Lack of creative problem solving. How many hours per week do you spend creatively thinking of solutions to your problems? If you are like most managers, the answer is zero. Managers need to rekindle their creative energies, and then use that energy to make an impact upon the institution? Most managers use the problem-
AORN JOURNAL
AUGUST 1987, VOL. 46, NO 2
misnomer? Is the feeling of burnout actually due to poor career management on the part of the professional and poor personnel management on part of the boss? Are creative and innovativenurses who are unable to deal with the organizational structure leaving nursing because their managers have not recognized that managing professionals is different from managing nonprofessionals?
solving process (ie, define the problem, search for causes, list alternative solutions, and implement and evaluate the final solution). When this process fails to generate new ideas, effective managers use the brainstorming process. A brainstorming group involves only those affected by the problem. The group discusses what the problem actually is and the range of solutions. The rules are set beforehand: do not accept the first solution, do not put down any idea, generate many ideas (quality of ideas does not count at first), and concentrate on creative, innovative ideas. The group chooses one of the alternatives and develops a plan. The plan is then put in writing, and the group evaluates and revises it. If the solutions in the plan fail, managers need to change the structure or the composition of the group.
anagers must manage. Managers must do everything possible to achieve results and makes thing happen. Proper management requires time to collect facts from a variety of sources and the discipline not to settle for the simple or the fmt solution to the problem.
Failing to differentiate between managing professionals and nonprofessionals. Nurse
Notes
managers have the complex task of managing both professional and nonprofessional employees. Though it is often assumed managers can supervise both groups in the same way, this is usually not the case.10 Professional and nonprofessional activitiesare very different. Professional employees perform activities that involve judgment, responsibility, liability, creativity, and innovation. Nonprofessional employees perform activities that are highly specific, regulated, automated, and predictable. Creative, professional employees are harder to manage because most do not automatically assume that their managers make the best decisions. By nature, professionals are thinking, innovative, questioning, technically competent individuals. Yet they do not conform easily to the system or its rules, and they tend to question the authority structure of the organization. Learning how to retain professionals’ individualistic characteristics, yet at the same time directing them to work toward the goals of the organization, makes management a more difficult task. Realizing that different approaches are needed to manage these two groups also puts a different perspective on how to view problems that currently exist in management. For example, do nurse managers use an assembly-line approach to professional activities? Also, is burnout really a
Conclusion
M
1. H Mintzberg, Nmre of Managerial Work (New York City: Harper & Row, 1973) 8-1 1. 2. L V Imundo, Effective Supervkork Handbook (New York City: American Management Association, 1980) 7. 3. “Be a better boss,” C h g i n g Times 39 (November 1985) 101. 4. E J Sullivan, P Decker, Effective Managemenr in Nursing (Menlo Park, CaliE Addison-Wesley, 1985) 29. 5. J Bartlett, Familiar Quotariom, 15th ed (Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1980) 792. 6. A Goodloe et al, Managing YourseF How to Conpol Emotion, Stress and Time (New York City: Franklin Watts, 1984) 246-248. 7. J Ciabattari, “The biggest mistake top managers make (national survey),” Working Woman 1 1 (October 1986) 4748. 8. R 0 Loen, Manage More by Doing Less (New York City: McGraw-Hill, 1971 ) 25-28. 9. M Wilson, Survival Skills for Managers (Boulder, Colo: Volunteer Management Associates, I98 I ) 18. 10. A Shapero, Managing Professional People: Una’ersunding Creative Peformance (New York City: MacMmiUan Co, 1985) 84-89. 1 I . [bid Suggested reading
Austin, J B. Chase, Chance, & Creativiq. New York City: Columbia University Press, 1978. Geneen, H; Moscow, A. Mumging. New York City: Doubleday, 1984. Peter, L J. Why Things Go Wrong or the Peter Principre Revisited New York Morrow, William, & Co, Inc. 1984.
27 I
AORN JOURNAL
Common Management Errors TIPSFOR EXPERIENCED AND NEW MANAGERS Janet S. Wilson, RN
A
s an OR nurse, Helen did an excellent job, but when she became OR director, everything went downhill. She found she could not manage her peers effectively. Helen is typical of many excellent OR nurses who move into management positions. They find that their experience managing patients does not fully prepare them for managing their peers. There are similarities,but managing peers requires an entirely new set of skills. Thus, nurses who do not have a management background need to obtain additional knowledge. Many nurses learn management skills through trial and error, but there are easier methods. Management skills can be developed by attending management workshops and seminars available from university continuing education departments, graduate programs, business schools, professional associations, and independent educational institutions. Many books and articles have been written about how to manage people. This article describes the most common management errors. Experienced managers can use this article to evaluate their management style, and new managers can learn to recognize and avoid these errors. (See “Do’s and Don’ts of Good Management.”)
communication, and conflict resolution. By using these skills, managers can create an ambience in which employees are willing to cooperate to achieve common goals.* The role of a nurse manager can be compared to that of a coach. A coach does more than call plays during a game. A winning coach has to understand strategy and tactics and be a combination of an inspirational leader, authority figure, mother hen, and father confessor.3 Not using performance as the basis for evaluation. The core of any manager’s job is to organize and motivate personnel to meet the goals of the OR. When managers lose sight of this goal, they are likely to waste time and energy by becoming involved in staff politics and conflicts as well as nonessential tasks. Management becomes less difficult when performance becomes the focal point; personality conflicts, interpersonal bickerings, and political hassles become secondary to maintaining performance. This makes managing easier, and managers can concentrate on having the staff perform according to the objectives and goals that have been established. For example, when two staff nurses are involved in a conflict, a performance-
Common Errors Not knowing what managers do. Some nurse managers simply do not know the range of what needs to be done. Planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting are just some of the skills that managers need.’ Others are team building, negotiation, 268
Janet S. Wilson, RN, MA, b an ass&tant professor, Uoiversity of Oklahoma College of Nursing Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City. She received her bachelor of science degree in nursingfrom Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY; and her master of arts degree in psychiatric nursing from New York University,New York City.
A OR N JOURNAL
AUGUST 1987, VOL. 46, NO 2
Do’s and Don’ts of Good Management Do
Don’t
Plan ahead Delegate tasks and responsibility Use praise when it is deserved Smile-your staff will take the cue from you and mimic your attitude Make your expectations clear by telling your staff what your standards are When criticizing an employee, do so constructively and in private, and limit it to work performance Listen to what your staff tells you Share information from the administrators with your staff and vice versa Support your employees; if they have legitimate grievances, stand up for their rights Limit socializing with the staff because it hinders your authority as the boss Set a good example about getting the job done Acknowledge an employee’s contributions When you make a mistake, admit it and use the mistake as a learning opportunity Accept risks as inevitable Look for performance results in self and in employees
Change your decision to delegate Fake praise Expect your staff to automatically know what is expected of them Blame others for your mistakes Get hysterical over deadlines or problems because this is transmitted to your staff Be inconsistent about employee promotions, salary increases, or vacation requests Be a “people pleaser”-remember that not all your decisions will be popular Encourage social relationships with staff members because it becomes hard to supervise a friend Change everything at once when you are in a new position Try to get the last word in just because you are the boss Threaten employees-it is a poor motivating technique and the results do not last Use guilt as a motivator-it only angers people Get bogged down in details Discuss confidential subjects of one employee with another
oriented manager need not feel responsible for resolving their problem, but rather, points out how their problems are affecting their work performance and asks them to work out a solution. Many managers use performance appraisals as a means to evaluate and give constructive criticism to the staff. The appraisals are effective only if managers clearly tell the staff what they expect of them, and if the appraisals match the expectations and objectives of the unit. If the appraisals do not have anything to do with expectations of the managers, problems will exist. One problem that many managers encounter is supervising and evaluating staff on different shifts. To successfully evaluate employees, managers must know their staff. They cannot just
put marks on an evaluation form. Managers can resolve this problem by delegating the job of managing staff to supervisors on those shifts, who are then responsible for evaluations. Losing sight of organizational goals and objectives. It is not uncommon that managers in hospitals lose sight of the primary goal and For example, an experience goal di~placement.~ OR manager pursues the goals of the OR without taking into account the overall goals of the institution. Managers can lose sight of the overall goals because they become involved in the mechanics of the job. Instead of performing lowpriority tasks, effective OR managers ensure that the goals and objectives of the OR correspond with the overall objectives of the hospital. Setting 269
AORN J O U R N A L
AUGUST 1987, VOL. 4
‘
e
Delegate as much work as possible, remembering not to just delegate the task, but the responsibility, too. goals on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, and five-year basis provides an orderly structure to ensure that goals are accomplished. It is best if managers review the hospital goals to ascertain if they correspond with their personal career goals and objectives. Those objectives are the basis for their performance as well as for the performance of their staff. To help staff members achieve their best performance, effective managers ensure that the staff members know both the goals and objectives of the OR and the hospital. Lack of delegation. Management is the art of getting work done through others. Gen George S. Patton is known for saying, “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them whar to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”’ Many managers try to accomplish too many tasks themselves and do not distribute the work evenly. Many do not delegate work because they think that, “If things are going to get done, you have to do it yourself.” Others do not delegate work because it will not be done “right.” By delegating, managers can learn new ways of accomplishing tasks from their staff. You can learn to depend on others without abdicating responsibility for the overall outcome by using the following tips. Select your staff carefully and actively recruit nurses to the OR. When there are special projects, select nurses based on their past performances. Get to know those staff members you will be depending upon, and let them know you. This way you can share common goals and how to achieve them. Delegate as much work as possible, remembering not to just delegate the task, but the responsibility, too. Be generous with praise when it is warranted and constructive with criticism. Praise helps motivate the positive behaviors you want to see in your staff. 270
Schedule regular feedback sessions to evaluate how your staff is handling the responsibility. This helps avoid crises and also keeps you informed.6 Lack of planning. Many managers go from crisis to crisis and never really feel that they accomplish anything. By not planning for the future, they create another set of problems. A national survey reported that 65% of the respondents condemned the crisis management style of their companies.7 Management by applying “Band-Aids’”” to the problem takes its toll on both employees and managers. When a crisis occurs, employees and managers experience job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, lateness, chronic complaining, and burnout. By using the following guidelines, you can avoid crisis management and have a framework in which to make everyday decisions. Schedule planning sessions regularly to develop short- and long-term goals. Develop objectives, budgets, policies, procedures, and standards that will be the foundation for your plans8 Seek the assistance and advice of others to help develop plans and gather data. Involve your staff in the planning. Keep the plan simple and put it in writing. Obtain the necessary approvals for implementation. Hospitals are hierarchical organizations, and managers need to negotiate approval for major programs. Make a pilot run of the plan to smooth out the kinks. No plan is perfect, and time will be needed to revise it. Lack of creative problem solving. How many hours per week do you spend creatively thinking of solutions to your problems? If you are like most managers, the answer is zero. Managers need to rekindle their creative energies, and then use that energy to make an impact upon the institution? Most managers use the problem-
AORN JOURNAL
AUGUST 1987, VOL. 46, NO 2
misnomer? Is the feeling of burnout actually due to poor career management on the part of the professional and poor personnel management on part of the boss? Are creative and innovativenurses who are unable to deal with the organizational structure leaving nursing because their managers have not recognized that managing professionals is different from managing nonprofessionals?
solving process (ie, define the problem, search for causes, list alternative solutions, and implement and evaluate the final solution). When this process fails to generate new ideas, effective managers use the brainstorming process. A brainstorming group involves only those affected by the problem. The group discusses what the problem actually is and the range of solutions. The rules are set beforehand: do not accept the first solution, do not put down any idea, generate many ideas (quality of ideas does not count at first), and concentrate on creative, innovative ideas. The group chooses one of the alternatives and develops a plan. The plan is then put in writing, and the group evaluates and revises it. If the solutions in the plan fail, managers need to change the structure or the composition of the group.
anagers must manage. Managers must do everything possible to achieve results and makes thing happen. Proper management requires time to collect facts from a variety of sources and the discipline not to settle for the simple or the fmt solution to the problem.
Failing to differentiate between managing professionals and nonprofessionals. Nurse
Notes
managers have the complex task of managing both professional and nonprofessional employees. Though it is often assumed managers can supervise both groups in the same way, this is usually not the case.10 Professional and nonprofessional activitiesare very different. Professional employees perform activities that involve judgment, responsibility, liability, creativity, and innovation. Nonprofessional employees perform activities that are highly specific, regulated, automated, and predictable. Creative, professional employees are harder to manage because most do not automatically assume that their managers make the best decisions. By nature, professionals are thinking, innovative, questioning, technically competent individuals. Yet they do not conform easily to the system or its rules, and they tend to question the authority structure of the organization. Learning how to retain professionals’ individualistic characteristics, yet at the same time directing them to work toward the goals of the organization, makes management a more difficult task. Realizing that different approaches are needed to manage these two groups also puts a different perspective on how to view problems that currently exist in management. For example, do nurse managers use an assembly-line approach to professional activities? Also, is burnout really a
Conclusion
M
1. H Mintzberg, Nmre of Managerial Work (New York City: Harper & Row, 1973) 8-1 1. 2. L V Imundo, Effective Supervkork Handbook (New York City: American Management Association, 1980) 7. 3. “Be a better boss,” C h g i n g Times 39 (November 1985) 101. 4. E J Sullivan, P Decker, Effective Managemenr in Nursing (Menlo Park, CaliE Addison-Wesley, 1985) 29. 5. J Bartlett, Familiar Quotariom, 15th ed (Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1980) 792. 6. A Goodloe et al, Managing YourseF How to Conpol Emotion, Stress and Time (New York City: Franklin Watts, 1984) 246-248. 7. J Ciabattari, “The biggest mistake top managers make (national survey),” Working Woman 1 1 (October 1986) 4748. 8. R 0 Loen, Manage More by Doing Less (New York City: McGraw-Hill, 1971 ) 25-28. 9. M Wilson, Survival Skills for Managers (Boulder, Colo: Volunteer Management Associates, I98 I ) 18. 10. A Shapero, Managing Professional People: Una’ersunding Creative Peformance (New York City: MacMmiUan Co, 1985) 84-89. 1 I . [bid Suggested reading
Austin, J B. Chase, Chance, & Creativiq. New York City: Columbia University Press, 1978. Geneen, H; Moscow, A. Mumging. New York City: Doubleday, 1984. Peter, L J. Why Things Go Wrong or the Peter Principre Revisited New York Morrow, William, & Co, Inc. 1984.
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