Eventually the lack of education became a stigma for her and probably led to her hesitation and indecisiveness when dealing with strong personalities and higher education. On the other hand, she did not go back to school to either finish her BSN or get a Master’s degree. This is where the organization failed her. Other than the technical training for the various applications, she was never developed to lead a team. One manager I had grew within the organization from a two year RN to a Clinical Applications Manager. If you force it by pushing them outside their comfort zone with management responsibilities, you may just lose a valuable technical expert. Sometimes you have to accept that your first choice to lead a team may not have the proper skill sets yet. It's hard to have command presence if you are a geek at heart. It is one of the primary challenges in developing technology teams. In the Healthcare IT world we have many homegrown leaders that have the technical knowledge, but lack the people skills. CIOs should provide opportunities to observe how their direct reports handle challenges and work with those that don’t have a natural ability to lead. But the truth is that you never stop learning. The assumption is that you should have all the tools that you need to make you effective. Just because you are a senior manager does not mean that you stop being mentored. Regardless of why someone lacks Command Presence it is really a symptom of organizational leadership or the lack thereof. Smaller organizations can’t afford to have “redundancy” within the management team. Managers can hide in the shadows and let others take risks. Large medical centers are notorious for this type of behavior. If you are not sticking your neck out, you don’t have to worry about having it chopped off. I had a very low tolerance for leaders that could not make a decision, until I realized that sometimes inactivity or indecisiveness was a way that some people use to stay employed. The flip side of this is someone that appears “rudder-less.” The wind takes them wherever it is blowing and they just go along with the organizational flow. In the military we would call this having “Command Presence.” It’s a natural impressive appearance and attitude that commands respect. One thing that is never taught in an MBA courses, is how to appear poised and in control.
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