What do sick patients need from their doctors in times of uncertainty, stress, and vulnerability? After 32 years as a faculty member at the University of Louisville School of Medicine including 12 years as chair of a large clinical department and 3 years as the Acting CEO of the medical school practice plan, I have come to the realization that employees going through uncertainty, stress, and vulnerability need the same things a sick patient needs from their doctor. Let me explain.

Just a few months ago, the President of the university, Dr. Neeli Bendapudi, a professor of marketing, came to speak in our Leadership and Innovation in Academic Medicine (LIAM) course about the role that organizational culture can play in the implementation of our new university-wide strategic plan. Her presentation focused on how to engage employees around the new plan and how to overcome the inevitable inertia and resistance to change that characterizes most academic centers. In addition, financial challenges at the University of Louisville have brought additional pressures on faculty and staff.  In preparation for her session with LIAM, we had the participants watch a TED^x Talk that she had done in 2011, based on marketing research done at the Mayo Clinic to uncover what patients want from their doctor. Principally, her research found that when we are a patient, we want our physician to do five things for us:

1. See us as a person, not just as a disease,
2. Give us hope,
3. Respect our input,
4. Understand what we are going through, and
5. Treat us like a partner in the process.

So if this is what patients want from their doctors as they endure the uncertainty, pain, logistics, and rigors of medical treatment for serious illnesses, what do the same people need and want from their employer when there is uncertainty, fear, and the feeling of not being able to engage in change efforts at work? How should corporate leaders respond to their employees to keep them engaged and comforted in times of stress?  Why is this important? Engaged employees are more productive and more likely to stick with your organization in tough times. Do people really want the same thing from their leaders at work that they want from their doctors when they are sick?

Let’s look at some evidence-based factors that lead to employee engagement (a surrogate for their experience at work):

One of my colleagues at the University of Louisville, Dr. Brad Shuck, studies the factors that enhance employee engagement. His team’s research suggests that three leader behaviors are correlated with employee engagement. The three leadership behaviors are dignity, accountability, and empathy (Shuck, 2018). Of the three, treating people with dignity proved to be the most crucial behavior when it comes to employee engagement.

An additional line of evidence regarding what employees need and want from their boss at work can be found in the book, Strengths Based Leadership, based on the work of Tom Rath and Barry Conchie (2008).  This book references a Gallup Poll (2009) that asked employees to consider the leader that has the most positive influence in their daily life and to list three words that best describe what that leader contributes to their life. One might expect that people in difficult work circumstances would describe their leader’s contribution to their life with words like vision, purpose, wisdom, and humility. However, these words that commonly receive much attention in the field of leadership study were nowhere near the top of the list. So what words did these employees use? The employee answers boiled down to this list of the four basic needs they have of their leaders: trust, compassion, stability, and hope. Do these words sound familiar?

I believe that the things that Dr. Bendapudi’s research at Mayo uncovered about what patients want from their physician are the very things that the faculty and staff at many academic centers need from their leaders. The underlying themes common to both patients and our faculty/staff are really the same: perceived lack of control, vulnerability, fear, uncertainty about what is to come, and an inability to see how to engage in the process.

For the readers who are physician leaders, you understand this role well. Your employees need the same thing from you that your patients need. So, I recommend the following for your relationship with your faculty colleagues and employees that you lead to keep them engaged:

1. Treat them with dignity
2. See them as a person, not just an employee
3. Give them hope
4. Respect their input
5. Understand what they are going through
6. Treat them like a partner in the process

In this illustration, the President of the University becomes the “doctor”, and the faculty and staff of the University are “patients” in the system. Leaders in academic centers should recognize the pain in the eyes of our faculty and staff through a lens that sees them as “patients” trying to navigate their way through a system in rapid change. Leaders need to treat them with dignity, give them stability, hope, compassion, and someone to trust. Dr. Bendapudi is doing just that at the University of Louisville.

References:

Gallup. (2006). Gallup Poll, based on telephone interviews with 1,001 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted January 2-24, 2006. Retrieved from Strengths Based Leadership by T. Rath 2009.

Rath, T., & Conchie, B. (2008). Strengths based leadership: Great leaders, teams, and why people follow. New York, NY: Gallup Press.

Shuck, B. (2018, October). Employee engagement: An HR game changer. Human Resource Professionals Magazine, 28-29.

TEDx. (2011, May 29). Neeli Bendapudi: Just want the patient ordered [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOSwOstNOYk&feature=youtu.be