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Western Medical Enterprises Application Questionnaire
Angela Guthrie
Capella University
BUS3012-Fundamentals of Leadership
John Hawes
March 19, 2021
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Leadership Experience
I have held many leadership roles in my career, but one specific role stands out. I was
responsible for a team of twenty-five people. The team was unique as there were five
completely different job functions within the team and they were spread out across the United
States. Some worked from home, some worked in other offices. This required me to lead and
manage multiple areas in many locations. Each function required me to pull different types of
reports and lead in different ways. Not only was this a very diverse team, but it was also a team
that had been long term employees of a smaller company that the company I had worked for for
years had just purchased. They had their own systems and own way of doing things. I started
off as the enemy to them because I came from the company that was going to change everything
they knew, and some were even fearful of losing their jobs. The team did not feel I would
understand how they were feeling. I stepped into this team in the midst of the acquisition.
Emotions were extremely high, and a lot of changes were taking place. I was new to an official
leadership role which put me at a disadvantage along with not knowing any of the systems they
used or having a solid understanding of what each role entailed. I was learning how to lead
while also having no choice but to lead through change while learning all new systems. I was
not very confident as I felt my team knew more than me when it came to the daily work. I
quickly had to learn that I was in this role for my leadership skills and not my system knowledge.
I was very open about this with my team which gained their respect from the beginning. I
assured them I would need them as much as they would need me through this journey, and we
would take it together. Leading with compassion and empathy became crucial to our success.
Taking emotions and the situation into consideration while leading the group was very
challenging. I had to learn how to navigate the emotions of my team which was a new concept
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as I am not a very emotional person. It required me to learn different soft skills to appropriately
address the fears and frustration. This unique experience, as difficult as it was at the time, taught
me so much about leadership and myself.
My responsibilities as a leader continued to shift as the merger took place. Even though
my work duties were constantly changing, I kept my team as my number one priority. They
came before anything else, as it was important that they felt supported through all the changes
and uncertainty they were feeling. On days where my duties were really demanding, I took a
step back to think about what I would need from a leader if I were in their position, and that
always allowed me to reset and shift my focus. At times it was difficult, as none of them were in
the same office with me and my boss was also in a different office and time zone. I learned to
effectively communicate via other channels such as email, instant message, video conference and
phone conversations. Balancing which form of communication to use in which situation
became a necessary skill. There were times when an email would be sufficient but other times
when a personal phone call would be best. It took some trial an error for me to find a good
balance. All these dynamics made me a very diverse leader right from the beginning of my
journey. My team continued to change with frequent reorganizations, but my style and priorities
never changed. My team came first, and they received all the support they needed.
That role allowed me to grow so much in a little time. The experience unlocked skills I
was unaware I possessed. I learned empathy and organization. I found a balance between being
a boss and a leader. That journey positioned me for other opportunities. I learned a lot about
myself and leadership bringing the awareness that I will always have areas to improve and skills
to gain. With every experience comes growth and opportunity and I pride myself on pulling out
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the lessons in each opportunity. A strong foundation was built for my leadership style with this
role, and I have been able to build off that foundation with each role since.
Leadership Approach
My approach going into this role was ultimately to keep an open mind. I wanted to gain
their trust and respect. Within the first week I held a team meeting via video conference, as we
were all spread out. Collectively, we discussed our purpose and vision. I wanted each member
of the team to contribute and feel as though their thoughts were valued. In the conference call, I
put up a white board to write out our ideas. We discussed the rules of the road for our team.
Their expectations of me as a leader along with my expectations for them and we outlined their
expectations of one another. My goal was to build a solid foundation from the beginning,
making sure I had everyone’s buy in. I needed to build trust on day one in order for me to lead
effectively through all the big changes they were facing.
Once I had that trust and groundwork laid, the team ran smoothly. I found once they
trusted that I was invested in them and not just myself, it was easier to navigate them through the
changes. Having the initial meeting where the whole team laid the rules of the road also allowed
for difficult conversations to become easier. I was able to reference the rules we collectively
came up with to navigate discussions that would otherwise be disciplinary. They came up with
the rules and all agreed to follow them.
I also had the goal of being as transparent as I could. Obviously, in a management role
there are certain things you must keep to yourself, however, if there were opportunities where I
could be open and honest, I took them. For example, we had a huge change in the way the team
was supposed to log in to the system each day. Instead of logging out during lunch and breaks
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and down times, the new standard was to stay logged in but use codes. This is something I did
not agree with either as it made more work for me in reporting with very minimal value. The
team was not a huge fan because they felt as though it was another way for big brother to
monitor their behaviors. Instead of lying and trying to pretend that this was a great change, I told
them I was not a fan either, but I had tried to argue to get us out of doing it and it was of no avail.
Then I was just honest with them that none of us like it, but it is what we are expected to do
going forward so we will just do it together and move on. My honesty did not make them feel
any better about it, but they knew they were not alone in their dislike of it. This went a long way
with them. Seeing that I also have things I do not necessarily agree with but must follow and
enforce just as they must follow.
I can recall a time where I was probably more transparent than I should have been with
my team. A new procedure had been implemented by senior management regarding the
department’s quality standards. I had a lot of concerns about the change which I addressed with
my boss. I also shared my concerns with my team. My boss listened to my concerns, however
there was no change, and this was the new standard. Because I had also expressed my concerns
with my team, one of them escalated the concerns to human resources and that caused issues
upstream. Hindsight, that was a bad decision. I learned that transparency is a balancing act.
The good decisions were building trust with my team, allowing them to have a say in our
guidelines, and letting them know they were not alone. The bad decisions were often being too
open and transparent with them in instances where I should have been more reserved. There is
not anything I would go back and do differently though, as I needed each of those experiences to
learn and grow. It was not always a comfortable situation to be in, but all necessary for my
development.
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My communication and delivery of changes, goals, etc. was consistent. I did the best I
could to relay the information to everyone at one time, so the message was uniform and
consistent. After each meeting I would send out meeting notes to the whole team, even if there
were people who could not attend, asking them to include anything I may have missed. This
allowed everyone to receive the same message even if they were unable to attend the meeting.
Leadership Collaboration
A project had been tasked to me for managing. This project already had an outlined
workflow that was created by another member of the team however had been created based on
knowledge of the project prior to the implementation. On paper, the workflow looked perfect. It
had flow charts that clearly outlined each step of the process from beginning to end. Once I took
over the project, I continued to see gaps in the workflow. I tweaked the process in the small
ways I could and continued to observe the gaps I saw over a period of a few months. There were
approvals needed from the governance committee downstream in the process that I did not have
the authority to change. This is where I had to do some strategizing. My goal was to come up
with a plan to influence my teammates who first designed the workflow to see my vision.
I monitored the gaps closely for a few months and brainstormed ideas on how to
effectively mediate them. Because the workflow is a chart, each time one area was updated it
often led to the rest of the structure to be updated. I continued updating and tweaking the
process. By the end of it, I had re-vamped the entire chart. Added steps that were missing and
removing steps that were inefficient. I used a variety of colors in my chart to make it
aesthetically pleasing, as that usually helps when you are wanting to gain buy in for
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collaboration. Once I felt confident in my new structure, I ran it by my mentor to get feedback.
They gave me a few suggestions and I made minor changes. Then it was time for me to meet
with my teammates to present what I had come up with. It was important they see my vision as I
would need them to assist in officially changing the workflow. After I walked them through my
proposed process, I made sure I kept an open mind to their feedback as their opinion and
suggestions were just as important as mine. I answered some questions from them, and they
loved my idea. We began to work together to make the official updates and change the flow.
We had to pull in other departments as the changes would affect them as well.
With each department we had to loop in, came the same process of convincing them to
see the vision. My strategy of colorful charts worked. Each person I presented to mentioned
how inviting the chart was, and how seeing it clearly outlined allowed them to appreciate the
design. In each presentation, I was sure to point out real examples of how the gaps I was seeing
were causing disruption to the service we were attempting to provide. I was able to show how
the inefficiencies affected multiple areas and we were not nearly as productive as we could be.
There were data driven examples as well. I considered the amount of waste and how it equated
to productivity to demonstrate the savings and importance. I then went on to show them how the
new process would reduce the number of meetings they were attending. All these strategies led
to the overall collaboration of five separate departments, working together to update the
workflow.
The reason I was successful in gaining the collaboration of all the other areas was
because I took the time to strategize. I gathered the data and watched trends. Months of work
went into just finalizing the vision. Many changes were made through that time to ensure each
step worked and there were no gaps in the new workflow. To gain collaboration from anyone,
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let alone multiple departments it is vital to be through, take the time. Had I rushed through it, I
may have missed important pieces and that could have changed the outcome. Instead, I invested
time and energy into my vision. I solicited feedback while gathering important data. I made
sure my presentation flowed well, was organized but also engaging.
Through collaboration the proposed changes were made. The project ran efficiently
which allowed for greater customer service satisfaction which led to greater results for the entire
division. Gaining the trust of my peers was the baseline for getting them to buy into my vision.
The key factor in all of leadership is trust. It is the foundation for a strong team.
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