Supportive Communication
Below
is an excerpt from the CEO of Cerner to his managers:
“We are getting less than 40 hours of work from
a large number of our K.C.-based EMPLOYEES. The parking lot is sparsely used at
8:00 A.M.; likewise at 5 P.M. As managers – you either do not know what your
EMPLOYEES are doing; or you do not CARE. You have created expectations on the
work effort that allowed this to happen inside Cerner, creating a very
unhealthy environment. In either case, you have a problem and you will fix it
or I will replace you. NEVER in my career have I allowed a team that worked for
me to think they had a 40-hour job. I have allowed YOU to create a culture that
is permitting this. NO LONGER.”
I
probably would have taken issue to the above email if I had have received it. It does seem like the “blame game” is being
played. However, there is an old saying
in the Army, “Leaders are responsible for everything that happens or fails to
happen in their organization”. This
holds true in industry also. On more
than one occasion, I have seen CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, COOs, Company Presidents and
more fall to blame when the company did poorly or there was scandal
involved. More often than not, the
leader resigns.
I
arrived at United States Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) located in San Antonio,
Texas in Early February 2007. On
February 18, 2007, The Washington Post broke the Walter Reed Army Medical
Center (WRAMC) neglect scandal. WRAMC
Commander, Major General (MG) George W. Weightman, was relieved under orders of
the Secretary of Defense, by Secretary of the Army, Fran Harvey, after only
being in command for six months. Consequently,
Secretary Harvey resigned less than a month later due to pressure that he had
not taken action quick enough. After MG
Weightman was relieved, Lieutenant General (LTG) Kevin Kiley was named interim
Commander. Unfortunately, it was
discovered that LTG Kiley had been aware of the poor care and living conditions
of patients at WRAMC dating back to 2004 and he retired on March 12, 2007 less
than one month after being named interim commander. These leaders fell because they were in
charge. Mind you, other leaders much
lower on the food chain were also relieved or resigned in the wake of the “scandal”. Although I had no involvement in this, I was
involved in a different capacity. I was
the Command Career Counselor of the Warrior Transition units under MEDCOM’s
Command and had to travel to WRAMC to deal with the Soldiers affected. The tension at WRAMC was so thick that you
could almost cut it with a knife. I
witness absolutely no supportive communication.
Of
course this situation was extremely severe and affected Wounded Warriors. It brought about outrage from the President
of the United States on down.
If
supportive communication had have been used in the WRAMC situation, I can only
speculate what could have happened. The
same outcome probably would have occurred but less feeling would have been
hurt.
In
the email situation, I believe that supportive communication could be
effective. This CEO made many
assumptions in his email. Was he
actually on site in Kansas City and witnessed the empty parking lot. Although he takes ownership of the situation
by stating that he allowed this to happen, he does not indicate that he plans
on resigning but states that if the manager’s do not fix it, they will be
replaced. I believe this message
conveyed incongruence instead of congruence.
Again, the CEO takes ownership but there is no honesty in his
ownership. He uses evaluative commentary
labeling the manager’s as non-caring. He
does state the problem but definitely makes it person-oriented. He invalidates these managers and I am sure
they immediately went on the defense upon receiving the email. His message was non-useful. He actually did not identify the problem and
offered no advice on how to fix it…just threats. I can only assume that the CEO’s message came
from out of left field and had not addressed it early making it disjunctive
communication. He did own some of the
message but most of his message was disowned.
Finally, his message did not allow for supportive listening and the
entire message was one-way.
Reference
Whetten, D. A. and Cameron, K.S. (2016). Developing Management
Skills. (9th ed.).
Boston: Pearson
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