STORIES FROM THE FIELD: A New Leader
A registered dietitian nutritionist was recently promoted to a program manager position at their health and wellness center. One of the manager’s new responsibilities was to supervise the part-time community liaison responsible for assisting with community relationships and facilitating the teen program. The new manager worked hard to develop a friendly relationship with the employee due to their role in the community. They frequently texted back and forth regarding the teen program and operations issues.
When the manager took over supervision of the employee, they were notified that the employee had a history of inconsistently completing their time sheets. After several months, the manager began to experience this issue and had to follow up with the employee multiple times to obtain and record their hours. Not wanting to sacrifice their relationship with the employee, the manager opted to remind the employee of policy and hope they would correct the situation. After a brief period of im- provement, the problem resurfaced. Tired of having to constantly reach out for this information, the manager opted to begin estimating the hours worked and filling out the time sheets for the employee.
A month later, the employee worked substantially more hours than usual to assist with teen vacation camps. The busy manager overlooked this when estimating the employee’s hours and the employee was substantially underpaid. The employee, upset and frustrated, used a curse word in the text they sent the manager regarding the inaccuracy of their paycheck. The manager became very upset and wanted to terminate the employee.
The manager, the employee, and the department director sat down to address the situation. When asked about the text language, the employee told the manager, “I thought we were friends. I texted you like I would my friend. I was really upset, I have bills to pay. I need my money!” The manager remained focused on the language issue and the situation became tense.
At this point, the director intervened, informing the employee that they were required to submit a time sheet every Friday by 5:00 pm or they would not be paid that week. The director also told the employee to make a copy of the time sheet so that they would always know exactly how many hours they would be paid for. The director informed the manager that managers were prohibited from entering hours for employees without a time sheet generated by the employee. The unprofessional language issue was also addressed, and the texting policy was reviewed.
Practical Ways to Develop Leadership Skills
There are many opportunities to develop leadership skills in everyday life as well as in one’s career. Everyday activities with family, friends, people in your networks, or a work team all present opportunities to lead. Some ways to develop leadership skills in the workplace include these strategies.
Work with a mentor, or mentor others Mentorship is highly effective in helping develop leadership skills but is often underutilized. In a survey of 684 clinical RDNs, Patten and Sauer39
found that working with a mentor or serving as a mentor to new
RDNs or students was one of the 27 leadership behaviors practiced least frequently. The benefits of having a mentor include expanding your network of contacts, in- creased access to consistent feedback, opportunities to practice your core leadership skills in a safe environment, and improved self-confidence. There are several things to consider in order to find a mentor that will be beneficial to you. Most business experts recommend first deciding the specific role you’d like the mentor to provide.40 For example, are you looking for someone within your organization to help you ad- vance? Are you looking to transition to a new area of dietetics, such as moving from foodservice management into higher education? Other key steps include making a list of potential individuals who might mentor you and developing a concise and
CHAPTER 1: Leadership Fundamentals 15
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