|
 Prayer helps employees practice servant leadership at a large hospital.
Meg Clapp, director of the 250-person Pharmacy Department at Massachusetts General Hospital , practices transparent servant leadership. She leads by personal example and staff collaboration. Clapp characterizes her leadership as an integration of "being" and "doing": "Who I am at MGH is the same person you encounter 24/7 at home or at church." Furthermore, she trains her managers to practice the same kind of leadership.
At the MGH Pharmacy, employees are hired for attitude as well as for skill: "We hire the best, brightest and most positive people with the expectation that they will learn, grow and share the spirit and energy with others." The growth is not left to chance: "We treat each person with the interest and awareness that you would expect to experience when you begin a significant relationship. Clapp follows up the hiring with a year-long training program, with the goal of giving people the level of confidence they need to quickly become productive. Each new employee gets a training buddy, and receives mentoring throughout the program. Within a year of hiring, each employee articulates three goals, and then receives coaching to achieve those goals.
Consistently practicing transparent servant leadership is no easy task. How does Clapp do it? "Prayer is part of my day and is often the retreat I seek when the work is particularly difficult," she explains. "I offer a 'moment away' to anyone working with me on a difficult situation to take the time to focus on what it is that we are supposed to accomplish. The other person may or may not pray, but I need to make space for the Holy Spirit to be present to the moment." She sees her work as God's work in the world: "Together we are doing the work of God's love."
What are the results of this kind of leadership? Recently Clapp received in her annual review the highest grade for human resource management. The department is known for its high standards and for how employees extend themselves to patients. The pharmacists are well respected in the medical community. With low turnover and high morale, the department is known as a great place to work.
At the MGH Pharmacy Department, Meg Clapp has demonstrated that servant leadership will positively impact the patient and the hospital as a whole. In the midst of a large, impersonal bureaucracy, the Pharmacy Department shines as a beacon of hope.
Margaret Benefiel, Ph.D., author of "Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in Organizations," works with leaders in business, healthcare, government and non-profits to help them develop spiritual leadership. Visit her website at www.ExecutiveSoul.com .
|
Privacy 
