Bullies – How to Handle Them with Emotional Intelligence
By William R. Murray on 07/15/08 in Conflict Transformation & Connecting, Leadership, Performance Management | Comments (7)
An article on MSNBC website on July 9, 2008, “Hospital bullies take a toll on patient safety,” cited how a lack of emotional intelligence affects the quality of medical care, and health care costs. Hospitals today are stressful workplaces and most of the healthcare professionals within them work hard to save lives and provide compassionate care. However, studies have found that a small percentage of clinicians acting in an arrogant, intimidating manner can have major impact within the healthcare system.
As in the business sector, a lack of emotional intelligence affects staff morale and turnover among healthcare workers. But in health care, there’s growing evidence that disruptive behaviors are tied to costly medical mistakes. An article published in the spring journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing finds links between disruptive behavior and adverse outcomes, and patient mortality.
The article focuses on doctors, who are often seen as the “higher authority,” as being the major contributors to abusive, bullying behavior. However, bad behavior can also covers nurses, pharmacists and other clinicians.
Also of note is that there is evidence that ignoring bad behavior has potentially serious consequences for patients. The article cites a 2004 study of workplace intimidation by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) in Horsham, Pa., which found that 40% of clinicians avoided talking to an intimidating colleague about improper medication. In these cases, the incorrect medication or dosage is allowed to continue.
I have worked in two hospital administrations, and I know how this intimidation works. For example, a pharmacist tells a doctor that he has prescribed the wrong dosage. The doctor gets furious at the pharmacist and maybe tells the Medical Director that this pharmacist has an attitude problem. The next time the doctor prescribes incorrectly, the pharmacist decides to let it go.
As you can see, lack of emotional intelligence on the part of both the bullies and the bullied contribute dearly to adverse outcomes in hospitals. A hospital regulatory agency, The Joint Commission (JCAHO), is concerned enough to be taking action by creating new requirements to take place in January of 2009.
Bullying occurs in all environments, not just hospitals. What do I recommend?
Training and coaching managers in emotional intelligence will help to minimize the problem. The bullies themselves need to be confronted with the bad outcomes of their behavior. They don’t really get away with it. Patients suffer. They are more liable for malpractice suits. In all industries, their relationships with others deteriorate.
The victims of bullies need training in confrontation skills. Most people shy away from confrontations in part because they don’t believe they can do it right. They fear they will just make matters worse. But with training, they can step up to confront bullies and make their point. For example, the pharmacist can tell a doctor that his prescription dosage is not right. If necessary, the victim will have the courage to appeal to a higher authority.
Managers need training in how to handle these cases of bullying. Good performance management practices are required for the bullies. Also the managers need to be able to encourage everyone to step forward and expose the bullies. That means the managers have to instill trust. That includes convincing victims that they will be safe in whistle blowing, with no repercussions.
My emotional intelligence training and coaching can help in all these situations and processes. For more information, call me Bill Murray at 919-419-9460.
Email This | Tag This | Digg This | Add to Reddit | Add to Technorati Faves
Published in Amazon best-seller, 
William R. Murray (Bill), Harvard MBA, Yale M.Div., Master Certified Coach since 1999. 
Good tips. That type of training should be mandatory for both managers and employees. There’s an explosive new ebook called Work Laws Exposed that will cause some heads to roll in the workplace when the training vaccination doesn’t stick. It was written by an employment law attorney. You can find it here: http://www.stressfulworkplacehelp.com/articles/bullies-in-the-workplace.htm
July 19th, 2008
Many companies now have whistleblowers or else a person to whom abuse can be confidentially reported. Generally that person undertakes a quiet, secret investigation, though some situations cannot be investigated secretly. Normally this individual reports to the CEO or the board of directors. In general, experience with whistleblowers has reportedly been positive and could certainly be used to report bullying. If enough employees complain about the same individual’s behavior, action becomes virtually inevitable.
January 17th, 2009
Leslie,
Thanks again for another good addition to a blog post. I was such a person in a hospital and heard a lot about bullying. I often took action too.
Bill
January 21st, 2009
The issue is more complicated when working in a company culture that is aggressive and where the line between bullying and “strict father mentality” is blurred, and where communication is expected to only flow from top down, just as it does in dictatorial government systems. Bullying by managers is the second lowest motivational strategy (above only not doing anything), but I believe it is a learned strategy, observed by those they report to–the biggest bullies usually have a bully above them, so I do not see a way to fix that unless you start fixing the company culture from the top.
April 23rd, 2009
My comment was that bullying is learned, and enforced by culture that is dictated at the top–bullies exist when top managers are bullies or tolerate them.
Peter
April 23rd, 2009
[...] APPCA e-Newsletter July-August 2009 « Personal Chef BlogBullies – How to Handle Them with Emotional Intelligence | Eagle Alliance Executive Coaching [...]
November 14th, 2009
Comment from Dr. Leslie Levy: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Sometimes engaging the other person in conversation may not be the best solution. Here is a personal and painful example.
After years of enduring a passive-aggressive “friend” and colleague whom I did not recognize was bullying me. I finally came to my senses…but could not have done it without observations and advice from friends, most of whom had seen us interact. This woman was, I thought, a close friend. Meanwhile, she consistently painted her situation as pitiful, and her situation has come to be exactly that. However, had she followed my advice (and that of others who were drawn into her web), she would not be suffering the problems she is now experiencing. She made work commitments to me that she did not fulfill. I gave her much more money and goods than her work merited. …All this because she is very smart and can perform incredibly well under the “right” circumstances and because I felt sorry for her.
I’ve thought a lot about my own motives. Although there have been times in the past when I hired people who were needy under terms that led me to think i was getting a bargain, these arrangements never worked out; I came to realize that the cost to me was unacceptably high. Either these people did not deliver or else I experienced so much angst in working with them that the price was too high. I stopped hiring people like that years ago.
I think this case is different, but perhaps I’m wrong. In any case, I came to my senses initially when a friend observed that people who are constantly after more of my money are almost never worth it and that this woman appeared to be destroying my serenity. How true! Subsequently, I told others who had seen me interact with this woman, and suddenly their observations of her manipulation of me poured forth. I don’t know why they didn’t mention that before and will try to find out.
Meanwhile, I no longer have to work or otherwise interact with this bully, who has proved herself no friend of mine. I hope that I’ll recognize earlier and better in the future when someone is bullying me. I think that may be particularly difficult when the person poses as a friend and uses passive-aggressive and withholding behavior.
I would welcome any feedback on what I’ve written here. I think that the most important lesson is to avoid people who destroy one’s feelings of well-being or serenity.
January 30th, 2010
January 30th, 2010