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Tip of the week: Understand physician leaders' meeting management styles

Medical Staff Leader Connection, April 23, 2008

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If you chair meetings for your medical staff, or if you work with or supervise someone who does, you need to be aware of common meeting management styles. The chair’s meeting management style can have a tremendous impact on meeting attendance, participation, and outcomes. The most effective chairs assess the purpose and goals of a meeting and then adopt the most suitable management style.

Below are some common management styles:

• The chair who tells: This chair dictates decisions and expects them to be accepted.
• The chair who sells: Like the chair who tells, this chair makes decisions alone. However, this chair seeks to explain those decisions and persuade meeting participants to agree.
• The chair who invites comment: This chair makes preliminary decisions, but invites questions and comments that will help fine-tune and finalize them.
• The chair who seeks input: This chair presents an issue before making a decision and asks for ideas and suggestions. However, this chair still has the final decision-making say.
• The chair who joins the group: This chair presents an issue, joins the group discussion on it, and tries to lead the group to a consensus or a majority-vote decision.
• The chair who authorizes the group: This chair presents an issue, moderates discussion (usually without contributing to it), and accepts the will of the group.

This week’s tip comes from The Medical Executive Committee Handbook, Third Edition, by Mary J. Hoppa, MD, MBA; Albert L. Fritz, MHA; and Richard A. Sheff, MD.

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