Dr. Lois Margaret Nora conducts her own background checks while hiring. Most university presidents overseeing a $33 million
budget might pass on this mundane task, but she makes time. Her reason? Integrity. At Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges
of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM), Nora demands that new additions to her staff of 321 full- and part-time employees be
living examples of the institution’s mission. Walking the talk, she says, is the only way to build trust among constituents and
ensure long-lasting success. Smart Business spoke with Nora, president of NEOUCOM and dean of The College of Medicine,
about integrity and trust and how using index cards can be a valuable way to gain feedback.
Lead with integrity. One of the most important parts of leadership is leading with
integrity — acting consistent with values
that are expressed and that people are
aware of. It’s one of the most important
things in building trust from internal and
external constituents. The loss of trust, if it
occurs, is very difficult to recover from.
Be explicit about what principles you
adhere to, and then demonstrate that not
just in what you say but in how you conduct yourself and in how you expect others
to conduct themselves.
At the end of each day, I reflect upon what
we are accomplishing and how I am behaving. I have built a relationship with people
who would question me if they felt that I
was not consistent with the principles I’ve
articulated and attempt to adhere to.
We routinely question everything. I have a
team of people who regularly question or
push back on my ideas, both in one-on-one
meetings and in group meetings.
If one acts with integrity and builds up
trust, then there are times when perhaps you
cannot be as explicit about why you are
doing things, and yet people have confidence
that things are being done in the right way.
If one leads with integrity, it is much more
likely that the organization will have
integrity throughout it. That will result in
an organization and individuals in the
organization who will be successful.
Get feedback. [In] Jim Collins’ book, ‘Good to
Great,’ he talks about the value of using feedback from customers. For example, if somebody is not satisfied with the product, they
are invited to discount the price of that product and explain why. That is providing feedback to those organizations in ways that are
absolutely impossible not to pay attention to.
One of the things that I did during my first
month was something that I call the index
card exercise. I went not only to faculty but
also clinical faculty across Northeast Ohio.
I went to each one of the counties that we
serve and met with everyone from Rotary
groups to community leaders.
I handed out index cards and asked the
question, ‘What are you looking for in your
NEOUCOM doctor or health professional?’
We got hundreds of index cards back with literally thousands of answers. Many of those
index cards were filled out by my colleagues,
but many of them were filled out by the people that we serve who are not colleagues.
So many people were engaged, and those
words did not come out of one executive’s
head. They came out of the community.
Ask the right questions. When you’re looking
for feedback, ask thoughtful questions that
give you good information from the people
that you’re communicating with.
Ask good questions, get the information,
act on the information, but don’t leave it at
that. You also go back and test.
If you ask the question of a smaller group
and begin to assess the kind of feedback
that you’re getting, if it’s feedback that
responds to what you were truly asking, that
gives you a message that it might be a good
question. If it results in information that is
not getting you to a point where you can act,
that is a suggestion it is a bad question.
If you’re having unintended consequences or your questioning is not resulting in your organization moving to a better
place, it suggests that you need to improve
the questions that you are asking.
Lengthen the leash. Create an environment
in which people are encouraged and
allowed to put their own stamp on activities. Identify success stories within the
institution, and try to derive best practices.
Part of free rein is also allowing people the
opportunities to make mistakes or to not get
it right. You allow tolerable mistakes to be
used as learning opportunities. Then make
sure that those mistakes don’t recur.
Mistakes may be tolerated, but beyond a
certain number or beyond a certain level,
they have real ramifications, as well.
Trial and error — it’s a very important
part of staying fresh and making sure we’re
remaining cutting edge. If we never try a
new program or if we never try a new
method of doing something, we’re going to
become pretty stale pretty quickly.
Show how the pieces fit together. If (employees) are not motivated about what they’re
doing, define what is being done in terms
of things that are important to them. For
people that answer the phones or work in
secretarial roles, it’s helping them understand how critically important each of
those individual roles actually are to the
people that may open their eyes and see in
the emergency room some day.
We have a number of our grads who have
pointed out to us that the humane or caring
way that they were treated in medical
school made a difference in the kind of
physician that they became. Share those
stories back with individuals who are in
student affairs. Talk to the faculty who
went out of their way to help make sure
that they taught a difficult point, or maybe
taught it two or three times to a student
who was having difficulty with it.
Share those stories and the subsequent
letters from grads who talk about how that
treatment helped them become a better
educator to their patient or to their
patient’s family.
HOW TO REACH: Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of
Medicine and Pharmacy, (800) 686-2511 or www.neoucom.edu