In the mid-1990s, Anne Bakar thought that the inpatient segment of her company’s business was heading for trouble. So Bakar,
president and CEO of Telecare Corp., a provider of support and services for people with serious mental illness, decided that the
new wave for the company had to be outpatient service. While that meant a big change for the company, the key was building
momentum over time. So Bakar did what she could to keep the company focused and she publicized every success that Telecare
had as it moved in a new direction. As the wins piled up, so did the people on board. Today, Bakar uses that strategy as a core
in her communications. Trumpeting the success of the company, Telecare has reached more than $143 million in 2006 revenue.
Smart Business spoke with Bakar about how to communicate your victories and why you need to take risks to grow.
Communicate your vision. We’re really rigorous about communicating with our
employees; we have an intranet, we have
newsletters, we just can’t communicate
enough. We try to be clear with employees and tell them this is where we’re
headed and these are the most important
things we have to do today and why. We
publish throughout the company what
our priorities are for the year, and within
one year, those don’t change too much,
so there’s consistency doing it that way
so people can really understand those
priorities.
Let employees know you’re winning. A key
piece is the really constant drumbeat of
saying, ‘This is what we’re trying to
accomplish, this is what it means to you,
this is how we need you involved,’ and
then giving feedback to that.
Letting them know we’re winning,
we’re successful. Every year, we put
together a list of our top 10 initiatives.
We have five things that we want to
accomplish over the next four or five
years and then the things that we want to
accomplish to do that.
So, for example, we want to be nationally accredited in three years, well that’s
down the line, so we have goals set for
all the groundwork we want to do for
that each year leading into it. Then we
can communicate that to people, by letting them see that this is what we’re supposed to be doing this year and it’s part
of this three-year plan.
Every year, I write a summary of how
we did on our initiatives and do a little
video that we send out letting everyone
know how we did on a comprehensive
scale. That really sets the framework for
the goals that flow down to each individual because everyone will end up feeding into those with what they do.
As you get successful, you communicate and you start to break down the
skepticism. You can say, ‘Look, we’re
winning,’ then you start to get more people on board, and you get some of those
that were originally on the sidelines. We outline what we’re going to do, and tell
people. But you can’t just tell people
what you’re going to do, you have to
start doing it, then publicize that. Then
you start to get momentum and traction,
it’s not just the words, you can’t just tell
people that you’re going in this direction,
you have to celebrate it as you go down
that long haul and you finally get some
traction and you celebrate that.
Set standards for taking risks. We have to ask
two things. First, is this something I really want to do? Is this something that I
think we can get passionate about?
Second, what’s the payback period?
Some people are focused more on ROI,
but I’m interested in knowing, if I have to
spend $2 million on this project, how
long will it take to get my money back?
I need to have both factors; the answer
to both has to be yes. I have to want to
do it, and the payback period has to be
reasonable. The key is that we have a
pretty clear sense strategically at what
we’re good at, and we try not to step too
far outside of those domains.
Hire people with a core interest in your business. You have to hire the right people and you
can teach skills, but you can’t teach attitude. I’m not going to try to recreate
someone and make them care about
what we do. We, as a company, have a
professional passion for helping people
recover, and there’s really a sense in
doing work that’s different and helping
people.
If they don’t care about mental illness
and disability, if they don’t have that,
then there’s no place for them to come
here. That kind of needs to be an appreciation — that people have that kind of
core disposition for the work that we’re
doing.
Give people the chance to adapt. I really don’t
think you do anyone a favor by letting
them stay in a role that’s outgrown them,
so I’ve tried to be very clear with people
over time about what my expectations
are, and if my expectations aren’t being
met, I try to find a new role for them that
will fit so that they can still be part of our
future, but not a role that they can’t handle.
If they can’t take their role being
changed, then that’s their decision, but
at least you know you’ve done the right
thing by trying to keep them on the team
instead of just firing them because the
role has outgrown them.
If people are flexible and adaptable,
then you can create something for them
to stay on and then you don’t have so
much turnover in higher positions
because there is so much institutional
memory and knowledge throughout the
company. Sometimes one of the biggest
mistakes people make is having such a
hard time trying to communicate expectations and frustrations.
Most people don’t want to be in a position where they don’t feel like they’re
helping the company, so if people are
adaptive, then you can make it work.
HOW TO REACH: Telecare Corp., www.telecarecorp.com or
(510) 337-7950