Get up to speed
Before you can think about the finish line, you have to figure out where you’re starting. Comte didn’t have the luxury of data to get him up to speed, so instead he started investigating.
“It’s what I would think to be Business 101,” he says. “When you go into a new organization, you take a look at your people, you take a look at your product, and you take a look what we are doing.”
Whether you’re taking over or just staying up-to-date, the key to assessing the state of your business is meshing your observations with feedback from others.
Comte’s first step to do that was shadowing some caregivers to learn how his employees spent their days.
“I just wanted to get a feel for what it is they do so when we make decisions here, we understand how it’s going to affect the folks in the field,” says Comte, who now requires all office employees to spend time observing caregivers to understand what goes on in the field.
Remember, you’re not just assessing the company for the sake of a snapshot. Look for better ways of doing what you’re doing or even additional things you could be doing, too. Some of that can come from your past experience, so think about what you’ve seen at other companies — what works and what doesn’t.
“Based on the fact that I had been in the health care business for a long time, I could see things that were possibilities for us that we weren’t doing,” Comte says. “I could also see things that we were doing that didn’t make a lot of sense.”
Comte complemented his observations with feedback from employees and clients. He continues to poll patients about the service they receive and employees about what they think of their company and where they see room for improvement.
The key is to be frank about what you see and hear, which will encourage employees to take on the same bluntness.
“The first thing you have to do is be straightforward and honest with everybody. Tell everybody what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong,” he says. “Listen to what they have to say as to where they thought the company should be, what they thought they were doing right and wrong, how they have interacted with management in the past, what they think could be better.
“It was honesty: ‘Here’s where I see things. Here’s what I think we need to improve on, and here’s where I think we’re doing a great job.’ And if they disagree with me, that was the time to stand up and say, ‘You might be right here, but we think you’re missing the point here.’ I tell them what I think and I respect the fact that they’ll do the same back with me.”
As long as he kept his door — and, therefore, the communication circuit — open, Comte found that feedback flowed.