Q. How do you find and train managers to help you lead and communicate?
It’s very difficult. My basic people mostly understand their roles, but managers especially have to kind of think outside the box and be driven by something other than their salary. They have to help out on a larger scale.
Being in the home health care field, my top position is my director of nursing, and it’s just trying to get people on that level to understand that, one, there is a clinical aspect of the job; two, there is a sales and marketing aspect of the job; three, there is a management aspect to the job, because you have to manage a team of nurses. You have to go talk about the business in different facilities. Trying to find that all-inclusive individual is just a tough project. As a business leader, you are just challenged to find reliable managers that can continue what you’ve started.
Q. What are some keys to effective communication with managers and employees?
Try to use an even tone. If you give a message to them all in one way, it kind of kills them. When I’m talking to my people, I try to use positives with the negatives. I try to use two or three positive statements before I approach them with one negative statement. It shows them that they’re doing great over here, but let’s talk about how you still need to improve over in this other area. Meeting with employees with the idea that you’re going to help them, that’s the real key to reaching them.
You do have to tailor your message to your audience sometimes. If I’m talking to support staff versus talking to managers, it’s a different delivery. If I’m talking to my director of nursing or my administrators, it’s kind of the same message because they all have responsibilities that factor into the overall picture.
In talking to support staff, they’re not so much driven by increasing business. Their role is driven by maintaining a good level of customer service with the existing business that we have. As good as it is if we admit four new patients, it really does no good if we lose four existing patients. So on that level, they need to understand the value of retaining what we have and doing that by providing good customer service. So it is a balancing act at work.