Remember to communicate.
These are some of the keys to
communication: One, begin
every conversation with heart.
Two, be a good listener. A third
key would be to stay actively
engaged in the organization and
with your people, so that you try to understand as best you can
where they’re coming from.
The first part is important.
Let’s assume that the economy
got so bad that you lead one of
the companies that is actually
having to cut staff, giving out
pink slips on Friday. First of
all, I find that very difficult to
do. But there might come a
time in an organization where
you have to do that.
If you have to do that, you
have to go in to that with heart
and go in to that with true
empathy and understanding
for those people whose lives
you may be impacting. You
just can’t look at your associates as a number. You have to
look at them as individuals
with different needs that you
have to understand.
Communicate in person.
There
are several ways I facilitate
face-to-face contact with
employees. First of all, every
quarter, we have associate
meetings. We invite all associates to come to those quarterly
meetings. Most of the time,
when we go in to those meetings, we try to start them out
by saying ‘OK, the agenda is
yours. What do you want to
talk about; what do you want
to discuss today?’ The quarterly meetings provide us with
feedback.
I then do something else
called ‘Food for your thoughts.’
We have a meal and ask every
department in the hospital to
send one representative to that
session. That is a direct, face-to-face discussion with me.
The associates come in, and we make that their agenda. We
ask them what do they want to
talk about, what do they want
to know from me today. We listen and respond when appropriate. We might have to give
an explanation of why we did
something.
Another thing I do that some
CEOs do not is spend time
with every new associate
who comes into the hospital.
I actually go and do the new
associate orientation. I go
and spend about an hour or
hour and a half with all the
new associates and present
to them the hospital where
they’ll be working, the culture,
mission, vision and values. At
the same time, I give myself a
chance for discussion with the
new associates.
HOW TO REACH: Hancock Regional Hospital, (317) 462-5544 or www.hancockregionalhospital.org
