Talk about growth
Asking employees to invest themselves in your organization becomes easier when you make it clear that there is a benefit and a reason why they should seek out growth opportunities.
“Emphasize the importance of personal development and leadership development,” Walli says. “Ask employees, ‘What do you want to do next? What types of skills do you need to develop?’ It’s a constant thing with us, and we really bang the drum on it.”
Talk to your front-line managers about providing employees with opportunities for growth since they are the ones that tend to have the closest ties to your people.
“It doesn’t have to be extremely formal. It can just be a discussion on how things are going,” Walli says. “Sometimes, it’s amazingly simple. You just have to ask. You tell them, ‘We want to do things to be more environmentally conscious. Who has an interest and passion in this area? Who wants to help us?’ People will step up.
“Say you want to improve the communication between departments. Ask who feels like they could help with that. It’s not top-down, but multilevel communication. Sometimes all you have to do is ask. If you don’t ask, you don’t know who has an interest in a particular area.”
The idea behind all this is to develop people who can make things happen and get things done in your company.
“People can be leaders without necessarily having the title of leader,” Walli says. “The company is certainly better off when we have people step up and be positive forces for change. I consider that a leadership development opportunity and an opportunity for people to take more responsibility.”
Lay out your priorities for the company and be clear about your expectations and show them what will happen if they step up.
“We want to grow our business,” Walli says. “It’s my role to lay out the objectives for our business. You have to give them a reason why things will be better if they meet those objectives.”
The tenacity with which you pursue organizational growth, both individually and on a companywide basis, can rub off on your people or encourage those who may be leery of stepping out.
“Sometimes, you really don’t know how capable somebody is until you ask them to do something out of their comfort zone and then they surprise you,” Walli says. “Myself or someone else on the team may occasionally have to encourage somebody and ask them to take a few risks. More often than not, once they’ve tried it, they find they are able to do it.”
There’s a good chance you’ll encounter some people along the way who aren’t interested in the bigger picture and are quite content with whatever it is they are currently doing for you. Fortunately, you need some of those types of people, too.
“A lot may depend on performance,” Walli says. “If they are still doing their job, certain people are valuable to the organization for the work they do and the things they do. You don’t fire them all.”
However, if the employee proves to be disruptive in his or her resistance to growth and change, then it’s probably time to make a move.
“If someone is not in the right spot, one answer is to fire them,” Walli says. “Another approach is to help them find something else where they have a good opportunity. Sometimes they are much better off. To me, it’s always been a better approach to help them find something else.”
It’s a spirit of constantly looking for ways to move forward that Walli strives for and hopes his employees will also look to uncover, even if there are bumps along the way.
“If you don’t ask the questions, people will feel like you don’t care,” Walli says. “So we can have a lot of healthy debate and opinions. But once we pick a direction, everybody needs to support it.”
Walli’s efforts at inclusion and collaboration have helped keep UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest and its parent company, UnitedHealth Group, at the top of the national rankings of health care plan providers.
“The teamwork is better and this is a better place to work,” Walli says. “The changes that have taken place here have not just been led by people that would be considered senior management. It’s been led by people at all levels of the organization.”
You can never stop promoting the idea that your organization still has room for improvement. It doesn’t mean you don’t appreciate or recognize progress. You just don’t spend too much time resting on your laurels, and you encourage your people to take the same approach.
“Once you stop improving, you start going in the other direction,” Walli says.
How to reach: UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest Inc., (314) 592-7000 or www.uhc.com
