Get out there
Getting out of your office is the first step to building a more open culture.
“It’s helpful to be transparent,” Ross says. “You need to come across as human, someone who is comfortable exposing your warts to other people and someone who is approachable. Too often, leaders isolate themselves, or through their actions, they are not perceived to be approachable. If that’s the situation, people don’t feel comfortable bringing up concerns. If that is the situation, you’re not as aware of what is bothering your employees or, for that matter, what’s going well.”
At least once a month, Ross heads down to either the inpatient or outpatient surgery center, gets on his scrubs and observes whatever procedure is being done.
“I’ll see how they work together, and if you spend a little time, they’ll appreciate it,” Ross says. “Other times, I’ll just go down to the emergency department and sit down and talk to them or listen to them for 15 or 20 minutes.”
Your encounters with employees don’t have to be long, drawn-out sessions to have an impact.
“If I have lunch with someone and we spend 20 minutes together, that person will know me better than they did before,” Ross says.
On a slightly more formal level, Ross and his managers meet with new employees for lunch after 60 days to see what their experience with the company has been like.
“I’ll specifically ask them, ‘How do you like working here? How’s the culture here? Are the employees friendly and helpful?’” Ross says.
The idea is to show that you are aware of what your people are doing in the company each day and that they are not just a number on the payroll. Your effort to take time out of your schedule to meet with them in person can have a lot more value than an e-mail or a newsletter update.
“People are judged by their actions, whether you’re the housekeeper or president or a nurse,” Ross says. “The more people you can interact with, the more people you can develop a relationship with that is positive and caring, the more likely they will try to pass on those traits and let people know what I’m like. They can communicate to their friends, ‘Yeah, I had lunch with Dave. He’s pretty normal. He does care.’”
In the absence of being able to meet with every person individually, word-of-mouth is the next best thing.
“Hopefully, most every employee has heard through people that I am approachable, I am caring and I do get out in the hospital,” Ross says.
The benefit for your visibility is an increased awareness of what is happening in your company and a level of comfort that when something does occur that you’re not directly aware of, your employees will tell you about it.
“If leadership asks them how things are going, they’ll be honest and straightforward,” Ross says. “If things are going well, they will tell you that. If there are some concerns, they will tell you that also. The best way to pursue employee satisfaction is just to talk with the employee.”
