Ronald Hill fights every day. As executive director of the Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging, Hill is in a constant battle to get
advocacy for his organization, find help with his mission and topple lobbyists toting around bigger budgets than his. To go round after
round at the agency responsible for planning, coordinating and administering federally funded programs and services for older adults
in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina counties, Hill has to help his 210 employees find the passion and resolve to stick with
him in a never-ending effort. Along the way, he’s learned that the best way to maximize his $92 million budget at WRAAA is to give those
employees a say in how the agency tackles its challenges and motivate them by letting them take the lead on projects. Smart Business
spoke with Hill about how he creates a democratic work environment and why communication is key to improving morale.
Build a management democracy. I believe in a
democratic work environment. You give individuals the freedom, latitude and resources
they need to manage their units or to accomplish their goals.
It’s important to foster the development of
leadership in the organization because we
need as many advocates as possible. Part of
that leadership style focuses on trying to
develop leadership democracy among my
managers.
I have a lot of management meetings and
maximize input from managers and, where
possible, my supervisors and staff. Try to create as many opportunities for staff to have
input and kind of keep them informed on
what’s going on in the organization.
Wherever possible, give them the opportunity to have input on the decision or to
include them in problem-solving, so they feel
that they take ownership of the organization.
From personal experience, when you are
kept in the dark, you just don’t even care, you
don’t even buy in to those decisions since you
don’t know what’s going on.
Hire by committee. In hiring, I don’t interview
folks alone, I take a team approach. I’ll go with
maybe four or five people who are part of the
team and include individuals who the person
we are hiring would be accountable to. That’s
part of that whole culture of maximizing
opportunity for input in every possible level.
That’s important so those individuals know
that anybody we hire, they shared in the decision-making. Then, they also have a stake in
supporting that person to make sure they
succeed in the position.
Hire for a cultural fit. It starts in terms of looking
for people who fit your prototype. You have
to understand the environment that your
organization operates in.
We have a social mission, so I’m looking for
people who have a strong commitment, a
strong social consciousness and who have a
lot of competency skills in the area. It’s
important to hire people who share my philosophy or at least embrace the philosophy in the industry of aging.
You look for people who can mirror your
values. You look at their career path in terms
of what organizations they have worked in —
that’s a major part of it. Then, in the interview,
ask questions to elicit responses that you
would hope would be indicative of a consciousness that meets your mission. Try to
understand somebody’s core values to make
sure they are congruent with your values as
an organization.
In doing that, I find that the better candidates do a lot of research early on, and we
don’t have to ask as many questions; they try
to present a posture that they feel we would
find desirable.
That’s part of my job as a leader; find the
people who have those values and commitment, then you don’t have to do as much as
you would in other arenas because those
people are self-motivated, and they understand the environment as well as I do. They
understand the challenges, barriers and
opportunities, so you help yourself in that
regard by selecting good people.
Motivate employees with new challenges. We deal
with needs of an aging population, so the
environment is challenging and stimulating.
So even those support staff members who
get heavily involved across the board, I involve them in taking on a lot of projects and
let them take the lead on some projects
where they can step outside of their traditional duties and apply their expertise to
some other areas where they might historically not have had an opportunity to do that.
That helps to motivate them, keep them
engaged.
I think all my managers take advantage of
any time they can engage in something outside of their comfort zone and apply the competencies that they have. Again, I try to provide opportunities for my managers to participate in those whenever possible, and also
to participate in the brainstorming that goes
on, and that helps in trying new, innovative
approaches to projects and problems.
Be flexible when it comes to improving morale.
Communication is the key as far as I’m concerned, and it’s two-way communication.
You try to really understand their needs, their
perceptions and understanding.
Morale goes up and down, there’s no question about it, so you work on understanding
what has impact on morale. We went through
a situation where something was really
affecting morale, it was a personnel policy
change, and we underestimated the impact.
After we realized the impact, we took a step
backward, reconsidered it and reversed our
decision based on the negative feedback we
got. A lot of leaders, once that decision is
made, they’d just stick by that decision.
In reversing it, I got a thank-you card
expressing their appreciation for listening to
them and not going forward with that policy
change. … Sometimes you don’t have that
flexibility. Sometimes to comply with the law
or some other mandate, you don’t have any
choice, but this was clearly one of those situations where we had a choice.
It’s important to be flexible in your decision-making and be willing to admit your mistakes. I have no hesitation in admitting that
I’m wrong or that I don’t have all the answers.
Sometimes things require a compromise.
HOW TO REACH: Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging, (800) 626-7277 or www.psa10a.org