“What is the most important job as a leader? What should a CEO do,” asked Ms. Kumar. “We have to have a roadmap and a vision, so we must inspire the people and communicate the vision,” she said.
She dealt with a particularly difficult time in leadership, turning around her hospital to make it profitable. Through helping each employee feel like he or she “owned” the hospital, she was able to help Dallas Medical Center become a formidable competitor with the 12 other hospitals within a seven-mile radius.
“In healthcare there seem to be new challenges every day,” said Mr. O’ Donnell. “Across all industries, one-third of employees create two-thirds of the results. It’s important to get rid of negatively engaged people to see profit and productivity go up. The moment you feel the need to start managing somebody, you know you’ve made a hiring mistake.” In addition to having the right employees, managers must make sure employees are in the right places, he added.
In addition, he cautioned against treating technology as the magic bullet for human resources issues. “We try to solve engagement by spending money on technology. This can mean connecting the ineffective to the unclear, and then it makes no difference how much you spend on technology. Instead, use technology to leverage an already good environment,” he said.
To inspire employees, Mr. O’Donnell recommended rallying them around a cause, such as the organization’s vision statement. However, he cautioned against trying to do so without executive consensus on what that statement is and how it applies to the organization. “A leader’s job is to remove obstacles, not to be one,” added Ms. Kumar.
