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A quick note to my Readers.

In addition to my work and business, I serve on several Boards and working groups in the healthcare field. Through volunteering with Imagine Citizens Network, I was asked to share my thoughts on improving the healthcare supply chain following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thank you, SCAN-H, for the privilege.

(Scroll to the bottom of this page to watch the video of the interview)

In the intricate web of healthcare supply chains, disruptions can have far-reaching consequences, profoundly impacting the everyday lives of Canadians. Recently, the SCANH team convened a Citizens Forum, bringing together diverse voices to tackle the challenges of the healthcare supply chain. At the heart of this forum lies the Imagine Citizens Network is an Alberta-based network dedicated to amplifying citizen voices and driving transformation within the healthcare sector.

Reflecting on the discussions held at the forum, it is very evident that citizen perspectives are indispensable in shaping resilient healthcare supply chains. Drawing from insights shared by Steve Armstrong, a recent guest on our podcast, we recognize the importance of incorporating citizen voices into the healthcare Supply chain resilience dialogue.

As Armstrong aptly stated, “Most of us don’t care day to day until we need it… even with toilet paper, nobody thought it was a precious commodity until someone thought we were running out of it.”; This sentiment underscores the reality of what many people take for granted: the seamless functioning of healthcare supply chains until confronted with shortages or disruptions.

“They just want to be able to go to a hospital, go to the doctor, go to the pharmacy, get what they need, and come home because we’re kind of spoiled that way,” Armstrong further emphasizes. This desire for seamless access to healthcare resources underscores the importance of citizen-centric solutions prioritizing accessibility and reliability.

Armstrong highlights the need to humanize the conversation around healthcare supply chains, recognizing patients as individuals with unique needs and experiences. “I think what I offer as a potential patient… is how we level out the information and how we bring the conversation down to earth that we talk about patients as human beings,” he remarks. In doing so, we recognize that the endpoint of the healthcare supply chain is a person, a human being, and humanity must be central to healthcare supply chain solutions. Healthcare supply chain solutions must foster empathy and ensure that they are tailored to meet the diverse needs of every citizen.

As we navigate the complexities of healthcare supply chains, Armstrong stresses the importance of inclusive dialogue and citizen participation in shaping solutions. “I think we have to make sure that we’re having these conversations, so people feel heard and participatory in the solution,” he asserts. Indeed, engaging citizens as active stakeholders in decision-making processes is essential to fostering trust and driving meaningful change.

Moreover, Armstrong urges a shift towards collective problem-solving, recognizing that “We need more citizens and conversations. We need more citizens at the table. Your voices matter, and it is essential to understand how the healthcare supply chain impacts you.” By leveraging citizens’ collective wisdom and experiences, we can Identify innovative approaches to enhance the resilience and effectiveness of healthcare supply chains.

Against this backdrop of local insights, global events are stark reminders of the far-reaching consequences of supply chain disruptions. From the recent cyberattack on a major health insurer in the United States, disrupting prescription drug orders for thousands of pharmacies, to ongoing drug shortages affecting individuals managing health challenges, the imperative for action looms large.

In the face of these challenges, citizens emerge as potent agents of change, wielding collective power to advocate for their needs and catalyze meaningful action. As SCANH Citizens Forum and the Imagine Citizens Network chart the path forward, citizen perspectives must remain central to supplying resilience strategies and providing solutions. They are not just about health systems and logistics but are fundamentally about people.

This partnership embodies the vision of a healthcare system designed in collaboration with citizens to achieve optimal outcomes for all. As we navigate the complexities of healthcare supply chains and build solutions to advance resilience, let us remain steadfast in our commitment to putting people first and ensuring that no one is left behind in the quest for healthcare resilience and equity.

Check out Steve’s episode here.

We often think of trust as a fixed, static idea, such as “We trust the Union” or “The Operations Team doesn’t trust us.”

However, trust is more complex than that, and oversimplifying our understanding of it prevents us from applying the proper techniques to improve it. Instead, leaders should consider the three fundamental raw materials on which trust is built: competence, benevolence, and reliability.

How these materials mix will depend on context. However, effective leaders need to assess which of these trust components is lacking within their teams and follow steps tailored to that specific component of trust.

It’s time to abandon generalized, generic models for building trust. Below, we share the three steps you can follow to build trust. First, identify which of the raw materials of trust your teams lack and then use the proper methods to increase them.

Step 1: Make Sure Everyone Knows What They’re Doing (Competence)

What It Is: Competence is the ability to do something efficiently and successfully. It includes hard skills, such as technical knowledge (the ability to create and deliver a product or service), and soft skills, such as social knowledge (understanding people and team environments). In short, competent people are “good at their job.”

How You Know It’s Missing: In many ways, competence is often the easiest to assess, as people either possess the necessary skills to execute their jobs or don’t. However, poor performance is not always a direct result of incompetence, as other factors may be at play. Someone may know how to get the job done but lack the capacity due to many factors, such as having too many tasks, personal stress, or not being given the proper tools to succeed. Determining which factor may be at play as a leader prevents acting on faulty assumptions.

What To Do About It

Provide targeted feedback. To give effective feedback, you must first clarify what “good” looks like. This might be a job description or a conversation at the beginning of a project to clarify expectations for each team member. Establishing that benchmark first allows you to provide targeted feedback by comparing actual performance to already agreed-upon expectations. Once you understand the gap between performance and expectations, you can work with your team members to develop an improvement plan.

Ask questions and coach. The best way to change someone’s behaviours is not to tell them the answers but to ask questions that help them find the answers themselves. Try asking a struggling team member: “I saw x and y this week, and I am concerned; can you tell me what’s going on?” and “What do you think should happen next, and how can I support you?” Asking – rather than simply directing – empowers your people to act and builds a relationship of mutual respect.

The Six Questions You Must Ask To Be A Better Coach

Acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses and openly share that information with others. Demonstrating self-awareness regarding your skills will give others confidence that you understand your limitations and the value you can add to the team. Then, proactively take steps to mitigate those limitations, either through personal development (training, mentoring, practice) or procuring the support of others who can ensure no balls are dropped.

Step 2: Build your Team into a Community (Benevolence)

What It Is: Benevolence is the quality of being well-meaning and the degree to which you have others’ interests at heart. Benevolent people care about others. The more a teammate can demonstrate the motivation to serve others or the team, the greater trust is built.

How You Know It’s Missing: A lack of benevolence can show up as siloes, where people consistently choose themselves and their team over others. Other subtle ways include team meetings where people may respond to others with what seems like agreement before following up with “but,” interrupting speakers or ignoring requests for help.

Read more about how one word can impact your culture 

What To Do About It: Avoid judgment when you notice a lack of benevolence. Every person believes they’re doing the right thing under the circumstances. So, leaders should understand why they took a particular action that appeared self-serving. Techniques to improve benevolence include:

Active listening helps demonstrate that you’re paying attention, wish to understand someone else, and care about their answers and, by extension, them as a person. Active listening can be broken into three subskills, all of which you can start implementing today to understand your people better:

• • Paraphrasing- Restate what the person said in your own words.
    “Let me say that back to you to make sure I understand…”
  • Labelling- Identify the emotion being shown by your team member
    “Seems like that is frustrating.” or “Sounds like that made you angry.”
  • Mirroring- Ask someone to explain what they mean by certain words or phrases: “I just don’t understand what they think they’re doing. It’s so confusing.” Or, “What do you mean by confusing?”

Get your copy of the 27 open-ended questions ‘cheat sheet’

Ask for help when you need it. As a leader, your willingness to share and request assistance sets an example for others to follow and signals to everyone that this is where we help each other. First, start with small tasks that may not take much time but might make a considerable difference in freeing up your capacity. Be sure to recognize and thank those who step up to help.

Step 3: Build Consistency Into People and Processes (Reliability)

What It Is: Reliability is the ability to be dependable and behave consistently. Reliable people do what they say they will.

How You Know It’s Missing: The easiest way to know reliability is lacking is when timelines are not respected. However, a lack of reliability can also manifest in other ways, including treating others inconsistently (showing favouritism or being particularly hard on someone) or being hypocritical in asking people to do something they wouldn’t do themselves.

What To Do About It: Reliability begins with accountability and transparency.

• • If someone is not delivering what they’re supposed to, when they’re supposed to, explicitly have that conversation about expectations and consequences. By mutually agreeing on objectives, responsibilities, and expectations and putting them down in writing, you now have a vehicle to hold people accountable for something they decide to own. If they need more support, create frequent check-ins, but lessen the oversight as they develop a proven track record of delivering.

• • Create transparency in what decisions are being made and why. Any time a request is made, it includes an explanation of the ultimate objective to help people understand why they are being asked to do something. That deeper understanding lets individuals know where/how to deviate from the project should circumstances change. People like having reasons, so give them the ‘because’ behind a request so they can figure out what the team needs without being asked.

Learn more about better results through communications

Unfortunately, these actions will only change your teams’ trust after some time.

Trust is hard to build and happens slowly, so it is essential to start now.

And even if the returns of these actions are down the line, there are slow, smooth actions that you can implement today that build the capacity for fast action when needed most.

So you have been hired as a CEO or other senior role.

First, you must understand that your job is to achieve the organization’s strategic goals.

As the person holding that position, you must demonstrate superior management skills and leadership expertise to connect all facets of the organization to the mission through open, honest and transparent communication.

First 90:

I am not a massive fan of the 90-day plan, but you better understand what you will do today when you show up for that first day of work.

Here is the focus of the first 90 days of your tenure will be to establish a solid base from which you can achieve your strategic goals by gathering information and setting a solid leadership tone:

1. Before Day One: The first step is to get over yourself and commit to the organization you have chosen to lead. It would be best if you devoted time to becoming familiar with the organization and its situation through informal meetings with the Board Chair and Executive Committee.

2. People: Attend to the fundamental “people processes” and leadership basics of getting to know your new team and identify items requiring immediate attention or ongoing legal issues. After confirming that these have been adequately addressed, turn your attention to team evaluation, its performance and team building.

3. Your Boss’s Priorities: Your most important relationship is with your boss. Review recent business and reports, the status of the strategic objectives and most importantly, establish parameters of your authority.

Read about Partnering with your boss.

How:

1. Listening: Talk with (and listen to) everyone, starting at the top and working down through the organizational hierarchy. These conversations will build credibility and relationships with key individuals, staff, and stakeholders.

Read about using silence to listen better.

2. Assessing the Staff team: This includes evaluating the team members and organizational structure relative to meeting our goals. It would involve time with team members to understand their history, focus, roles, and what is on their minds.

Do not feel compelled to resolve structural problems within 90 days, but assess the issues. Your new staff team may be fragile and would naturally be worried about a new Boss. Be on the lookout for team members who may require careful attention or those who are, perhaps, no longer fully committed and consider performance management plans as needed.

Priorities:

• Easy Wins: Addressing the easy, noncontroversial activities, which can be fixed quickly and successfully, will make an essential statement about trust and leadership.
• Get Out: Interacting with colleagues and stakeholders will increase your credibility but not neglect the business.
• Communicate: Change is difficult. So, for even the most minor changes, consider a change management plan that would clearly and consistently communicate the change to those impacted, including those who may have only minor interest.
• Set the Stage: People will oversee your activities; perceptions are essential. To those watching, time spent on an activity will signal its importance and set an example of work ethic.

Develop the Long Plan

As you do what I suggest, share your findings and thoughts with the Board as a sounding board and to receive advice and guidance.

As you close in on the 90-day mark, develop a strategy and craft your plan to lead and achieve our strategic goals and results.

We have all seen that employee, the one so good at their job no one can hold a candle to them.

I have seen it a thousand times: the soldier who was the best shot in the Regiment, the carpenter who built houses that could withstand a hurricane, or the warehouseman who knew where everything was.

All of these people and many, many more are examples of high performers.

But that soldier was always in trouble; the carpenter was promoted and failed as a supervisor, and the warehouseman would never give the last box of widgets out because he would have none left.

A soldier who can only do one thing and not get along with his peers is not a good soldier.

The warehouseman who cannot see his job as more than neat rows of shelves is a detriment to your operations.

And the world is full of poor site-superintendents who were, at one time, great carpenters,

Of course, functional ability and competency are essential.

But the difference between high performance and high potential is something you can easily spot.

What does it look like?

HIGH PERFORMING

VERSUS

HIGH POTENTIAL

There is nothing wrong with high performance; we need these technically advanced people in our organization and reward and motivate them respectfully and fairly.

But DO NOT confuse High Performance with leadership potential.

As organizational leaders, we need to be ever vigilant with the high-potential people in our companies because they are often quiet and unassuming compared to their high-performing coworkers.

You can often hire technical expertise.

But you may never find that one leader you need to ensure your organization has the health and strength to succeed!

“Hiring mistake? What’s the big deal?

Yeah, so we lose one; thousands of those can fill their shoes!”

While pacifying yourself by saying this to yourself when a disgruntled employee leaves your company, it’s good to be mindful of the costs incurred by the employee who left.

Costs?

Yes, and it’s hefty, keeping aside the time and energy spent considering a hiring manager’s mistakes.

What happens if you make recruitment mistakes?

According to careerbuilder.com, employers asked how a poor hire impacted their company noted:

• decreased productivity by 37 percent,
• extra time needed to find and train a replacement employee by 32 percent, and
• subpar job quality by 31 percent.

What is a bad hire? What is the worst that a Hiring mistake can cause?

A bad hire is an employee who exhibits conduct that has a detrimental effect on team spirit, output, and essential business relationships.

A poor hire could lead to conflict in the office, undermine employee motivation and output, and pose a real threat to the expansion of your company. There are the financial expenses for the hiring and onboarding process and the employee’s compensation, benefits, and lost time and money spent hiring a replacement.

Finally, please take into consideration the effects on the remaining members of your staff, such as how motivated they are, how morale is affected, how much time and money are needed to rectify or repeat a terrible hire’s work, and how much more work managers must fit into their daily schedules to compensate for this shortcoming.

Your company’s reputation can be harmed, particularly if poor hires encounter clients directly.

Now that you know the avalanche that could be started because of mis-hires, here are a few top hiring mistakes to avoid before you burn out your company’s time, money, and resources.

Recruitment mistake 1: Hiring a candidate because you ‘know’ them.

Taking someone in because you owe that friend or friend you are inclined to push might be expensive. This friend of a friend may not have the skills you need. If you are worried about hurting someone’s feelings, remember that a true friend understands the situation they are putting you in if you end up taking a bad hire.

Recruitment mistake 2: The hiring because you were under pressure to Act

Deadlines and budget constraints could push you to make a bad hire, and it could haunt you. Managers might say, “We need to hire someone immediately,” which inevitably leads to a hiring mistake. Everyone becomes quite vigilant. The consequence of taking in a fast hire will often be a mis-hire.

Recruitment mistake 3: Not letting Actions speak louder than Talent.

It’s easier to unlearn if grades are not allowed to determine a person’s or a candidate’s overall quality. But here’s a fact: even someone with the highest GPA will not know the particulars needed for your posted job. And they may not even be a nice person. So, make it a point to test for character rather than the words in the resume.

Recruitment mistake 4: Do they fit in or stick out?

Ignoring how suitable the worker is to your culture is essential. The misfit will tend to underperform and create lousy office morale. Even the ablest candidates will underperform if their working style clashes with the hiring manager or doesn’t fit the team and company culture. The reasons for their non-functionality may be deeply rooted, so verifying their fit to the work environment is very important.

Recruitment mistake 5: Not picking the right kind of help.

This is the age of online skill and psychometric assessment platforms. The right thing to do is to pick the platform or the resource person that aligns differently with your visions and requirements; you might as well have hired yourself. Once you’ve hired top-notch people, integrate them into your staff smoothly. The long-term success of new hires depends on a thorough, structured onboarding procedure, which can also increase employee engagement and retention.

But remember to add a human touch. Greeting cards from management and co-workers may give a new hire a sense of encouragement. Instead of concentrating solely on orientation and paperwork, other effective onboarding tactics involve introducing the employee to the company’s culture and objectives.

Recruitment mistake 6: Not keeping pace.

It takes meaningful innovation to succeed when hiring. A solid talent base is essential for this. After you’ve chosen the finest candidates, it’s critical to keep advancing their skills so they can consistently exceed the competition. There are lots of specialized online training providers. And many in-person & virtual options.

Gary Vaynerchuk tells a story about when his ego got in the way of firing a bad hire. It was so bad that he fired the person on their first day. At least in Vaynerchuk’s mind, he fired the person on the first day, but it took Gary 4-months to do it.

Why? Because his ego got in the way, and he didn’t want to admit he made a mistake.

I did that, too. I made a terrible hire but was so committed to a course of action that I couldn’t get out of my way to do the right thing.

Read the story here.

A few years back, I hired a person on my team against other people’s wishes. I was sure he had the right skills and experience, and hiring the usual suspects hadn’t gotten the results I needed & wanted, so maybe it was time to be disruptive. I wasn’t sure I liked him either. He wasn’t kind or diplomatic in his comments. He wasn’t likable., He was a bully, and my not dealing with it caused harm to many people.

Big Mistake.

I used to have a propensity to hire only for talent. Until I realized that wasn’t helpful.

Another mistake.

Or I would hire people I liked. And I thought that was going well until I realized I had filled the room with many Me’s.

And that wasn’t helpful in the least.

But I have learned from my mistakes.

Three steps to making better hires?

Here is what you need to do.

Check your ego, and take time and space to consider the following questions:

1. Make a list of your best hires. Consider why these people were great hires. What did they have in common? What parts of the process were most valuable?

2. Consider what your organizational culture is, and then hire for fit.

3. And lastly, don’t be blinded by talent. Talent is shiny and exciting, but it is not enough. My worst hire was super talented, but he was an SOB.

Then, set up a conversation when you land on a preferred candidate or a short list of a couple of people.

Try to do it over lunch or breakfast.

Watch how that person interacts with the waitstaff, whether off-site or over a meal. As this will speak volumes about that person’s character.

Get your copy of the Hunger Humble & Smart Hiring guide here.

Then, when the time is right, say this:

“Hey. Let’s not waste your time here by telling me what is in your CV and your work history or regurgitating any of the answers you gave during the interview process.

But please tell me what questions I can answer for you about this job?”

Usually, this completely disarms the candidate because they were likely expecting another round of canned interview questions. And:

• It will demonstrate if they need to prepare to take on this role. If they had thought about it, they would have lots of questions.

• It will show if they have connected with you deeper than responding to a question.

• If they stumble around, it will show that they may not even know themselves as well as you need,

• And finally, it will show if they are curious. Curious about the role, about you and the risks of coming to work for you. And there are always risks in changing jobs.

And if they ask good, thoughtful and, hopefully, profound questions, these will tell you they will be a good hire.