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Leaders Bear Responsibility for Ethics, Credibility, Trust
By Carolyn Merriman, CHG President
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I’ve been watching the explosion of laws, articles and leadership training initiatives focused on ethics, credibility and trust. This explosion isn’t due to a casual interest in this subject. I believe it’s because of the almost razor-sharp focus on profit, to the exclusion of all other values. I also believe that our value system today is out of balance, and that it’s up to Leadership to refocus all of us on what really matters.
Ethics, credibility and trust are core elements of a great leader. Living these elements is where a great leader “walks the talk”—setting the vision and culture of how the organization is to be, then demonstrating by example how to achieve the vision in every day of the organization’s life.
A great leader practices “servant leadership,” putting themselves in the shoes of the employee, customer and public. A great leader always asks the question, “How will this be perceived, received or valued by…?” “Does this action or statement reflect our values and commitment to our customers?”
A great leader further demonstrates these values by quietly standing firm and testing initiatives and communication against the “right thing to do” rather than “do it at all costs to make a profit.”
Over more than 20 years of healthcare sales, we’ve observed that critical success factors for sales in this discipline are credibility and trust. If you don’t have those with your customer, you’ll never progress the relationship or the sale. Sure, you may sell once if they need something today, but they’ll be unlikely to return or refer someone else to you if they don’t trust you. While it may take longer to establish credibility and trust that the customer values, in the long run you’ll experience larger sales and referral volumes and the long-term value of a lasting mutually trusting relationship.
Healthcare leaders have a wonderful opportunity to set the example for our employees, communities, employers, payers and physicians. Trust and credibility are values that make us different and worth working with in a partnership. It’s a pleasure to work with CEOs and leadership teams as they revisit and embrace their missions and visions, and apply the principles to working with employees and key customers. While the challenge continues to stay true to the course, those who have invested their time, energy and passion in this path are seeing wonderful results.
5 Characteristics of Great Leaders
1. The ability to live in strategic and tactical worlds ensuring organizational continuity and adherence to vision, mission and values.
2. The desire to help someone else grow, develop and achieve success.
3. The ability to listen proactively and constructively and serve as a sounding board for others.
4. The foresight, vision and an ability to convince others to commit to the idea, rather than force compliance.
5. A belief in the power of a team effort; acknowledging everyone’s contributions.
6 Questions to Ask Yourself
1. Within our mission, vision and values, have we visited ethics and trust? Do we provide our employees and customers with examples and ways in which we deliver on the promise?
2. Have I created a vision and focus for the team that they can embrace, get excited about and feel a part of? Do I communicate with personal passion and energy and engage them in why they are valuable to the effort?
3. When reviewing a business opportunity, do I review its alignment with our values and long-term outcomes desired in partnership with key customers?
4. Do I communicate my personal and organizational values, my trust and credibility in my actions and words?
5. Do I guide my team members in how to exemplify the values and standards to their staff members in internal and external actions and communications?
6. Do we as an organization acknowledge the values in performance measurements—or do focus only on budget, earnings or volumes? |
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Carolyn Merriman is president of Corporate Health Group, a national healthcare consulting firm, and is based in Rhode Island. For additional information, please call 1-888-334-2500 or contact us via the Web. |
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