Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/568709
71 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Chuck Lauer: Management by Wandering Around By Chuck Lauer, Former Publisher of Modern Healthcare and Author, Public Speaker and Career Coach H ealthcare workers are in crisis today, and it's up to managers in the healthcare industry to come to their rescue. Everyone from the CEO to frontline managers should be getting out of their offices and mixing with employees. Only in this way can you truly grasp the level of morale in your institution and start trying to fix it. Your pres- ence can provide an extra spark of inspiration, which is sorely needed these days. ere is a crisis in morale within healthcare today, according to Joe Tye, the CEO of Values Coach, Inc., which provides life and leadership skills for hospital, corporate and association clients. While everyone talks about the external healthcare crisis, which has to do with cost, access and quality, Tye sees an internal healthcare crisis, which involves employee disengage- ment, bullying and employee-on-employee violence. Tye was bowled over by the results of a Values Coach survey of more than 6,000 people at 15 differ- ent hospitals and healthcare professional associations. Almost 60 percent could not agree with the statement: "Our people reflect positive attitudes, treat others with respect, and refrain from complaining, gossiping or pointing fingers." He calls this "toxic emotional negativity," which is "the emotional and spiritual equivalent of cigarette smoke in the workplace — it is malignant, contagious and highly destructive." is corrosive atmosphere can quickly eat into your workforce. In a survey reported by American Nurse Today in 2012, about 60 percent of new RNs who had been bullied had quit their first job within the next six months, and one in three new graduate nurses con- siders quitting nursing altogether because of "abusive or humiliating encounters." How can managers turn the situation around? I'd like you to try "management by wandering around." e concept comes from Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, the founders of Hewlett-Packard, which they developed when they started the company eight decades ago. ey did a lot of wandering past employees' desks — but it was "wandering" with a purpose. As they walked past, they were asking employees about their work and their lives. And then they'd listen — really listen — to what employees had to say. e result? Employees felt they were valued, and Messrs. Hewlett and Packard learned a thing or two about what they needed to do to improve their company. Getting out of your office and meeting with the troops goes back to Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War. He would leave the White House and trek to the front lines for some impromptu meetings with sol- diers. In an old photograph, the presidential visitor sits in the shade of a Union Army tent, with his stove- pipe hat next to him, chatting with his chief general at the time. Fast-forward to today, when millions of people tune into reality television to watch CEOs taking jobs within their own companies. In "Undercover Boss," distinguished leaders of the C-suite take jobs in disguise. As ordinary workers, they find out all sorts " " There is a crisis in morale within healthcare today. How can managers turn the situation around? I'd like you to try 'management by wandering around.'