Hi folks, Steve “The Hurricane” here. And on today’s episode of “A Drink With The Hurricane”, we are going to talk about creating the office culture that you want to have in your business. So raise your glass, and let’s toast to your success. Cheers.
This is “A Drink with The Hurricane”, the talk show discussing all things growing your home care business. This video is sponsored by Home Care Evolution, where we help home care agencies adapt to changing circumstances, transform their business so that they can thrive for years to come.
So when it comes to creating a culture in your organization, it takes a very special individual to do this. And you, as the owner of your company, you do have it in you but you’re gonna need some support to be able to make it the way you want to. Now I talk on culture a lot. I train on culture a lot, but I would like to turn this episode over to Kelly Szwed, who is my longest tenured coach. And she also happens to be my only coach who’s certified in creating the culture of an organization. And she’s gonna be talking about being a stuck leader versus an unstuck leader, and how you can build your culture around that. So, Kelly, I’m excited for this one. Take it away.
Hello, hello. Welcome to Coach’s Corner. I’m Coach Kelly. And I’m so excited that you’ve joined me today because I wanna talk to you about something that is super important. So I’m speaking to you today from an organizational culture standpoint. And what I wanna talk to you about is what is the difference between a stuck leader and an unstuck leader? So if you are an agency owner, if you are an executive director, if you’re an office manager, or if you are any leader within your organization, I want you to listen. Because what I wanna talk about today is just a couple of things you may be identifying with. And if so, how do we change it? And if you’re not identifying with it, congratulations. You’re doing a great job.
So here is one thing I can tell you. A stuck leader is certain. They are attached to the need of certainty, and a stuck leader operates from that fear state. These fears make it seem sort of contractive in your nature. It lends to becoming defensive or even judgemental. So if you find yourself falling into that category of being certain as a leader, think about becoming more fluid, more watery, if you will. Because if you are unstuck, you can manage your need for certainty. You can allow yourself to become expansive. You are grounded in a strong core value and purpose that you sort of envision and enhance and envelope as a leader. And you are always open to new ideas. You are fluid when it comes to different situations. So think about that. Do I feel stuck in a state of fear, or do I feel like I’m fluid and I’m open? So that’s one way to tell if you are a stuck leader.
Another way to tell if you’re a stuck leader is am I a reactor? Stuck leaders are prone to what’s going on around them. And then we react when the problem arises. We are unprepared, so we react. And sometimes, that often leads, or it ends up badly. So think about that. Do I react or, as an unstuck leader, am I anticipating that maybe something could go wrong? Maybe there is the opportunity that we have to predict the constant changes that are going on around us in our organization, in our day to day. So if I can get that insight, and if I can think about what can I do to predict or be proactive, we can make better decisions. We can have better outcomes. So you wanna anticipate rather than react. So that is another sign to look at, or another clue that you can look at. Am I a stuck leader, or am I unstuck? Do I react, or do I anticipate things that might be coming down the pike? What else?
So if you are a stuck leader, sometimes you like to impose a lot of structure. Top down authority. I am here and everyone else falls underneath. So that is good. We need to have a hierarchy, but is it so strict and is it so rigid that we are creating sort of silos for our employees? Are we discouraging the different employees in different departments, that they are commingled in some way? They’re cross trained even. What’s going on? So control is sort of an illusion, but I want you to think about that. Do I find myself being a leader who is very rigid, or am I someone who is a little bit more of a designer in the sense that we’re gonna focus, you as the leader, are gonna focus on enabling your team to do their job better? So as issues come to the surface, there is healthy debate about how you’re gonna come up with a solution to the problem, as opposed to I’m stuck. I’m stuck in and we always do it this way. I’m in control. Or is it more of a, hey, let’s come together and let’s collaborate and let’s see if we can come to a new resolution based on everybody’s sort of collective input?
So those are a couple of things that I want you guys to think about. Am I stuck? Am I unstuck? So the idea here is we wanna go from being stuck to being unstuck or being more fluid. So this is an opportunity for you guys to do a little self reflection, maybe take a look at what is stressing you out and why you’re getting stressed out and why your team might be getting stressed out, and how you might be able to sort of resolve some of those conflicts. I hope this helped. I hope you take a little bit of time to think about what I talked about today, and I hope you have a really great day. Thanks so much for joining me. Bye.
Wow, Kelly. That was amazing. Thank you so much for that information. And folks, I mean, there you have it. I love having these episodes here and mixing it in with my coaches, because they have such great experiences to be able to share with you with the goal of helping you grow your business. Now, if you like this video, if you like the other videos that we have and you’re watching and you still need more help, get more caregivers. Wanna make more money, help more seniors. But I also don’t wanna work 100 hours a week to do so, then click the link below and register right now for the next Home Care Evolution Conference, so we can give you everything that you need to blow away the competition.