Spring Summer 2018

www.ohca.com Spring/Summer 2018 The Oregon Caregiver 7 I n school at Brigham Young University, Jeff Call took a class from Stephen Covey, the author of the best-selling book on leadership The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Call said, “He was my mentor. He helped me get my first job out of college.” Eventually, Call started working for Covey’s company, teaching the principals of the book. Today, Call is the founder and CEO of Focus & Execute, a company that takes the principles of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. and applies them at the organizational level. Through Focus & Execute, Call helps senior leadership teams create and execute strategy. “The reasons clients struggle with executing strategy are similar to issues with New Year’s resolutions; people come together and they set noble goals and then they proceed to get caught up in the business of life, and they don’t execute,” Call said. Working with and developing leaders for over 30 years, Call has seen successes in businesses grounded on solid organizational behaviors. “Effective leadership is about telling a story,” Call said. “The elements of that story are the mission statement, why you exist; a vision statement, where you’re going in the future; your goals; and your actions plans, what are you going to do to achieve that goal,” he said. Call frequently works with long term care providers and said that to achieve quality care, it is essential for providers to create engaged employees. “Engaged employees are so much more than satisfied employees. Engaged employees want to be there—they buy into the mission of the organization, they have a sense of passion for what they do, they have friends at work, they are team players,” he said. “If you have engaged employees, they will provide good quality care. This provides a good customer experience which in turns drives good financial sustainability. Then that inspires growth and innovation,” Call said. When it comes to creating the leaders to ignite this engaging culture, Call has a tag line: “Strategy is important, but it’s execution that counts.” He said that organizations sometimes have a “strategy-execution gap.” “Staff at all levels can get caught up in the whirlwind of urgency. Sometimes these urgent things keep them away from doing important things. At the end of the day, organizations get a bunch of stuff done, but the accomplishments usually aren’t the most important ones,” he said. Another challenge that Call sees across all industries is misalignment. “People aren’t clear about the priorities of the organization, and even when they are clear they get sidetracked because of pressing, urgent demands that come at them,” he said. Call emphasized, “Again, there is a huge gap between having a plan and executing it.” A few years before Steven Covey died in 2012, he told Call that he had found a definition of leadership that works. Call said Covey told him, “A leader sees the worth and potential in others and inspires them to see that worth and potential in themselves.” When it comes to setting the standards, creating team goals, and leaders holding themselves accountable, Call mentions that he regularly asks organizations if they have a senior leadership council. If a company has a singular, flamboyant leader, he sees it as a red-flag. “You don’t want people to follow you because of your charisma. You want them to be a part of a group where everybody comes together and has a voice, and then you’ve got a team,” he said. “One person making all the decisions will get things wrong most of the time. Two people coming together and agreeing will usually get things wrong. Three people are more productive. By the time you get a council of seven or eight people coming together, and you get them to discuss and agree through rigorous processes, that’s when you’re going to get success and results,” Call said. CareOregon’s Senior Business Leader for Learning and Innovation, Barbara Kohnen Adriance, has been involved in the LiveWell program since its inception in 2015. The LiveWell method has been utilized by 50 long term care facilities in Oregon and focuses on a “bottom-up, top-enabled” approach to teamwork, communication, and leadership. “The entire LiveWell program is about leadership. It’s not leadership that is concentrated in a single person. You certainly need the administrator on site to be a skilled leader, but the kind of leadership that person needs to have is the kind of leadership that develops others and brings out other people’s leadership qualities,” she said. Kohnen Adriane said, “At the end of the day, the LiveWell program is about getting people to take initiative and to do something about an opportunity or problem they might see. If you think about it, to get to that place you must feel empowered, that you do make a difference, that people care, that you feel acknowledged, and that you know the right way to do things. That FEATURE CONTINUES » “A leader sees the worth and potential in others and inspires them to see that worth and potential in themselves.” — Jeff Call, Founder and CEO, Focus & Execute