“A healthy culture is an inclusive, change ready, and joyful culture where team members feel like they belong, and they can deliver care and performance beyond expectations.”
Dr. Norma Tirado, Vice President of Culture and Associate Experience at Centura Health, is back on Gut + Science to discuss why organizations need to start with creating a space where people are comfortable showing up as their whole selves. She says once you’ve done that, then people can become the best version of themselves. Listen in to hear Norma and guest-host, David Black, break down how to take a personal approach to leadership. Along the way, you’ll hear the six key needs of today’s employees.
Truth You Can Act On
1. Transformation Starts with You
I tell leaders that if they want to transform an organization, they have to start by transforming themselves. When I’m looking at transforming an organization, my first focus is the leaders. People believe in what we say, but they watch to see what the leaders are doing. And if the leaders are not modeling those behaviors, not engaging in a way…we want to engage in, any culture effort will fall completely flat. So you have to start by ensuring that your leaders feel like they belong, they feel they have the autonomy to make decisions, and that they’ve been developed to become great coaches for the people they’re privileged to lead.
2. Tie Back to Purpose
You champion belief by helping connect the mission, vision, and values of the organization to each individual person. To what’s important to them, to what they value, and to their job. And I think you have to create that trust and inspire culture to be able to lead, believe, and help people find their own personal purpose and help connect them to that purpose and help connect that personal purpose to the organizational mission, vision, and values.
3. Make Your Leadership Approach Personal
We lead belonging with curiosity, humanity, and inspiration. You have to be really, really interested in learning about the human beings you’re privileged to lead. What’s important to them? What moves them to action? What do they like to do for fun? What makes them happy? We have to embrace all emotions at work. We have to develop a culture that embraces personalization and moves away from a one size fits all mentality. We have to embrace inclusion, value differences, and reject assimilation. That’s how we lead belonging by really, really caring for the human beings that come to work every day.
4. Make Space for Friendships
When people join your organization, you can make sure that they have a friend there. Connect people or have a body program and, at a higher level, a mentor program for people that are joining the organization. And if you haven’t done it with team members that are starting, start by looking at your team and ask the question, ‘Do you have a friend at work? Would it be helpful to connect you with somebody with your interest?’ Employee resource groups that a lot of organizations have are great tactical ways to connect people. And it doesn’t have to be around our typical the black employees and the Asian employees, but people with different abilities. People that are interested in music and theater, people that are interested in rock climbing. So create those ways for people to connect at work.
Book Recommendation:
- Trust & Inspire by Stephen Covey
- What Do You Do with an Idea? by Kobi Amanda
- What Do You Do with a Problem? by Kobi Amanda
- What Do You Do with a Chance? by Kobi Amanda
Connect with Centura Health: https://www.linkedin.com/company/centura-health/
Listen to the full episode: 167: It All Begins With Belonging with Dr. Norma Tirado & David Black
