It happened several years ago during my meeting with one of my direct reports, Karen, on her last day of work. She had been the Director of Physician Relations at the hospital where we worked and she was moving out of the area as a result of her husband’s relocation. Her last words to me were “best boss ever.” Wow! How often do we as leaders get to hear something like that?!
“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.”
— Harvey Firestone
I Recently I facilitated a small group coaching session for new leaders in our Leading People, Managing Work training program at Tandem Solutions. Near the end of the course, several participants mentioned that one of the topics we covered–“Delegation to Develop”–was particularly helpful for them. It also happens to be one of my favorite topics!
I recently read an article in the Harvard Business Review, “Do Your Employees Feel Respected?” and it reminded me of a seminar I attended several years ago when I was president of a hospital. The course was about creating and sustaining patient care excellence in hospitals and one of the faculty was Paul O’Neill, former CEO of Alcoa and Treasury Secretary of the United States. I found one of his topics particularly meaningful – respect.