In this special Speaker Series, Becker's Healthcare caught up with Bill Presley, vice president of an IT and services firm.
Mr. Presley will speak on a panel during the Becker's Hospital Review 4th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference titled "Revenue Cycle Optimization: Tools and Strategies for Success," at 3:00 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21. Learn more about the event and register to attend in Chicago.
Question: Can you share your best advice for motivating your teams?
Bill Presley: Lead by example. Smart creative people want to be managed by people who not only have a track record of success, but who are working just as hard as them. Individuals want to be empowered to work hard. They want the freedom to learn and explore without being managed under a microscope. Teams understand the importance of their work so don't always say this project is critical or this work is critical. That just marginalizes the team's work at that point in time. Instead, emphasize the goal the team is working toward. Focus on outcomes. Smaller, incremental deliverables give teams goals to focus on for optimal outcomes. Small, incremental accomplishments motivate teams to continue to achieve the same level of success and maintain success over time.
Q: Describe your biggest failure. What did you learn from it?
BP: Being afraid and marginalizing myself — deemphasizing my value — when I accepted a previous job offer with a different employer. Too many times, applicants concede to the demands during the application process because they feel that the employer will feel insulted or disrespected, or better yet, will not hire them if they demonstrate too much confidence. This is so wrong. Having hired many people, I can say that is not the case, but your mindset changes when you're the person hiring versus to the person interviewing for a job. Speak up about your value during the interview process and in life. Don't be afraid of being afraid.
Q: What's the best thing you've read lately?
BP: You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself By David McRaney. This book is an eye-opener. It discusses habits in groups and explains that the combined efforts of individuals in a group total up to be less than the sum of each individual's efforts. The misconception is when you are joined by others in a task, you work harder to get more accomplished. Habits form because you are not so smart, and they cease under the same conditions. Once part of a group, you tend to put in less effort than that of someone who wants to accomplish something big, like a startup business or initiative. Normal instincts tend to tell you the more you can hire, the more work will be accomplished and the faster goals will be reached. When you join an effort with others toward a common goal, everyone tends to loaf-off more. If you are judged as a group, your instincts are to fade into the background. My take home from the book was that although team efforts directed at common goals are important and necessary, ensuring that each individual team member contributes to his/her full potential is critical.