Increasing Executive Effectiveness Through Emotional Intelligence

Summary

No longer a “mom and pop shop”, but an organization with a large footprint, Mountain Family Health Centers needed to address the organizational growing pains associated with doubling the number of its employees while serving 21,000+ patients, in the midst of a dynamic and changing healthcare landscape.

Over a 3-year period, the organization worked with InSight Coaching on executive-level conscious leadership practices to create a sense of wholeness and well-being with its leaders and employees. This work led to improved employee retention, increased value-based contracts for the network, reduction of teams operating in divided “silos”, and uniting executive leaders.

Overview

Mountain Family Health Center (MFHC) is a federally qualified, non-profit, and community-led Health Center system with 200 local employees. MFHC currently serves more than 21,000 patients through a network of healthcare facilities in rural resort communities serving Western Colorado.

Challenges

Discord Amongst Teams and Leadership

CEO Ross Brooks shared that, as MFHC was growing, there was a brokenness within teams and issues with internal communication. Business divisions were operating in separate silos and “fiefdoms”. There was also a presence of infighting and hierarchical division (between groups such as doctors, finance teams, administrative leadership, and providers).

The status quo of leadership seemed unacceptable and MFHC did not have a consistent process for developing their executive leaders. Once Ross connected with Renelle, they brought InSight in to help their organization develop and work on their leadership and organizational challenges.

Process

Conscious Leadership, Circles of Safety, and The Teal Shift

Over the past 36-months, InSight worked with the extended executive team of MFHC on a full journey of growth and development towards more conscious leadership.

The comprehensive journey including The Leadership Circle™ and the concept of Frederic Laloux’s Teal Organization. The Leadership Circle™ assessment helped MFHC to understand their existing leadership culture through Creative and Reactive Tendencies and how they could successfully map a path to the Teal Organization model — one based on the components of self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose.

The comprehensive partnership with InSight includes:

• Leadership Retreats: Insight hosts two face-to-face leadership retreats each year with the extended executive team and one of those includes the Board of Directors.
• Circles of Safety: Executive peer-coaching groups for leaders to share struggles, experiences, and challenges, knowing their individual and collective growth is part of the Teal journey.
• Journey to Inspirational Leadership Series: Monthly 90-minute workshops and roleplaying with 30+ leaders on Emotional Intelligence, Leadership Circle work, and The Power of TED.

In the 3rd year, MFHC extended the program and offered all MFHC leaders to participate in The Leadership Circle and coaching (growing from 14 to over 30 leaders). MFHC is beginning to introduce quarterly developmental sessions into the all-staff monthly meetings.
The journey with InSight helped introduce new leadership structures, long-term development plans, and evolved management practices to develop a sense of heart, purpose, and self-management.

Results

Creating Shared Vision & Shared Ownership

“It’s fascinating seeing team members own their own growth. Renelle helped us get to the meat of conversations much quicker. We now have a common language as an executive team, as well as deeper trust and collaboration. It really comes down to everyone being the most whole authentic people they can be.”
Ross Brooks
Chief Executive Officer, Mountain Family Health Centers

After working with InSight, Mountain Family’s leaders were better able to connect and communicate with each other to overcome challenges and better understand the humanity of their workers and employees. The journey helped lessen the disconnect between leaders and staff and allowed the organization to be more inclusive and move along the continuum of achieving health equity.

The leadership journey with InSight allowed the organization to achieve:

• Decreased employee turnover
• Increased communication across leadership
• Decrease in conflicts between leadership and staff
• Movement from ‘reactionary leaders’ to ‘innovative leaders’
• Staff surveys that reported “feeling more as team”
• More work-life balance for leadership (and an increase in the ‘Joy Quotient’)
• 25% improvement across four main strategic outcomes
• Improve the health of the population we serve
• Control the total cost of health care for the MFHC patients
• Provide a world class patient experience
• Promote an empowered and engaged workforce.
• An uptick in the number of value-based contracts for the network, reducing the focus on volume and increasing their ability to improve the wellbeing of patients

By creating more equity between leaders, MFHC are continuing to more effectively work to increase equity in healthcare as a whole.