Managers make their mark: Melanie Carithers
Following the 2019 Values in Practice (VIP) employee engagement survey, and in preparation for the follow-up pulse coming Jan. 20-31, the Organizational Development and Training team is reaching out to high-performing managers to get their take on leadership that encourages engagement and dialogue. Check out the latest below (and read the previous story here).
Melanie Carithers, Manager, Early Detection for Breast and Cervical at the Moncrief Cancer Institute in Fort Worth, leads engagement as “one of the team.” She fosters high levels of engagement where the nursing team delivers “patient first” service with excellence. Here is what she shared about her success.
On transparent decision-making
Throughout ongoing guidance from preceptors and team leads, nurses and staff are emerged into a problem solving, learning culture. Ms. Carithers emphasized that it is OK to say, “I don’t know,” or “Let’s figure this out together.” More importantly, she believes that employees should be able to learn as they go. This philosophy and decentralization allows the employees to benefit from daily peer-to-peer open communications and further make decisions, resolve conflict, and provide care at the job level where staff feel empowered to speak their mind.
Ms. Carithers meets with team leads weekly to share success stories and manage up as needed. These practices build the trust needed for when she cascades top-down business decisions the team has confidence that she is sharing the truth and/or as much information as is known at the time.
On recognition
Recognition and development are prioritized, ongoing, and fun! Whether celebrating individual birthdays, hosting a team ice cream break, or planning the annual luncheon to acknowledge everyone’s extraordinary efforts during Cancer Awareness Month, she finds many opportunities to demonstrate that she genuinely appreciates her team and cares about their career growth.
On her leadership style
Her secret to high team engagement – she is “one of the team.” She is comfortable taking charge or jumping in with the team, whichever is necessary in order to make herself available. Her door is always open and she is happy to keep it so – and her team shines for it!