Smart Leaders
Opening doors
How to make time for employees’ ideas and concerns
By Carolyn LaWell
Smart Business Cleveland | January 2010
Page 1 of 2
Claire Zangerle, president and CEO, Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio
Having an open-door policy is so important to Claire Zangerle that she literally removed the door that separated her suite from her employees. Then she knocked down a partition that blocked the view of the sitting area.
When Zangerle was named president and CEO of Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio in July 2008, she knew the position would require a culture shift. To emphasize what she was communicating to employees, she took the extra step of physically showing them her door is open.
“You have to be accessible to anyone and everyone in the organization,” says Zangerle, who has 783 employees at the $55 million organization. “To me, that’s an expectation of any leader.”
In order to have an effective open-door policy, guidelines need to be in place, including setting aside time and articulating what issues employees can bring through your door. However, even if they’re coming to your office, you can’t underestimate meeting employees on their turf.
Smart Business spoke with Zangerle about how to open your door to employees.
Invite employees through the door. I write a short, weekly update letter to all the employees, it goes out through e-mail and it’s posted on our intranet site. At the end of my letter every single week, I offer the simple open invitation.
You always have to open the invitation. I always end my letter with, ‘You know where to find me. My e-mail is this, my cell phone number is this, my extension is this, and my office is on the third floor.’
I think a simple open invitation in the beginning, some are going to take you up on it, some aren’t going to believe you mean it, but then there are some who totally overuse it.
Once they come through the door themselves or hear about one of their colleagues that have come through the door, it’s not that difficult.
Set a schedule, but remain flexible. Truly to be the most effective having a dedicated time for the open door is the best, but things come up on an emergent basis so you really have to be prepared for that.
I block off Friday mornings or Wednesday afternoons — that’s when I’m in my office doing some work, stop by or make an appointment with my secretary or whatever is best for you. But I don’t want to discourage people from coming to me on an emergent basis either.
That happens a lot. That’s where you have to use your judgment depending on what the issue is.
Work with your assistant to say, ‘OK, if this is something I can address immediately, and I’m doing something else, then tell them I will get back with them within this amount of time.’ Give them an idea that, yes, you will get back with them.
