Make Time for Face Time With Your Team
Person-to-person communication is key to leadership, but given the weight of daily responsibilities, long-term projects and sudden demands that pile up at the leader's desk, it's no surprise that maintaining social contact with staff usually ends up pretty low on the to-do list. Here are a few ways to make yourself more accessible and approachable in order to make sure everyone gets along.

— Compiled by David Bernard

• Board meetings. If your schedule's packed but you like having an open-door policy, post a dry-erase board on your office door to let your team know when your available times are each day. Then they can sign up to reserve slots for discussing their issues without feeling that they'll be interrupting phone calls or other meetings when they drop by.

• Chat and chew. If you'd like to keep the lines of communication with your surgeons and staff open and active, the offer of refreshment can often be a welcome incentive. Fill a bowl on your desk or a mini-fridge in your office with treats or cold beverages and let your team know they are welcome to them. Their visits may start conversations or make connections that bring previously unmentioned needs or concerns to your attention.

• Scrub in. If you find you need a better understanding of what's really going on at your facility, you can't do better than walking the walk. Rounding daily with staff and surgeons, from pre-op through the OR to PACU, lets you see the perioperative process in action, and ask the hard questions, such as "What improvements are necessary here?" and "What do you need from me to do your job better?"

• See it my way. If, on the other hand, you feel your staff would benefit from a clearer understanding of the importance of the roles they (and you) play, try "Walk a Mile in My Shoes Day." Arrange for pre-op and PACU nurses to spend a shift job-shadowing your OR nurses, and vice versa. Give the business office a glimpse of the surgical suite, and introduce your clinicians to coding and billing. Even your managers might find a day in the administrator's office eye opening. The more that your employees understand how and why the process works, the stronger your team will become.

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