Dive into the compelling world of Greg Cathcart, the CEO of Exellis Health. Join us on "The Better People Podcast" as he uncovers the challenges of leading a globally integrated firm, the nuances of supply chain in pharma, and the art of fostering a culture that embraces flexibility. With a peek into the merger of three companies and personal leadership anecdotes, it's a masterclass in management and growth.

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Greg's early days at J&J.
• Importance of supply chain traceability.
• The flexibility mantra at NNIT Inc.
• Blending cultures post-merger
• Personal leadership anecdotes

Resources:

• Excellis Health Solutions
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Greg Cathcart:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Holly DePalma - LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 04:51 - The biggest issue though, around all the legislation is really around patient safety. So, and that's counterfeit drugs and or divergent drugs. Something like a cold issue, right? So if something is supposed to kept cold and it shows up in Oncology clinic for your cancer treatment and it's been warm for two days, it can't be used. Right. And if that's the same day that you're supposed to have your infusion right or whatever. So it's so important to the health of patients.
• 08:21 - I think early on there was no job markets. So we met and did recruitment at the universities. We kind of knew what we wanted. Supply chain education's very big at Drexel, very big at Penn State, very big at Stevens Institute over here in New Jersey. So we focused on those schools. We went to education days, right? We talked to the youngsters and told them our backgrounds and told them where we were today. And we said, you wanna go to that route? Or to your point, do you wanna go work for big pharma? But we're big consulting, right? Do you wanna go small consulting where you're gonna be closer to a customer or you're gonna go work for Deloitte or an Accenture? I'm not saying they're bad pass at all, but you really have to, you know, work your way up the chain of ever get in face with a customer, right? 'cause it's such a large firm.
• 24:36 - I think the transparency's the biggest. Yes, you could do lots of little things, but if you're not willing to open up and let folks know what you're either thinking or trying to accomplish,you won't get them to get on board. And the last thing you do, they might still do their job, but if they're not focused at the same goals, to your point. How can we as an organization make our goals, even though some individuals might make their goals, that doesn't help the overall organization either.
• 27:55 - Pharma is a very regulated industry. So we preach to our customers every day how to make sure they button up all the details. Similar to what you just said. So I think a lot of that's intuitive in the way we work as a company. So we've had one leader, I could tell you right now, that we had to let go a couple of years ago because that leader was not leading. That leader was, I don't wanna say abusive, but nasty son of a, you know what? And the people that worked for him were doing great work, but still getting, you know, told they weren't and this and that. And I said, I can't afford to lose the 15 people that work for them. I gotta get rid of the one that's causing the problems. But that was just a bad hire. So you have to address it. Correct. It, that's probably the biggest challenge as executives of companies.
• 32:16 - Hey, you lie about anything. People know you're lying. Guess what? They call you a liar. That's the biggest thing. Right. People are challenged by that. I see it every day. People are challenged with telling the truth. They think the truth's gonna be bad sometimes. I said, you gotta tell 'em the truth. If it's bad information, they gotta hear it too. 'cause if not, they're gonna come back and say, why'd you tell me that when it was really this. Right. So, and for the youngsters, same thing. Don't be afraid to ask. Don't sit back in the corner and hide, raise your hand. Good questions. Any questions a good question, ask it. If you don't know the answer, ask it. We'll help you understand. It doesn't mean you're not smart enough to answer the question yourself. Right. So I think that's the secret.

Dive into the world of InHome Therapy with CEO Matt Murphy as he unveils the origins of his company during the pandemic, the growth through acquisitions, and the industry's shift to prioritize patients. Discover the power of purpose, the impact of physical therapy, and the art of engagement in a burgeoning healthcare business - all shaped by heartwarming, patient-centric stories.

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• CEO's naval to legal to healthcare journey
• Rise Together: Patients, therapists & agencies' goal
• In-home therapy tackles patient immobility
• Engagement is key to transformative care
• Ride-alongs shed light on therapists' challenges

Resources:

• InHome Therapy
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Matt Murphy:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Holly DePalma - LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 23:01 - We wanna have things that we can actually measure, like, you know, it might be response times or might be attendance at certain things that we have where it might be, you know, responses to surveys or NPS or all those kinds of things. But there's then, you know, then there's kind just the gut check. Okay, so our numbers whatever, 44 this month, is it really, I mean, are we really where we wanna be in terms of engagement?
• 27:54 - It's preserving that mindset that we're gonna do it and measure it and make sure that it's productive and get feedback. And, but it's, again, it can't be said it, forget it. It's, it's gonna be a dynamic. It's gonna be a dynamic growth and we're gonna get some things wrong. And, but hopefully our community of therapists will also appreciate that and do us the favor of telling us, Hey, you screw that one up. That was a waste of my time, so please don't do that again. But let's go back to this. So it's back to, again, us being a good listener, but creating an environment where they have the opportunity to tell us as well.
• 18:10 - Margaret: If you don't ride along, if you don't put yourself in those shoes. It's really having empathy. It's giving yourself the opportunity to have the right amount of empathy for what they go through. So that you can meet their needs, which means you can ultimately engage them.
  Matt: And from both sides, really it's both from what our therapists are going through and then what our patients are going through. I mean, you know, to receive care in the home is another not typical dynamic that most people are accustomed to. So that there's learnings on both sides of that. So we could have better appreciation for what the patient's going through as well.
  Margaret: I would imagine it's a very personal thing. You have a therapist come into the house.
  Matt: Oh, yeah. I mean, just so back to what we're trying, what we're endeavoring to do with, with having just great therapists to do this work, part of that is clinical.
• 23:01 - Are we really where we wanna be in terms of engagement? So, and I think that's also one of those that is gonna be perpetually just out of arm's reach. I mean, I think if you feel like you've done it all and you've achieved it, then you're probably fooling yourself. So it's to just keep challenging yourself about whatever, whatever level you might have achieved and success you've had is well then how like any relationship then how could we be slightly better? How could we, you know, how could we really deliver an experience from the engagement stand that that would be, you know, that would be jaw-dropping?
• 22:11 - I think lots of trial and error along the way. Again, I think what we really tried to keep as it relates to engagement as the North Star is to just not lose our focus on how important it is. You know, I would say that in terms of how we measure it, I think I have more lessons to learn about what is the exact way to, you know, to take all that, all those vagaries and get it down to a number to say, we're passing or failing when it comes to engagement, it's an art and a science. And I think that there's so much of understanding how we're doing on engagement is subjective.

Join Margaret Uhrich on the Better People podcast for an insightful chat with Chris Bailey, CEO of Bailey Brand Consulting. Explore the secrets behind a resilient brand strategy, building strong team dynamics, and the role of deep-rooted relationships in business success. Get ready for an episode packed with wisdom from a branding titan!

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Mastering change in a digital world.
• Importance of teamwork & trust.
• Building relationships in business.
• Cultivating adaptability & innovation.
• Long-term engagement & company culture.

Resources:

• Bailey Brand Consulting
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Chris Bailey:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Holly DePalma - LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn

Quotables

• 10:59 - I think that that's something that we have to do as leaders in an organization. We have to keep our door open. You know, we have to keep, we have to make it comfortable for people to come and ask you a question. And I think that that becomes challenging for individuals that when they first arrive, they're kind of like, he's the boss or he's the owner or whatever, you know.
• 12:30 - I want them to tell me what they think because I think they can probably point out something that I missed. I'm not perfect. I'm not the authority on it. but I have ideas, but I think through collaboration that when we come together, you know, one plus one equals a whole lot more than two. And we can, and the best stuff happens when it gets spun up.
• 15:05 - On the other hand, I love it when we get new people in, and they bring new ideas, and they bring new ways. So it's a blend for sure, you know, but I think it's the people that we try to bring in, we try to bring in with the same type of mindset that we are, where we're trying to solve problems and that they want to be part of something. I mean, for me, when I think about what makes a great organization is, you know, the people that are there really want to be there
• 18:52 - From a relationship standpoint, we get referrals from clients. We get clients that take us somewhere else. Same idea. We got people that, you know, either worked here, they had to move or they left for personal reasons, but they refer people over to us, you know, so that's a positive thing.
• 19:58 - It's a big part of my role is to be the flag bearer for the relationship building. I think one of the things that we've said, you know, chemistry is important for people, and chemistry with our clients is important. An I think, you know, if I think about what I've done to kind of help foster that, I look at it as I can't do what most of our team does. And so I need them just as much as they need me. And so that is kind of you know, the mix and the balance that you create in an organization.

Join us as Bookminders CEO Jessica Minkus shares her journey from staff accountant to head honcho, and spills the secret sauce behind their flexible, remote work culture. Discover how an employee-centric approach supercharged their growth, learn about team advisors' impact, and get inspired to enhance your company's culture.

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Home-based workers from start.
• Emphasis on employee-centric culture.
• Structured growth through internal promotion.
• Evolving with technology and remote demands.
• Creating a non-competitive work environment.

Resources:

• Bookminders
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Jessica Minkus:

• LinkedIn

Connect with Margaret Uhrich:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 9:38 - We couldn't expand the way we wanted to because we didn't have the number of employees needed, right? And so, we needed to be able to support the growth. We only promote from within at Bookminders. And because our employees want to work part-time, they typically don't wanna transition into a full-time management role, you know, a role on the leadership team if that means full-time. So I was thinking about all, where we were as an organization, the stressors that we were going to have, and realized we need more support for our accountants out there.
• 16:47 - You know, being in a remote environment, you're by yourself in your office at home, right? And having a group that you're meeting with where you're getting to know each other, you're feeling comfortable, you know, we foster an environment where we want feedback and it's very important to our culture that we get that. But this just gives them another different type of outlet where they're with their peers, they're having like their water cooler moments in a virtual environment.
• 17:43 - We have gotten great feedback. It's really heartwarming. One of our employees that have been here over 10 years is on a team with someone less than 10 years. And she was skeptical and she came out and she's like, this was the best thing that we've done for the organization and supporting the employees. They feel connected.
• 18:53 - I guess the thing that I wasn't sure of was how quick the buy-in was going to be. And it was very quick and the positive feelings and words have, like, it was so much quicker than I thought it was going to be. And I was not expecting every person that we went to ask if they wanted to be a team advisor to say yes, but like their faces lit up, like, absolutely. And so it's, it's gone really well and much faster than I thought it would.
• 07:04 - It's a lifestyle. I mean, everyone I think should know by now. Like, people like working from home, they like having the flexibility, they like the supported autonomy and everyone's trying to navigate that. But if you're giving that, you know, if you have that structure and you're providing the support, you know, our employees, they love doing their job. They could not imagine going back to a 9 to 5 desk job.

Dive into the incredible transformation of F&M Trust with Dr. Karen Carmack, as she unravels their path from low morale to record earnings through a robust employee engagement strategy. Discover the power of listening, strategic initiatives, and transparent leadership in propelling organizational success.

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Impact of voice on employee morale.
• The strategic plan led to an engagement initiative.
• Surveys shed light on cultural shifts.
• Leadership training drives improvement.
• Financial success is tied to engagement.

Resources:

• F&M Trust
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Dr. Karen Carmack:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our host, Holly DePalma

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 3:33 - Well, prior to that time, we weren't doing any kind of assessments. We were experiencing turnover, and we were experiencing turnover of more of our key personnel, which was concerning. We were also getting feedback, and you can just feel it in an organization. It becomes palpable that, you know, employees are dissatisfied. And it wasn't a very good feeling. So we were trying to figure out what we can do to improve that. And that's why this focus on employee engagement got on the board. I think initially, you know, we were thinking about, okay, let's find out what satisfies our employees. But I think as we work through it, we took it in a whole different direction, which really had a broader impact on the organization.
• 6:26 - And once I got the charge, I thought, okay, all right. Who needs to be involved with this? Obviously, I was thinking we needed some broad perspectives and also broad representation from within the organization. So what I did is I looked at our employee base and I said, okay, we need the different geographies of our organization represented. We need different levels of hierarchy within the organization and different departmental representation. So I ended up through that process identifying an initial group of 14 employees that I tapped and asked if they would be willing to jump into this with me.
• 14:13 - There were initially, and maybe there's pockets of it today, but initially I think people were wondering, are they really serious? Do they really want our true opinions around what's going on? I think there was a little bit of skepticism initially, but thankfully they took the plunge with us and gave us some feedback.
• 23:43 - We were just a couple of points away from where we would wanna be there. I can't say that was the way it was for the first survey. Our scores weren't all that great that first year, but that in itself was a gift because it gave us all the feedback that we needed to do all the things that we've done over these years. But the true bright spot within all of it has been our leader engagement survey and the scores that we've had within it, because that first year that we did it, we saw a need for improvement.
• 34:48 - And so, you know, the beauty with all of this in parallel that I haven't talked about yet is that our financial results have also improved significantly. We've had record earnings during this period of time. You know whether you can completely correlate it to this effort entirely, you know, there probably are other factors, but I firmly believe that everything that we've been doing to get employees aligned with the culture, aligned with the mission engaged, and getting that discretionary effort has helped us reach some of the goals that we have and blown some others out of the water.