Transforming Healthcare Leadership with AI and Coaching with Kristine Ellis | Ep #110

Wendy: Welcome, to Building Better Managers. I am your host, Wendy Hanson and I am delighted to have you with me today to learn from some wonderful guests who are going to share their information and their brilliance and their experiences around management and leadership and building great teams in organizations. I am, also the co-founder of New Level Work. So check us out newlevelwork.com thanks for tuning in.

Wendy: Greetings everybody. Welcome to Building Better Managers. I'm so thrilled that you're with us today. We're going to dive into a fascinating conversation about leadership in healthcare, one of the most complex and rapidly evolving industries out there today. And today we're honored to be joined by a leader from GuideWell Kristine Ellis, a health solutions company with an inspiring mission to transform healthcare. We'll be discussing what it means to lead a team in this space, especially when it comes to the unique challenges like client facing roles in clinical settings and navigating the fast paced environment of urgent care centers, primary care doctors. We're also going to explore how GuideWell is utilizing innovative strategies with AI, how to lead teams through times of uncertainty and the critical role coaching plays with managers and teams working together. Collaboration, mental health well-being and supporting staff during these times of burnout are also top of mind in today's discussion with Kristine Finally, we'll get to practical strategies for fostering collaboration across the organization's vast geographic reach and how coaching plays a role at the different levels of the company. Welcome Kristine Great to have you.

Kristine: Thank you Wendy, thank you. So good to see you.

Wendy: Yes, Let me tell everybody a little bit about you before. You have such a great background before we get started. Kristine Ellis is the Director of Talent development for GuideWell a 30 billion not for profit mission driven enterprise focused on transforming healthcare. At GuideWell She leads an employee and executive leadership development team which has received the association for Talent Development's Best Award 10 times and is currently ranked 12th on ATD's Global Best Awards list. Wow. That's a great accomplishment for you and the organization. Kristine works with employees, leaders and executives on topics such as communication, competency development, strategic thinking, personal branding and work life balance. She is a well-known expert in her field and has spoken nationally on a variety of leadership topics at ATD events and other conferences for educators and healthcare and finance professionals in her own leadership. In her world class programs, she combines passion with extensive leadership development experience and a unique coaching approach that emphasizes the importance of servant leadership and empathetic communication. And Kristine is a certified coach which is amazing in her position and uses those skills all the time. So I'm proud to say that GuideWell and New Level Work have a great partnership to help support their goals and vision. So welcome again, Kristine

Kristine: Thank you. Wendy. Thank you so much. it's great to be here.

Wendy: Oh, it's great to have you because I know how busy your schedule is. It took us a while to pull this together, but I know how important it is for people to understand health care is. It's such a big conversation these days and I'd love everybody to understand more about GuideWell So could you give like an overview of GuideWell a bit and, and how it's a health solutions company so people can understand that?

Kristine: Sure, sure. You give a really good first overview for sure. a lot of people know our main brand company which is Florida Blue, it's the largest Blue Cross blue plan of Florida Triple S in Puerto Rico and in the Virgin Islands. So a lot of people know that brand. But GuideWell is more than insurance. We also own a company called GuideWell Source, which works with the government in Medicaid and in multiple states across the United States. And we have multiple, urgent care centers and primary care centers across Florida and in Triple S as well. So we now not only service people for insurance and help provide health care services that way, but we have places that people can go, that service Florida Blue members and value based care. which is one of the ways we're trying to transform health healthcare right now is to make sure that the value that our members get is appropriately paid for and we can service you from the moment you're born until the moment you leave this world. So it's a really nice, way to service our members. And one of our, one of our, main reasons, that we exist is to make sure that healthcare provided for everyone, that is affordable and accessible, for people. So that's health solutions company, not just insurance, not just urgent care centers and providers, but everything that goes into our own health and wellbeing.

Wendy: Wow, that is a huge mission.

Kristine: Yes, it is. It is a huge mission. Yes.

Wendy: Wow.

Kristine: We are pretty passionate about it though. Yeah.

Wendy: Yeah. I can tell and I can tell from our work together, you know, how passionate you are about your teams and supporting people and the growth of people in the company. And you've got such diversity in terms of the folks that are part of GuideWell My goodness. Kristine what are some of the unique challenges you face, like leading a team like this in healthcare compared to other industries?

Kristine: Sure. One of the biggest challenges we have, of course, is that because we own multiple, clinical settings and are in the healthcare provider space, we have doctors and nurses and people who are client facing that don't necessarily sit at a desk all day long or have the freedom to leave their area and go to a training. So some of the challenges that we face, at least in my department is that we have to make sure we're working with our clinical settings to provide the most appropriate development for them in the way that they need it, in the timing that they need it. And you know, that, that provides a challenge for, you know, multiple areas. But for our area specifically, we want to make sure that we're providing the most appropriate development. Our leaders, in that setting. And it could be doctors, nurses, but it can also be the clinical staff or the office staff, people who are answering the phones, people who are managing books and the office itself. So even they can't necessarily just get away when clients and patients are coming in needing their attention. So we have to be pretty creative in order to provide their development since they are client facing, patient facing.

Wendy: Yeah. what a challenge that is, you know, to be able to, and what a contribution you make to all those people to meet them where they are and not say, well here's the training outside here, you know, if you can leave for half a day, you can go take that, you know. But you really seem to adapt things, right?

Kristine: Yeah, well, we try. A lot of it can be self-paced. we offer different times of, of training for them and then we also work with them to decide on when is most appropriate or when they're most free or most available. we also provide and help connect them with services that we might not be able to provide, outside of GuideWell as well. So we do a lot of different things and try to be creative to make sure that everyone has access to development for their own professional and personal lives.

Wendy: Well that's great. And speaking of being creative, what are some of the innovative strategies that you've been using at GuideWell related to AI? Because we know AI is the big topic everywhere, but you've been at this for a while, you've really developed some things. So share what you're up to there.

Kristine: Oh goodness. we're up to a lot. We have, of course, like most companies, been focused especially on generative AI, large language models. And we have a wonderful team that was created last year to stand up our own generative AI model. So if you, most people have heard of ChatGPT and have it maybe on their phone or have accessed it on their computers to help them with their own work. So maybe you've reached out to help them write a letter, you've reached out to get research or statistics on certain things that you're doing. We have been able to create our own internal ChatGPT. We call it Guidewall Chat. And our company has invested in making sure that that is available to all of our employees, but also that it is SOC 2 certified. So that if for some reason we need to put in any sort of information that could potentially be sensitive, that it is all in house, it's all enclosed in our own environment. So it does not go outside of our environment. Everything about GuideWell Chat is internal. So it's completely safe and SOC 2 certified, so that we can use it for multiple things, in the healthcare world. And so that's one of the wonderful things that we're doing. And of course my team loves it. They are using it to write content, they're using it to generate ideas on content. And I use it every day and we're encouraged to use it every day. one of our senior leaders mentioned that some people think it's cheating using generative AI. You're going out there asking this robot to help you do something. And ah, funny thing, my husband also initially called it cheating because I used it to help write a speech. Isn't that cheating? So by the way, I told everybody in the speech that my husband thought I was cheating. But the thing is, when we created, or when Microsoft created Excel back in the day. Right. Can you imagine our lives without Excel now? I mean I use it on a regular basis. I know some people in our company use it every day. And so can you imagine if we wouldn't have, if we would have said, oh, Excel, I'm going to continue to use my formulas and calculator and write everything down. But this is just new. It's new and different. It's a tool that we're able to use in order to be more efficient, in order to be quicker at our job so that we can think more strategically, think more creatively, be more innovative in some of the things that we're doing. So that's one of the things that we are doing, doing is utilizing our own large language model to help work, to help do regular mundane tasks. You can put something in it and spit out a formula just like that, when it would take you maybe hours to get something like that done. So it's been a super, super amazing help and we've had, a wonderful engagement with the tool. I would say, over 70% of our people are using it on a regular basis. So it's been a really great tool to use.

Wendy: Yeah, that's great. And I think it's going to be a while before we get over people thinking, hm, it's not good to get answers from ChatGPT. They've got to try it and they've got to see, especially in this case when you've developed it internally, it's got the wisdom of the company and everything that's there. It's not on the outside at all. And I know you're all really good about security because we've had challenges. Right. Exchanging links. Right. So your security is awesome.

Kristine: It is really good. Well, speaking of the, of the culture of our company, I just have a fun story about that. I had to. We were at a meeting and celebrating, the success of GuideWell Chat. And I had to share with the team that, I really appreciated the fact that they embedded our cult in GuideWell Chat. one of the things that I've tried doing is I told it to call me Wonder Woman just for fun. You can see. Maybe I do have an affinity for Wonder Woman. She's just been my hero forever. But I said, call me Wonder Woman and it just was like, okay, Wonder Woman, how are you today? Are you enjoying saving lives one conversation at a time? And it just kind of went on and asked me to share my adventures. And so that's our culture. And the other day, I was at a webinar and somebody shared that utilize GuideWell Chat. If you're having a tough day, put in that you would like some encouragement. So I tried it. I'm like, well, what does GuideWell Chat have to say about that? So I put in GuideWell Chat, I'm having a really tough day. I need some encouragement. And it just spit out this wonderful three or four paragraph thing that said, you've been through tough days before, you can do it again. You are resilient. Resilient. You know, it just went on about, with the encouraging words that somebody may have needed if they were having a tough day. And so our culture is embedded in GuideWell Chat. You wouldn't have gotten that from ChatGPT.

Wendy: No, no, no, you wouldn't. Wonder Woman, I love that and I love that story. That's great because that's the kind of personality that one can put into AI, you know, and I love that you have that. And it does show the culture of your company, which is great. You know, there's a humor there, there's a support there, and, and that people can go in. And the challenge that I've seen is that people need to know that you can go in for anything, you know, so telling your other 30% who aren't using it, you know, try it for this.

Kristine: Yeah, right. Yeah.

Wendy: Oh, that's great.

Kristine: It's an assistant, so think of it as an assistant. Right. It's an assistant as a tool. And, you know, when I use it, I tell it, hello, you know how it is. How are you today? You know, they'll come back and say, I'm doing great. How are you? You know, and how can I help you today? So, you know, if you, if you don't think of it as a Google system and you think of it as another helper and you can just kind of bring it alongside you to help you with your job, it does make a big difference.

Wendy: Yeah, I love that. And to personalize it and, you know, and say thank you, you know, when it gives you something.

Kristine: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Wendy: We need to keep our manners up, even with.

Kristine: Even with tools. Yes, absolutely, absolutely.

Wendy: So it's a real big time of significant change, and we're going to see more significant change right next year, you know, depending on the outcome of the election and decisions that are made in healthcare. How do you lead your teens through times of this uncertainty and significant change? What's important to you?

Kristine: I think the most important thing to me is to understand the team enough to know how they accept and go through change. So me personally, I have to understand how I go through change before I can help someone else. So I know how I go through change. But I also make those relationships with my team close, enough that I can understand how they go through change. so that's, number one, is truly understanding them, having the relationship to know how they manage and how they navigate themselves through change. But I would say through change, and when we have changes come through, our window and our email and our senior leaders, if that's something that I need to share with the team, I share with them what the change is, and I share with them why. if you understand the why something is happening, then you may understand how it applies to you as well. and you may move through that change much quicker. Everybody handles it differently. And sometimes, when you are resistant to Change, you need the why. You need to see how it could potentially be beneficial. And, you need to be able to talk about that. And so being that person to go to say, hey, Kristine I'm really struggling with this change. Can you help me understand again, why it's happening? And, being able to tell them m. Why it's happening and helping them through that change is most important. understanding that if you're resistant to change and sometimes even if you love change, you can move forward pretty quickly, but then sometimes take a step back and that that's natural, through the process of change, that it's not just this straight line from, you know, acceptance to, you know, implementation. Right. You know, it may be acceptance. I don't know about that. Acceptance. I don't know about that. And then, you know, onto implementation and being there through that process for my team and for the teams that we work with and, help through change is super, super important. and being able to have those lines of communication open at all times, is important as well. And you know, sometimes as senior leaders of the company, we can't necessarily tell why something is happening, but being honest about that and transparent about that is also important. So if I, if we have a change coming to the team, and I can't necessarily share why, I tell them that, you know, this is happening and when. I can't tell you what's happening behind the scenes right now, but when I can, I will absolutely share it with you. but right now we just have to trust that, you know, the reason why is beneficial one. And the more you can create that relationship and the more you can tell the why and the more you can relate to them and understand how they work and move through change, the better that's taken. When you can't tell the why, why they're going to trust you, to that you'll tell them eventually and that the things that are coming down, that may be, hard changes are for the best.

Wendy: I love your focus on the relationships because the why is incredibly important that a lot of leaders, if they've talked about something for a while, they think everybody understands, so they leave out the why. And that just never works. But when you can't tell it, when you've been so relationship focused and you've built that trust, then people are able to say, okay, you know, she's, she's not taken us down a bad road before, you know.

Kristine: Right, right.

Wendy: Brought us back. If we got lost in the wood, she came and got us So I think we gotta trust it this time. Yeah, yeah, that. I think that the relationship building is incredibly important, that we absolutely. We take it for granted sometimes. But if that trust is there, then you're able to tell people hard things and. But it takes a while to develop and I'd love that. That's a focus of yours, you know, having that happen so that your team knows and your team supports you. That's great. Now how has coaching helped with bringing together managers and teams at GuideWell? How do you use coaching?

Kristine: Well, we use it in many different ways. we have obviously external coaches and partnerships with a vendor like you, new level work. And we use it for we use it mainly for our leadership development programs and leading them through either transitions of, you know, potentially promotions, leading them through, you know, changes that are happening with their teams. and so that's one of the ways, but that's just a small way I would say, of that we use it. We also use coaching at the senior executive level that we that. That we provide them, coaches, with if and when they need them. And then we have internal coaches like me who, who, who at times are, are brought into conversations, are brought into you know, helping leaders and teams get along, assimilate. You know, when, when people are brought together or there's a change on a team, sometimes it doesn't go as smoot we had hoped. So you know, I am brought in, or maybe someone from my team, we're brought in to help kind of coach and consult them through some of those changes. but you know, with managers, especially as you're transitioning from one level of leader to another level leader, and the significant change in responsibilities that comes with that, we find that that's one of the best ways to engage coaching. And we've done that with our emerging leaders. So we're scaling it. We're not democratizing it, not just for our senior leadership, but also for our emerging aspiring leaders who want to engage in a leadership position in their career. And so we engage them with coaching and we engage senior managers as well as directors, with coaching. So it's not just you know, those senior leaders who really get the benefit of coaching, it's levels all through our company who have access to coaching.

Wendy: And I love that you use external and internal and that people at your level in the organization are able to coach because that really makes it a whole coaching culture within GuideWell that I hear that people are able to reach out and get the help they need. And we know that with transitions, even with change, sometimes people go through the stages of grief. Right. And you have to coach, walk them through the stages of grief if something is going to change so much that they were connected to. And to have that kind of person who you can trust and that you can trust internally to share things with. That's. That's terrific. Yeah, yeah, we found it to be.

Kristine: Very beneficial, for sure.

Wendy: Good. And, I think other organizations that kind of say, well, we only have it for our senior leaders, they are missing out on something. Because those emerging leaders, you know, we can help them grow. We can help with succession planning for the next, if we can really reach them and, provide support. That's right. You have a great model. And what strategies have you found most effective in fostering collaboration among your staff with your mission and the big geographic reach? What's been most effective there?

Kristine: Well, as you could probably guess, our headquarters is in Jacksonville, Florida. And, before 2020, we had about 6,500 people working on our campus. We have a very large campus. It kind of looks like a college. and so we had the majority of our people in one place, and of course, we had regional offices as well that, you know, a few hundred people at them. But the majority of our folks lived and worked in Jacksonville, and probably 97% lived and worked in Jacksonville. So now when. When we went home in 2020, everybody went home. And, we. We've never required people to go back to the office. Not. Not really. And. And our CEO is pretty particular about that. He wants people to be able to have the flexibility to work, and live where they would like to work and live. So our geographic imprint has expanded now across the United States. So not only do we have business in every state in the United States, we also have people now living and working in the States, across the United States. And it does make it a little bit challenging to be able to collaborate effectively, when you're in a virtual setting. But I can say that the tools and resources that we're provided to be able to collaborate have helped a lot. When we first went home, we had nothing. You know, I think I got the free version of Zoom to be able to see my people, but, we didn't have anything back then. And so our company quickly had to pivot and provide some tools and resources to be able to do that.

Wendy: That.

Kristine: And, so that's really fostered a, moment of collaboration. But I think it even begins before that with our values. So the values that GuideWell has, really been not just words on wall, right? You come into a company and say, oh, there's the values, and there they stay. But at GuideWell it's not just values, on a wall. It's values that we and breathe and model every day. And that goes right into how we collaborate together and respect each other and we innovate together, and we're inclusive in nature. So when you're fostering a collaboration or fostering a collaborative environment, with that geographic reach, it's more about being intentional. So are you intentionally turning your camera on? Are you intentionally setting up time to meet with your people one on one? Are you working with other groups, on camera? Are you setting up channels to be able to communicate on teams or in another platform? Are you, being intentional about Iaming, especially the leader? I am ing your team to say, hey, how you doing today? are you recognizing your peers when they are, doing great things? So I think there's a lot that goes into fostering that collaborative environment, but it really, really starts with our values. Yeah.

Wendy: it's so impressive that at the beginning of the pandemic, you were not virtual at all. And having built not only the systems and the tools, but all the things that you're talking about, the attitude and the values of how are we going to treat people? And apparently all the work is still getting done. And I admire your CEO for the stand that he takes on that kind of balance. What's going on, you know, it's really, when we respect people and respect that they're going to be doing their job and, and they'll do so much better than if we don't trust them. And we want to bring them back because we don't trust them because we don't think the work is getting done. But it sounds like your values, shine very brightly in the organization.

Kristine: Yes, I do think so. And I think it would be remiss if I didn't say that, we're a health solutions company and of course one of our focuses is wellbeing and focusing on our team members. Wellbeing is, of course, primary focus. And if you, if you treat your team members as your greatest resource and you're ensuring that they are well, then they're going to ensure that our customers are well and that they are treated as our greatest resource as well. So I don't think that we would be a health solutions company if we didn't have that mindset. Of well-being.

Wendy: well that's great. And burnout is such a growing concern these days, you know, in all industries but especially in healthcare. So how can leaders support their team's mental health and wellbeing? And certainly as that's one of your core values.

Kristine: Yeah, yeah you're right. You're absolutely right. it's a growing concern in healthcare and it's created even some gaps in being able to fill positions because the healthcare positions are so so I would say the expectations that people have on the healthcare system and their doctors, their nurses, you know, they're help people who provide wellbeing to them. I would. When you're supporting a company that wellbeing is their greatest value, one of the things they consider most important. It's important to provide all the resources possible. So we have a whole well-being team who is specifically for our well-being. So they provide so many resources for leaders to be able to work with their teams, for people, team members across the enterprise to be able to engage with, exercise, to be able to engage with counseling, to be able to engage with, with each other, in working on their own well-being. And I think that together this company, with that level of collaboration that we've created internally, it has helped burnout. that being said, it's still there sometimes. Right? So as leaders again those relationships have to be important to be able to recognize when your team is struggling, to be able to say hey John, I noticed you haven't taken any time off in the last six months. I think. Have you thought about taking some time? Let's figure that out together. I do think that's important for leaders to be able to recognize when their team members are struggling or maybe they don't look like they're struggling, but you know that, that they've been heads down for months at a time on a project. How can you work with them to make sure that they feel like they can walk away, to re-energize themselves, so that they can be their best self when they come back. And if you're a leader who looks and watches and observes with your team, you're going to see that. So I would say that's the best thing that you can do as a leader is to really, really truly watch team and know when they are not taking time for themselves. So I've had a team member a couple weeks ago who went to a doctor's appointment and I Said you need to take the rest of the day off. Are you good? No, no, no, I'm good. I'm going to take the morning off, but I'm going to come back in the afternoon. And I said, are you sure? Because I want to make sure you're well and you, you know, that you are okay. And she goes, well, if it, if it tells you anything, I went to Trader Joe's after my doctor appointment. I said, okay, so thank you for sharing that.

Wendy: Now I know. Yes, there's.

Kristine: Now you're good. Now I know you're good. So, I share that because it's a silly story, but also because, it's important to give your team members space to say, you know what, Kristine? You know what, Wendy? I think I do need to take the afternoon off, so thank you for offering that. So you need to give them the space to be able to do that.

Wendy: Yeah. And you point to something that's so important and doesn't always happen with very senior leaders like yourself is knowing the people so well that you can tell when there's a bit of a change in behavior. You know, you have to know your people and you have to know so. And so Mary is caring for elderly parents, and then all of a sudden you see a change in Mary. You need to check in and say, how's that going, boy? Be empathetic. And I think having that knowledge of. Because oftentimes we'll ask about this when we do 360s with people about, do you know about the people on your team? Do you know their closest relatives? Do you know the people. And some people say, I, that's too personal. I don't, I shouldn't know that. And, and we just disagree in terms of if you don't know those things, you don't know when there's changes, the ones that you're pointing to so that you can be that support. So I love that, that's important. And you all use that as criteria to be able to say, take care of yourself. Yeah.

Kristine: Right, right, right. Absolutely.

Wendy: And last question is, what have you found most helpful in using coaching strategies with different people in the organization? and, you know, you mentioned that a lot of people have access to coaching. Is there anything else about coaching that that you find has been really. And I love this is coming from a coach who's a certified coach and knows the field. Yes. All the coaches out there listening are going to be like, we don't usually see leaders like this. So. Anything else? Final thoughts about coaching in the organization.

Kristine: Well, I, I do think it's important whether, ah, it's internal coaches, mentors or external vend, and partners like you. I think it's important because coaching can really help someone, number one, see, themselves where they are and then see themselves and what they could be in the future. And that's what coaches do. Right. We want to be able to help bring out the best in people. And whether you are a, ah, team member who's working in our call center or you are a senior VP who is starting up a new, a new business in our company. I made that up, by the way, starting a new business in our company. We're not doing that right now, but let's just say you are. but I would say coaching can truly help bring out the best in who you are, what you can do, things you may not ever think that you could do, and help you move forward in the direction that you want to go.

Wendy: Yeah, that's such a great, simple explanation of coaching could get you where you are to where you want to be. And oftentimes we can't figure out where we want to be. So having a coach to help, what would be that ideal future for you for this project? Whatever is so helpful. So thank you. No wonder GuideWell is doing so well. Yeah. It has coaches all over the place helping people grow and learn and change.

Kristine: yeah, absolutely.

Wendy: This has been fabulous. Learning more about GuideWell and the impact that healthcare is having and the values of the company. If people want to connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that? And I know how active you are at ATD, which is wonderful. I'm sure many people listening probably have seen you speak at ATD conferences. And congrats again on all the awards that, GuideWell has gotten. And so what's the best way to reach out to you?

Kristine: Probably on LinkedIn. So just reach out to me on LinkedIn, Kristine Ellis. And, be happy to connect with anybody who reaches out. You can also just Message me on LinkedIn. Either way, happy to connect.

Wendy: Good. I think, yeah, it sounds like that's one of the values too, of GuideWell is people connecting. So there, that's a, no matter where you are. And I'm sure there are people in healthcare that are saying, wow, wow, this is interesting, the model that GuideWell has done. So hopefully you'll hear from some folks that, collaboration is so important and how we do it in the tools. So thank you for sharing some of the things that are happening. And I'm sure it's just a very small piece of some of the things that are happening at GuideWell but, we appreciate getting that out in the world.

Kristine: Thank you for having me, Wendy.

Wendy: Oh, it's been great. And you're such a great partner. You know, we have a partner council and you're on that. And it's just, it's really great when we can all work together to, make things happen in the best way for the folks that we serve. And as you said, you know, the way we treat our people is the way they're going to treat their customers, their clients, the people that they serve. So, it's an important mission. So thank you everyone for tuning in today. please go on to newlevelwork.com and learn a little bit more about us. It would be great to be able to get some inquiries of what you're curious about out there in the world and what you're using AI for. because I think GuideWell has a great model there that they're doing with their internal AI, GuideWell chat and let us hear what you're doing. And always feel free to reach out to me, Wendy Hansen at New Level Work. And you'll be able to see in the show notes, Kristine's, LinkedIn profile and anything else that you need to know so that you can keep ahead of this conversation. So thank you all for coming in today and being with us and spending this time and, really appreciate it and see you again soon. Soon. Bye bye.

Wendy: Thank you for joining us today. For more information, show notes and any downloads from today's podcast, please visit newlevelwork.com we would also be so appreciative if you'd write a review. Go on to newlevelwork.com review and you can write a review on your favorite podcast app. It makes a big difference because we want to really grow managers and leaders around the world and we need your help. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day.

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