The Role of AI in Modern Leadership with Kristine Ellis (Encore) | Ep #120

Wendy (00:01):

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 https://www.newlevelwork.com/. Thanks for tuning in.

Announcer (00:30):

Welcome to Building Better Managers. We're thrilled to bring you an encore presentation of one of our most impactful episodes. This conversation remains especially relevant today and we're excited to share it with you. Again, whether it's your first time tuning in or you're revisiting this standout episode, we're sure it will spark new insights to help you grow as a leader. Let's get started.

Wendy (00:51):

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, wellbeing, 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 (02:14):

Thank you, Wendy. Thank you. So good to see you.

Wendy (02:16):

Lemme tell everybody a little bit about you. 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 ATDs 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 a TD 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, every day. 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 (03:53):

Thank you, Wendy, thank you so much. It's great to be here.

Wendy (03:57):

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. Healthcare is such a big conversation these days and I'd love everybody to understand more about GuideWell. So could you give an overview of GuideWell a bit and how it's a health solutions company so people can understand that?

Kristine (04:23):

Sure, sure. You gave 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 Shield 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 not only service people for insurance and help provide healthcare services that way, but we have places that people can go that service Florida Blue members in value-based care, which is one of the ways we're trying to transform 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 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 (06:02):

Wow, that is a huge mission. Yes,

Kristine (06:05):

It is. It a huge mission. Yes. Wow. We're pretty passionate about it though.

Wendy (06:10):

Yeah. Yeah. I can tell. I can tell from our work together 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. Yeah,

Kristine (06:28):

Right.

Wendy (06:28):

Kristine, what are some of the unique challenges you face leading a team like this in healthcare compared to other industries?

Kristine (06:36):

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 that provides a challenge for multiple areas, but for our area specifically, we want to make sure that we're providing the most appropriate development for 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 patient facing,

Wendy (07:59):

What a challenge that is 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. If you can leave for half a day, you can go take that, but you really seem to adapt things,

Kristine (08:14):

Right. We try, A lot of it can be self-paced. We offer different times 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 (08:49):

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? 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 (09:08):

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 most people have heard of Chat, GPT 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 chat, GPT, we call it GuideWell Chat. And our company has invested in making sure that that is available to all of our employees, but also that it is SOC two 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 enclosed in our own environment.

(10:20):

So it does not go outside of our environment. Everything about GuideWell Chat is internal, so it's completely safe and sought two certified so that we can use it for multiple things in the healthcare world. 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, right? You're using generative ai, you're going out there asking this robot to kind of help you do something. And funny thing, my husband also initially called it cheating. I used it to help write a speech, not 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, can you imagine our lives without Excel now?

(11:28):

I mean, I use it on a regular basis. I know some of the people in our company use it every day. So can you imagine if we said, oh, Excel, I'm, 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 jobs 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 is utilizing our own large language model 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 (12:34):

Yeah, that's great. And I think it's going to be a while before we get over people thinking it's not good to get answers from chat GPT. 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. We've had challenges, right? Exchanging links, right. Your security is awesome. It's

Kristine (13:06):

Really good. Well, speaking of the culture of our company, just a fun story about that. 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 culture 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. It just went on 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 chat GPT?

Wendy (14:34):

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, and I love that you have that, and it does show the culture of your company is great.

Kristine (14:52):

There's

Wendy (14:53):

A humor there, there's a support there, 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. So telling your other 30% who aren't using it, try it for this. Yeah,

Kristine (15:09):

Right? Yeah.

Wendy (15:10):

Oh, that's great.

Kristine (15:11):

It's an assistant. So think of it as an assistant, right? It's an assistant as a tool, and when I use it, I tell it, hello, ask it how it is. How are you today? It'll come back and say, I'm doing great. How are you? And how can I help you today? So 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 (15:39):

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

Kristine (15:46):

Absolutely.

Wendy (15:47):

We need to keep our manners up even with these tools.

Kristine (15:51):

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

Wendy (15:54):

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

Kristine (16:14):

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.

(17:18):

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 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 acceptance to implementation, right? It may be acceptance, I don't know about that acceptance, I don't know about that. And then 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.

(18:30):

And being able to have those lines of communication open at all times is important as well. And 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 we have a change coming to the team, and I can't necessarily share why I tell them that 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 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 they're going to trust you, that you'll tell them eventually, and that the things that are coming down that may be hard changes are for the best.

Wendy (19:33):

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 tell it, when you've been so relationship focused and you've built that trust, then people are able to say, okay, she's not taken us down a bad road before,

Kristine (20:00):

Right?

Wendy (20:01):

Brought us back. If we got lost in the woods, she came and got us. So I think we got to trust it this time. 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, but it takes a while to develop. And I love that that's a focus of yours, 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 (20:38):

Well, we use it in many different ways. We have obviously external coaches and partnerships with a vendor like you, new level. And we use it mainly for our leadership development programs and leading them through either transitions of potentially promotions, leading them through changes that are happening with their teams. So that's one of the ways, but that's just a small way I would say that we use it. We also use coaching at the senior executive level that we provide them coaches if and when they need them. Then we have internal coaches like me who at times are brought into conversations are brought into helping leaders and teams get along, assimilate when people are brought together or there's a change on a team. Sometimes it doesn't go as smoothly as we hoped. So I am brought in or maybe someone from my team we're brought in to help coach and consult them through some of those changes.

(21:51):

But 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, 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 those senior leaders who really get the benefit of coaching it's levels all through our company who have access to coaching.

Wendy (22:47):

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 and you have to, as a 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 terrific.

Kristine (23:26):

Yeah, we found it to be very beneficial for sure.

Wendy (23:29):

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, we can help them grow. We can help with succession planning if we can really reach them and provide, 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 (24:01):

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 had a few hundred people at them, but the majority of our folks lived and worked in Jacksonville, probably 97% lived and worked in Jacksonville. So now when we went home in 2020, everybody went home and we've never required people to go back to the office, not really. 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.

(25:11):

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 were provided to be able to collaborate have helped a lot. When we first went home, we had nothing. 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. 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. 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 live in and breathe in and model every day.

(26:12):

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 collaborative environment 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 IMing, especially as a leader, IMing your team to say, Hey, how are 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.

Wendy (27:13):

It's so impressive that at the beginning of the pandemic, you were not virtual at all and having to build 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 when we respect people and respect that they're going to be doing their job 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 (27:57):

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 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're 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 wellbeing.

Wendy (28:33):

Well, that's great. And burnout is such a growing concern these days 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 (28:50):

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, the expectations that people have on the healthcare system and their doctors, their nurses, their people who provide wellbeing to them, 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 wellbeing team who is specifically for our wellbeing. So they provide so many resources for leaders to be able to work with their teams, for people, team across the enterprise, to be able to engage with exercise, to be able to engage with counseling, to be able to engage with each other in working on their own wellbeing. And I think that together, this company, with that level of collaboration that we've created internally, it has helped burnout.

(30:06):

That being said, it's still there sometimes. So as leaders, we, 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 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 reenergize 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.

(31:04):

So I would say that's the best thing that you can do as a leader is to really, really truly watch your team and know when they are not taking time for themselves. I've had a team member a couple weeks ago who went to a doctor's appointment. I said, well, you need to take the rest of the day off. Are you good? She said, 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 that you are okay. And she goes, well, if it tells you anything, I went to Trader Joe's after my doctor appointment. I said, okay, thank you for sharing that. Now I know, yes, there's a 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 (32:13):

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 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 three sixties 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, that's too personal. I shouldn't know that. 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 (33:13):

Right, right. Absolutely.

Wendy (33:16):

And last question is what have you found most helpful in using coaching strategies with different people in the organization? And you mentioned that a lot of people have access to coaching. Is there anything else about coaching that? And I love this is coming from a coach who's a certified coach and knows the field. 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 (33:44):

Well, I do think it's important, whether it's internal coaches, mentors or external vendors 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. We want to be able to help bring out the best in people. And whether you are a team member who's working in our call center or you are a senior VP who is starting up 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. 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 (34:43):

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. It's no wonder GuideWell is doing so well. It has coaches all over the place helping people grow and learn and change.

Kristine (35:08):

Yeah, absolutely.

Wendy (35:09):

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 A TD, which is wonderful. I'm sure many people listening probably have seen you speak at a TD conferences. And congrats again on all the awards that GuideWell has gotten. So what's the best way to reach out to you?

Kristine (35:37):

Probably on LinkedIn. So just reach out to me on LinkedIn, Kristine Ellis, and I'll be happy to connect with anybody who reaches out. You can also just message me on LinkedIn. Either way, happy to connect.

Wendy (35:49):

Good. It sounds like that's one of the values too of GuideWell is people connecting. So no matter where you are, and I'm sure there are people in healthcare that are saying, wow, this is interesting, the model that GuideWell has done. Hopefully you'll hear from some folks, collaboration is so important and how we do it in the tools. 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. It's been great and you're such a great partner. We have a partner council and you're on that. And 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, the way we treat our people is the way they're going to treat their customers, their clients, the people that they serve.

(36:40):

It's an important mission. So thank you everyone for tuning in today. Please go on to new level work.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.hanson@newlevelwork.com, 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 today and being with us and spending this time. Really appreciate it and see you again soon. Bye-bye.

Thank you for joining us today. For more information show notes and any downloads from today's podcast, please visit https://www.newlevelwork.com/. We would also be so appreciative if you'd write a review, go on to https://www.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.

‍