Two years into building my company, I realized I wasn’t happy.
Despite my enthusiasm for our mission of increasing healthcare accessibility, I was dreading the day-to-day experience of going to work. And I realized that if I was feeling this way, those working around me were likely feeling it too.
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Mike Simmons Mike Simmons is the CEO and founder of andros, whose mission is to make healthcare administration work better. andros offers a powerful software solution for building, expanding, and managing provider and payer networks. As a software developer dedicated to reimagining what’s possible in our healthcare system, Mike is passionate about encouraging others to […]
I’ll admit that at the outset of andros, fostering a positive work culture was hardly on my radar. As a founder, it’s fair to say I had a lot to think about. Building a company requires incredible fortitude, quick thinking, and an ability to attract and work with others who share your vision.
But none of these things matter if you grind so hard you burn out. Your company cannot thrive if you’re weighed down by brain fog and working with exhausted team members who have lost faith. It’s a mistake that leaders literally cannot afford to make: without a well-functioning team, you can’t expect to succeed in your company’s mission, or grow your business. That’s where culture comes into play.
The very day of my realization, I went to my team and started the conversation about what we could do to make improving our company culture a top priority. Our discussion yielded a stunningly simple understanding that has formed the foundation of all my decisions as a CEO since: the two pillars of a successful company are its business, and its people.
Bringing the emphasis on these two pillars into balance has changed everything about how I look at running a company, for the better.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
When conditions are right, we actually like to work
Conversations around workplace culture have become more frequent and urgent over the past 18 months as the “great resignation” has swept the country. In many situations, circumstances brought about by the pandemic have revealed company leadership that fails to address its employees’ needs on a drastic scale.
In turn, workers who feel overwhelmed, underappreciated, disrespected, and even unsafe are choosing to leave the jobs that fail to acknowledge their needs as people and workers. Across all sectors, a reckoning is taking place.
At the same time, when conditions are right—meaning they’re fulfilled and not facing dire consequences as an alternative—people genuinely enjoy work. Meaningful work can itself be a reprieve from the anxieties the pandemic has brought us all.
So how can CEOs and presidents cultivate circumstances that allow their teams to thrive?
Find joy inside and outside of work
As a founder, you must ensure that your company strives toward its goal, without alienating the team members who make that goal possible. You have to balance your focus on building up your business with your focus on building up the people who comprise it.
That means supporting them in their projects in the workplace by providing the resources they need to do good work, and creating opportunities for growth and professional development. If their interests begin to shift, create paths for them to explore new areas of your company. That way, you get to keep team members who have both company loyalty, and a nuanced understanding of multiple facets of your product and process.
This is easier said than done. But we have developed a simple scalable approach to building team members’ skills and confidence to take on more responsibility and grow in their careers. The framework is the four Es of Growth:
- Education – learn the concept or skill from a book or a class (our treat)
- Exposure – sit in sessions with managers and/or executives to get exposure to the skill or concept
- Experience – use the skill or concept in your work
- Expectations – own the job for the department or the company
In any workplace, you’ll find people who reliably rise to the challenge, and those who shy away from it. Reward enterprising, accountable behavior, and your workforce will take notice and respond accordingly. Over time, you’ll realize you’re attracting top-tier talent who want to be a part of and give back to the ecosystem you’ve created.
In addition to supporting your team members as employees, you must support them as people. Positive work culture also includes policies that allow your team room to relax, and pursue their own passions. The lessons in workplace flexibility that we’ve learned over the past 18 months have been out of necessity, but maintaining their positive effects going forward should be a conscious choice.
Allowing team members to work from anywhere can mean remote work from home, creating more space for family life and community connections. It can also create a pathway to travel, allowing personal fulfillment that doesn’t clash with work. In either circumstance, the sense of freedom improves morale, thereby improving work quality.
Balance is key. It may sound like a tug of war, but if you’re feeling that healthy tension, you’re doing it right.
Prioritizing workplace culture in the health sector
Maintaining your team’s well-being is essential in any sector—but it’s especially important when that team’s work affects something as vital and delicate as healthcare.
Burnout, which has been increasing across sectors, is especially pronounced in the healthcare industry. Workforce losses due to burnout create dire shortages that affect the quality of life for the remaining workers, and the standard of care for patients.
The products created in the healthtech sector are aimed at increasing the quality of care, while decreasing the burden on providers. We strive to offer them tools that make their jobs easier, and we can do that best when our own teams are able to give their all to producing those tools.
Your team will tell you what they need—if you know how to listen
The pandemic has thrown the need for change into sharp relief. I feel grateful that my reckoning at andros came when it did—early. And that I was able to harness my own dissatisfaction for the good of my entire team. Without empathy between myself and my colleagues, this never would’ve been possible.
It’s my hope that this moment will lead to greater understanding and opportunity for communication among executives and team members, at every level of companies, to create cultures that promote finding both joy and accountability in work, and in life.
Ultimately, workplace culture can be viewed like any other product. You work on it collaboratively with your team, and everyone has something to contribute. It evolves alongside the needs it’s meant to address, and it’s always under revision so that it may improve. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t—but noticing when there’s a problem—and correcting it—is a sign of good company culture in and of itself.
Mike Simmons is the CEO and founder of andros, whose mission is to make healthcare administration work better. andros offers a powerful software solution for building, expanding, and managing provider and payer networks. As a software developer dedicated to reimagining what’s possible in our healthcare system, Mike is passionate about encouraging others to do the same.
A unique, global upbringing in some of the poorest parts of the world gives him a distinct perspective and motivates him to do everything possible to advance the well-being of the world, regardless of how large and time-consuming the task might seem. At andros and beyond, his work is inspired by a forward-looking desire to foster connections that can be harnessed and built upon.
