What Goes Around, Comes Back Around

You know you have arrived as a leader when a former junior-team member tells you “Your text made my day…can’t wait to talk to you.”? The leader I’m referring to is not me.? It’s Melody Trimble.?? Melody (Mel) was my Group President at HMA back in 2013.? Here’s a couple of amazing facts about the relationship I have with Melody:

• I worked for Melody for less than 7 months.
• We met only twice when I was at HMA and one of those two times was in a group session at an HMA company meeting.
• HMA, near the close of their sale to CHS, was known to be a very demanding organization for which to work.? Definitely not for the timid.

So why was I so touched by Melody?? Because she was personal.? I mean in the grand scheme of the HMA organization, there were three group presidents were leading all of the hospitals, so they were the top of the organization.? She scheduled time to spend a day with me in Gadsden.? I had accepted the CEO role of a hospital with a tough organizational culture and an even tougher medical staff.? I was really terrified.?? One of her agenda items was a private luncheon (without me) and the medical staff.? And to make things tougher, I had a private event three hours away and requested her visit to include a hard stop.? Yikes!

Mel was immediately disarming.? She was down-to-earth and she took a genuine interest in me.? One quality that we unfortunately see in senior leaders is sarcasm or taunting.? Mel did not have a trace of this unfortunate (and unnecessary) leadership weapon.?

Our hospital was one of two hospitals that the FTC required CHS to sell so my time with Mel was cut short.? Following the sale of the hospital (a tale I need to someday tell), I left for my former employer, LifePoint.? I was at a company function, talking with another great boss, Scott Raplee, when I heard “Jim Edmondson”.? I turned around and there was Mel.? She had just come to work for LifePoint.? I was thrilled.? As we talked, she recalled all these personal details from our one meeting in Gadsden.? How in the world?

In the coming years, we shared good news, asked each other for advice, and passed along interesting discoveries.? I remember I reached out to Mel at a particularly dark time in my professional career.? She was so helpful in helping me see some light.? So, when Mel texted me last night and wanted to catch up, it was a lottery moment.

I haven’t written for LinkedIn in a very long time, but I once wrote something about what kind of boss you choose to be.? It’s a choice not influenced by the initials following your name.? Mel’s a great example.? In my life, I may have spent 72 hours of phone or in person time with her yet that influence on me is immeasurable.?

Amy Krause Rosenthal wrote a “Thought Bubble” asking the question "what constitutes a life worthy of being remembered?”? Which word or words would others choose as to how they would remember you?? Amy concludes, the word “Kind” sort of sums it all up.? We remember kindness and kind people.? Mel was my leader and then later became a colleague.? And she was the reason my face instantly lit when I got her text last night.? Thanks, Mel, for being so kind to me.