Meet Michael Collura, President and Chief Executive Officer of In Home Personal Services—an innovative and compassionate leader whose unique ideologies and methods have led him and his company in achieving many milestones paved in its pathway. He has proved by his company, that gone are the days when businesses where subjected to core industries or sector. His creative ideas and compassion towards helping people have been the backbone behind the company’s inception. He is an entrepreneur, leader who prefers integrity, a strong marketing personnel and innovation. Michael’s ways totally justifies the popular saying, “do what you love,” as he enjoys and feels privileged helping people in need.
“Making an impact in the lives of others so they too can be happy,” quotes Michael.
In this special issue entitled ‘The 10 Most Creative CEOs to Watch’, Tycoon Success appreciates and admires such creative leaders and takes pride in featuring Michael as a cover story.
A Story behind Michael’s Inception
Michael has always been passionate with his life. He started his first job working in the nursing home when he was just 15 years old. While working at the nursing home, he learned about work ethic, commitment to others, a passion to care for the elderly and he was also lucky enough to meet his future Wife. He feels grateful to his first job as it has developed the passion to care for others in him. He states that he feels quite fortunate to have had such experiences as it has brought him endless joy, prosperity and happiness to his life. “My Wife and I even celebrated our 25th anniversary together in that same nursing home, it was that dear to us,” through quoting such statement he emphasizes over the importance of this experience in his life.
Solutions to Rely On
“We listen. We learn. We adapt to the needs of the client.” Michael highlights that he and his team involves themselves in the care, intimately so, in order to ensure that a truly compassionate and individualized experience is provided to each and every individual that the company are honored to have been chosen as a care provider for. It seeks out a problem and then overcome it by finding new and unique solutions. “You ever heard the saying “thinking outside of the box?” Well, we broke the box open threw it on the ground and breakdance on that thing every day,” Michael says. “Because innovation about challenging every perception and using imagination to create a new path forward that was never seen before. That is what we do here,” he continues.
In addition to that, he also emphasizes over the company’s possible expansion, new service models and increased innovation in what it takes to deliver senior care in a post pandemic world. He and his team are also aggressively involved in the development of a new technology that provides relief and reduced medication as well as visible reduction in the impacts of Parkinson’s disease.
When asked about his greatest accomplishment Michael responded with, ‘Marriage’. “Because I never deserved her, she is way too good for me. On a business level, it is in the impact we have made in the lives of so many countless seniors to have brought back a sense of safety, independence and quality of life. Seeing their joy rejuvenates us to face the challenges such as Covid. We will not surrender and will never stop fighting to ensure they are cared for. We are entrusted with those most vulnerable and we will fight when they cannot,” says Michael.
A Unique Approach
‘The flashlight and the lantern’. Michael states that whenever he proposes this ideology in their leadership training program, people might think him unorthodox. He explains that the premise is quite simple, and suggests “Go into a dark room (we do this in leadership training, and it is hysterical to experience their reactions). Have a flashlight and lantern ready. With the lights off, turn on the flashlight. A flashlight shines the light only in the direction it faces. It does not “see” the bigger picture. Now with the flashlight off, turn on only the lantern. The lantern will shine evenly across the room illuminating everywhere. You have a clearer picture without “blind spots”.” Through this lesson, Michael states that it is a perception and understanding there is always more hidden in the dark than can be among the light. This sort of ideology, Michael believes, is what we attribute to countless other lessons our leaders are a part of and a philosophy in leadership and business development that has been developed to make In Home Personal Services a creative and innovative brand.
Innovation is the Key
Innovation has always been a key factor for the growth of any business. Michael suggests that we all need to think more globally. He specifies over how his company as a non-medical senior care provider fit in the much larger machine that is healthcare in the world today. He addresses that there is always room for advancement, innovation and progress. “We are working to be a part of that frontier. The team around me is on board and we are well on our way to being one of those companies you hear that actually made an impact, if you have not heard so already that is!” says Michael. His first idea is to further innovate several key advantages In Home Personal Services as a company hold as a brand and all those are preparing for launch in 2021. These advancements in his business, that they provide for a higher quality of care to their seniors, will help company to move further ahead of the industry standards by standing out as a one of a kind provider.
Leadership Principles one must admire
Integrity. Michael believes that through integrity one can easily prevail in his or her journey. He express that we might have seen many leaders fail when it comes to facts and truth, where many such entities in power utilize that trust they were given, for their own gains and forget; they are there to serve others. Thus, he believes integrity should be a must possessed trait by every leader.
Meanwhile, Michael states that he has a different leadership style, which he admits is not understood by everyone. He understands that it’s quite impossible to make everyone happy, while he does care immensely about how he as a leader will perform, he often realize that he will care very little about how he is perceived. He states that he is unable to control the perceptions of others so rather he would focus on the control his own actions. He is aware that those decisions that he takes will have someone out there who will consider it as wrong in some way, but they have never seen the world through Michael’s eyes. He states that his style is to do the right thing, even if it means he will face the harsh criticism or feedback. “Give trust where it is earned and respect to everyone. In the end, integrity must prevail in everything that leaders do and guide every decision they make. I know, someone reading this right now is criticizing it. What they should understand is that while I do not care I will listen. While you may wish for my downfall, I will work every day to disappoint you. Those types of people will never understand the meaning behind that very message,” says Michael.
Being Visionary
He sees his company and the people around him not as peers in a company working to grow and expand but a talented group of dedicated professionals who could do anything else and choose to do this, not because it is easy but because they care. He feels fortunate enough to be part of something that matters. It is one of life’s greatest joys and it is a true privilege for him when In Home Personal Services is trusted to care for another. He enjoys such privilege quite often as it feels amazing to him. Moreover, Michael Collura is focusing on his business growth and feels heartfelt for other businesses as he understands not every business has coped up with COVID storm. And he suggests that every leader must necessarily take certain steps in order to be decisive and move forward in a pandemic world.