The great motivator: Cal Hanson expects--and gets--the best from his staff. (Best Fitness Club/Rehab Facility Manager.

Not all managers have it the ability to inspire and motivate, to challenge and to remain a friend. At the Sioux Valley Hospital Wellness Center, the staff enthusiastically held up their facility director, Cal Hanson, as a model for all others to study.

"Cal has never been content to sit back and settle for mediocre in any area of the Wellness Center," they wrote when nominating the 18-year SVHWC veteran for AI's 2003 Best of Aquatics Award. "A saying Cal uses quite often, and one he lives by, is: 'Don't let the grass grow under your feet.'"

Yet Hanson maintains interest and concern for all his employee's, regardless of their job title or years of service. In every employee feedback survey he's gotten in his nine years as their director, satisfaction levels have "always been 90 percent or above. But relating to the staff is not his only talent. "Through Cal's vision and desire to excel, he has taken the Wellness Center from a department that was 'in the red' to a department that is profit-generating," noted the staff--all without raising prices for membership.

"Cal ...