Perspectives
Do You Qualify as an Exceptional Healthcare Leader? Part II
The exceptional healthcare C-Suite and board leader is in high demand. Healthcare organizations across the continuum of care seek leaders who reach far beyond the requirements of a senior executive roles stated within formal position descriptions.
Increasingly, hiring organizations ask C-Suite candidates to share stories related to the leadership traits discussed in Part I of this article—among them: pro activity, flexibility, communication, respect, enthusiasm, open mindedness, resourcefulness and rewarding.
Part two of the exceptional healthcare leader checklist offers eight additional traits senior healthcare executives should monitor and develop. Find out more about healthcare leadership preferences in the Evolving, Healthcare-C-Suite: Trends, Predictions and Strategic Advice, which is available for download at www.inveniaspartners.com.
Evaluate your leadership strength by considering how you project the following traits:
Knowledgeable: Do you demonstrate that knowledge is power? Have you mastered every arena of healthcare—from patient care, operations and regulation, to finance, workforce and technology? Are you able to comment and offer creative solutions to challenges like population health, value-based care, patient engagement, performance management and clinical integration? Do you pursue a program that keeps you informed and up-to-date on new and emerging healthcare trends, innovations and best practices?
Challenge: Think if how you recently developed and applied data, information and knowledge to the development and implementation or a business or clinical strategy? What was the result?
Openness to Change: How well do you embrace clinical, financial and operational change? Are you able to consider all points of view before you change an outdated program, policy or tradition? How well do you assess the need for change and design, implement, promote and evaluate change?
Challenge: Think of an example of how you identified a need change. How did you communicate the desired change? How was the change implemented? What were the results?
Openness to Feedback: Do you seek input from others—employees, managers and executives, to clinicians, employers and community leaders? How do friends, colleagues, family members and competitors view your leadership style and skill set? How could you enhance or build leaderships traits and skills? What are your leadership strengths? What are the top five areas for leadership enhancement?
Challenge: If you were to ask your closest professional colleagues to describe your leadership style, what words would they use? How have your leadership strengths helped to achieve career goals?
Evaluative: How well do you describe, analyze, evaluate and synthesize healthcare trends, issues, solutions and programs? In evaluating a new solution, how do you integrate factors like mission, vision and values with the solution’s ROI and likely impact on patients, employees, executives, clinicians and community?
Challenge: Think of a recent technology acquisition. By which criteria and standards did you and your colleagues make the selection and purchase decision. What was the outcome?
Organized: Are you organized for high performance? Do you design work and personal routines to generate positive results? Do colleagues, competitors and employees tend to describe you as “together” and “always prepared?” Are you consistently ready and on time for meetings, presentations and events? Does your organization inspire preparation in others? How do you rely on others to maintain organization?
Challenge: Discuss five strategies you use to stay organized and prepared throughout the workday.
Consistency: Is your leadership disciplined and consistent? How well do you maintain consistency in executive communications, decision making and problem solving? Do people—colleagues, competitors, employees and clinicians—trust and believe what you say and do? Or do they tend to criticize you for continually “shifting gears”?
Challenge: Think of a situation where your lack of leadership consistency precipitated problems in the workplace. How did you tweak your leadership style to become more consistent?
Sharing: How well do you delegate? Are you interested in developing the people who surround you or do you tend to think you can accomplish every important task on your own? How well do you understand the knowledge, skills, interests and preference of those who surround you? Can you make assignments and delegate work in a way that moves individuals and the organization forward?
Challenge: Think of a situation where you chose to delegate a project or program you would have typically completed on your own. How did you assign responsibility and manage the assignment? What were the results?
Motivating: How well do you motivate, persuade and inspire colleagues, employees, patients, consumers and clinicians? How do you motivate the workforce to accept new ideas? How do you earn support for fresh programs and policies? How do you secure participation and engagement in work-related activities and events?
Challenge: Think of a program, project or policy that faced significant resistance from employees, clinicians, managers or executives? How did you motivate people to accept and embrace the change? What was the outcome?
Curt Lucas is president and CEO of InveniasPartners, a Chicago-based healthcare C-Suite and board executive recruitment, assessment and talent management advisory services firm serving hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, medical groups, and payers. To download the white paper and for more information, go to www.inveniaspartners.com.