Healthcare Leadership Competency

By Barbara Carey, President, TCI

Effective healthcare leaders have qualities that fall into three categories:
Communication Skills, Confidence and Competence.

Today we focus on "Competence."

What competencies do successful healthcare leaders demonstrate?

People Management

Healthcare leaders who get results have excellent decision-making skills and they impart their system to other leaders. Jack Welch, the long time CEO of General Electric taught his process of decision making in the company’s leadership academy. He felt that it was the key to a leader’s success and did not want to leave it to chance. Is decision making haphazard in your facility? Is there a system that would produce quicker, better results on a day to day basis?

Another important competency is the ability to solve problems and not let them linger in an organization. What will it mean to patients to have problems with their care resolved quickly with accuracy? How much money can be saved if an operational problem that clogs up the system can be resolved? Focusing on it and devising solutions will be transformational. Is problem solving a skill that is emphasized in your managers’ professional development? Leaders at all levels need to be superior and efficient problem solvers.

Lastly, talent development is a skill that will ensure sustainability in an organization. Having a system of identifying and nurturing talent is an incredibly significant skill. Decision making, problem solving, and talent development are executive level people management skills that can be taught to managers throughout the system with immediate results.

Financial Principles and Strategies

Healthcare is complex in its financial underpinnings and has many pitfalls. Creating the right strategies that will establish a strong balance sheet and income statement and closely monitoring their changes over time is critical. Margins are a key metric to monitor frequently.

Knowing how to develop the services that produce healthy margins given the various governmental and commercial payment systems is extremely important. A CEO needs to guide and understand the process.

Developing a service with a healthy margin will enable the hospital and system to offer other services that a community may need but which may be less profitable.

Identifying the real costs of each service and its contributing revenue as well as constantly being vigilant in overhead costs is a basic skill in highly accomplished CEOs. Hiring talented accountants who understand the nuances of reimbursement and commercial insurance plans is vital.

However, the CEO must also understand how everything works together and must have the skills to analyze financial statements and identify issues to optimize the hospitals return on investment. It is extremely important to the CEO’s career for he or she to be able to communicate financial data to his or her governing board.

Leading “Change”

In healthcare’s dynamic environment, a leader’s judgement on when and what to change is necessary and keeps the organization aligned with changes to staff, physician, patients, communities, competitors and funders. Formulating strategies that position an organization for change to capitalize on future prospects is the keystone of executive leadership.

Professional tennis players are taught to run to where the ball is going. An organization must see “where the ball is going” and be positioned to hit it hard enough to make the point.

Technology drives and enables change. A CEO must know how technologies are applied and their usefulness as well as their ability to drive value vs their costs. An example, the EPIC data system requires a major investment. It is extremely costly but according to users and there are 305 million of them, it can elevate the standards of care throughout a large system. Will its costs be worth the care standards that may evolve from its use? It’s an individual calculation and decision. The same can be said for the use of robots in surgeries. They are costly but can reduce hospitalization and recover time.

People management, financial principles and strategies and leading “change” initiatives are all in our opinion, necessary competencies if a leader wants to create a high performing organization with an extremely healthy bottom line.

For more information on how TCI can help you hone your leadership skills...

Just contact us! We have programs designed for the healthcare leader.

We Help Our Clients Understand Their Environment and to Find Solutions.

Call Us 1-888-922-2824 or Email barbara@tciconsults.com

CEO Leadership...