Case Summary week 3
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Perspectives
ACHE believes healthcare leaders— ranging from C-suite executives to early careerists just out of graduate school—have a responsibility to take charge of their professional and lead- ership development throughout their career, even if employer support for such efforts is not available. And, as the professional home for healthcare leaders, ACHE is committed to enhancing and enriching your life- long learning through experiences, education, increasing self-awareness and networking.
Experiences. Changes in both the delivery of care and reimbursement are continuing to occur at a rapid pace, requiring healthcare leaders to develop expertise and skills to respond appropriately to the resulting challenges.
As such, the need for healthcare executives to strengthen their profes- sional competencies and leadership capabilities has never been greater.
ACHE’s 78 chapters, for instance, are ideal for early and mid-careerists seeking educational programming, networking and volunteer leadership opportunities close to home. In this environment, emerging leaders can
develop crucial leadership skills and stand out in our dynamic healthcare landscape, while mid- and senior-level careerists can use their chapter as a way to give back to the profession.
Senior healthcare leaders know how to lead complex and multifaceted organizations, and they likely have experience doing so at national or international levels, overseeing orga- nizations within and potentially out- side the field of healthcare.
Completing a competencies assessment can have a powerful impact on a leader’s transition from good to great.
Given their experience and knowl- edge, it is their responsibility to stra- tegically develop a workforce capable of navigating today’s—and tomor- row’s—rapidly changing healthcare environment.
Education. It is only through an ongoing personal commitment to lifelong learning—essential at all career stages—that healthcare execu- tives can thrive.
Deborah J. Bowen, FACHE, CAE
Leading Yourself
Leaders should invest in their own professional and leadership development.
Developing management and leader- ship skills within an organization is an investment in the future and should be supported at both the indi- vidual and employer level because fostering leadership talent is key to sustaining an organization.
At the same time, developing professional skills is a personal responsibility, necessary to enhance individual effectiveness, growth and advancement.
To fully engage in professional and leadership development activities, it is essential that leaders—particularly mid-careerists—participate in both employer-based and external educa- tional offerings that contribute to developing a balance of healthcare management competencies and gen- eral business skills.
Traditional, and highly valuable, in- person educational offerings provide a rich environment for gaining insight from and sharing knowledge with experts and peers, and can be supplemented with less formal learning formats such as webinars and online seminars.
To advance innovation, leaders also should consider learning opportunities
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outside of our field and comfort zone, and volunteering for assign- ments that could infuse new and different approaches to our work, products and services.
Self-Awareness. Feedback is an indispensable element for effective career management at any stage of an executive’s career, but it can be par- ticularly useful for the early careerist. Advice can be generated through self- assessment instruments or quantita- tive performance data provided by colleagues. No matter what form the feedback takes, its full value cannot be realized unless it is acted on.
Completing a competencies assess- ment can have a powerful impact on a leader’s transition from good to great.
Undertaking periodic self-assessments involves taking stock of one’s career in terms of individual professional strengths and weaknesses, and spe- cific competencies needed for current and future responsibilities.
Self-assessments can be particularly useful for leaders in middle manage- ment to identify career aspirations, ensuring a professional development action plan is in place to achieve goals and progression.
Numerous leadership-assessment tools exist, and ACHE offers several of its own within the Career Resource Center. One that many leaders use is the Benchmarks® Workshop, a 360-degree assessment that provides feedback on 16 key executive
competencies and an individual’s lead- ership potential. Such an assessment involves a leader and his or her col- leagues, direct reports and supervisors completing assessments on the execu- tive’s leadership behaviors and gaining insights on the essential competencies that successful leaders must possess.
These assessments provide personal- ized feedback reports and help in pre- paring a development plan designed to enhance an individual’s leadership effectiveness.
Networking. The demand for quali- fied candidates in healthcare settings who possess leadership competencies, such as an aptitude for change man- agement and emotional intelligence, is only increasing. To prepare for this demand, organizations should focus now on developing a pipeline of future of leaders.
An important component of any suc- cession activity, no matter the position, is mentoring. When used strategically, mentoring improves retention, boosts morale, accelerates leadership develop- ment, provides ongoing career develop- ment, builds teams and facilitates organizational learning.
Growing through mentoring relation- ships is an important factor in a mentee’s lifelong learning process, particularly for early and mid-level careerists.
In turn, by sharing their wisdom, insights and experiences, senior leaders can give back to the profession
as mentors while deriving the personal satisfaction that comes from helping others realize their potential. For orga- nizations, mentorships can lead to the development of management talent, more satisfied employees, and a gener- ation of new ideas and programs.
Similarly, working with an executive coach also can help leaders increase their knowledge base and enhance their skills through the discovery of individual weaknesses and knowledge gaps and creating a plan for improvement.
As an objective observer, a coach also can serve as a mentor, giving leaders the benefit of his or her expe- rience to help executives make more informed choices and possibly point- ing out potentially problematic pat- terns in behavior.
Executive coaching does not preclude the need for mentoring; rather, it is another tool to help leaders—including seasoned senior executives—improve their skills and become even more suc- cessful leaders in the field of healthcare.
By continually developing professional and leadership competencies and sup- porting the development of others, healthcare executives can better serve patients and communities, advance their careers and prepare the next gen- eration of healthcare leaders. s
Deborah J. Bowen, FACHE, CAE, is president/CEO of the American College of Healthcare Executives (dbowen@ache.org).
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