Improve your leadership skills with these tips from a healthcare executive at AdventHealth.
Marisa Farabaugh is the senior vice president and chief supply chain officer of Orlando, Fla-based AdventHealth.
Ms. Farabaugh will serve on the panel "Best Ideas for Energized Supply Chain Strategies & Teams" at Becker's 10th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference on Nov. 7-10 in Chicago.
To learn more and register, click here.
Becker's Healthcare aims to foster peer-to-peer conversation between healthcare's brightest leaders and thinkers. In that vein, responses to our Speaker Series are published straight from interviewees. Here is what our speakers had to say.
Question: What is the smartest thing you've done in the last year to set your system up for success?
Marisa Farabaugh: Empowering our supply chain and ancillary teams to make decisions and provide solutions. When experiencing supply chain disruptions, it is crucial that supply chain leaders at our facilities and on our system-level teams feel empowered to quickly make the right call to get the right resources to our clinicians and patients. Our team members have stepped up and used their judgment to make critical decisions over the past year as our industry continues to experience unpredictable supply chain disruptions.
We also work closely with our directors, system-level supply chain, and ancillary leaders to build out our top priorities each year through a series of strategic planning retreats. These leaders have diverse perspectives of what our teams need and having a consistent venue to amplify these perspectives has helped us set the right goals. Our team works hard, brings diverse skills and strengths to the table, and leans into challenging issues. However, we have fun while we work! When we have buy-in from the director level and above, we are in a better position to accomplish the goals we set for ourselves on our roadmap and create a culture of community, trust, and respect.
Q: What are you most excited about right now and what makes you nervous?
MF: The most exciting thing happening right now is the growth and buzz around all things supply chain. I hear it externally when listening to the news or talking with our supplier partners. Still, I also hear it internally as a recognition of the great work that our teams are doing and the value we provide the organization. We work hard to get the right products in the right place at the right time and at the right price to ensure the health of our patients and communities.
The things that keep me up at night are the issues that are out of our immediate control and that occur at the global supply chain level. We manage hundreds of product disruptions annually without much transparency around when the disruption occurs. With patient care at the center of our service, our teams work tirelessly behind the scenes to minimize any potential disruption to clinical care.
Q: How are you thinking about growth and investments for the next year or two?
MF: Concerning our supply chain and ancillary divisions, we always seek to deliver on our commitments and provide value to the organization. We have found that when this happens consistently, the organization looks to expand and organically grow our services into other tangential areas. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, it was identified that we needed more system-level leadership around the lab and ancillary services. The supply chain was tapped to partner with our clinical team to provide leadership in this area. This team has grown tremendously over the past few years and continues to expand as we bring biomedical engineering into our portfolio. The supply chain will also be a strong partner in AdventHealth’s endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty initiatives, which is key to creating a sustainable healthcare environment. As we look ahead, I believe our division will continue to drive financial and clinical value.
Q: What will healthcare executives need to be effective leaders for the next five years?
MF: From my perspective, I believe there are five important aspects for a leader to be effective in healthcare:
- Be relationship oriented. Cultivate a wide and deep network. This industry is all about people – we care for people, with people and through people.
- Hire the best talent possible — place value on diverse strengths.
- Empower and promote your talent. Listen to your team and allow them to lead.
- Be action-oriented. It is important to focus on a forward movement. In this complex industry, it is easy for obstacles to get in the way.
- Perfect your presentation style. Communicating ideas is an important part of leadership, and constantly refining your messages for your audience is key to success.
Q: How are you building resilient and diverse teams?
MF: This area we spend a lot of time and energy on. We realize that quality talent is our biggest key to success. Our organization is intentional about leadership growth and development, ensuring leaders at all levels have the tools to succeed. After all, it all starts with the leader. Within our division specifically, we listen to what our team members need and want. We aim to understand and meet their needs in balance with the needs of our organization. Additionally, we spend a lot of time and effort developing our talent pipelines, supporting our intern/resident programs, and cross-training our team members in different areas.