Successful, sustainable healthcare organizations rely on great teams and great leaders. At Becker's 14th Annual Meeting, Scott Becker, founder of Becker's Healthcare and partner at McGuireWoods LLP, moderated a panel discussion sponsored by Sound Physicians on leadership development best practices.
Four healthcare leaders offered insights based on their experiences:
- Ruthann Cunningham, DHSc, director, healthcare leadership, Utah Valley University
- Audrey Gamet, senior consultant, leadership recruitment strategy, UChicago Medicine
- Dawn Lacska-Tommerdahl, RN, BSN, CEO, Dawn Lacska-Tommerdahl Inc.
- John Birkmeyer, MD, president, medical group, Sound Physicians
A leader's values must align with the organization's values
In the past, Dr. Birkmeyer identified leaders based on their academic or professional pedigrees. Now, he identifies leaders based on four values: emotional intelligence (EQ) and empathy, hustle, an ownership mentality and a bias toward optimism.
"We want physician leaders who act like owners and come into a leadership role with the point of view that 'this is my practice,' rather than 'this is next rung on the leadership hierarchy,'" Dr. Birkmeyer said. "In addition, people who can find the positive in situations are more durable leaders. That leads to better functioning teams."
UChicago Medicine uses behavioral interviewing to identify a candidate's values, how they approach difficult situations and whether they would be a good fit with the organization. Interviews are structured in an intentional way and responses to questions offer insight into a person's values, how they approach difficult situations and whether they would align with the organization's goals and culture.
Leadership development can be done at scale or individually
According to Dr. Cunningham, it's possible to systematize leadership development. "With students, it's effective to teach them the foundational aspects of leadership and how to apply them," she said. "We treat them like leaders."
Many organizations use a blend of group and individual leadership development programs. "We have a leadership pipeline program, which includes a series of classes about leadership and then people sign up for one-on-one mentorship," Ms. Lacska-Tommerdahl said. "I've had 75% of my mentees get promoted."
UChicago Medicine's cohort-based, emerging leader employee development program uses a similar approach, which leverages group learning and mentorship from leaders across the organization. Participants must be nominated by their supervisors and complete an application. "We're focused on elevating employees of color to leadership positions," Ms. Gamet said. "We've run the program for two years and of the 83 graduates, 26 have been promoted."
Sound Physicians has created a three-track model for leadership development.
- The first track is a specialty-agnostic leadership academy. It focuses on people skills, including how individuals lead themselves and teams.
- The second is a practice management academy that addresses the tactical aspects of running a successful practice, such as financial management, clinical performance and time management.
- The third track is mentorship.
"We've moved away from quarterly or annual performance evaluation to a culture of micro mentorship," Dr. Birkmeyer said. "We want leaders to get in the habit of making direct observations to team members and giving feedback after meetings or interactions."
Looking ahead, leaders want to take their organizations to the next level and build talent organically
In recent years, many CEOs and other healthcare leaders have retired. As a result, organizations are focused on bolstering their talent pipelines. Some are engaged in continuous quality improvement, while others are revisiting their recruitment, training and leadership assessment efforts.
"We're finally emerging from the post-COVID hangover to a place where we aren't just putting out fires," Dr. Birkmeyer said. "We're looking forward to clinical innovation."