Thomas Dolan, PhD, president and CEO of the American College of Healthcare Executives, shared "four of the many challenges" he's faced throughout his career in his opening remarks for ACHE's 56th Congress on Healthcare Leadership today in Chicago.
Dr. Dolan has served as ACHE president and CEO since 1991 and he will retire from the organization in May. In the Congress' opening session today, Dr. Dolan and Wayne Lerner, DrPh, president and CEO of Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago, both received Gold Medal Awards from the college. This is ACHE's highest honor for fellows who go beyond their own organizations by continually contributing to the improvement of healthcare services and community health.
In addition to receiving a Gold Medal Award, Dr. Dolan gave the Parker B. Francis Distinguished Lecture on his aspirations in becoming a servant leader and challenges he's faced along the way. "A servant leader is a servant first," he said. "This is the type of leader I've tried to be, but here are four of the many challenges I've faced."
1. He tries to not be too full of himself. Dr. Dolan began by asking why so many healthcare executives are overconfident. The challenging nature of the job, lack of universal agreement on executive decisions and frequent criticism are all factors that contribute to this overabundance of confidence, which Dr. Dolan called a defense mechanism.
"We begin thinking we're right more often than we are," he said. "The biggest problem with overconfidence is that you don't listen to others enough for them to tell you what they think. In the operating room, we say when surgeons don't listen to the surgical team, mistakes happen. I'd suggest we talk about that more in the C-suite."
Dr. Dolan says he resorts to a range of strategies to keep his humility in check. He tries to talk less and really pay attention to people when they're speaking. In a good-natured fashion, Dr. Dolan called out Congress attendees, asking how many had checked their phones or email during his presentation. He also said that healthcare leaders need to make an extra effort to "tease out the truth" when people speak to them, as people don't always come out and tell leaders what they think in a straightforward way.
"Finally, I try to apologize whenever I'm wrong," said Dr. Dolan. "This is extremely important for leaders to do. ... We spend a lot of time talking about medical apologies in our field, but we need to spend more time talking about management apologies."
2. He tries to like the people he serves and be liked in return. Dr. Dolan said the adage that it is more important for leaders to be respected than liked isn't accurate. "Like and respect are not mutually exclusive," he said. Aiming to be liked makes people vulnerable, but Dr. Dolan said this has improved his leadership skills immensely.
"I try to like the people I serve, and it's not always easy when you hire people who are very different from yourself. But the older I've gotten, the more comfortable I've become in hiring people...who compliment my skills and make ACHE a successful organization," he said. Dr. Dolan has made an effort to put himself in other people's shoes and get to know them better. He also says the "golden rule," to treat others as you would like to be treated, doesn't always work. Instead, he prefers what he calls the "platinum rule," which is to treat others the way they want to be treated. "That does work," he said.
3. He tries to tell the truth as he sees it and act on it. Dr. Dolan said one of his concerns is that when he conducts performance reviews, he tends to highlight individuals' strengths and downplay their weaknesses. "That's very unfair to individuals as they advance their careers," he said. The other challenge he faces is terminating employees in a timely fashion. Although he loses sleep over this, he said termination of poor-performing employees is something that must be done for the good of the organization, other employees and the terminated employee's professional career in the long-term.
Dr. Dolan encouraged Congress attendees to evaluate their organizations upon their return, and ask whether they would want to be supervised by any manager within their organization. If leaders can't say they would want to be supervised by any or every manager throughout their organization, Dr. Dolan said they have some "homework" to complete upon their return.
Dr. Dolan said it is time for healthcare management to begin asking harder questions, such as why smokers are still being hired and retained, or why clinicians refuse flu shots or face masks. "These are decisions we have to address," he said. "I suggest they come to a head in the next 10 years."
4. He tries to promote diversity and inclusion in action as well as words. Finally, Dr. Dolan stressed the need for additional diversity in healthcare management and leadership. "It's a challenge because most people are comfortable with leaders like themselves," he said. "The problem is denying our biases or acting on them inappropriately. I spend more time with people who are different from me. The most important lesson I've learned is that people are more like me than they are different," he said.
He also suggested that leaders become active advocates for diversity in their recruitment efforts. "Homogeneous organizations won't become diverse by themselves," he said. Championing healthcare diversity is "simply the right thing to do," said Dr. Dolan, noting that a multicultural society requires multicultural leaders.
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Dr. Dolan has served as ACHE president and CEO since 1991 and he will retire from the organization in May. In the Congress' opening session today, Dr. Dolan and Wayne Lerner, DrPh, president and CEO of Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago, both received Gold Medal Awards from the college. This is ACHE's highest honor for fellows who go beyond their own organizations by continually contributing to the improvement of healthcare services and community health.
In addition to receiving a Gold Medal Award, Dr. Dolan gave the Parker B. Francis Distinguished Lecture on his aspirations in becoming a servant leader and challenges he's faced along the way. "A servant leader is a servant first," he said. "This is the type of leader I've tried to be, but here are four of the many challenges I've faced."
1. He tries to not be too full of himself. Dr. Dolan began by asking why so many healthcare executives are overconfident. The challenging nature of the job, lack of universal agreement on executive decisions and frequent criticism are all factors that contribute to this overabundance of confidence, which Dr. Dolan called a defense mechanism.
"We begin thinking we're right more often than we are," he said. "The biggest problem with overconfidence is that you don't listen to others enough for them to tell you what they think. In the operating room, we say when surgeons don't listen to the surgical team, mistakes happen. I'd suggest we talk about that more in the C-suite."
Dr. Dolan says he resorts to a range of strategies to keep his humility in check. He tries to talk less and really pay attention to people when they're speaking. In a good-natured fashion, Dr. Dolan called out Congress attendees, asking how many had checked their phones or email during his presentation. He also said that healthcare leaders need to make an extra effort to "tease out the truth" when people speak to them, as people don't always come out and tell leaders what they think in a straightforward way.
"Finally, I try to apologize whenever I'm wrong," said Dr. Dolan. "This is extremely important for leaders to do. ... We spend a lot of time talking about medical apologies in our field, but we need to spend more time talking about management apologies."
2. He tries to like the people he serves and be liked in return. Dr. Dolan said the adage that it is more important for leaders to be respected than liked isn't accurate. "Like and respect are not mutually exclusive," he said. Aiming to be liked makes people vulnerable, but Dr. Dolan said this has improved his leadership skills immensely.
"I try to like the people I serve, and it's not always easy when you hire people who are very different from yourself. But the older I've gotten, the more comfortable I've become in hiring people...who compliment my skills and make ACHE a successful organization," he said. Dr. Dolan has made an effort to put himself in other people's shoes and get to know them better. He also says the "golden rule," to treat others as you would like to be treated, doesn't always work. Instead, he prefers what he calls the "platinum rule," which is to treat others the way they want to be treated. "That does work," he said.
3. He tries to tell the truth as he sees it and act on it. Dr. Dolan said one of his concerns is that when he conducts performance reviews, he tends to highlight individuals' strengths and downplay their weaknesses. "That's very unfair to individuals as they advance their careers," he said. The other challenge he faces is terminating employees in a timely fashion. Although he loses sleep over this, he said termination of poor-performing employees is something that must be done for the good of the organization, other employees and the terminated employee's professional career in the long-term.
Dr. Dolan encouraged Congress attendees to evaluate their organizations upon their return, and ask whether they would want to be supervised by any manager within their organization. If leaders can't say they would want to be supervised by any or every manager throughout their organization, Dr. Dolan said they have some "homework" to complete upon their return.
Dr. Dolan said it is time for healthcare management to begin asking harder questions, such as why smokers are still being hired and retained, or why clinicians refuse flu shots or face masks. "These are decisions we have to address," he said. "I suggest they come to a head in the next 10 years."
4. He tries to promote diversity and inclusion in action as well as words. Finally, Dr. Dolan stressed the need for additional diversity in healthcare management and leadership. "It's a challenge because most people are comfortable with leaders like themselves," he said. "The problem is denying our biases or acting on them inappropriately. I spend more time with people who are different from me. The most important lesson I've learned is that people are more like me than they are different," he said.
He also suggested that leaders become active advocates for diversity in their recruitment efforts. "Homogeneous organizations won't become diverse by themselves," he said. Championing healthcare diversity is "simply the right thing to do," said Dr. Dolan, noting that a multicultural society requires multicultural leaders.
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