Identifying potential physician leaders early and equipping them with the tools for success is crucial for every hospital looking to thrive moving forward.
During the Becker's Hospital Review 6th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, Nov. 13, in Chicago, John Kalix, executive vice president and COO of North American Partners in Anesthesia, provided key insights on how organizations can develop strong clinician leaders and why it is imperative to identify these leaders early.
Here are three insights from Mr. Kalix.
On the importance of aligning clinical, business leaders: "I have been in business for 20-plus years and as you see things, you get muscle memory. If you take the best clinicians and put them into a business world, that muscle memory hasn't been built. For 13 years I worked with Johnson & Johnson and seven years for GE Healthcare and found 80 percent of physicians we hired into our organizations to lead failed out in two years or less. We [at North American Partners in Anesthesia] have taken a pragmatic approach as we organize our teams to have a business leader and clinical leader paired together so you do get that perfect middle attribute where if someone has muscle [memory] and someone is learning, they compliment each other."
On employing tools to select leaders early on: "We've used in the past for business individuals within NAPA a tool called Caliper, a psychological assessment that takes about 40 minutes. It asks you a series of questions that are binary questions, like do you consider yourself more of a manager or a coach? They seem to be asking similar questions, but they are asking questions that are in some ways related, and in some ways not related. By using this, you can pull out triggers of individuals you can't understand from an interview discussion. You can find these triggers early that help you understand future leaders [within your organization]. This has been really effective for business leaders, the people who led the chair of anesthesia. These tests are about $300 a person and it will be some of the best $300 you spent. They are very effective assessment tools."
On the importance of an organization's culture: "Treat culture as your department's immune system. If you are being attacked, you need a heck of an immune system."