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Press Release
May 5, 2008
Bozeman, MT Picture this: Your CNO submits a letter of resignation, effective immediately. Your current succession plan (that is, if you have one) did wonders for your Board, but it’s not as realistic as you may have thought, so you place an interim CNO to keep things running. Since your internal talent management practices are not effectively tied to your succession planning, you have no choice but to launch an external search for a replacement. The search takes longer than anticipated, and costs much more money and time than you planned for. Some of your key initiatives that were led by the CNO are now at risk and performance measures begin to drop…
Exaggerated scenario? Perhaps -but not far from what has happened to a number of healthcare organizations. The consequences of poor succession practices are obvious and can be painful. Following are four costly mistakes that commonly take place in the healthcare industry. Short prescriptions of how to avoid them are also given.
Mistake #1: You have no formal succession planning in place, and if you do, it’s not considered a strategic priority. According to a 2007 study by the Association for Healthcare Executives, less than 30% of hospital CEOs practice routine succession planning. So if you have no formal plans in place, you are not alone! Correcting this mistake is simple: Put a formal succession plan in place and make it a strategic priority.
Mistake #2: The succession plan covers only the CEO. By definition, all key positions in the ‘C’ Suite should be included in the formal succession plan.
Mistake #3: You evaluate internal candidates using tenure and experience as opposed to proven talent. The word talent has many meanings attached to it. In this context, we define talent as proven, evidence-based performance. Whereas skill set-based succession planning can be useful, our research has shown that the odds of success improve dramatically when you use objective performance indicators to define talent and use it as a baseline for succession planning. It is also important to distinguish between departments that require a turnaround vs. departments that are functioning in a maintenance mode. Without a doubt, the struggling departments need a higher level of talent. If the people you assign to departments that need a turnaround have average talent, performance is not likely to improve.
Mistake #4: You treat succession planning as a static event as opposed to an ongoing process. Perhaps ten years ago, a static, long-term succession plan would work well. In today’s fast-paced, quickly-changing healthcare environment, with strategies, teams, and external conditions changing at a dizzying rate, rigid succession plans cannot be effective. The answer is to take a talent-on-demand approach, whereby you succession plan is flexible and is updated frequently.
To access our exclusive research findings in detail, we invite you to:
Get our latest white paper, by clicking here- Tom Olivo White Paper. No registration required,
Schedule a free one-hour teleconference between Tom and your executive team to discuss issues of your particular concern and answer any questions you may have by replying to this email, or
Consider having Tom present at your next executive leadership meeting or corporate retreat. Tom has presented over 400 keynote speeches, executive workshops, and board retreats nationwide. He is consistently rated as one of the best speakers and he has a unique ability to move people to act. For more details, reply to this email. To view a short clip of Tom, click here - Tom Olivo Video Clip
Question: What are your thoughts regarding personality assessment/profile tools for leadership development? We are currently in the process of evaluating different vendors. (This question was recently asked by a VPHR of a Southern hospital system. See below what Tom Olivo had to say.)
Answer:
A few months ago, Tiger Woods was interviewed, after he had won seven tournaments in a row. When asked ‘What area of your game do you need to work on?’ his response was ‘Everything!’ If one of the world’s best athletes feels he needs to improve every aspect of his game, why is it that many healthcare executives don’t have the same attitude? Is it not paradoxical that the most accomplished people will seek coaching, but the ones that truly need it will not? My thought is that the former recognize the value in improving and are constructively dissatisfied, whereas the latter are comfortable where they are.
As you know, healthcare executives/managers may often need help with leadership and behavioral issues and not functional skills. In our coaching work with healthcare executives, we have found personality assessments/profiles useful. At a very basic level, a good personality profile can improve an executive’s self-awareness. At a more advanced level, it can become a structured tool that can be used as a roadmap for developing leadership and coaching skills.
Here’s the fundamental premise behind most personality profiles: A profile reveals in detail a person’s hardwired traits, some of which are considered to be strengths and some struggles. The idea is to build on your strengths and develop strategies (possibly learned behaviors) to overcome your struggles. When you understand your hardwired traits you begin to understand ‘why’ you do what you do and ‘why’ others do what they do.
There are no good vs. bad profiles; only those that are ideally suited within the context of roles or job positions. Each person has a unique place where they will add unique value. For example, I have a high ‘Driver’ trait and a moderate ‘Analytical’ trait. I could be a good accountant but I wouldn’t be an excellent one nor would I be very happy in that position. My natural ‘hard-wired’ traits lead me to seek quick results, risk, and the opportunity to make a difference in a challenging environment. That’s one of the reasons I’m in the healthcare industry!
A common mistake we all do is we often feel that other people ought to think like ourselves. This is a result of our hardwired traits. The initial impact of taking a personality assessment is the realization that people are indeed different and they think, feel, and process information in their own unique way. Managers who understand this will become more tolerant toward their subordinates and try to adjust their communication style to match that of their listeners. In addition to communicating more effectively, managers will also be able to anticipate how people would react in certain situations and what truly motivates them, thus enabling them to be more effective leaders.
In addition to improving leadership skills, communication, and talent assessment, personality profiles can also be used to strengthen teams. Strong, cohesive teams that leverage the giftedness of each member produce the best results. This is particularly true in healthcare settings where teamwork often has a significant impact on both clinical outcomes and overall organizational effectiveness.
In short, I highly recommend personality assessment tools and I would be happy to recommend the types of instruments we have successfully used in the healthcare industry.
To access our exclusive research findings in detail or learn more about the personality profiles we use, we invite you to:
Get our latest white paper, by clicking here-Tom Olivo White Paper. No registration required,
Schedule a free one-hour teleconference between Tom and your executive team to discuss issues of your particular concern and answer any questions you may have by replying to this email, or
Consider having Tom present at your next executive leadership meeting or corporate retreat. Tom has presented over 400 keynote speeches, executive workshops, and board retreats nationwide. He is consistently rated as one of the best speakers and he has a unique ability to move people to act. For more details, reply to this email. To view a short clip of Tom, click here -Tom Olivo Video Clip
How Evidence Based Business Practices and Leadership Create High Performance Cultures: Part I – Diagnosis
Broadly speaking, healthcare organizations have always been able to adjust to the various internal and external challenges they faced. Since the beginning of this decade, however, things have changed dramatically. In our work with hundreds of healthcare organizations, we have seen that the challenges they are facing today are becoming more difficult at a rate which is faster than the organizations’ ability to adapt. Put differently, the rate of change is outpacing the rate of adaptation.
One of the key factors contributing to this discrepancy is the capability of front-line managers. In short, tenure and experience can no longer create the talent and skill requirements key front-line leadership positions require. Up until 2000, the experience and tenure required to successfully MANAGE a “High Degree of Difficulty” department kept pace with the demands of the role. From 2000 to 2020, it has become apparent that the talent and skill levels required to successfully LEAD a “High Degree of Difficulty” department will be much greater than anticipated. Here’s the bottom line: As goes the leadership talent of the front line manager, so goes the performance within that department by any measure.
The stakes are high. Front-line manager capability is a very important performance driver as well as a key predictor of employee satisfaction. Front-line managers that are not very effective at leading their departments contribute to a large degree to low employee engagement and high turnover. On the contrary, front-line managers who do a good job at creating ‘mini-cultures of excellence’ in their department contribute to high employee engagement and even patient satisfaction. Improving the performance of front- line managers is the single most impactful lever to increase your organizations’ performance measures across the board. The overall goal is to improve performance one department at a time through effective appointment and business practices. To accomplish that you need to match the most effective leadership talent available with the demands of the department or position, i.e. place the right people at the right roles.
The starting point of any performance improvement effort is an accurate diagnosis of the current situation. To make this initial determination, we use data from an organization’s existing employee survey to create a Performance Management Eye Chart. The Eye Chart is a visual tool that shows you which departments have mini-cultures of excellence, which ones need assistance, and what to do to improve overall organizational performance, one department at a time. The Eye Chart not only compares the front-line managers of a healthcare organization among themselves but also against national benchmarks.
With so much at stake, it is imperative to find out which departments are underperforming and how they compare to national averages. Following this diagnosis, corrective actions can be implemented.
Watch for our next newsletter for specific corrective actions you can take to improve performance.
To access our exclusive research findings in detail or learn more about the Eye Chart, we invite you to:
Get our latest white paper, by clicking here-Tom Olivo White Paper. No registration required,
Schedule a free one-hour teleconference between Tom and your executive team to discuss issues of your particular concern and answer any questions you may have by replying to this email, or
Consider having Tom present at your next executive leadership meeting or corporate retreat. Tom has presented over 400 keynote speeches, executive workshops, and board retreats nationwide. He is consistently rated as one of the best speakers and he has a unique ability to move people to act. For more details, reply to this email. To view a short clip of Tom, click here -Tom Olivo Video Clip
For more information contact George Makris, Managing Director at HPS gmakris@healthcareps.com
