One question businesses everywhere should be asking is "where will we get the leaders of tomorrow?"
Surprisingly, leadership development was a fairly low priority among CEOs in the new HealthLeaders Media Industry Survey 2009. Just 9% of hospital leaders include it among their Top 3 Priorities, although 48% of CEOs concede that mentoring future managers is a top personnel issue in need of improvement.
Executives at Central Maine Medical Center, a 250-bed, not-for-profit hospital in Lewiston, ME, are among those healthcare leaders who believe leadership development should be a top priority.
"To get to where we want to go as an organization we know we have to further invest in our managers to develop their skills and capacity to meet the challenges of healthcare," says Joyce McPhetres, vice president of Human Resources and Organizational Development at parent Central Maine Healthcare.
Like most health systems, CMHC has had leadership education programs in place for years. In the fall of 2007, however, CMHC established an Accelerated Development Group. Nine mid-level managers from the health system were screened from a pool of about 125 candidates representing a spectrum from administrative and clinical services. They were picked after a series of aptitude tests, interviews, and personal recommendations from their bosses that identified leadership traits, superior job performance, and communication skills.
Assisted by consultants from Princeton, NJ-based Caliper Corp., the nine managers were divided into four groups and each was told to create an "action learning project" around a real business directive: Expand the health system's market share. Following that straightforward directive, the managers identified four strategies: expanding primary care and specialty care services; improving inter-system access with a shuttle service; improving patient referrals within the health system; and improving disease management protocols.
While working closely with one another to develop their projects, group members got help from Caliper coaches to refine their leadership, communication, and organizational skills. For many in the group, the program marked first time in their professional careers that they were encouraged to see themselves as leaders, and to act the part.
"This program taught me how to develop business cases, how to facilitate more effective meetings, and how to do a better job gathering data as I approached the projects," says Kathi Schandelmeier, director of primary care practices, at CMHC, and one of the nine managers in the charter program.
McPhetres says it's exciting to think that a future CEO of the health system could come from among the nine managers in the program. In addition to developing practical leadership skills, McPhetres says the program has other benefits "It's a commitment to people and development," she says. "We believe we have talented people here. This builds loyalty and morale, where people understand that we will invest in them, and they fully invest in this organization. From that great things come."
She says the accelerated program has also changed the way that senior management looks at issues. "We still have the same concerns as every other healthcare business but I feel we are positioned to grow in a different way. We have momentum and new talent and new leaders whose core position is to help us with our growth," McPhetres says.
Now—after a year of leadership training, working together, and sharing ideas—the group mostly runs on its own. The managers have formed close professional bonds and their constant contact with colleagues outside of their area of expertise has torn down a lot of silos and prompted them to think about how their department impacts the entire organization.
"They've become wonderful resources to me and I know that I can call them and bounce an idea off them," Schandelmeier says. "If I have a particular problem with a department or if I need to understand how my department interacts with another department I have a colleague to call. And it's always good to have another perspective besides my own. We have become each other's consultants."
Schandelmeier says Accelerated Development Group delivers the message that CMHC believes in its people. "If the organization that you work for demonstrates that it's willing to invest in you and make a commitment to you in your development, managers and directors and employees at any level are only going to look to reciprocate that and do our best to show our organization that we were worth that investment," she says. "I do believe there are people in this group who will go on to participate in the senior leadership team. We are just very appreciative that we've had this opportunity."
John Commins is the human resources and community and rural hospitals editor with HealthLeaders Media. He can be reached at jcommins@healthleadersmedia.com.
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