And yet I hear that many healthcare leadership teams continue to struggle with this concept. In far too many hospitals, the CEO doesn't just have the final say on strategic decisions--he has the only say. This is a key problem for global hospitals that face numerous challenges and opportunities: finding the golden mean of a CEO who is involved intimately in the growth of the organization, but not required in all organizational decisions.
Some of the organizations that have developed effective systems are among those that have submitted entries to our HealthLeaders Media Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare program. In their written entries, leaders tell us their stories of winning teamwork, and the best stories over the five years of the program are of those organizations that overcame immense obstacles because they had few barriers between key leaders.
To attain dynamic leadership teams, some global health systems are aligning with the top names in healthcare--Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, and University of Pittsburgh, to name a few--but this trend doesn't mean that top leadership teams cannot come from within. The Top Leadership Teams program has taught us that the qualities of effective teamwork are not exclusive to well-heeled organizations. In fact, some our best stories over the years have come from the leaders at small hospitals and medical groups that took on ambitious goals.
This year's Top Leadership Teams program is especially exciting for me because we have expanded our categories to include global hospitals and health systems. I recently spoke about the global category with Maureen Potter, vice president of International Services for HCPro, Inc., who is coordinating the judging of global entries. She says the judges are looking for organizations that develop through leadership collaboration and have no tolerance for silos.
Global hospitals are expected to see continual growth, with some forecasting that the medical travel industry will reach $50 billion (US) by 2010. But for CEOs of these organizations to be effective, they need the full complement of leaders supporting them.
If you have a good story of teamwork, I encourage you to share it with us. Who knows, maybe you'll be our first global winner of the Top Leadership Teams program. The deadline for global entries has been extended to April 4, 2008, so you still have time. Find out more about the program at www.topleadershipteams.net.
Rick Johnson is senior online editor of HealthLeaders Media. He may be reached at rjohnson@healthleadersmedia.com.
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