Newsletter: December 2009

End of Year Reflective Assessment: A Quick Leadership Development and Business Improvement Exercise

How did things go for you and your business in 2009? How do you know? What will you do more of, less of or differently in 2010?

Unfortunately these three fundamental but important questions are commonly overlooked. The end of the year is a good time for reflection. Yet in our experience some people don't want to know; some are too lazy to ask and answer the questions, or some are simply afraid of the answers. Tragically this robs them of an easy and convenient way to garner lessons learned and to plan and develop key strategies and goals for the New Year. Because, after all, doing nothing, or doing nothing differently—that is, more of the same (behavior), will get you more of what you've got. If you're not happy with what you got, if you think there is room for improvement, then spending a few minutes to reflect and plan will be time well spent.

We encourage you to conduct a reflective assessment—that is, reflecting on what you've accomplished and what's left over as a way to help your learning and to help you plan for 2010. This process will not take much of your time (30 minutes max) and if the questions are answered honestly and thoughtfully, we believe the results will serve as a foundation for further growth and development. Here are the questions.

We recommend that you write your responses to the questions so you can use it as reference for alignment with your overall business goals, for strategic visioning, and to have as a comparative/quick guide for your next year's reflective assessment. It is a leader's role to understand what's worked, what needs to be changed, modified or released and which direction to point resources for highest results. It doesn't have to be a difficult and complicated process. What's most important is: are you asking the questions and using the honest answers to your and your business's advancement?

We want to close with a passage from the 18th century management sage, Lewis Carroll, taken from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. To paraphrase - As Alice was walking down a wooded path she came upon a fork in the road. Seeing a Cheshire cat sitting on a tree branch she asked the cat "Dear cat which way should I go?" The cat answered "Well, that depends on where you want to go to." Alice said "it really doesn't matter," and the cat replied "then it doesn't matter which path you take."

Don't be like Alice, make 2010 purposeful.

Clients Come To Us for Help with Three Key Challenges:

1. Transition Readiness:

  1. They are not quite ready for their new role as a new executive or manager (whether hired externally or promoted from within)
  2. They are not familiar with going it alone: When transitioning from an organizational background (i.e. senior executive out on their own / as an entrepreneur)
  3. They are not ready (able) to leave their current role (to advance or retire) as there is no one behind to fill their shoes: No succession plan and leadership pipeline.
  4. They are interested in making their business partnership more effective. We help build transformative partnerships.

2. Underperformance or Inefficiency: They are not as effective as they would like to be (or should be) in their role. 

3. Life Balance: They are unhappily successful, meaning they are killing themselves through overworking, overdoing and over-responsibility. 


Healthcare's Challenge to Find Leaders: Succession Planning

Do you have a succession plan? If not, for many of you there will be some difficult times ahead. The 21st century has ushered in two major challenges for healthcare organizations: the pending retirement of clinical managers and directors who are turning 65 and the need to find replacements. In the past, there seemed to be more managerial aspirants then there were management jobs. No more.

The Evidence

And it doesn't much matter which clinical specialty we are talking about. There are recognized and well reported shortages in the nursing, pharmacy, technologist, and therapist professions. The American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists found that 46% of the hospitals surveyed said it took 3 to 6 months to fill management positions; 26% said it took 7 to 12 months to fill management positions and more than 50% said recruiting is more difficult than it was 3 years ago. Experiences with other healthcare professionals are similar.

There are many reasons given to explain the shortage in qualified clinical middle managers. Reasons include:

Understanding the reasons for the shortage of qualified middle management candidates is important from a historical perspective (How did we get here?), but what is more important is finding qualified candidates to fill the vacant middle management positions and finding them in a timely manner. While we may all agree that talent is important to organizational effectiveness, talent is also becoming a scarce resource.

The Solution

Every organization should have and implement a talent enhancement strategy, which includes:

A succession plan should identify all middle managers within the organization and identify viable candidates to fill these positions. There are many reasons managers leave their position. Some are predictable; some are not. Examples include: accepting a job with another organization; moving to a different part of the country for personal or family-related reason; illness; accidents; promotion; retirement. The reasons vary and this is only a short list. It is because of the unpredictability factor that viable candidates should be identified for all manager positions. The succession plan should also include new positions that are anticipated due to growth, new programs or other initiatives that require management support.

Creating a succession plan reveals gaps. There should be a process to fill the gaps. A common mistake organizations make is to dismiss the need to identify a successor for a new manager or a manager who is 5 years or more from retirement. Any manager can leave at any time for any reason.

When developing a plan to fill the gaps, the following should be considered:

Executing a succession plan involves more than identifying individuals to fill management positions. It requires preparing them to fill management positions. In the late 70's, 80's and early 90's, departments had deeper layers of management then they have today. Assistants and associates could move to leadership positions within the organization or could be recruited to fill a leadership position in another organization. There are fewer candidates with this background today. Organizations must take positive steps to prepare future leaders realizing that creating "leader in waiting" positions is not a viable option.

Some actions to consider are:

Candidates identified as high potential future managers would continue in their current job: clinical pharmacist, charge nurse, microbiology manager. They would, however, agree to participate in a management development initiative, and as such work with the program director and a mentor to identify how best they can improve their skills and competence. The specifics of each candidate's program may be different depending on their skill, education and work experience. What will not be different is the focus on developing internal candidates that are ready to fill middle manager positions.

Summary

Succession planning should be the way healthcare organizations address talent enhancement. Making it a program immediately labels it as something that may stop or get cut in a budget downturn. Programs stop; they get eliminated. But, you cannot grow by cutting. Imbedding it into the fabric of the organization creates the understanding that: this is the way we do business around here. When it becomes part of the culture (i.e. the way we do business), it does not stop; in fact, it creates its own momentum

Planning for your future is critically important and one of the most important factors in having effective clinical leadership continuity. You can't afford to ignore the demographic realities. What will your organizational chart look like when no one is eligible and prepared to advance (they are all back near the starting line)? It is very difficult to implement strategic initiatives and drive excellence in clinical care if you do not have managers and directors.

Announcements:

1. We will be in Chicago and Boulder this month

2. In 2010, we are pleased to offer two new and innovative intensives (retreat programs):

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