As the job market for the healthcare sector continues to steam along, there’s a smudge on the bright horizon: Healthcare organizations lack leadership strategy.
“My observations in leadership in healthcare can be summarized as this: First of all medical groups, physician groups, virtually pay no attention to the leadership strategy for the organization,” said David Teegarden, MD, a retired healthcare CEO who teaches leadership courses at the University of Texas’ Dallas School of Management and runs a leadership development company. “Very rarely can they map their leadership needs and how they develop and find leaders to their overall strategic plan.”
[See also: Healthcare sees highest CEO turnover rates.]
During a session on leadership held during the American Medical Group Association’s (AMGA) annual conference in March, Teegarden and his co-presenter informally polled a group of 40 senior executives of medical groups about their leadership readiness.
The informal poll found:
• 50 percent of the executives said their organization’s leadership needs are mapped to their strategic plan; the other half said they weren’t.
• 67 percent said they don’t have a pipeline of “high potential” individuals identified for leadership; 33 percent said they do.
• 56 percent said they know which traits and characteristics they need to have successful leaders; 44 percent said they didn’t know.
• 70 percent said their development program does not continually support the future leaders pipeline; 30 percent said it did.
• 15 percent said they have clear processes to identify future leaders; 85 percent said they don’t.
• 21 percent said their succession management plan covers all levels of their organizations; 79 percent said their plan didn’t.
Without an internal leadership strategy, say executive search experts, healthcare organizations will have a rough time finding people with the leadership skills they want.
“Leadership development as a strategic priority is pretty much underdeveloped in healthcare,” Teegarden said. “And there’s just no way for leaders, particularly for clinical leaders, to percolate up through a development plan and be in a readiness position to step into key roles in health systems.”
“I think any large organization that does not have an internal talent development – (a) formal talent management program – on leadership … is missing the boat,” said Christine Mackey-Ross, senior vice president and practice leader, physician integration and leadership at executive search firm Witt/Kieffer. “Succession planning should be part of every C-suite executive’s annual evaluation. They need to be training and mentoring a person who can take their job. That needs to be part of the landscape.”
Creating a formal, internal talent management program, although arguably one of the most important steps, is just one in a strategic leadership plan.
A healthcare organization’s biggest strategic leadership plan challenge will be determining what is needed in a leader, said Mary Barber, vice president, recruitment partnerships and marketing at Cejka Search, a physician, allied health and healthcare executive search firm.
“I think there’s been so much change in healthcare in recent years that the requirements of leaders have really evolved,” Barber said.
Organizations need leaders with strong collaborative skills, people who can be change agents – who can cause and influence change – who have the ability to tie together the diverse interests of stakeholders and deliver efficiency, quality, patient satisfaction and financial performance and be a good fit for the organization’s culture.
“There are leaders out there that will fit the requirements,” said Barber. “I think it’s really how do you go about finding them and assessing them in order to make it be a good fit. And how do you advance the candidates or how do you advance a candidate who … can match the needs and have the skills that will match the needs for that particular organization.”
Follow HFN associate editor Stephanie Bouchard on Twitter @SBouchardHFN.