In the midst of a massive recession that has hospitals cutting projects and even staff, the Healthcare Financial Management Association needed a pep talk to kick off this week's ANI conference in Seattle.
It got just that in Patrick Lencioni's keynote this morning.
Lencioni, an author of eight books on management and founder and chairman of The Table Group, entertained hundreds of attendees at the HFMA's ANI conference Monday morning with a keynote discussion titled "The Five Dysfunctions of a Leader." His energetic presentation focused on the importance of leading an organization from the top down, and starting with a management team that works well with each other.
According to Lencioni, a management team can't function effectively if its members don't trust one another, and if they don't allow themselves to be vulnerable. From that point, they need to be able to argue - and not be afraid of conflict, or of having a different opinion than others.
"Trust enables us to engage in great conflict," he pointed out.
Third, a team must be committed to the organization, and a leader must be able to rely on that commitment in making decisions. According to Lencioni, members of a management team won't buy into their leader's decision if they haven't weighed in on the decision.
The fourth point Lencioni made was that management can be doomed by an avoidance of accountability. Good leaders are comfortable holding people accountable for difficult decisions, he said, and peer pressure is one of the best tools available to a management team to ensure that everyone on that team is accountable. Too often, he added, leaders lack the courage to enforce accountability.
Finally, Lencioni said, organizations need to pay attention to results. Departments who put their accomplishments ahead of the organization risk politicizing the process, and end up creating an organization filled with small silos of employees competing against each other.
Lencioni was preceded by a changing of the guard at HFMA, as Robert L. Broadway stepped down as the 2008-09 chairman of the organization and welcomed Catherine A. Jacobson of Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, who will take the post for the next year. Both Broadway and Jacobson talked of the "once in a lifetime challenges" facing the healthcare field in these "challenging" economic times.
Both speakers urged the packed room of healthcare financial executives to put the patient first, and to always make the connection between their work and the person coming through the front door of the hospital needing medical attention. Jacobson said these are "extraordinary times" for healthcare executives in that they challenge the industry to be creative and courageous.
"I have worked in healthcare for over 20 years, and I cannot remember a single day that I have been bored," she added.