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Past versus Present in the Health 2.0 Era
By Susan Bock; MAOM, SPHR
If you don’t know where you’re going, any road can take you there.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of books, articles and training materials have been published on leadership skills; far fewer for physicians of course; but the basics remain the same.
Self Help Proliferation
Why is there such a proliferation of paper devoted to this subject? Perhaps, it is due to the fact that business leadership today is ever so different from leadership of yesterday. Every aspect of leadership has been under intense scrutiny, by employees, industry experts, physician-executives and business gurus. Much like healthcare today, the very form of leadership is in a state of evolution – changing, modifying and redefining its core values. A multitude of leadership theories or models have been developed, revised, reviewed and assessed by the experts. What is needed, therefore, is an integration of several models specifically appropriate for today’s healthcare business environment and modern healthcare executive.
Yesterday’s Death Knoll for Medicine
Replication of the leadership skills of yesterday is the death knoll for business today; especially for the business of healthcare. Leadership is no longer based on managing, directing, or supervising [top-down or command and control model]. As stated by James S. Doyle in his book The Business Coach [A Game Plan for the New Work Environment],
“Today’s employees … do not respond well to bosses. Quite simply, they have plenty of other options where they will be treated as full members of a team.”
Societal norms, generational beliefs and expanding diversity in healthcare are, in part, contributing to the new business environment. Likewise, medical leaders are required to respond, react and re-direct in the moment.
What Makes a Leader?
In a recent Harvard Business Review publication, “What Makes a Leader”, author Daniel Goleman says that the desired traits most often sited were intelligence, toughness, determination, and vision. A sufficient level of technical and analytical ability is even more essential now that we have moved into the new millennium.
However, the leadership skills of this era are placing much more emphasis on the so-called ‘soft skills’ or ‘emotional intelligence’ and this may very well be the key attribute that distinguishes outstanding healthcare leaders from those who are merely adequate.
Multi Generations
It is common to have three generations represented in any organization. We have the Baby-boomers, Gen X and now, Gen Y. The Baby Boomer generation is saying with some sadness, “It sure isn’t want it used to be!”, while Generation Xers are saying “It’s about time things changed!” and the latest generation to enter the medical workforce, Gen Y’s, are saying “Ready or not, we’re here”.
Each generation is extraordinarily complex, bringing various skills, expertise and expectations to the work environment. Determining the best methods to unite such diverse thinking is one of the many challenges faced by business leaders.
Assessment
Is it any wonder that many leaders in the Baby Boomer generation find themselves at a loss? The days of functional leadership are gone and suddenly, no one cares about the expertise of the Baby Boomers or how they climbed the corporate ladder, in medicine or elsewhere. The concept of ‘paying your dues’ is as foreign to the younger generations as is life without email, wikis or social networks. Still not convinced? Just think about the election of Barack Obama as 44th president of these United States. Leadership in the era of Health 2.0 is no longer about controlling or dictating with intense focus on the bottom line; it is about collaboration, empowerment and communication.
Conclusion
And so, your thoughts and comments on this Medical Executive-Post are appreciated. How does the digital generation change the leadership equation in healthcare today?
Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com or Bio: www.stpub.com/pubs/authors/MARCINKO.htm
Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:
Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/prod.aspx?prod_id=23759
Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790
Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421
Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com
Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com
Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com
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Filed under: "Doctors Only", Career Development, Managed Care, Practice Management, Recommended Books, Research & Development | Tagged: Gn X, leadership, next gen, physician leadership, Susan Bock |
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Health 2.0 Leaders versus Managers
When reading the above posts and related comments; one must take care to distinguish between managing and leading. While, leadership skills are good, and the theme is [finally] becoming top-of-the-mind, the way it is executed for today’s emerging cadre of young physicians and internet empowered medical students may still be anachronistic; in my opinion. Moreover, the examples seem to confuse management with leadership.
Traditional Management: Forming, norming, storming, performing and adjourning = teamwork.
New-Wave Leadership: Goal setting and achievement by empowering smart people to self-set the objectives that achieve same = power of 1.
For example, many pop psychology books today mention traditional command control philosophy that may not be suited for physicians and independent critical thinkers. I used them myself after nursing school and in business school more than a decade ago. They existed well before then; and at a time before electronic connectivity ever existed. They continue to be used in traditional top-down business enterprise models.
THINK: military, government, education, etc.
Multi Generations
Today, the problem of leadership in medicine is multi-generational. Mature docs have difficulty integrating their practice models to the collaborative internet age; while younger docs can’t imagine practicing without it.
In other words, the dinosaurs are dying and the “newbie’s” are rising; i.e., evolution. But, the pragmatic question really is – “How can the evolutionary process be integrated into successful leadership endeavors for modernity?” Unfortunately, one leadership size does not fit all, and the answer is as unique as the institution within.
Health 2.0 Philosophy
Following this theme, leaders must appreciate how common it is to have three generations represented in any healthcare [or lay] organization. We have the Baby-boomers, Gen X and now, Gen Y.
As expressed in the above post, the Baby Boomer generation is saying with some sadness, “Medicine sure isn’t want it used to be!”, while Generation Xers are saying “It’s about time things changed!” and the latest generation to enter the medical workforce, Gen Y’s, are saying with energy “Ready or not, we’re here – get used to it”.
Each generation is extraordinarily complex, bringing various skills, expertise and expectations to the professional healthcare environment. Determining the best methods to unite such diverse thinking is one of the many challenges faced by healthcare business leaders today.
The complex dichotomy and has yet to be discerned.
Best Wishes
Dr. David Edward Marcinko; FACFAS, MBA, CPHQ, CMP™
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
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Susan and Dr. Marcinko
One way to promote good leadership is to be sure to include physicians and other stakeholders in the decision-making process. Physician involvement in strategic decision making has been shown to significantly improve hospital performance.
Still another method to show leadership is to have the requisite knowledge base and good communication skills. It is important to remember that managers recruited from other industries often lack the clinical expertise or interpersonal skills to communicate, for example, with personnel in the operating room, ER, PICU, NICU, etc. Thus, expertise from otherindustries is not always easily transferred to the hospital industry, so it is vital that channels of communication be created.
And, good leadership is not limited to the boundaries of the organization. Those who work in operations management should also assert leadership within the community to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the system as a whole. Managers of healthcare organizations are increasingly held accountable in the eyes of the public for the health status of the community. Accountability to the community is accomplished differently depending on whether a hospital is free standing or a member of a system.
On the other hand, free-standing hospitals tend to be accountable through the compositional aspects of their boards.
Thanks for allowing me to share my thoughts.
Amanda, RN
[Nurse Manager]
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Rise of the Medical Expertocracy
Over the past few years, I’ve seen scores of patients around the country speak about how they make medical decisions.
We’ve found “maximalists” who want to do everything possible and “minimalists” who are convinced that less is more; “believers” who are certain that a good solution exists for their illness and “doubters” who worry that almost any treatment will be worse than the disease.
They developed these mind-sets largely based on past “gut” experience with illness, and they use them as a starting point for weighing risks and benefits in their health care.
Patients should rule.
Joanne
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Joanne,
For more on physician leadership and governance, please visit Chapter 35: http://businessofmedicalpractice.com/chapter-34/
Ann Miller RN MHA
http://www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com
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