Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Effective Leader
IN Healthcare
Management
THE 12 ESSENTIAL SKILLS
Second Edition
by
Foreword by
Samuel Lin, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., M.P.A., M.S.
xi
xii Preface
parts of the country, nor that recruitment efforts have been stepped
up in most locales. We not only need more healthcare managers,
but also more highly skilled healthcare managers. Nor should it be
surprising that competition is increasing for admission to under-
graduate and graduate programs in health services administration.
The goal for these academic and other training programs will be to
prepare healthcare leaders who are highly skilled and capable of
meeting the inevitable challenges of the healthcare system of tomor-
row. It is my hope that this book, with its focus on the 12 essential
skills of leadership, will foster that exemplary goal.
Like the first edition, this second edition is based on solid re-
search findings as well as my experience as a healthcare executive,
consultant, and course and seminar instructor. I remain as con-
vinced as ever that everyone in a leadership position in healthcare
today must learn and master the 12 essential skills highlighted in
this book. This new edition is a high-interest, high-impact, hands-
on approach to learning and will greatly enhance most health lead-
ership and management undergraduate and graduate courses as
well as continuing education workshops and seminars for health-
care managers. It should also appeal to individual managers who
are interested in using this book as a self-learning tool to increase
their own effectiveness by developing these skills.
The structure of the book is straightforward and direct and con-
sists of three steps. Step I is preparatory and introduces the idea
of skill building in leadership development. It includes the Self-
Assessment of Essential Leadership Skills: Pretest, which provides
the learner with an initial assessment of his or her overall leadership
skills competence level. In Step II, the learner explores the principles
and practices of the 12 essential skill sets. Each chapter in the section
focuses on one skill set and includes case examples, skill develop-
ment exercises and activities, and a detailed self-assessment of that
skill set. The goal of these skill chapters is to assist the learner in
becoming a more effective manager. Finally, Step III progresses to
an action plan for continuing the journey of becoming an effective
manager and making the transition to being an effective manager;
that is, achieving and maintaining mastery of the 12 essential skills
of effective leadership. Step III concludes with the Self-Assessment
of Essential Leadership Skills: Posttest.
STEP I
Becoming an Effective
Leader in Healthcare
Management
1
2 Becoming an Effective Leader in Healthcare Management
LEADERSHIP SKILLS
The Key to Corporate Success
Why do corporations consider leadership skills so important?
Because leadership skills are the key to a corporation’s success.
Mounting evidence has shown that skillful leaders are the key
determinant of corporate success. Whether organizations are public
or private, in the manufacturing, the healthcare, or the service sec-
tor, “research findings now make it almost unquestionable that if
organizations want to succeed, they must have competent, skillful
managers” (Whetten & Cameron, 2015, p. 4).
Although many would agree that competent leadership is an
important and significant factor in corporate success, some would
balk at the suggestion that skillful leadership is more important than
other factors, such as market share or assets. Surprisingly, research
does not support that viewpoint. For example, in a study of the fac-
tors that accounted for the financial success of corporations, five
factors were identified that predicted success: market share, capital
intensity, size of assets, industry average return on sales, and effec-
tive leadership. Interestingly, this research indicated that the ability
to manage effectively was three times more important than the other
four factors combined (Hanson, 1986). Successive studies seem to
offer further support for Hanson’s conclusion, namely that effective
Becoming an Effective Leader in Healthcare Management 5
Engagement, commitment, Prepares the manager with several skills and strategies
and emotional for assessing the causes of decreased engagement
intelligence and motivation and for increasing motivation and
emotional intelligence in various ways, beginning
with onboarding.
Team performance Provides the manager with skills and strategies for
influencing the process of team development and team
building to maximize individual and team performance,
job satisfaction, and commitment to the organization.
Negotiating conflict and Provides the manager with skills in assessing and
difficult people managing conflict and measures to prevent it. Skills
and strategies are also included for effectively dealing
with angry, negative, and uncooperative employees.
Counseling and interviewing Provides the manager with specific interviewing skills
and strategies to maximize outcomes in employment,
exit, appraisal, disciplinary, and counseling interviews.
Strategic thinking and Provides the manager a strategy for learning to think
decision making strategically (i.e., “outside the box”). One related
skill is strategic planning, which is, in its best sense,
an application of strategic thinking.
Monitoring financial and Provides managers with the knowledge and ability to
human resources continuously seek efficiencies in business processes
in order to meet strategic objectives and enhance
success within the concept of the new pay-for-
quality reimbursement models.
(continued)
Becoming an Effective Leader in Healthcare Management 9
Mindfulness and time and Increases the leader’s capacity to control and cope
stress management with work stress and job strain. It emphasizes the
strategies of mindfulness and time and stress
management.
CONCLUDING NOTE
This section began with the statement, “Effective healthcare manag-
ers are skillful healthcare managers,” and it ends with the same dec-
laration. There is no question that the demand for highly effective,
skillful leaders in healthcare far exceeds the supply. Developing the
essential skills of effective leadership should be one of the top pri-
orities of senior management in healthcare today. Unfortunately,
developing these skills has yet to achieve that status in many parts
of the healthcare sector. Instead, senior healthcare managers seem
to be more focused on low census, low productivity, poor employee
morale, and high turnover rates and are apparently unaware of the
role that highly effective leadership has in reversing these situa-
tions. At Intermountain Healthcare, a healthcare organization based
in Utah with more than 37,000 employees, highly effective leader-
ship has fostered high levels of productivity, quality, morale, and
employee commitment, and turnover is very low. Modern Health-
care, a business news weekly, honored Intermountain Healthcare
in January 2000 as the number-one integrated healthcare system in
the United States. I hope this book can help you become a similarly
effective healthcare leader.
10 Becoming an Effective Leader in Healthcare Management
SELF-ASSESSMENT OF ESSENTIAL
LEADERSHIP SKILLS: PRETEST
Directions: This assessment will help you evaluate your current level of
skill and attitudes regarding several leadership skills. Use the following
statements to assess your attitudes and skills by circling the number that
is closest to your experience: 1 = never, 2 = sometimes, 3 = often, and
4 = always. Respond in a way that reflects your skills today, rather than
those you hope to have in the future. Answer as honestly and realistically
as you can because this inventory will help you tailor your learning to your
particular needs. Instructions on scoring and interpreting the results are
provided in the analysis section at the end of the assessment.
MOTIVATION
1. I try to persuade and influence employees rather 1 2 3 4
than force them to do what I want.
COMMITMENT
6. Many of my professional needs are met in 1 2 3 4
my current job.
TEAM PERFORMANCE
11. I allow the team to have input in any decision 1 2 3 4
that affects team performance.
DELEGATION
16. I try to do only the work that must be done by 1 2 3 4
me and delegate the rest.
COMMUNICATION
21. I strive to be an “active listener” by using eye 1 2 3 4
contact, head nods, smiles, “uh-huhs,”
restatements, and leaning forward.
NEGOTIATION
26. In attempting to resolve a conflict, I look for 1 2 3 4
common areas of agreement.
COACHING
31. Being a manager means coaching employees. 1 2 3 4
BUDGETING
46. I develop my goals and objectives for the 1 2 3 4
coming year before I prepare my budget.
2. Team Performance
3. Delegation
4. Communication
5. Negotiation
6. Coaching
9. Budgeting
Interpretation of Scores
For each specific set of skills, the following scoring ranges suggest that