PHYSICIAN-EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP SKILLS, MEDICAL PRACTICE BUSINESS CULTURE, AND MODERN HOSPITAL ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

By: Susan Bock; PhD, MAOM, SPHR

CEO: Bock Orchestrations

Huntington Beach, CA

The fastest growing business segment in the United States is that of small businesses.  Small business owners, like physicians and healthcare entrepreneurs, have a unique opportunity to literally create an organization – not just re-engineer or revitalize – but to really build a company and manage their businesses.  This, in part, is accomplished by creating a culture that embraces the unique characteristics of their employees without having to penetrate layers of bureaucracy.

Introduction

This issue is devoted to discovering a process to integrate medical leadership with healthcare culture and how that is manifested in the organizational entity; medical practice or business.  Models developed by industry experts will be presented in the areas of leadership, culture and organizational structure.  These particular models have been selected because of their compatibility – each model supporting and embracing integration to facilitate the concept of building a healthcare organization for today that will survive tomorrow.

It has been my good fortune to have had the opportunity to work for Fortune 500 firms as well as start-up companies.  Having spent twenty years in Human Resources, my belief has been reinforced time and again; the employee is the most important asset in a company. Fortunately, this belief is now coming into its own as leaders realize its importance, the necessity of hiring and retaining the best suited talent to foster the development and growth of the company, the employees and the profit margin!! First and foremost, the leader recognizes the wisdom in creating a culture conducive to the expectations of today’s employees as well as establishing an organization built on a foundation sufficient to withstand the economic demands of the marketplace and the ability to maneuver through the white water rapids of business. 

Why would these three subjects – leadership, culture and organization – be combined into one journal issue?  The commonality, very simply, is people.  Today’s medical business environment is carving out a new definition for itself to address today’s healthcare employees. 

With that premise being established, let’s begin our journey.  You may be asking the question “what’s in this for me”?  You have an opportunity to learn and incorporate new beliefs and knowledge, to question some of your current behaviors and, hopefully, to discover just how the combination of these three core elements will determine the success of your medical business endeavors.

Healthcare [post March 21, 2010 reform; aka The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act] entities and other businesses today are faced with challenges never before seen.  This is cause for re-thinking, redefining and restructuring many traditional beliefs.  And it all begins with leadership. The essence of the new definition for medical leadership in the healthcare organization emanates from the leaders themselves.  It has become incumbent on physician executives, and business leaders, to integrate the various attitudes, opinions, skills and experiences of their employees – literally in order to set the tone for the company.  Research supports that managers and leaders spend a majority of their time on people issues rather than business issues.  How can leaders be effective when so much is demanded of their time?  What skills are needed?  What actions need to occur?

The first section will be devoted to leadership, focusing on the attributes, skills and talents required for effective leadership today.  Next, culture will be discussed as it relates to medical leadership and lastly, the healthcare organizational design will be addressed.

Leadership 101 versus Leadership 2010’s

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road can take you there.

(Author unknown)

Hundreds, if not thousands, of books, articles and training materials have been published on leadership skills.  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 physician leadership has been under intense scrutiny – by employees, industry experts, and business gurus.  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 will be presented is an integration of several models specifically appropriate for today’s business environment.  

Replication of the leadership skills of yesterday is the death knoll for business today.   Leadership is no longer based on managing, directing, or supervising.  As stated by James S. Doyle in The Business Coach, A Game Plan for the New Work Environment,  “Today’s medical 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.” [1].   Societal norms, generational beliefs and expanding diversity are, in part, contributing to the new business environment.  Likewise, healthcare business leaders are required to respond, react and re-direct in the moment.

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.2  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 leaders from those who are merely adequate.

References

[1] Doyle, James: The Business Coach: A Game Plan for the New Work Environment. New York : J. Wiley & Sons, 1999.

[2] Goleman, Daniel: What Makes a Leader.  Harvard Business Review.  Boston :  Harvard Business School Press, 2001.

Readings

Huff C: Are Your Doctors Management Ready? Health and Healthcare Networks. April 2010.