The Pulse of Leadership in Healthcare

Developing the 21st Century Healthcare Leader

Contributors:Douglas G. Stark, BBA, MA, Director - Organizational Effectiveness, Training, & Recognition, UTMB HealthChris Blauth, Director of Product Strategy, AchieveGlobalCraig Perrin, Director of Solution Development, AchieveGlobalRosalyn Laves, Strategic Account Manager, AchieveGlobal

The Pulse of Leadership in Healthcare

Executive Summary

2 | THE PULSE OF LEADERSHIP IN HEALTHCARE

Much like leaders in other sectors, leaders in healthcareorganizations are now being called on to re-envision theroles they play in cultivating organizations that are facedwith the need to develop new perspectives and newskills. In the healthcare industry, though, the situationalcontext is further complicated: Major legislative andsystemic changes are turning technology and privacyinto significant forces shaping the evolution of the in-dustry. Today’s leaders in healthcare organizations areoften expected to skillfully navigate these majorchanges, even as economic turbulence emerges as an-other contextual factor.

AchieveGlobal’s multi-phased, multi-level study exam-ined how leadership within the healthcare industry mustchange to keep up with today’s challenges. Our broaderresearch started out by identifying leadership issues out-lined in peer-reviewed academic journals over a two-year period. At a later stage of the research,focus-group sessions facilitated development of a quan-titative survey completed by 971 corporate leaders andemployees in Europe, Asia, and North America. Surveyresults further supported development of a comprehen-sive new model of leadership and a related individual as-sessment instrument.

Part of our global study included a selection of respon-dents who represented organizations in healthcare. Theresponses from these participants from healthcarehelped shape our definition of what constitutes effectiveleadership in healthcare settings. They also provided in-sights into similarities and differences between leader-ship in healthcare and leadership across other industries.

The literature review, focus groups, and surveys providecompelling insights into current challenges and bestpractices for leaders across the healthcare industry.Here are some of the key findings and conclusions:

• Leadership in the 21st century is more than ever acomplex matrix of practices, which varies from onehealthcare organization to another, along the lines oforganizational size, scope of operations, and revenues.

• Generally leadership today can be distilled into six“zones,” or groups of best practices, which the re-search identifies as Reflection, Society, Diversity, In-genuity, People, and Business.

• Overall, leaders in healthcare ranked the six zonesof leadership (with the exception of the Diversityzone) as being more important in meeting their or-ganizational challenges than did leaders in other in-dustries.

• Survey participants representing the healthcare in-dustry generally had more concern about the effec-tiveness of leaders in their organizations than didparticipants from other industries.

• Healthcare leaders were rated as being more effec-tive in the “Diversity” zone.

• Among healthcare leaders, the largest gap be-tween the importance of a specific zone and the ef-fectiveness of leaders in that zone was in thePeople zone.

• In the healthcare sector, leaders who are most ef-fective recognize their own strengths and liabilities,adjust their approaches, adopt new strategies, andmaximize the strengths, while minimizing the liabili-ties of others in their organizations.

• Leadership training is particularly critical in thehealthcare sector and, when implemented effec-tively, may provide a key to organizational growthat a critical time for the industry.

THE PULSE OF LEADERSHIP IN HEALTHCARE | 3

At every turn in the healthcare industry, there are signs ofreform. Fundamental ways of doing business are chang-ing, as organizations across the industry ramp-up to transi-tion into the healthcare information superhighway.

A major goal for the U.S. healthcare industry is achievingthe complete interoperability of electronic medical records(EMRs), as stipulated in the American Recovery and Rein-vestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Major components of thisare the new operating procedures for providers that re-ceive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursements. In order toreceive significant financial incentives from the U.S. federalgovernment, these organizations are now required toprove that they make “meaningful use” of electronicrecords, helping patients manage their health and con-tributing to overall improvement of population health.

At the same time, healthcare practitioners and their partnercompanies are also being called on to observe stricter stan-dards of privacy and security in their handling of all patientinformation based on HIPAA and the Privacy Require-ments of the Healthcare Information Technology and Clini-cal Health (HITECH) Act.

If these transitions weren’t complex enough to navigate,healthcare organizations, like all companies, are facingtough economic times, and must therefore successfullyevolve, while keeping an eye on shrinking budgets. Withall of these factors playing into today’s realities, individu-als in leadership roles in healthcare are facing criticalchallenges from within their organizations, as well asfrom the entire industry.

AchieveGlobal’s research on leadership principles raisedimportant questions about leadership today:

• What major challenges confront 21st century leaders?

• What changes are necessary for leaders to keeppace?

• What leadership practices remain important and rele-vant?

• What new practices are emerging in response to shift-ing priorities?

Healthcare industry leaders and other employees also par-ticipated in this study, and their responses provided key in-sights into how these challenges affect healthcare leaders.We also gained understanding of what skills and practicesare important to successful leadership in the 21st centuryhealthcare industry.

Introduction

Central to this research

study was the idea that

analysis of 21st-century

leadership concerns among

leaders and employees

would help develop a model

that highlights key

leadership practices for

21st Century leaders.

Methodology: A Three-Phased Approach

Central to AchieveGlobal’s research study was the ideathat analysis of 21st-century leadership concerns amongleaders and employees would help develop a modelthat highlights key leadership practices for 21st centuryleaders. This model would:

• Give leaders a useful tool to allow them to visuallyidentify what strengths they (or others in their workenvironment) already possessed, and could there-fore use, and which potential liabilities they had towork on or eliminate.

• Allow leaders to track changes in their leadershipstrengths over time by revisiting the model.

• Provide leaders with a leadership profile, which re-flected a detailed picture of effective leadership inthe 21st century.

The research involved both secondary and primary research, including:

I. A literature review of peer-reviewed business andleadership journal articles and the development of aprovisional leadership model

II. Testing of the provisional model with two focusgroups of leaders who responded to a preliminarydefinition of leadership

II. Further development of the leadership model and ad-ministration of a survey in the United States, Mexico,India, China, Singapore, Germany, and the UnitedKingdom

Survey DemographicsAmong the 971 survey participants, there were 74healthcare leaders internationally. One ostensible limita-tion to this report is that the sub-sample of healthcareproviders comprised only 8.2 percent of the total sam-ple. However, our statistical analyses uncovered signifi-cant differences between healthcare providers andleaders in other industries, suggesting that the industrydifferences we found are likely valid. Additionally, thesub-sample of healthcare providers was extremely di-verse, spanning four global regions, so the findings likelyincorporate some degree of global generalizability.

Healthcare participants were asked to identify the or-ganization in which they worked in terms of numbers ofemployees globally, the geographic scope of their or-ganization, and their organization’s 2008 revenue.

In terms of size of operations, just over 40 percent ofparticipants worked for organizations with fewer than500 employees globally, while 23 percent were from or-ganizations with between 1,000 and 9,999 employees.Over 13 percent represented organizations of having10,000 and 25,000 employees, while just over 6 percentwere from organizations having 25,000 employees ormore.

Figure 1. Number of Employees in Respondent Companies

Taking the geographic scope of the healthcare organi-zations into consideration, almost 69 percent of partici-pants represented organizations that have domestic-only operations (in only one country) and had 2008revenues of less than $50 million, while 14.9 percentwere regional, 10.8 percent multiregional, and 5.4 per-cent of participants came from global organizations.

The healthcare leaders also described themselves interms of the number of direct reports, their currentleadership role, and the length of time they had beenworking at their current level. The largest group of par-ticipants had no direct reports, with the second largesthaving between six and ten direct reports. The largestpercentage of participants also had between two andten years of experience at their current level.

See Appendix 1.1 for further details on the demographicsummary of healthcare participants.


Fewer than 500

500-999

1,000-9,999

10,000-24,999

25,000-49,999

50,000-100,000

50,000-100,000

41%

16%

23%

14%

3% 4%0%

The Leadership Zone Model

Key Findings – All Participants

Leaders strong in the Society Zone:

• Act ethically to serve the larger good, not just toobey the law.

• Encourage others to take socially responsible ac-tion.

• Openly challenge what they consider unethical de-cisions and actions.

• Take action to benefit others, not just themselves.

• Recognize and reward others based on merit, noton politics.

• Make fair decisions, even if they have a negativeimpact on the team.

• Take steps to reduce environmental harm.

Leaders strong in the Diversity Zone:

• Strive to meet the needs of customers representingother cultures.

• Encourage collaboration among people from dif-ferent groups.

• Display sensitivity in managing across culturalboundaries.

• Collaborate well with people very different fromthemselves.

• Effectively lead groups made up of very diversepeople.

• Learn about the business practices of other cul-tures.

• Manage virtual teams with explicit customer-centricgoals and practices.

Leaders strong in the Ingenuity Zone:

• Help other people to adapt quickly to changes.

• Help groups to develop a shared picture of a posi-tive future.

• Develop their associates with the goal of improvingoverall group capabilities.

• Solve real-world problems by thinking clearly andengaging others.

• Tell stories to motivate others toward strategicgoals.

The Leadership ZonesThe core finding of the overall research study was vali-dation that 42 practices—some behavioral, some cogni-tive—are required to meet the challenges of21st-century leadership. The researchers sorted these 42practices into six categories, or “zones,” representedhere in a hexagonal model, in which each zone repre-sents seven unique practices, identified below.

Figure 2. The Leadership Zone Model

Leadership Zone AttributesLeaders strong in the Reflection Zone:

• Take responsibility for their own mistakes.

• Seek knowledge required to make sense of the bigpicture.

• Examine what role they play in the challenges thattheir team faces.

• Treat failure as a chance to learn and grow.

• Reflect often on their performance as a leader.

• Give serious consideration to opinions that differfrom their own.

• Speak frankly with others to learn from them andbuild trust.


Business Reflection

Ingenuity Diversity

SocietyPeople


• Create a work environment in which innovation canthrive.

• Find ways to promote speed, flexibility, and innova-tion.

Leaders strong in the People Zone:

• Read a range of emotions in others and respondappropriately.

• Adapt to the leadership needs of different groups.

• Help others resolve issues of work-life balance.

• Make a daily effort to inspire the trust of customersand colleagues.

• Minimize the negative human impact of decisionsand actions.

• Build and maintain a cross-functional task network.

• Communicate well with customers and colleaguesat all levels.

Leaders strong in the Business Zone:

• Adapt quickly to changing business conditions.

• Manage the costs of operation.

• Learn new ways to make the business competitive.

• Develop and implement effective business plans.

• Analyze and use hard data to promote business re-sults.

• Manage customer acquisition, retention, and life-time value.

• Add clarity to the organization’s vision and values.

A description of the six zones follows here:

ReflectionIn this zone, leaders assess their own motives, beliefs, at-titudes, and actions. Reflective leaders look within andask, “How can I make sure my own blind spots and bi-ases don’t cause me to make poor decisions?” and “Howcan I leverage my strengths to become a better leader?”

Reflection helps leaders avoid pitfalls in other zones,make the most of honest feedback, recognize the limitsof their knowledge, and avoid repeating their mistakes.When leaders see their mistakes as a chance to learnand grow, they gain the ability—and credibility—to helpothers adopt the same behaviors.

SocietyIn this zone, leaders apply principles—such as fairness,respect, and “the greater good”—to balance individualand group welfare. Here, leaders attend to economic,environmental, and ethical matters that affect the largersociety.

Recent unethical business practices with worldwide con-sequences highlight the need for leaders to serve andencourage others to serve a larger good. While everyleader must achieve short-term goals, socially awareleaders know that some short-term goals sabotagelong-term health—of the organization, the society, andthe planet.

DiversityIn this zone, leaders value and leverage human differ-ences, including gender, ethnicity, age, culture, beliefs,and work styles. Here, leaders prove their ability to workwith diverse people and appreciate cultural perspec-tives.

This ability to derive value from human differences is acore skill for 21st-century leaders. A global workforce re-quires a leader’s awareness of cultural nuances; a dis-persed workforce requires structured yet flexibleleadership; a diverse workforce requires tailored collabo-ration and coaching. All these tasks require leaders whobalance their own strong identity with their daily effortto understand people very different from themselves.

IngenuityIn this zone, leaders offer and execute practical ideas.What’s more, they help others do the same by creatinga climate in which innovation thrives.

Ingenuity is the currency of success in a capriciousglobal economy. Closely allied is the ability to managethe changes—on both business and human levels—im-plied in every innovation. Ingenuity is vital as well tohelping groups develop a motivating vision of futuresuccess.

PeopleIn this zone, a leader’s ability to connect with others on ahuman level realizes enormous benefits, including im-proved communication of every kind.

In part, leadership is getting work done through others –a real challenge without the skill and zeal to engagepeople in a team effort. Leaders effective in this zoneinspire trust and loyalty, weather difficulties through awide support network, soften the human impact of harddecisions, and encourage shared commitment to busi-ness goals.

BusinessIn this zone, leaders develop strategies, make and exe-cute plans and decisions, organize the work of others,and guide effort toward predicted results.

Yet 21st-century challenges demand more than text-book formulas. Beyond the hard skills of analyzing dataand managing costs, leaders must respond quickly tothreats and opportunities—a skill that requires close at-tention to key trends and events. Still vital is a leader’sability to shape the customer’s experience, but also tocultivate that customer’s lifetime value.

Balancing these six zones can be daunting because it’snearly impossible to give equal attention to every zoneall the time. Even so, increased awareness of the zonesand activities can help leaders make conscious trade-offs in response to shifting conditions.


Healthcare leaders are being

called on to make major and

fundamental changes to how

their organizations operate,

especially as budgets shrink.

Healthcare Specific Findings


within healthcare leadership, but also indicate opportu-nities for making changes (such as leadership trainingand development and succession planning) that wouldhave significant impact on leadership effectiveness and,ultimately, organizational success. It's also worth notingthat deficiencies in the healthcare workforce further en-hance deficiencies in healthcare leadership.

See Appendix 2.1 for further detail on how participantsranked organizational challenges over the next one tothree years.

Pressing Challenges for Healthcare LeadersLeaders within the healthcare industry who participatedin the study were asked to identify the five most press-ing challenges that their organizations will face over thenext one to three years. Not surprisingly, the challengethat received the highest ranking among leaders was“Cost pressures.” This is reflective of the current envi-ronment in which healthcare leaders are being called onto make major and fundamental changes to how theirorganizations operate, even as budgets shrink.

The second highest ranked challenge was “Controllinghealthcare costs.” Since healthcare leaders are at thefrontlines, facing the challenge of controlling healthcarecosts, it comes as no surprise that this particular chal-lenge ranked so high among survey participants. In-deed, for healthcare leaders, this challenge is two-fold:The industry struggles to come to terms with address-ing the issue of controlling healthcare costs, whilehealthcare organizations (like other organizations) alsotry to find ways to control the cost of healthcare cover-age for their own employees.

Tied for the second-highest ranked challenge amonghealthcare leaders was “Improving customer satisfac-tion.” Since the goals of HITECH, HIPAA, ARRA, TheJoint Commission and the Magnet Program are cumu-latively to improve quality, efficiency and security ofhealthcare, it stands to reason that a focus on improvingcustomer satisfaction would rank high among health-care leaders.

As identified by the participants, the third most pressingorganizational challenge for healthcare leaders was“Quality of leaders,” suggesting that there are likely is-sues relating to recruitment, learning and development,and succession planning within healthcare organizations.As a likely result of these first four issues, healthcareleaders also noted that growing the business was a majorchallenge. This stands to reason, since cost pressuresand an expressed concern about a dearth of leadershipquality would logically affect the ability to grow business.

Leaders also ranked the challenges of “retaining talent,”and “employee productivity” as being of significant con-cern. The challenge of retaining talent suggests thatthere is room for healthcare organizations to re-examinethe motivation of their leadership, and also how leadersare affecting employee morale and, therefore, produc-tivity. These facts in particular point to existing liabilities

Figure 3. Challenges Among Healthcare Leaders

Most Pressing Organizational Percent of Challenges over the Next 1–3 Years Leaders

Cost (e.g., margin) pressures 37.8

Controlling healthcare costs 35.1

Improving customer satisfaction 35.1

Quality of leaders 32.4

Growing the business 32.4

Figure 4. Challenges Among Other Industry Leaders

Most Pressing Organizational Percent of Challenges over the Next 1-3 Years Leaders



Competitors 27.8

Employee productivity 27.2


Comparing Healthcare Leadership to Leadership in Other IndustriesOur survey also revealed compelling differences be-tween leadership in the healthcare industry and leader-ship in other industries across a few distinct areas.

While healthcare leaders identify “cost pressures,” “con-trolling healthcare costs,” and “improving customer sat-isfaction” as the top three challenges confronting theirorganization, other industry leaders ranked “cost pres-sures,” “growing the business” and “competitors” asbeing the most pressing challenges that their organiza-tions would face over the next one to three years. It’s ev-ident that healthcare leaders are less focused oncompetitive positioning of their organizations, and morefocused on the operational realities of doing business,as well as on meeting employee and customer needs.Not surprisingly, for all organizations, “cost pressures”ranked highest of all pressing challenges, as the econ-omy continued to govern deep and dramatic shifts. Is-sues related to competition would also likely differ frommarket to market, depending on whether a healthcareorganization operates in a competitive, urban settingversus a non-competitive, rural environment.

One surprise came in the area of “technology chal-lenges,” which other industry leaders ranked as morepressing than did healthcare leaders. In light of thechanges under ARRA and the HITECH Act, it seemsthat technology challenges would rank higher for health-care leaders, who might be confronted with decisionsabout, for example, which electronic medical records(EMR) vendor is best equipped to meet their organiza-tional needs, and how to get employees to adopt newworkflow and systems using new technology. It would betelling to repeat this part of the study at a later date,since some of the definitions tied to ARRA andHITECH continue to take effect at the time of publica-tion of this report.

See Appendix 2.2 for further details about the challengesconfronting other industry leaders.


The Zones of Leadership: Importance and Effectiveness of Leadership PracticesGenerally, both healthcare and general-industry leadershighly endorsed all six zones of leadership (Reflection,Society, Diversity, Ingenuity, People, and Business) asbeing important in meeting their organizational chal-lenges over the next one to three years. Of the sixzones, both healthcare leaders and other leaders rankedthe Diversity zone lowest, with healthcare leaders indi-cating that they saw that particular zone as being ofeven less importance than other industry leaders.

Figure 5. Leadership Zone and Importance

Figure 6. Leadership Zones and Effectiveness

Reflection

Importance of the Six Zones for Healthcareand General-Industry Leaders

Society People Ingenuity Diversity Business

34

35

36

37

38

39

40General Healthcare

Effectiveness in the Six Zones of Healthcare andGeneral-Industry Leaders

Reflection Society People Ingenuity Diversity Business30

32

34

36

38


With major changes taking place in and around thehealthcare industry, this gap is cause for concern. It’sworth pointing out that it takes strength within the Peo-ple zone for a leader to be able to communicate the sig-nificance of such issues as controlling costs andadopting new technologies into overhauled workflows.Without key strengths in the People zone, leaders willbe ill-prepared to help other employees balance thestresses of work with the stresses of life, or even earn therespect and trust of their colleagues. Since the health-care industry is focused on patient care more than everbefore, lacking leadership strength in the People zonealso points to a lack of commitment to meet the needsof patients. Obviously, this draws further focus on thepoint that leaders in the healthcare industry need lead-ership development that specifically builds strengthwithin the People zone.

Our leadership research confirms that leaders whosestrengths lie in the “Reflection” zone are betterequipped to adjust to blind spots and to leverage otherzone strengths. Further, the better a leader is able torecognize his or her own assets and liabilities, the betterthat person will be able to adapt new strategies, andrecognize assets and liabilities in others. In the presentcontext, with increasing demands being placed onhealthcare organizations, it would serve leaders withinthese organizations well to develop their ability to re-flect on strengths and liabilities, and those of others.Leaders would then be better equipped to build onstrengths and minimize or eliminate liabilities within thecontext of the overall strategic direction of the organi-zation.

With this in mind, leadership training is more relevantthan ever in the healthcare sector, as organizations learnhow to navigate this time of critical change.

See Appendices 2.3 and 2.4 for more details on howhealthcare leaders and other industry leaders ranked im-portance and effectiveness of the six leadership zones.

This discovery might be attributed to the sample demo-graphics, since all of the participants representedhealthcare organizations that had a domestic focus andwere operating in only one country. However, this find-ing also highlights what might also be a missed oppor-tunity for healthcare organizations: Leaders that areill-equipped to take into consideration and leverage dif-ferences of age, gender, ethnicity, cultural origin, or val-ues and beliefs are more likely to miss vital opportunitiesto draw on the opportunities that such diversity canbring. On the other hand, leaders who are wellequipped to navigate and leverage diversity within theworkplace are better able to communicate across cul-tural barriers, and put to work the real value of havingsuch diversity.

It's also worth noting that within the healthcare environ-ment, diversity is considered less important than forother industry leaders because of the already existingtrends of diverse workforces within healthcare. For ex-ample, a recent study in the journal Health Affairs indi-cates that 25 percent of all doctors in the United Statesare graduates of foreign medical schools.

One discovery is that leaders in the healthcare industryfeel that other leaders in their organizations were not aseffective as they should be, to a far greater degree thantheir other-industry counterparts. This suggests thatwhile healthcare leaders are ranked as being generallyeffective, there is room for improvement.

Our research looked at the gaps between how partici-pants rated importance of a zone versus how they ratedthe effectiveness demonstrated by their organizationalleaders in that zone. Among healthcare participants, thelargest discrepancy, or gap, showed up in the “People”zone, showing that while participants thought that it wasvery important that leaders should possess strengths inthe People zone, they rated their organizational leadersas ineffective in this zone.


Implications and ConclusionWithout question, the healthcare industry continues toexperience some of the most significant challenges ithas faced in recent times. With federal regulations andassociated definitions still being finalized, leaders withinhealthcare and healthcare-linked organizations will con-tinue to redefine what constitutes effective leadership.We may also see changes in how they rate their ownleadership, in terms of the importance they place onspecific practices, and how effectively they achieve thecriteria of successful leadership.

Through all of this, leaders—and specifically healthcareleaders—are most effective when they are actively awareof the complexity of multiple challenges they face, andthe spectrum of practices that are important to successat the individual, organizational, and industrial levels. Aswith leaders in other industries, healthcare leaders mustbe fully cognizant of their own strengths and liabilities.They also need to possess the skills and determine thecombination of leadership practices required to build onthe strengths while minimizing the liabilities of others, sothat they can ultimately build organizations that canweather the shifts and navigate the changes unfoldingaround them.

There is also the issue of succession in healthcare andthe fact that in healthcare organizations there may be atendency to promote within organizations. Added tothis, there are issues related to licensing requirementsthat further add complexity of hiring, succession, andleadership training.

Numerous recent scholarly studies and books that focuson healthcare organization and management empha-size the significance of effective leadership withinhealthcare1. From navigating a global recession to gear-ing up for major legislative change, healthcare organi-zations face radical change and must positionthemselves to respond. Leaders within the healthcareindustry play an integral role in how their organizationmeets the needs of multiple stakeholders: from patientsto technology suppliers, the federal government and, ofcourse, their own employees. Even more fundamentally,they play a role in helping to improve overall populationhealth, a broader goal of recent changes in regulation.Ultimately, healthcare leaders must remain sensitive toall of these factors, even as they guide their organiza-tions toward success.

1 See for example the book, Leadership in Healthcare by Richard Gunderman, and the arti-cle, “Managing in a Downturn: How do you manage in a global financial recession?” inJournal of Healthcare Management. May, 2010.


Appendix 1: Demographic Information—Healthcare ParticipantsThe following tables provide summaries of how partici-pants described their organizations and themselves.

Figure 1. Number of Employees Globally

Appendix

# of Employees Globally Percent

Fewer than 500 40.5

500–999 16.2

1,000–9,999 23.0

10,000–24,999 13.5

25,000–49,999 2.7

50,000–100,000 0.0

More than 100,000 4.1

Figure 2. Geographic Scope of Operations

Geographic Scope Percent

Domestic (operates in only one country) 68.9

Regional (operates in one global region) 14.9

Multi-regional (operates in several global regions) 10.8

Global (operates in all major global regions) 5.4

2008 Revenue Percent

Less than $50 million 56.8

$50 million–$250 million 20.3

$250 million–$500 million 10.8

$500 million–$1 billion 4.1

More than $1 billion 8.1

Figure 3. Organizational revenue in 2008

# of Direct Reports Percent

None 27.0

1–5 20.3

6–10 18.9

11–20 10.8

21–30 1.4

31–40 5.4

More than 40 16.2

Figure 4. Number of Direct Reports


Appendix 2: Comparisons BetweenHealthcare Leaders and All OtherLeaders2.1 Challenges Among Healthcare LeadersFigure 1. Most Pressing Organizational ChallengesOver the Next 1-3 Years, as Percent of Leaders inHealthcare Organizations

Current Leadership Role Percent

No direct reports 32.4

Manage first-line associates 28.4

Manage first-line managers or supervisors 12.2

Manage the managers of first-line managers or supervisors 6.8

Manage one or more major areas of the organization 10.8

Manage the entire organizational unit 9.5

Figure 5. Current Leadership Role in Organization

Time at Current Level Percent

Fewer than 2 years 21.6

2–10 years 35.1

10–20 years 18.9

More than 20 years 24.3

Figure 6. Time at Current Level in Organization

Most Pressing Organizational Percent of Challenges over the Next 1–3 Years Leaders






Retaining talent 28.4


Driving sales growth 24.3

Technology challenges 21.6

Expanding into new markets 20.3

Attracting talent 20.3

Competitors 17.6

Achieving operational excellence 16.2

Product/service innovation 14.9

Gaining access to capital 12.2

Regulatory environment 12.2

Ethical leadership practices 10.8

Responding to changing customer buying patterns 10.8

Lack of trust among leaders and employees 9.5

Insufficient talent overall 9.5

Being perceived as “green” (environmentally responsible) 9.5

Changing methods of distribution 9.5

Creating virtual workplace structures 8.1

Demonstrating corporate social responsibility 6.8

Insufficient number of leaders 6.8

Diversity in the workforce 5.4

Succeeding with mergers and acquisitions 2.7


Appendix 2.3 Leadership Zone and Importance

Appendix 2.4 Leadership Zones and Effectiveness

2.2 Most Pressing Challenges among Leadersin Other Industry Organizations

Figure 2. Most Pressing Organizational ChallengesOver the Next 1-3 Years, as Percent of Leaders in OtherIndustry Organizations

Most Pressing Organizational Percent of Challenges over the Next 1-3 Years Leaders



Competitors 27.8



Technology challenges 25.1

Driving sales growth 24.8

Expanding into new markets 23.9

Product/service innovation 21.9

Retaining talent 19.6


Achieving operational excellence 16.6

Responding to changing customer buying patterns15.3

Attracting talent 14.7


Gaining access to capital 12.1

Lack of trust among leaders and employees 11.2

Regulatory environment 9.9

Being perceived as “green” (environmentally responsible) 9.8

Changing methods of distribution 9.3

Diversity in the workforce 9.1

Succeeding with mergers and acquisitions 8.0

Ethical leadership practices 8.0

Insufficient talent overall 7.2

Demonstrating corporate social responsibility 6.9

Insufficient number of leaders 6.5

Creating virtual workplace structures 6.4

Reflection

Importance of the Six Zones for Healthcareand General-Industry Leaders

Society People Ingenuity Diversity Business

34

35

36

37

38

39


Effectiveness in the Six Zones of Healthcare andGeneral-Industry Leaders

Reflection Society People Ingenuity Diversity Business30

32

34

36

38



Appendix 3. Accuracy of the Six Zones of Leadership Model

In order to test how internally reliable and accurate theleadership instrument was in measuring leadership inter-nationally in the healthcare and general-industry sec-tors, a Cronbach’s alpha was calculated for each sampleon both the “Importance” scores and the “Effectiveness”scores. The alphas for the healthcare “Importance” and“Effectiveness” scores were .982 and .986 respectively,and the alphas for the general-industry “Importance”and “Effectiveness” scores were .975 and .980 respec-tively. All of these alphas are truly outstanding (1.0 isperfect), suggesting that the instrument is very reliablein its ability to measure leadership in both the health-care and general-industry sectors. Additionally, all sixsubscales of the leadership instrument correlated veryhighly with each other in the “Importance” and “Effec-tiveness” components for both the healthcare and gen-eral-industry samples. All correlations except one wereabove .50 and are considered large-sized effects. Thesehigh correlations suggest that the six domains of leader-ship tapped by the instrument all triangulate on a largerleadership construct. In other words, the six-zone ap-proach in which leadership was conceptualized in thisinstrument is likely very accurate for both healthcareand general-industry leaders internationally.


About The ContributorsDouglas G. StarkDirector Organizational and Workforce Development -University of Texas Medical Branch

Doug and his team support over 12,000 faculty andstaff in academic medicine. Since 2000, he has played acritical role in developing a leadership academy ad-dressing the development needs of leaders at all levelsand launched an on-line training system that housesover 80 courses. Doug holds a BBA in Marketing and aM.A. in Organizational Communications from WesternMichigan University.

Craig PerrinDirector of Solution Development, AchieveGlobal

As AchieveGlobal’s Director of Solution Development,Craig is a thought leader who works cross-functionallyand with clients to guide creation of a range of responsesto market needs. Since 1986 he has played a central rolein developing the company’s flagship programs in lead-ership, sales, and customer service. Craig holds a B.A.and M.A. from San Francisco State University.

Chris BlauthDirector of Product Strategy, AchieveGlobal

Chris, Director of Product Strategy, spearheadsAchieveGlobal’s efforts to develop and maintain prod-ucts that will prepare leaders at all levels of an organiza-tion. Chris holds a B.S. in Accounting and Finance fromthe University at Buffalo, and an MBA in Marketingfrom Canisius College.

Rosalyn LavesStrategic Account Manager, AchieveGlobal

Rosalyn works with companies around the world to buildcustomer loyalty, improve sales performance, and buildleadership skills. Her clients tend to be focused in thehealthcare industry, and she serves as the strategic or-chestrator for all of BlueCrossBlueShield relationshipswith AchieveGlobal. Prior to joining AchieveGlobal,Roz worked as an Assistant Director for OutpatientCare at UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. She holdsB. A. and M. Ed. degrees.


World Headquarters8875 Hidden River Parkway, Suite 400Tampa, Florida 33637 USAToll Free: 800.456.9390

www.achieveglobal.com

© 2010 AchieveGlobal, Inc No. M01346 v. 1.0 (10/2010 )

About AchieveGlobalIn the 21st century, the level of human skills will determineorganization success. AchieveGlobal provides exceptionaldevelopment in interpersonal business skills, giving com-panies the workforce they need for business results. Lo-cated in over 40 countries, we offer multi-language,learning-based solutions—globally, regionally, and locally.

We understand the competition you face. Your successdepends on people who have the skills to handle thechallenges beyond the reach of technology. We’re expertsin developing these skills, and it’s these skills that turn yourstrategies into business success in the 21st century.

These are things technology can’t do. Think. Learn.Solve problems. Listen. Motivate. Explain. People withthese skills have a bright future in the 21st century.AchieveGlobal prepares you for that world.

The Pulse of Leadership in Healthcare

Business

Transcript of The Pulse of Leadership in Healthcare