Eva Hartman, RN, CNOR, serves as Market Director of Digital Products & Services - Strategic Growth at Novant Health.
On October 12th, Eva will serve on the panel "Key Thoughts on Interoperability, Improvement in Clinical Services and Related Issues" at Becker's Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place October 9-12, 2019 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Eva's session, click here.
Question: What is the No. 1 principle you uphold and practice to effectively lead a team?
Eva Hartman: Servant Leadership has always been my primary practice for building and maintaining effective teams. Establishing and nurturing genuine, personal relationships with team members is the cornerstone of success. Listen and be engaged in their lives, not just their jobs. Know and care about your people!
Sharing personal experiences provides a unique opportunity for team members to learn from my successes and my mistakes. Providing a safe, collaborative environment in which team members are able to cultivate their own sense of situational awareness helps them to better prepare for future positive resolutions.
Coaching, encouraging and mentoring team members is essential for growth of individuals as well as the overall team. I often challenge team members to evolve their capabilities through education and training, as well as mentoring other team members.
Q: As a leader, how do you stay connected to the actual work that is being done – and not just by watching others execute, but by executing yourself? If so, how do you balance between leading and executing personally?
EH: The key really is a balancing act – allowing your team do the work for which they have been trained and are skilled in executing, while maintaining current knowledge of clinical needs and application functionality to support end users and ensure excellent patient care through technology.
Leadership and personal execution of work is often situational and role-based within any team. Involving the team in conversation/planning with the business owners is a principal mechanism for maintaining that connection. As a Team Lead, I would assign myself specific tasks that were time limited, yet provide opportunity to maintain my knowledge of and expertise in the application(s). As a Manager, I would delegate application build and testing to team members, while maintaining an active membership in decision-making operational and technology groups responsible for determining content and functionality.
As a Director, that relationship between leadership and actual work is often more nebulous and challenging to preserve. I maintain my professional licensure (Registered Nurse) and certifications (CNOR; Epic clinical modules), which keeps me current and relevant to the work being done and the application functionality. Troubleshooting is one of my favorite things; I will often follow unresolved issues and assist in the data analysis for resolution. Subscribing to industry literature is also a key method of remaining current in leading trends and capabilities.
Q: What is one topic or issue you've been investing time in to better understand as of late?
EH: Novant Health Digital Products and Services has been engaged in moving from the standard service line based philosophy to a capabilities module of support; moving from a hierarchical leadership platform to capability based teams to better support our business partners and consumers. We are transforming healthcare IT into a more consumer-based product line to ensure positive disruption and progressive solutions within our organization. The one-size-fits-all support model is no longer adequate to sustain expanding technological opportunities and tools within the healthcare arena. We have to meet our consumers where they live, and that means expanding the traditional role of the IT department into a collaborative, change ready organizational partner with our healthcare business partners and consumers.
What contributes to better conversations between a health system's financial and clinical leaders?