On October 10th, John will serve on the panel “HIT Security & Privacy: Best Practices and Key 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 John’s session, click here.
Question: What is the No. 1 principle you uphold and practice to effectively lead a team?
John Donohue: I think of many principles that are important as a leader, but none more important than leading by example. I see many “poor” leaders consistently asking their teams to do things they would not do themselves. It does not take long for this to start to deteriorate the team morale and ultimately the results. I firmly believe that a leader needs to lead from the front and set the right examples for the team. Sometimes this means being the first in the office, sometimes it means being the last to leave. Sometimes, it means demonstrating professionalism and working through a crisis. It does not take long to build a solid culture if you lead by example and then hold your next level leaders to the same expectations.
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?
JD: I think this is a real challenge. I think leaders need to be careful of being micro-managers. Sometimes this can just be perception if they try to get too close to the work and execute key tasks. Some of this is subjective based on how strong your team is and how “on-track” the initiative is. I try to stay engaged in the work that is being done by meeting regularly with the execution team. I ask for dashboards and request a “brutal facts” approach to project and task status. If something turns yellow or red, it gets more of my attention. I think skip level type meetings can keep you closer to the work also as you will get more intel about how things are actually going. Personally, I would only execute as a leader when something has gone wrong or off the rails. Showing trust in your team and empowering folks to develop is a much better recipe in the end.
Q: What is one topic or issue you’ve been investing time in to better understand as of late?
JD: Personally, I have been investing more time to look at blockchain technology and places where it will be effective in healthcare. I think that its only a matter of time before we are able to leverage some of the benefits of blockchain technology.
