What too many don’t seem to realize is that it takes an extraordinarily decisive leader to guide a hospital during an uncertain period of change like the one every healthcare provider is facing today.
As a CEO, you might feel like you’re driving a car with a bunch of bickering VPs in the backseat, yelling at you to swerve one way and then another as you dodge the regulatory changes that are speeding toward you at a pace you can’t seem to keep up with. You might even have hoped you could rely on those same VPs to take charge of keeping your organization on the road — but they’re not doing it.
Maybe you’ve figured that you need to wait until the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act dust settles before your organization can even try to adapt. Or perhaps you’ve already abandoned your hope that your executive team would pull together to create a new normal amid the chaos.
That’s not decisive.
Decisive is assessing just how much or how little you have to work with, and then making that amount fit your organization, no matter how much more you’re used to having.
Decisive is rallying your team to pull together and take charge of making the required changes suit your organization.
This brings to mind the amazing story of Lt. Col. James Harold “Jimmy” Doolittle, a U.S. Army Air Force pilot and aeronautics expert who was both extraordinarily decisive and practical enough to figure out how to use an incredibly limited resource to pull off a huge event.
On April 18, 1942, four months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Doolittle planned and executed a U.S. raid on Tokyo that required 16, 35,000-pound B-25 bomber planes to take off from an aircraft carrier’s 467-foot runway.
Those planes typically took flight from land-based runways measuring 1,500 to 3,000 feet so they could build up enough airspeed to take off. But that length wasn’t available on the ship, so Doolittle made the call to use what was. The plan worked, and Doolittle, eventually promoted to general, won a medal of honor for valor and leadership.
What is your organization’s equivalent to flying a 35,000-pound plane off of a 467-foot runway?
Spiraling prices and deep budget cuts could mean your hospital has too much tonnage to take off, and your VPs know it. Can they figure out how to take off anyway, as Doolittle did during World War II?
If they can’t, you are not doing your job.
Be clear about what you expect from your executive team during these trying times. Hold them accountable for humanely and urgently cutting the waste from their budgets. Insist that they — and you — focus 100 percent of their energy on doing what it takes to create the patient-centered healthcare organization of the future. Stop them — and yourself — from investing any effort in protecting your pay, bonus, track record or anything else that is personal. Go so far as to decrease the number of senior officials in your organization, forgo executive bonuses and reconfigure the C-suite so it is lean enough to support the new model of healthcare.
To start, call an all-hands meeting of your executive group, and press the reset button on pulling together as a team. Insist that the group will:
- Talk to each other, not about each other.
- Fully participate in each meeting and eschew the typical “meeting after the meeting” that includes only select members.
- Make clear agreements about who will do what, by when.
- Hold each other accountable — right up to the CEO.
I have yet to speak to a CEO who has not admitted that at least one-third of administrative staff could be cut without jeopardizing quality of care if service level expectations are managed correctly. Get these VPs in a room for a brutally honest discussion about each executive’s direct reports. Force everyone to “detach” from their favorites and truthfully examine who is needed and who is not. Even if the group does not act on what it uncovers, it’s important for this high-level team to know the truth.
During lean times, there can simply be no tolerance for budget battles, personal agendas, turf building and pet projects. None of that will pave the way for path to the cost-cutting that is inevitable on your path to a sustainable operation.
Keep those who know that if, after the cutbacks, you’re left with just 467 feet of runway, they can still get the plane off the ground.
Some people will call you “crazy;” plenty told Doolittle the same thing. Your colleagues and your competitors may say it’s impossible to use resources as efficiently as you propose to and still run a quality healthcare organization focused on the patient. Prove them wrong.
Be decisive. Doolittle didn’t use words like “I hope” and “I think maybe.” He did his due diligence, double-checked his measurements, displayed great confidence, and then presented a compelling proposal that convinced higher-ups to approve his plan and subordinates to trust him enough to fly those planes.
Oh, and he flew one of them, too.
That’s leadership.
His every move demonstrated what he expected from his team. Yours can, too.
Do your rounding as a priority because you expect your VPs to do theirs. Be visible. Connect with the staff. Communicate your expectations.
These are priorities when you need everyone to focus on taking off with far less than they’re used to.
Decisive leadership is what will allow this behemoth called healthcare to take off from the short runway created by today’s economic and regulatory realties.
What kind of leader are you?
Linda Galindo is the author of two books about personal accountability: “Way to Grow!” (2004) and “The 85% Solution” (2009). She is president of Galindo Consulting Inc. in Park City, Utah, and has worked for more than 20 years as a consultant, keynote speaker, leadership development facilitator and executive coach. Contact her at Linda@LindaGalindo.com.
