vol46.1 LR.pdf - International Hospital Federation

Management: Leadership
the manager level and above, is designed to help new team
leaders and their staff bridge any gaps that may occur during a
leadership transition.
“It’s a facilitated conversation that we conduct to help that new
leader and the new team get off on the right foot and start working
more effectively faster,” says Knight.
Legacy also offers two certification programmes. Its Pathways
to Leaders certification programme involves 30 hours of
coursework. Aspiring leaders, with permission from their
supervisors, can attend the programme, through which they get
an overview of the leadership aspects at Legacy from a finance,
quality and human resources perspective, says Knight. The
programme also helps participants define what it means to be a
leader.
The organization’s Leadership Essentials certification
programme includes 80 hours of coursework and is designed for
employees at the supervisor level and above. It is geared toward
individuals who are new to Legacy and those who are new to
leadership in general. In addition, Legacy offers specialized
leadership development for physicians and is expanding its ability
to offer e-learning opportunities.
Knight says there are many benefits to conducting leadership
development in house. “We know the system, we know the
people, we know the culture, we know the political environment,”
she says. “We’re more helpful having that base and that
foundation.”
Legacy President and CEO George Brown, MD, says tying an
organization’s leadership development to its organizational culture
is essential to the success of that organization. “One of our
organization’s deepest strengths is our values,” says Brown.
“Legacy is really the coming together of a Lutheran and Episcopal
organization, and the values of service and integrity, forthrightness,
etc., have permeated our organization over the years. The
consequence of that is that we seek leaders who imbue those
qualities.”
High sights for hiring at HCA
Nashville, Tennesse, USA, -based HCA is another organization
focused on developing leaders from within. One way in which it
does this is through its COO and CNO Development programmes.
The COO Development Programme is designed to prepare
individuals to become COOs within HCA’s network of 170
hospitals and more than 100 outpatient surgery centres. After an
extensive application process (both external and internal
candidates may apply), participants are selected and assigned the
role of associate administrator within an HCA hospital. Programme
participants are assigned a mentor (usually a CEO), who guides
the individual’s development, and participate in projects and
seminars at HCA’s corporate offices. When participants have met
all programme requirements and are deemed ready, they move
into a COO position, with the ultimate goal of eventually becoming
CEO of an HCA hospital.
HCA’s CNO Development Programme is designed for internal
applicants only. Nurses in the programme are already within the
HCA system and in leadership roles. Participants receive
recommendations from their supervisors to participate.
“They already have a lot of clinical experience, and senior
leadership is already on board before the nurses start the
programme,” says Dell Oliver, RN, assistant vice president of the
Executive Development Programmes at HCA and director of the
One of the things that is really
important to us – and I suspect for
most organizations – is you can
bring people in and develop them
within the existing culture, and that
way your culture continues
CNO Development Programme. “We work in the programme to
fine-tune some of their financial and business skills. The
expectation upon completion of the programme is that they are
trained to be a CNO.”
To date, HCA’s COO programme, which started in 2001, has
had 119 participants, 65 of whom have been promoted to COO
within HCA facilities and seven who have taken the helm as CEO
at an HCA facility. The CNO programme, which began in 2006,
has averaged approximately eight to 10 CNO placements per year
in various-sized facilities across the health system.
Both programmes have helped HCA prepare for staff retirement
and turnover and are another way to ensure the organization’s
culture is not lost when staff transitions do occur. “One of the
things that is really important to us – and I suspect for most
organizations – is you can bring people in and develop them within
the existing culture, and that way your culture continues,” says Lee
Nelson, director of Executive Development at HCA. “And those
things that are important to the organization as a whole get
passed on.”
Targeted training at children’s – Dallas
Children’s Medical Center – Dallas, a private nonprofit, 483-bed
system, ensures its three formal leadership academies are tied to
the organization’s strategic plan and provides curriculum tailored
to the level of leadership for which they’re designed. It offers a
programme for directors and senior directors (including physician
leaders), a programme targeted to managers and an emerging
leaders programme for new leaders making a transition from peer
to supervisor.
Each academy accepts one group of candidates per year, and
that group meets one full day per month for eight months.
Participants are nominated by their direct supervisors and hand
selected by the organization’s president and CEO.
“The classes are taught by members of our senior leadership
team using a leaders-as-teachers model, allowing for a significant
amount of interaction between the students and the executive
staff,” says Lee. Participants complete a 360-degree evaluation
tool based on Children’s leadership competency model. They are
required to develop a personal action plan to focus their
development activities during their participation in the academy.
The programme culminates in the completion of a formal project
that is required for graduation. The project must put into practice
a new process or improve an existing process that serves to
advance the goals and objectives of the organization, says Lee.
Learning from experience
Experts agree that experiential learning is a key component of any
successful leadership development programme, whether it’s a
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