A Business Case for Executive DevelopmentI’ve spent a number of years working in healthcare as the CHRO, as a consultant and doing doctoral research. We need to understand a new leadership discipline. The healthcare industry must challenge itself to embrace a new set leadership standards and engage the development of executives through both internal and external experiential and organizational development activities. It may be tough to hear but our industry lags behind others that implement Talent Management Systems and the aggressive development of leaders, especially women and minorities.
In my new book Linebacker in the Boardroom I’ve discussed the development of leaders in many industries, especially healthcare and introduced the concept of 3E Leadership™ (essential, exceptional, ethical) as the appreciation, enhancement and sustainability of the rights, dignity and respect of the entire workforce, customers and clients, and community.
Being Essential is the uncompromised need of healthcare leaders to provide an environment that encourages and supports the workforce and maximizes potential. They provide an environment that engages, motivates and inspires excellence.
Being Exceptional is a leader’s ability to differentiate themselves from the norm. They have a heightened sense of self-awareness and awareness that “exceptional leaders create exceptional environments, which allows an exceptional workforce to deliver exceptional products and service.”
Being Ethical is the foundation and the values that are ideas and beliefs that matter most to us. As human beings clustered together in healthcare work groups we have a moral compass that defines the things that really matter. More importantly ethical leadership is the demand and expectation of all stakeholders for behavior with integrity and trust.
In essence 3E Leadership™ means that we must be willing to find our impact zone. The place where we as individuals, teams, organizations and as an industry differentiate ourselves to the point that our essential leadership work is truly influenced by exceptional behavior and our ethical leadership becomes a sustainable competitive advantage.
We all can and should make an impact on our organizations. We can and should lead, inspire and ignite others. But most of all when we develop the talent of the organization we can learn to be better at growing the organizational and performance capabilities within the industry. I have learned and taught others that throughout our careers we need to understand that successful performance is a result of our ability to manage change through Essential, Exceptional and Ethical Leadership: 3E Leadership™.
