Leadership is both an art and a science. Fundamentally, the art of leadership encompasses relationships, interpersonal skills, timing, tempo, power, and intuition. The science of leadership embodies skills and principles along with expertise in the business of health.1Good leadership is important for the success of any organization; furthermore, it is more than just important-it is absolutely critical to the organization’s success.
In most organizations, there are two groups of leaders: the governing board and the chief executive and other senior managers that have to work together in order to preserve the integrity of the organization’s goals. The same is true in a healthcare organization; the governing board selects the chief executive officer. But most healthcare organizations, certainly hospitals, have a third leadership group: physicians and other licensed independent practitioners who provide patient care within the organization.2
If one wants a healthcare organization to succeed, it must be perceived as a system, the components of which work together to create success. For any healthcare organization, the primary goal is to provide high-quality of services and safe care to those who seek its assistance whether they are patients, residents, clients, or care recipients. Rather than thinking of the healthcare organization as a conglomerate of units, one needs to think of it as a system, that it is a combination of process, people, and other resources that work together to achieve success.
The quality and safety of care provided by a healthcare organization depends on many factors such as: principles that foster safety and quality; planning and provision of services that meet the needs of patients; the availability of human resources, financial, physical, and information for providing care; appropriate staffing with the necessary skills and training. Only the leaders of a healthcare organization have the resources, influence, and control to cover in extent these factors. They can strategically manage a plan for provision of services, acquire and allocate resources, and set priorities.
Likewise, it is the leaders who establish the organization’s culture through their words, expectations for actions, and behavior in a culture that values high-quality, safe patient care, responsible use of resources, community service, and ethical behavior; or a culture in which these goals are not valued.2 In a culture of safety and quality, every individual is focused on maintaining excellence in performance. Each accepts the safety and quality of patient care as a personal responsibility and everyone works together to minimize any harm that might result from unsafe or poor care.
Outstanding leaders are goal-oriented. Their goals are clear, and definite,3 they do not procrastinate and they have a sense of purpose/mission. Outstanding leaders strive for excellence in everything; they nurture the potential of all members of their team; they always keep open lines of communication both personally and professionally. These leaders possess a sense of ownership in the organization and carry out their assignments with pride and responsibility. Organizations understand that success will be driven by a leader’s ability to communicate strategy, control costs and deliver efficient care.
Summarizing, healthcare workforce is in the midst of its most dramatic period of change in more than 20 years. Increased turnover, shorter tenures and a growing number of retiring executives has the industry struggling to deal with an expanding leadership gap. It is essential that today’s healthcare executive be an inspirational leader capable of attracting, training, retaining and motivating top performers.
To meet the demands of the changing healthcare industry, healthcare executives in leadership positions must focus on building the new competencies which will drive success throughout their organization. Executives who excel at instilling the skills and professional standards required to create a culture of efficiency, productivity and accountability will be in high demand. Finding, nurturing and retaining those leaders will continue to be the most critical success factor for healthcare organizations seeking to survive, thrive and lead in the new era of performance-driven healthcare.
