Leadership - Archives

3 Leadership Essentials For An Exceptional Service Culture

All organizations talk about service, but for health care organizations service is everything. Fostering an exceptional service culture throughout your health care organization can be a challenge - but it can be done. Continue Reading...

How Hourly C.A.R.E. Rounds Can Positively Impact Your HCAHPS Scores

Rounding is nothing new in healthcare. It’s as old as some medical facilities themselves and also was a tactic used by Florence Nightingale as she went from one soldier to the next to provide care during the Crimean War! Rounding has traditionally been seen as a way to move efficiently between patients when there was more than a 1:1 ratio of providers to patients. It ensures that providers can move from one patient to the next to keep tabs on each patient’s status. Continue Reading...

Is Your Leadership Style One Size Fits None?

What if you walked into your favorite coffee shop one day and discovered that you couldn't order your usual, "customized" coffee? You'd be served caffeinated black coffee or nothing at all. Many industry leaders recognize that their customers are demanding customized experiences; after all, you can customize everything from your computer to your morning cup of coffee. But what about the front-line employees providing these customized experiences? Should their leaders expect them to perform their work in a "black coffee" world, with each employee being treated exactly like the one next to him? In our increasingly customized world, it should be no surprise that employees might expect customized approaches from their leaders. A "one size fits all" approach doesn't work any better in leadership than it does with serving coffee to a Starbucks generation. Continue Reading...

Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way!

Health care organizations are beginning to embrace the concept of a Chief Experience Officer - an individual responsible for ensuring service excellence throughout the organization. While I can see the merit in having a position like this, and it makes sense to establish clear accountability, simply anointing this new type of "CEO" is not enough to make exceptional service happen. Continue Reading...

Leading with Passion: Three keys to sharing your enthusiasm

Martin Luther King. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Gandhi. When these leaders spoke, their followers did more than listen - they became infused with a shared passion and fully engaged in a common cause.

When it comes to leadership traits, "passion" is hard to pin down, but vital to engaging the hearts and minds of followers - or employees. Passionate leaders have the spark that can foster commitment and determination in their employees. Continue Reading...

Listen to Your Patients in Stereo

You’ve conducted a very extensive patient satisfaction survey and you’ve just received the results. You’ve gathered your leadership team together and you’re diving into the data. There’s a lot of information—and you’ve paid a lot to attain it. But what does it mean? And what do you do with the information? With HCAHPS scores driving reimbursement, as well as the movement toward value-based purchasing, patient satisfaction is no longer the “nice” thing to do—it’s essential. Continue Reading...

Mission Check: How to keep your sssential promises

Typically, organizations pour a lot of effort and brain power into developing powerful mission, vision and values statements. The final results of arduous brainstorming sessions, these statements are boldly plastered on websites, walls, organizational literature and employee name tags. They stand as the organization's essential promises to their customers. Breaking any one of these promises leads to a breakdown in service, quality and ultimately, your reputation. Continue Reading...

Mission Critical: Making two essential connections between mission and service

Customer service in health care organizations has gone through several evolutions since the mid to late 1980s. It has evolved from a nice after thought to a critical component in the success of any organization. When second generation customer service initiatives made patient satisfaction surveys mandatory, the tie between customer service, business development and the organizational mission became clearer and more defined. Leaders began to take this connection more seriously. Continue Reading...

Physician and Manager: Powerful pair or oil and water?

As a child, you may have worked the parenting system by telling dad that “Mom said it’s okay,” or convincing mom that “Dad lets me do it.” Unless mom and dad caught onto the ploy, joined forces, and made it impossible for you to pit one against the other, this tactic may have been an effective means for you to get your way. Continue Reading...

The Connection to Purpose: Why work matters

At some time or another, every human being is swept up in that search for purpose. Aside from a paycheck, most workers will cite that what makes them happiest is that they have a meaningful level of contribution to their organization and that they can take an active role in shaping the outcomes and results. Continue Reading...

Walking the Talk: Four leadership actions that show service is a priority

As leaders, we sometimes forget that the things we do make a difference and that our actions often speak more loudly than our words. Employees pay attention to not only what we say, but what we do — and they look for consistency between the two. That consistency is often referred to as “walking the talk.” Are you “walking the talk”? Do your behaviors and actions back up the things you say and support your organization’s mission, vision, values and purpose in tangible ways? If not, or if you’re not sure, here are four actions you can take to make sure that you’re “walking the talk” and demonstrating that customer service is truly a priority. Continue Reading...

What's the Story? Great leaders shape culture with stories that support mission, vision, and values

Storytelling is ageless. It traces back to prehistoric times when cave dwellers would capture their stories in the form of pictures on cave walls. From Aristotle and Aesop to Shakespeare and Doug Lipman, throughout time, those who have been able to craft a good story could hold audiences in thrall, capturing both their hearts and their minds. Continue Reading...