Contributors: Roy Hawkins, Jr., FACHE and Paul Bohne
To learn more about Roy and Paul, click here.
There are many reasons why healthcare executives aspire to become CEOs. For some, their drive is fueled by a motivation for power and/or ego. However, we have found in our interactions with hundreds of healthcare industry CEOs over the years the common thread is they want to optimize the impact they have on the world.
Future healthcare CEOs – especially those in the not-for-profit arena – must "hunger to do work that makes a genuine, tangible difference in the world," write management experts Sally Blount and Paul Leinwand in Harvard Business Review. "Many worry that most jobs (and the ones they may be in today) won’t allow them to do so. They see [the CEO role] as a destination for creating real change."
This article outlines the numerous skills and qualities that you, an aspiring healthcare CEO, must learn and develop over time. These items are in no particular order and contain a blend of hard and “soft” skills that are required of today's top executives. We should point out that many of the so-called soft skills (historically attributed more to women) aren't soft at all and have always been critically important. It seems that leadership over the past few years has had an awakening as to just how essential these skills are in, for example, team performance and organizational success.
- Strategy and Vision: This is where COOs often have an advantage as candidates for CEO roles, in that they've frequently been asked to go beyond "keeping the trains running on time" and to share their vision and actualize strategies. As an aspiring CEO, find ways to participate in strategy and begin to formulate your stories of how you came up with great ideas and saw them through to fruition.
- P&L Responsibility: Somewhere along the line, you have to gain experience with leading your own budget and owning profit and loss responsibility. Look for opportunities within your current organization to run a department or other entity where your profitability directly impacts the larger organization's bottom line.
- Executive Management Experience: Another thing that can be a knock against you as a CEO candidate is a lack of experience leading senior teams. Seize any opportunity you can to be a leader of other leaders.
- Community Leadership: First-time CEO candidates often fail to demonstrate they've been a leader outside of their jobs. Why is this important? You want boards to have confidence in you not just as a chief executive within your organization but as an ambassador outside of it as well.
- Advocacy: Another key dimension is the external-facing issues that need attention. Have you served in the capacity of an advocate (for an organization or for a personal cause) with regulators or key decision-making bodies? These opportunities are hard to find but are extremely valuable.
- Governance: Early careerists who aspire to become CEOs need to find meaningful exposure to boards, even if it starts with your chamber of commerce, church, or condominium association.
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Philanthropy and Fund Development: This aspect of being a CEO is perhaps more important for healthcare leaders looking to lead not-for-profit hospitals or health systems. Candidates must show not only that they've "made the ask" many times in the past but also have shown an affinity for fundraising and "friend-raising" that is often part and parcel of the CEO role.
Essential “Soft” Skills
- Ability to Collaborate and Communicate: As an aspiring CEO, you must be the engine to engage the entire workforce, to be a true leader of people and to encourage high-performing teams. You must establish a genuine bond with peers and staff.
- Ability to Foster Diversity and Inclusion: Today's healthcare organizations are being measured for their ability to proactively serve the populations that comprise their constituencies, to promote health equity among these populations, and to employ staff and executives who represent a diverse and inclusive workforce. As a CEO, you must be a champion of change and truly committed to diversity and equity within and outside your organization.
Keep Your Head Up
As an aspiring chief executive, eye the big picture. Map your career so you acquire the experiences and competencies to one day be ready for the CEO role.
Contact Roy at: [email protected]
Contact Paul at: [email protected]