August 14, 2024 • 42 mins
Welcome back to Bread to Lead, the podcast dedicated to empowering leaders across the globe, with a special focus on healthcare. I'm your host, Dr. Jake Tayler Jacobs, and I'm thrilled to share another inspiring episode with you.
In today's episode, we introduce the concept of "Bridge Builders"—the vital role you play as a leader in connecting departments, ideas, and people to improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. We discuss the importance of developing future leaders through our Next Step Leadership program, which emphasizes early identification, continuous development, practical experience, and mentorship.
We'll also reflect on the feedback from our previous episode on emotional intelligence, share real-world examples of successful leadership development, and explore the challenges and strategies for implementing a robust leadership pipeline within your organization.
Join us as we delve into how you can create a legacy of leadership that ensures the long-term success and sustainability of healthcare organizations. Don't miss out on practical insights, tools, and strategies to elevate your leadership journey.
Stay tuned, and remember to keep building those bridges with purpose, authenticity, and heart.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:17):
Welcome back to Bread to Lead, the podcast dedicated to empowering leaders,
health care leaders, but leaders all over the world, regardless of any sector,
to making a lasting impact. I am your host, Dr.
Jake Taylor Jacobson. I'm thrilled to be back with you for another inspiring episode.
Listen, y'all, we're a top 50 business and leadership podcast.
(00:40):
We've been hovering in the 40s. So we're a top 40 something leadership and business podcast.
So I'm extremely excited about us pushing the narrative of developing the importance
of developing leaders forward.
I think it's very important. It's very critical for us to understand not only
just in our country or in countries all over the world, but in every industry,
(01:03):
every sector, especially in health care, the industry that can, in fact.
Keep you alive or kill you. I think that leadership is absolutely not only imperative,
but it's a we're in dire need of more leaders to be able to rise from the ashes
to be able to take this health care industry and industries abroad to the next level. So I'm excited.
(01:28):
I'm actually excited to be back. Every week, I get excited talking about this
podcast and even dropping this podcast because I think it's very important when
we talk about the necessary need or the lesser of two evils for us to be able
to continue to get better.
And I say the lesser of two evils, meaning work is work regardless of how you look at it, right?
(01:52):
And although I love doing the podcast, Creating the content,
writing the content to make sure that it flows right and you get what you need
and making sure that we prepare for this podcast no different than a training or a class.
It does take a lot of work. And so, yes, I'm always excited to continue.
I'm always excited to talk about these things.
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I'm always excited to teach and train, but I'm more excited on finally getting
the lesson out of me so that you can be able to get it.
So let's get to it. Before we dive actually into today's topic,
I want to introduce a new concept that I believe perfectly encapsulates who
you are as our listeners and what you represent in the world of healthcare leadership.
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From this episode forward, I would like to refer to you as a bridge builder, our bridge builders.
And the reason why I say bridge builders is because that's exactly what you
are in your roles as current and aspiring health care leaders.
You are constantly building bridges between departments, between administration.
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Clinical staff, between health care providers and patients.
You're connecting ideas, people, and systems to improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.
Bridge builders are problem solvers, innovators, and agents of progress.
You're the ones who see gaps and find ways to fill them, who identifies barriers
and create pathways to overcome them.
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Whether you're just starting your leadership journey or you're a seasoned executive, executive.
You're all working to build bridges to a better future in healthcare.
This concept of bridge builders aligns perfectly with the principles I discuss in my book, Bred to Lead.
If you haven't picked up a copy yet, I highly recommend it is a companion to
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these podcast episodes.
The book dives deeper into many of the concepts that we discuss here and provides
additional tools and strategies for
your journey as a bridge builder in healthcare. Let me just be be clear.
The podcast Bread to Lead is a derivative of the book Bread to Lead.
So the same way you look for the podcast Bread to Lead and you found us, go on Amazon,
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get you a copy of Bread to Lead, get a couple of copies for your team so you
can start having these concepts or these conversations around how can we build
an organization where leaders thrive and we're consistently developing developing
leaders moving forward for the long, long haul of the organization.
So these are things that we'll talk about in today's episode,
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you know, to be able to talk about.
So before we get actually into today's main topic, I also want to take a moment
to reflect on last week's episode.
If you recall, we discussed the importance of emotional intelligence and health care leadership.
We explored how understanding and managing our own emotions,
as well as recognizing and influencing the emotions of others,
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can significantly impact our effectiveness as leaders.
We received some fantastic feedback from you all, our bridge builders,
and I'd like to share a few of our insights.
So Sarah, a nurse manager from Chicago, wrote in to say the episode on emotional
intelligence really hit home for me.
I've always known that understanding my team's emotions was important,
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but I never realized how much of my own emotional state was affecting my leadership.
I've started practicing some of the self-awareness techniques you suggested,
and I'm already seeing a difference in how I interact with my team.
I just want to say to my bridge builder, Sarah, thank you for sharing your experience.
It's wonderful to hear that you've
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already are putting these ideas into practice and seeing the results.
Another bridge builder, Dr. James from Atlanta, shared how he's implementing
a new approach to dealing with conflicts in his department.
He said after listening to the episode, he realized that he often rushed to
solve conflicts without really understanding the emotional undercurrents.
So he says now I'm taking more time to listen and acknowledge emotions before
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moving to problem solving.
It's made a huge difference in how my team communicates and resolves issues.
Y'all, this come these comments remind me of why we do what we do as bridge
builders. And it's so important.
Your dedication to improving health care leadership is truly making a difference.
If you have any thoughts or experiences you'd like to share about last week's
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episode or any of our previous discussions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Your insights not only help me shape future episodes, but also inspires your
other fellow bridge builders.
So you can hit us on LinkedIn. You can hit us on YouTube.
You can find us anywhere that Sips Healthcare is. You can find me on LinkedIn
under Jake Taylor Jacobs, Dr. Jake Taylor Jacobs with an ER.
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And even go to breadtolead.com. You can go to breadtolead.com and find out ways
to communicate with us so that you can be able to share with us your experiences of the show.
OK, great. Now, let's turn our attention to today's topic.
Next up, leadership. This concept is at the core of what it means to be a bridge builder.
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It is a crucial strategy for ensuring the long term success and sustainability
of our health care organizations.
Next step, leadership is a proactive approach to leadership development that
we've cultivated within our organizations And in organizations all across the
country as we continue to rehabilitate,
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reestablish and restructure health care departments all over the country.
And it's based on the principle that the best organizations build leaders from
within their or within their system rather than relying primarily on external hires.
It's about identifying, nurturing and preparing the next generation of bridge
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builders at every level of the organization.
As a bridge builder, you understand the importance of creating pathways for
growth and development.
Next step leadership is about intentionally creating those pathways within your
organization to ensure a steady pipeline of capable leaders ready to take on future challenges.
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And I'm going to be honest with you. If we were to talk about the current state
of leadership in health care, you know, and before we actually dive even deeper
into the next step leadership concept, we have to take a moment to consider
the current state of leadership in health care.
Currently, the health care industry is facing an unprecedented challenge from
the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 pandemic to the rapid pace of technology changes
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from shifting patient expectations to to evolving regulatory requirements.
The demands on health care leaders have never been even never been greater.
And at the same time, we're seeing a significant leadership gap emerging in the health care space.
A study done by the American College of Health Care Executives found that 70
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percent of hospital CEOs are planning to retire in the next 10 years.
And similar trends are seen across other leadership positions in various health
care settings. What does this mean?
It means that this impending leadership vacuum presents both a challenge and an opportunity.
Organizations that fail to prepare for this transition risk immense instability.
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Loss of institutional knowledge and potential declines in performance and patient care.
On the other hand, those that invest in developing their future leaders can
create a powerful competitive advantage, ensuring continuity,
fostering innovation and building a culture of continuous improvement and excellence.
This is where next step leadership comes into play and where you as a bridge
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builder, you have a crucial role to play in our concept that we implement all
across the country. but something I want you to implement into your heart.
And it is understanding what Next Step Leadership is.
Next Step Leadership is a strategic, proactive approach to leadership development
that focuses on preparing individuals at all levels of the organization for
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future leadership roles.
It's about creating a robust leadership pipeline that ensures your organization
always has the right leaders in the right places at the right times.
So we're going to go over some key principles of next step leadership.
Listen, if you're new to the podcast, welcome to Bread to Lead the podcast.
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If you have not noticed, we have already started teaching.
You're going to hear me yelling. You're going to hear me screaming.
You're going to hear me singing.
You're going to hear me monotone. You're going to hear me excited because this
is really my emotions that are coming out because I'm really passionate about
changing the tide, specifically in health care with businesses.
If you do not know me, I've trained more than 15000 business leaders all across
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the world, over 22 countries to be exact.
And so when it comes to this thing of leadership and developing skill sets to
transcending organizations long term, everyone starts with technology,
operations, sales, marketing and all these other pieces that make up the organization.
But they fail to start with the very thing that can tear an organizational organization down.
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Leadership, developing the soft developmental skills to be able to take an organization
to the next level. When we talk about leadership, we also have to also consider this.
It's easier to learn hard skills than it is to learn soft skills. What do you mean, Dr. J?
Everyone focuses on the skill of the job, whether it's putting papers in a filing
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cabinet or doing a surgery to save someone's life or picking up a camera and
recording the content as a marketing person.
All of these things are what we consider hard skills.
But what takes an organization to unprecedented levels, taking an organization
to becoming the top cream of the crop of what they do,
it all lies in the leadership and how well the organization from the lowest
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level of entry to the highest level of leadership buys into the leaders that are at place.
They feel a sense of calling and you can't feel a sense of calling to a leadership
group or an organization that has leaders that are not as, how do you say,
a people-friendly, customer-centric.
They're not as team-focused, people-oriented.
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They're just straight rigid on hard skills.
And you create an organization that, yes, you may get highly skilled people,
but no one wants to work with them.
No one wants to be around them, nor do people want to go see them as a patient in the hospital system.
So we have to start looking at things.
And then also, if you're new to the podcast, I want you to know this.
This is a a podcast that you take a pen and pad out and you write notes.
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Because the goal of this podcast is to give you something that you can actually
apply into your life long term and into your organizations for the growth.
Whether you're an entrepreneur or you're a leader that's on the precipice of
becoming or the next up, as we say, to a promotion.
The concept of next up is whatever you feel like you're next up at as a bridge
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builder. You're next up for leadership.
You're You're next up for a promotion. You're next up to be a director.
You're next up to be an executive. You're next up to be a C-suite.
You're next up to become an entrepreneur.
Whatever your next up is, that's what this podcast is to do.
It's to build up your soft developmental skills to realize how ineffective we've
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been as an industry and across all sectors, how ineffective we've been as leaders.
Leadership is a thankless job,
but it's the only job that can take an organization to the next level.
So we're going to talk about a couple of key principles in the NextUp leadership,
and there's five of them.
So we'll go ahead and get into it. One, write this down. Early identification.
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The key to NextUp leadership is recognizing leadership potential early in an individual's career.
And as a bridge builder, you have the opportunity to identify and nurture potential
in your team members, helping them see leadership possibilities they might not
have recognized in themselves.
And there's a there's a there's a portion in scripture that talks about how
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King Solomon, I mean, not King Solomon, Jethro was a training Moses.
And he told him to look for three things with people that you're going to invest
your time and energy into.
The first thing he said, you want to find people who are capable.
And it's crazy that he said capable and not willing people that are willing
to take a job, willing to do the opportunity, willing to get a promotion.
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Willing to do overtime. time.
Those are not always necessarily people that are capable of doing it.
People that are capable of doing a job have the ability to do the job efficiently
and without as much extra energy or wasted time or resources.
They already have the innate ability to execute the job or they can figure it
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out quickly without it causing a lot of costs and resources and time.
And what you're going to see is that there's a lot of people get a lot of attention
because they're willing to raise their hand first.
They're willing to speak up first. They're willing to show themselves available,
but it doesn't always mean that they're capable of actually executing that job
or that position, which is why when it comes to looking at who to identify,
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the first rule is to understand and ask yourself, are they capable for their next step?
Before you start seeing CEO in their life, Are they capable of actually being
a great leader within the organization?
Whatever that next promotional track is, are they capable?
Have they already shown you examples that exhibit that? Or do you just have
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a great feeling in your stomach? There's a difference.
Having the good feeling in your stomach about somebody is not the same thing
as seeing it for yourself.
Are they showing leadership capabilities now? Are they being a team player now?
Are they staying out late to make sure that their team member is not being left
behind and they're helping them finish their jobs now?
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Are they educating now or are they thinking selfishly of themselves?
That will let you know if they're willing or capable. The next thing you don't
want to focus on anyone that isn't that that doesn't believe in order and structure.
Now, I do believe in the beauty of my favorite book being on Beyond Zebra.
I do believe in the beauty of people coloring outside the lines.
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But what I do not believe is people that don't enjoy or do not recognize the
importance of accountability.
So when scripture actually talks about people who have a healthy fear of God,
and what this simply means is you have a healthy fear or a healthy acceptance of accountability.
Are they somebody that wants to be held accountable or do they always come up
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with excuses and point fingers and create reasons as to why they can't get a
job done? That's the question.
Because if that is their answer, they're always making excuses about somebody
did this and I I didn't get that done because I didn't get that or I didn't
get this done because I couldn't execute that.
That will let you know that I they may not be capable or have enough in them
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for me to invest my time into.
But if there's somebody say, yep, my fault. As a matter of fact,
what I've done is I've implemented this. So it never happens again.
Accountability is not saying, yeah, you're right. You got me.
I did that wrong. It never fixing it.
Accountability is never having to be repeated to have to repeat the same offense
to the same person again. That's accountability. ability.
If they say, hey, this is a problem you're never going to have to deal with
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me again, they can have other issues, but this will never be one.
And so you have the first one, which is, are they capable? The second one is, are they accountable?
And the third one is, oh, I cannot wait to tell you. The third one is they don't
take easy bribes. They're not there just for money.
If you find someone that's always asking how much you get paid,
what's the next promotional track?
How much money do I make if I do this? They're making decisions for their careers
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and their abilities based on the money that's out on the table.
And people that are chasing money are always typically the people,
in most cases, that are actually short cutters.
They're the ones that don't want to put in the time if the money is not paying the dime.
And when you're looking for a leader to develop, they want to lead and develop
and grow and be the best, regardless of what that paycheck says,
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because they know for a fact that when they become the best,
the paycheck is going to handle the rest. Hello, somebody.
So you want to find them. Are they accountable? Are they capable?
And are they in it to be the best or are they in it just for the check?
Once you identify they have all three, bingo, I got somebody that I should be
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thinking, hey, you're next up for leadership. The second thing,
continuous development.
The key principle of next up leadership is continual development,
providing ongoing opportunities for growth and learning. This aligns perfectly
with your role as a bridge builder.
As you're constantly building bridges to new knowledge and skills,
ask yourself, am I providing an organization that allows and invests into their continued education?
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Education, because as an organization, I cannot allow or wait for you to go
and do it because a lot of people don't even know where to go.
A lot of people don't even have a resources or may not even know what resources
are actually the best resources for their career to make them better.
And a lot of people are living on old skills and old talents that they've learned
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in order to get them to do a new thing for new promotions.
And if you want new promotions and new opportunities, You got to develop new
skills in your tool belt.
You got to be able to say, I don't do this how I used to.
Matter of fact, there are so many things that I thought I did great when I was younger in my career.
Though, as I sit in my seat today and I look back and I was like,
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man, I was mediocre to say the least.
And not only was I mediocre, I was outpacing everyone in my class and still
looking back like, dang, there was so much more I could bring to the table.
But because of my continuous development, I began to incrementally get better
so that I can see that change in my life.
OK, so continuous development is something that's important.
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The third thing that you want to look at with the next step leadership is practical experience.
What real world leadership challenges and responsibilities are you creating
or giving them the opportunity for them to solve, to stretch and grow them?
Or are you as a leader, are you stifling the growth of your team so that you
don't have to deal with the time and energy you have to spend in developing them?
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Because you just want to get it done quickly because you didn't prepare for
the worst of happening. As a bridge builder, you have to be proactive,
not only in the worst coming, but also in the development of the people that are coming behind you.
It's very critical and it's very important. And it's very important for you
to understand that as a bridge builder, it's OK to make leaders that are better than you.
It actually shows who you are internally.
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If you can develop people that can even do things that are even better than you.
I mean, my favorite man of all time, Jesus Christ, did it when he was passing away.
He said you will even go and do even greater things than I. I?
So if Jesus could do it, why can't I?
These are the things that I look at. The fourth thing that you want to look
at as we are talking about key principles of next step leadership is mentorship and coaching.
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Are you pairing people up to work with different leaders to learn different skill sets?
Yes, you may have somebody in your department that may be really great at the
hard skills, but they're terrible at soft developmental skills.
So you may pair them together and say, hey, you're not good at soft developmental
skills. So I want you to learn that by teaching this person.
Then you tell the other person, you may be good at soft developmental skills,
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but you're not good at doing this job better than that person.
And you edify both of them and not tear both of them down.
Now you're using what they have best to each other to teach each other and cross-train
the things that they do best.
Yes, you may be good at the job, but they're better at leading people.
If I can get y'all to work together, you both can teach each other something
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through action and mentorship and coaching because it goes both ways. And then the fifth thing.
That you want to look at is alignment with organizational goals,
ensuring that the leadership development supports the overall organizational strategy.
This is about building bridges between individual growth and organizational success.
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Something that you as a bridge builder are uniquely positioned to do.
Organizational strategy and success along with growth and looking at that.
It makes no sense to develop talent in people that doesn't benefit the department,
the organization, or the hospital system in itself.
So all things have to congruently work together. And this is actually what we
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do with our NextUp leadership program.
When we work with facilities, we build up using our curriculum,
our technology, our instructors, and our SIPP standard framework,
our SIPS leadership standard framework, to build in hospitals their own version
of their Next Step Leadership Program so that they can matriculate people and
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develop their skill sets the moment that they see they have team lead ability.
Now they can operate and opt into our Next Step Leadership Program and be on
a fast track in leadership development within the organization.
The more you develop the talent within and the more that people see that you're
willing to invest in them, the harder it is for them to want to leave you because
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they're going to remember how much time you spent with them.
And they're going to compare that even when someone's giving them a higher paycheck,
they're going to literally consider, okay, if they're giving me a higher paycheck,
but with no training and development, but here I can literally become the best leader I can be.
And the next time I hit the market, I can even get a better offer than in this,
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those are things that they're going to look at, okay?
I'm glad that we talked about that. I'm going to take a sip of my tea.
All right, y'all. Y'all can tell I was excited. I can tell you I'm excited and
I'm excited simply because.
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I feel like I was holding my breath that whole time to my abs are tight.
I'm excited because I y'all I if you can't tell, I live for this.
I live for talking about leadership and why next step leadership is important.
So I'm going to slow down my pace a little bit because my excitement is kind
of bubbling now. Now, I've been working on this for a week and I've been wanting
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to get this information out to you.
So I'm going to slow down my cadence a little bit.
But but I hope you can tell and see why this stuff is important.
So now I want to segment into my next section session talking about next step
leadership versus battlefield promotions.
To fully appreciate the value of next step leadership, it's useful to contrast
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it with the common alternative, which I typically deem as battlefield promotions.
Promotions battlefield promotions borrow from military terminology refers to
situations where individuals are rapidly promoted to leadership positions out
of immediate necessity,
often without adequate preparation.
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And in health care, this might occur when a key leader suddenly departs or when
a crisis demands quick decision making.
While battlefield promotions can sometimes uncover hidden talent,
they often come with significant risk.
Lack of preparation. The newly promoted leader may lack the skills and experiences
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needed for their new role.
Increased stress. The promoted individual may feel overwhelmed and unsupported.
Team disruption. Our other team members may feel resentful or uncertain about the new leadership.
And for performance issues, the lack of preparation can lead to poor decision
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making and suboptimal outcomes.
Next step leadership, in contrast, ensures that when leadership needs arise,
you have a pool of well-prepared candidates ready to step up at a moment's notice.
This. Here's a couple of advantages.
One, smooth transitions.
Leaders are prepared and confident when taking on new roles.
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Number two, continuity.
Institutional knowledge and cultural values are preserved and enhanced.
Number three, improved performance.
Well-prepared leaders are more likely to succeed in newer roles.
Number four, enhanced morale.
Team members see clear paths for advancement and field value.
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And number five, reduce cost.
Developing internal talent is often more cost effective than external hiring.
As bridge builders, your role in implementing a next step leadership is crucial.
You need to implement a next step leadership program. You need to work with this.
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You're the ones who can build bridges between current and future leadership
needs. between individual aspirations
and organizational goals and between potential and performance.
Implementing next step leadership.
Here's a key strategy. This is typically what we would do. We create a leadership competency model.
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We implement our framework of skills, knowledge, and behaviors required for
leadership success in your organization that aligns with your organization's
value and strategic goals.
So an example, at a larger hospital system, we created, we implemented the leadership
competency model that included things like strategic thinking,
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emotional intelligence, change management, clinical excellence.
They use this model to guide all aspects of their leadership development program,
from selection to training to performance evaluation.
And what we do, we have a progressive pathway with our next step leadership
program. Our progressive pathway, you have everyone starts in at foundational.
We don't care how long you've been in leadership. If you're in the next step,
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if you're in that next step program, everyone starts at foundational because
we cannot assume what you know or what you don't know.
If you knew it, we wouldn't be needed to be there.
Everyone starts off as the mandatory stop is foundational. Then we go to strategic.
Then we go to an executive.
And as bridge builders, you play a key role in developing and refining this
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competency model, ensuring that it reflects real world skills.
The next one we focus on is implementing a formal identification process.
Right. We have assessments and certifications of leadership that we build within
your organization that allows for you to be able to see within your organization
what steps people are at and what we can assume that they know for a fact.
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There is a standard in every other thing, regulatory, regulatory standard and
compliance standard, everything in health care, except for the standard of leadership.
And although leadership based on space, position, opportunity based on city,
culture, whatever, although there are different ways to artistically show your
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leadership capabilities,
there are still fundamental truths of leadership that everyone should abide by.
How you color between the lines is up to you.
For an example, you cannot play basketball like you do rugby.
You cannot play basketball like you do soccer. There are fundamental rules and
standards that we all must go by in the game of basketball.
But how you operate and play the art of basketball is totally different.
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Those are things that we have to do. OK.
Twice a year with with the specialty clinic, we implemented a talent review
process where leaders across organization organizations discuss high potential
individuals in their teams.
And they use the standardized assessment tool that we provided to evaluate potential
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against their leadership competency model.
So once we know the leadership competency model based on our SIPs leadership
standard, now we can test where they are in that standard to let them know what
their deficiencies are so we can, in fact, plug and play to make them better.
OK, the third thing that you need is you need to provide a diverse development opportunities.
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You got to have cross-functional projects, leadership rotations,
stretch assignments to be able to develop different skill sets within your organization.
You should be moving people along to lead at different things.
So they're capable of running a department.
The key should be that everyone gets that is capable, accountable,
and they're willing to become the best at what they do as a leader and as a person.
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Those people should be getting cross trained within that entire department.
Everybody should know exactly what to do just in case anyone were to drop the
ball. you can fill in. Very simple.
Nobody should be so specialized at what they do that they can't fill in or help out in other areas.
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That would create bottlenecks within organizations that a lot of organizations struggle with.
You got to offer strong mentorship programs.
You got to pair them with their strongest leaders. You have to offer real leadership
experiences. Y'all listen, some leadership.
Is not a sport that you learn from a book or just a podcast.
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Leadership is an inactive game. You got to be active.
You have to be actively involved in developing your leadership bones or your
skill sets, or you will not get better.
You have to actively be held accountable to certain standards.
You have to actively be open to be critiqued, positively critiqued for the betterment of you.
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It's a crucial role in understanding that in every position that we hold,
somebody is going to come after us.
Regardless, you can try to hold that position and you can try to burn everybody
to make it hard for you to lose your position all you want.
But it's harder to just stay stagnant in a position than it is for you to grow out of it.
(32:32):
It is easier to grow to your next level of growth than there is for you to try
to just maintain and hold your position down.
So you got to be trying to ask yourself, what am I, what job am I doing?
How well am I doing at developing the next talents that come after me that can
(32:52):
succeed me in the position that I'm currently in? Very simple.
And creating readiness tools and success or challenges to see if somebody is
ready for the promotion.
And here's the thing, when you're building inside your organizational promotional
track, a couple of things that you want to focus on is just because it shows
(33:14):
that they may be ready now doesn't mean that you have to promote them now.
It just means that, hey, I know that you're ready when the opportunity arises.
Because turnover happens like clockwork in healthcare, there's always an opportunity.
And just like in sports, yeah, you may be sitting on the bench right now,
but if you get an opportunity, let's say you're Tom Brady and you're waiting
(33:38):
on that person that's in front of you to mess up.
And if you get promoted and you show out, guess who gets the job? You.
We got to enjoy the sport of leadership because the sport of leadership says
the next best man is up. Who's next up?
Whoever's best, who's ever best for the organization's goals,
(33:59):
whoever's best to take the innovation and take this position to the next level.
Whoever is best is who's next.
And this will keep everyone that's in that leadership role on their toes to get better.
How can I show I'm a better team player? How can I show I'm willing to develop
(34:19):
talent? How can I show that I'm willing to show my ability?
Because when I get elevated, a new position can show.
Now we're going to talk about we're going to talk about very quickly.
We're going to talk about the impact of next step leadership.
One, there was a study done by Burson and Associates that found that organizations
(34:43):
with strong leadership development programs were 1.5 times more likely to be
in the top quartile of financial performance.
So you're going to see improved organizational performance. Two,
according to Gallup, organizations that have implemented a strengths based approach to development.
See, 72 percent lower attrition rates, which means people aren't leaving.
(35:06):
So you get higher employee engagement.
Number three, a study done by the Journal of Health Care Management Focus found
that health care organizations with robust leadership development programs were
two point four times more likely to be rated as highly innovative by their employees.
Employees. So you get enhanced innovation.
(35:27):
Number four, the Journal of Nursing Administration found that hospitals with
strong nursing leadership development programs had 15 percent higher patient
satisfaction scores and 20 percent lower rates of adverse events.
So you get better patient outcomes. And lastly, a McKinsey study found that
organizations with strong leadership pipelines were able to fill critical roles
(35:51):
two point five times faster than those without.
Out, allowing them to respond more quickly to changing market conditions.
The scariest thing in health care or in any organization is when you have administration
and leadership that waits until something happens to develop talent.
The best organizations prepares before. You may say, Dr. Jake, but what if they leave?
(36:15):
That's fine. If you're a leadership developing organization,
if somebody leaves, that's great for the industry because you got someone who's next up. Thank you.
Someone who's next up. Now. I will be remiss if I didn't talk about the challenges
(36:36):
and considerations to think of when you're developing a next step leadership
program inside of your business or organization or health care facility.
Because it doesn't come without challenges. Number one is always resource allocation.
Developing your own next step leadership program requires significant investment
(36:56):
in time and resources. You have to be committed to long term commitment.
This is where we step in at Sips Healthcare Solutions.
We already have our next step leadership program. Matter of fact,
it is called Next Step Leadership Program. And we implement our curriculum.
We implement our trainings and development, give you access to our online campus.
(37:19):
We implement all of these things, our own competency models to ensure that they
align with your organization goals.
So that resource allocation isn't as extensive and expensive as possible, because guess what?
You got to hire a research team, development team, course trainers,
instructors, development team.
You got to cross change it. You got to do all the all the checks and balances.
(37:41):
And we can just plug and play our next step leadership program into your organization.
Number two, balancing current and future needs.
It's a crucial to strike a balance between developing future leaders and meeting
current operational demands. It's hard to do both.
That's why working with partners such as ourselves, we're able to partner with
(38:03):
the facilities and say, hey, listen, we can focus on both current needs and
future and future needs at the same time.
Number three, avoiding favoritism.
The process of identifying and developing high potential individuals must be
fair, transparent and based on merit to avoid perceptions of favoritism.
You have to have some type of readiness survey or readiness assessment where
(38:25):
we can identify who is capable and who could be ready that we may not be seeing because of favoritism.
Number four, managing expectations.
Not all participants in leadership development programs will become top leaders.
It's important to manage expectations and provide valuable growth opportunities
for all employees. And lastly, number five, maintaining diversity.
(38:47):
Leadership development efforts should actively work to promote diversity and
inclusion, ensuring that the future leadership reflects the diversity of the
workforce in patient population.
As a bridge builder, you play a crucial role in navigating these challenges.
You can help bridge, build bridges between different stakeholders,
(39:07):
between current and future needs, and between individual aspirations and organizational goals.
Here's a role of a bridge builder in a next step leadership.
You got to identify potential. You have to create opportunities.
You have to mentor and coach. You have to champion development.
You have to model continuous learning. You have to foster collaboration.
(39:29):
You have to drive innovation.
If you do not have those seven things, you are not a bridge builder.
You're not as good as a leader as you think you are.
A great leader has five. Good leader has five to seven of these.
A great leader has six to seven of these.
You're always focusing on who's next up, who can replace you,
who can you work on, who can you develop as the next great?
(39:50):
Because it takes a lot of the load off of you when you're developing the next
people that's next up. So in conclusion.
In today's rapidly evolving health care landscape, having a strong pipeline
of prepared leaders is not just an advantage, it's a necessity.
(40:11):
Next Step Leadership provides a strategic, proactive approach to ensuring your
organization always has the leadership talent it needs to navigate challenges,
seize opportunities and deliver exceptional patient care.
As bridge builders, you are the forefront of transformation.
You're not just leaders, you're leadership developers, mentors and champions
(40:36):
of growth and innovation.
By embracing and implementing next step leadership principles,
you can create a legacy that extends far beyond your own tenure,
shaping the future of health care for generations to come.
Remember, the journey we're on through this podcast is just one part of your
development as a bridge builder. I encourage you to check out my book,
(40:58):
Bred to Lead, for a deeper dive in these concepts.
It's on it's available now on Amazon and at major bookstores.
And it's packed with additional insights and strategies to support your growth
as a health care bridge builder.
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Bred to Lead.
If you found value in our in today's discussion, please share it with fellow
(41:20):
bridge builders who might benefit. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Before we go, I want to remind you about the exciting opportunities that we
offer with Sibs Healthcare.
Our Next Step Leadership Program for healthcare professionals is designed to
(41:42):
help organizations implement Next Step Leadership principles and build strong
leadership pipelines within their organization.
We offer comprehensive cohort based programs tailored to unique need needs of
health care organizations.
Whether you're looking to develop frontline supervisors, middle managers or
executive leaders, we have the
expertise and resources to support your leadership development journey.
(42:06):
Remember to participate in order to participate. Your hospital needs to sponsor
a cohort. This investment in your team will pay dividends and improve performance,
higher retention rates, and better patient outcomes.
Until next time, keep building those bridges with purpose, authenticity, and heart.
(42:28):
The future of healthcare depends on bridge builders like you. I am your host, Dr.
Jake Taylor Jacobs. This was Bred to Lead, and I love you, and there's absolutely
nothing you can do about it.
Music.
Music.
(00:17):
Welcome back to Bread to Lead, the podcast dedicated to empowering leaders,
health care leaders, but leaders all over the world, regardless of any sector,
to making a lasting impact. I am your host, Dr.
Jake Taylor Jacobson. I'm thrilled to be back with you for another inspiring episode.
Listen, y'all, we're a top 50 business and leadership podcast.
(00:40):
We've been hovering in the 40s. So we're a top 40 something leadership and business podcast.
So I'm extremely excited about us pushing the narrative of developing the importance
of developing leaders forward.
I think it's very important. It's very critical for us to understand not only
just in our country or in countries all over the world, but in every industry,
(01:03):
every sector, especially in health care, the industry that can, in fact.
Keep you alive or kill you. I think that leadership is absolutely not only imperative,
but it's a we're in dire need of more leaders to be able to rise from the ashes
to be able to take this health care industry and industries abroad to the next level. So I'm excited.
(01:28):
I'm actually excited to be back. Every week, I get excited talking about this
podcast and even dropping this podcast because I think it's very important when
we talk about the necessary need or the lesser of two evils for us to be able
to continue to get better.
And I say the lesser of two evils, meaning work is work regardless of how you look at it, right?
(01:52):
And although I love doing the podcast, Creating the content,
writing the content to make sure that it flows right and you get what you need
and making sure that we prepare for this podcast no different than a training or a class.
It does take a lot of work. And so, yes, I'm always excited to continue.
I'm always excited to talk about these things.
(02:13):
I'm always excited to teach and train, but I'm more excited on finally getting
the lesson out of me so that you can be able to get it.
So let's get to it. Before we dive actually into today's topic,
I want to introduce a new concept that I believe perfectly encapsulates who
you are as our listeners and what you represent in the world of healthcare leadership.
(02:35):
From this episode forward, I would like to refer to you as a bridge builder, our bridge builders.
And the reason why I say bridge builders is because that's exactly what you
are in your roles as current and aspiring health care leaders.
You are constantly building bridges between departments, between administration.
(02:59):
Clinical staff, between health care providers and patients.
You're connecting ideas, people, and systems to improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.
Bridge builders are problem solvers, innovators, and agents of progress.
You're the ones who see gaps and find ways to fill them, who identifies barriers
and create pathways to overcome them.
(03:21):
Whether you're just starting your leadership journey or you're a seasoned executive, executive.
You're all working to build bridges to a better future in healthcare.
This concept of bridge builders aligns perfectly with the principles I discuss in my book, Bred to Lead.
If you haven't picked up a copy yet, I highly recommend it is a companion to
(03:44):
these podcast episodes.
The book dives deeper into many of the concepts that we discuss here and provides
additional tools and strategies for
your journey as a bridge builder in healthcare. Let me just be be clear.
The podcast Bread to Lead is a derivative of the book Bread to Lead.
So the same way you look for the podcast Bread to Lead and you found us, go on Amazon,
(04:08):
get you a copy of Bread to Lead, get a couple of copies for your team so you
can start having these concepts or these conversations around how can we build
an organization where leaders thrive and we're consistently developing developing
leaders moving forward for the long, long haul of the organization.
So these are things that we'll talk about in today's episode,
(04:29):
you know, to be able to talk about.
So before we get actually into today's main topic, I also want to take a moment
to reflect on last week's episode.
If you recall, we discussed the importance of emotional intelligence and health care leadership.
We explored how understanding and managing our own emotions,
as well as recognizing and influencing the emotions of others,
(04:51):
can significantly impact our effectiveness as leaders.
We received some fantastic feedback from you all, our bridge builders,
and I'd like to share a few of our insights.
So Sarah, a nurse manager from Chicago, wrote in to say the episode on emotional
intelligence really hit home for me.
I've always known that understanding my team's emotions was important,
(05:12):
but I never realized how much of my own emotional state was affecting my leadership.
I've started practicing some of the self-awareness techniques you suggested,
and I'm already seeing a difference in how I interact with my team.
I just want to say to my bridge builder, Sarah, thank you for sharing your experience.
It's wonderful to hear that you've
(05:32):
already are putting these ideas into practice and seeing the results.
Another bridge builder, Dr. James from Atlanta, shared how he's implementing
a new approach to dealing with conflicts in his department.
He said after listening to the episode, he realized that he often rushed to
solve conflicts without really understanding the emotional undercurrents.
So he says now I'm taking more time to listen and acknowledge emotions before
(05:58):
moving to problem solving.
It's made a huge difference in how my team communicates and resolves issues.
Y'all, this come these comments remind me of why we do what we do as bridge
builders. And it's so important.
Your dedication to improving health care leadership is truly making a difference.
If you have any thoughts or experiences you'd like to share about last week's
(06:22):
episode or any of our previous discussions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Your insights not only help me shape future episodes, but also inspires your
other fellow bridge builders.
So you can hit us on LinkedIn. You can hit us on YouTube.
You can find us anywhere that Sips Healthcare is. You can find me on LinkedIn
under Jake Taylor Jacobs, Dr. Jake Taylor Jacobs with an ER.
(06:46):
And even go to breadtolead.com. You can go to breadtolead.com and find out ways
to communicate with us so that you can be able to share with us your experiences of the show.
OK, great. Now, let's turn our attention to today's topic.
Next up, leadership. This concept is at the core of what it means to be a bridge builder.
(07:10):
It is a crucial strategy for ensuring the long term success and sustainability
of our health care organizations.
Next step, leadership is a proactive approach to leadership development that
we've cultivated within our organizations And in organizations all across the
country as we continue to rehabilitate,
(07:30):
reestablish and restructure health care departments all over the country.
And it's based on the principle that the best organizations build leaders from
within their or within their system rather than relying primarily on external hires.
It's about identifying, nurturing and preparing the next generation of bridge
(07:52):
builders at every level of the organization.
As a bridge builder, you understand the importance of creating pathways for
growth and development.
Next step leadership is about intentionally creating those pathways within your
organization to ensure a steady pipeline of capable leaders ready to take on future challenges.
(08:16):
And I'm going to be honest with you. If we were to talk about the current state
of leadership in health care, you know, and before we actually dive even deeper
into the next step leadership concept, we have to take a moment to consider
the current state of leadership in health care.
Currently, the health care industry is facing an unprecedented challenge from
the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 pandemic to the rapid pace of technology changes
(08:40):
from shifting patient expectations to to evolving regulatory requirements.
The demands on health care leaders have never been even never been greater.
And at the same time, we're seeing a significant leadership gap emerging in the health care space.
A study done by the American College of Health Care Executives found that 70
(09:02):
percent of hospital CEOs are planning to retire in the next 10 years.
And similar trends are seen across other leadership positions in various health
care settings. What does this mean?
It means that this impending leadership vacuum presents both a challenge and an opportunity.
Organizations that fail to prepare for this transition risk immense instability.
(09:26):
Loss of institutional knowledge and potential declines in performance and patient care.
On the other hand, those that invest in developing their future leaders can
create a powerful competitive advantage, ensuring continuity,
fostering innovation and building a culture of continuous improvement and excellence.
This is where next step leadership comes into play and where you as a bridge
(09:51):
builder, you have a crucial role to play in our concept that we implement all
across the country. but something I want you to implement into your heart.
And it is understanding what Next Step Leadership is.
Next Step Leadership is a strategic, proactive approach to leadership development
that focuses on preparing individuals at all levels of the organization for
(10:13):
future leadership roles.
It's about creating a robust leadership pipeline that ensures your organization
always has the right leaders in the right places at the right times.
So we're going to go over some key principles of next step leadership.
Listen, if you're new to the podcast, welcome to Bread to Lead the podcast.
(10:34):
If you have not noticed, we have already started teaching.
You're going to hear me yelling. You're going to hear me screaming.
You're going to hear me singing.
You're going to hear me monotone. You're going to hear me excited because this
is really my emotions that are coming out because I'm really passionate about
changing the tide, specifically in health care with businesses.
If you do not know me, I've trained more than 15000 business leaders all across
(10:55):
the world, over 22 countries to be exact.
And so when it comes to this thing of leadership and developing skill sets to
transcending organizations long term, everyone starts with technology,
operations, sales, marketing and all these other pieces that make up the organization.
But they fail to start with the very thing that can tear an organizational organization down.
(11:19):
Leadership, developing the soft developmental skills to be able to take an organization
to the next level. When we talk about leadership, we also have to also consider this.
It's easier to learn hard skills than it is to learn soft skills. What do you mean, Dr. J?
Everyone focuses on the skill of the job, whether it's putting papers in a filing
(11:41):
cabinet or doing a surgery to save someone's life or picking up a camera and
recording the content as a marketing person.
All of these things are what we consider hard skills.
But what takes an organization to unprecedented levels, taking an organization
to becoming the top cream of the crop of what they do,
it all lies in the leadership and how well the organization from the lowest
(12:05):
level of entry to the highest level of leadership buys into the leaders that are at place.
They feel a sense of calling and you can't feel a sense of calling to a leadership
group or an organization that has leaders that are not as, how do you say,
a people-friendly, customer-centric.
They're not as team-focused, people-oriented.
(12:28):
They're just straight rigid on hard skills.
And you create an organization that, yes, you may get highly skilled people,
but no one wants to work with them.
No one wants to be around them, nor do people want to go see them as a patient in the hospital system.
So we have to start looking at things.
And then also, if you're new to the podcast, I want you to know this.
This is a a podcast that you take a pen and pad out and you write notes.
(12:52):
Because the goal of this podcast is to give you something that you can actually
apply into your life long term and into your organizations for the growth.
Whether you're an entrepreneur or you're a leader that's on the precipice of
becoming or the next up, as we say, to a promotion.
The concept of next up is whatever you feel like you're next up at as a bridge
(13:14):
builder. You're next up for leadership.
You're You're next up for a promotion. You're next up to be a director.
You're next up to be an executive. You're next up to be a C-suite.
You're next up to become an entrepreneur.
Whatever your next up is, that's what this podcast is to do.
It's to build up your soft developmental skills to realize how ineffective we've
(13:35):
been as an industry and across all sectors, how ineffective we've been as leaders.
Leadership is a thankless job,
but it's the only job that can take an organization to the next level.
So we're going to talk about a couple of key principles in the NextUp leadership,
and there's five of them.
So we'll go ahead and get into it. One, write this down. Early identification.
(13:58):
The key to NextUp leadership is recognizing leadership potential early in an individual's career.
And as a bridge builder, you have the opportunity to identify and nurture potential
in your team members, helping them see leadership possibilities they might not
have recognized in themselves.
And there's a there's a there's a portion in scripture that talks about how
(14:21):
King Solomon, I mean, not King Solomon, Jethro was a training Moses.
And he told him to look for three things with people that you're going to invest
your time and energy into.
The first thing he said, you want to find people who are capable.
And it's crazy that he said capable and not willing people that are willing
to take a job, willing to do the opportunity, willing to get a promotion.
(14:44):
Willing to do overtime. time.
Those are not always necessarily people that are capable of doing it.
People that are capable of doing a job have the ability to do the job efficiently
and without as much extra energy or wasted time or resources.
They already have the innate ability to execute the job or they can figure it
(15:05):
out quickly without it causing a lot of costs and resources and time.
And what you're going to see is that there's a lot of people get a lot of attention
because they're willing to raise their hand first.
They're willing to speak up first. They're willing to show themselves available,
but it doesn't always mean that they're capable of actually executing that job
or that position, which is why when it comes to looking at who to identify,
(15:28):
the first rule is to understand and ask yourself, are they capable for their next step?
Before you start seeing CEO in their life, Are they capable of actually being
a great leader within the organization?
Whatever that next promotional track is, are they capable?
Have they already shown you examples that exhibit that? Or do you just have
(15:52):
a great feeling in your stomach? There's a difference.
Having the good feeling in your stomach about somebody is not the same thing
as seeing it for yourself.
Are they showing leadership capabilities now? Are they being a team player now?
Are they staying out late to make sure that their team member is not being left
behind and they're helping them finish their jobs now?
(16:13):
Are they educating now or are they thinking selfishly of themselves?
That will let you know if they're willing or capable. The next thing you don't
want to focus on anyone that isn't that that doesn't believe in order and structure.
Now, I do believe in the beauty of my favorite book being on Beyond Zebra.
I do believe in the beauty of people coloring outside the lines.
(16:39):
But what I do not believe is people that don't enjoy or do not recognize the
importance of accountability.
So when scripture actually talks about people who have a healthy fear of God,
and what this simply means is you have a healthy fear or a healthy acceptance of accountability.
Are they somebody that wants to be held accountable or do they always come up
(17:00):
with excuses and point fingers and create reasons as to why they can't get a
job done? That's the question.
Because if that is their answer, they're always making excuses about somebody
did this and I I didn't get that done because I didn't get that or I didn't
get this done because I couldn't execute that.
That will let you know that I they may not be capable or have enough in them
(17:21):
for me to invest my time into.
But if there's somebody say, yep, my fault. As a matter of fact,
what I've done is I've implemented this. So it never happens again.
Accountability is not saying, yeah, you're right. You got me.
I did that wrong. It never fixing it.
Accountability is never having to be repeated to have to repeat the same offense
to the same person again. That's accountability. ability.
If they say, hey, this is a problem you're never going to have to deal with
(17:44):
me again, they can have other issues, but this will never be one.
And so you have the first one, which is, are they capable? The second one is, are they accountable?
And the third one is, oh, I cannot wait to tell you. The third one is they don't
take easy bribes. They're not there just for money.
If you find someone that's always asking how much you get paid,
what's the next promotional track?
How much money do I make if I do this? They're making decisions for their careers
(18:08):
and their abilities based on the money that's out on the table.
And people that are chasing money are always typically the people,
in most cases, that are actually short cutters.
They're the ones that don't want to put in the time if the money is not paying the dime.
And when you're looking for a leader to develop, they want to lead and develop
and grow and be the best, regardless of what that paycheck says,
(18:31):
because they know for a fact that when they become the best,
the paycheck is going to handle the rest. Hello, somebody.
So you want to find them. Are they accountable? Are they capable?
And are they in it to be the best or are they in it just for the check?
Once you identify they have all three, bingo, I got somebody that I should be
(18:53):
thinking, hey, you're next up for leadership. The second thing,
continuous development.
The key principle of next up leadership is continual development,
providing ongoing opportunities for growth and learning. This aligns perfectly
with your role as a bridge builder.
As you're constantly building bridges to new knowledge and skills,
ask yourself, am I providing an organization that allows and invests into their continued education?
(19:20):
Education, because as an organization, I cannot allow or wait for you to go
and do it because a lot of people don't even know where to go.
A lot of people don't even have a resources or may not even know what resources
are actually the best resources for their career to make them better.
And a lot of people are living on old skills and old talents that they've learned
(19:40):
in order to get them to do a new thing for new promotions.
And if you want new promotions and new opportunities, You got to develop new
skills in your tool belt.
You got to be able to say, I don't do this how I used to.
Matter of fact, there are so many things that I thought I did great when I was younger in my career.
Though, as I sit in my seat today and I look back and I was like,
(20:01):
man, I was mediocre to say the least.
And not only was I mediocre, I was outpacing everyone in my class and still
looking back like, dang, there was so much more I could bring to the table.
But because of my continuous development, I began to incrementally get better
so that I can see that change in my life.
OK, so continuous development is something that's important.
(20:23):
The third thing that you want to look at with the next step leadership is practical experience.
What real world leadership challenges and responsibilities are you creating
or giving them the opportunity for them to solve, to stretch and grow them?
Or are you as a leader, are you stifling the growth of your team so that you
don't have to deal with the time and energy you have to spend in developing them?
(20:45):
Because you just want to get it done quickly because you didn't prepare for
the worst of happening. As a bridge builder, you have to be proactive,
not only in the worst coming, but also in the development of the people that are coming behind you.
It's very critical and it's very important. And it's very important for you
to understand that as a bridge builder, it's OK to make leaders that are better than you.
It actually shows who you are internally.
(21:08):
If you can develop people that can even do things that are even better than you.
I mean, my favorite man of all time, Jesus Christ, did it when he was passing away.
He said you will even go and do even greater things than I. I?
So if Jesus could do it, why can't I?
These are the things that I look at. The fourth thing that you want to look
at as we are talking about key principles of next step leadership is mentorship and coaching.
(21:29):
Are you pairing people up to work with different leaders to learn different skill sets?
Yes, you may have somebody in your department that may be really great at the
hard skills, but they're terrible at soft developmental skills.
So you may pair them together and say, hey, you're not good at soft developmental
skills. So I want you to learn that by teaching this person.
Then you tell the other person, you may be good at soft developmental skills,
(21:51):
but you're not good at doing this job better than that person.
And you edify both of them and not tear both of them down.
Now you're using what they have best to each other to teach each other and cross-train
the things that they do best.
Yes, you may be good at the job, but they're better at leading people.
If I can get y'all to work together, you both can teach each other something
(22:11):
through action and mentorship and coaching because it goes both ways. And then the fifth thing.
That you want to look at is alignment with organizational goals,
ensuring that the leadership development supports the overall organizational strategy.
This is about building bridges between individual growth and organizational success.
(22:33):
Something that you as a bridge builder are uniquely positioned to do.
Organizational strategy and success along with growth and looking at that.
It makes no sense to develop talent in people that doesn't benefit the department,
the organization, or the hospital system in itself.
So all things have to congruently work together. And this is actually what we
(22:55):
do with our NextUp leadership program.
When we work with facilities, we build up using our curriculum,
our technology, our instructors, and our SIPP standard framework,
our SIPS leadership standard framework, to build in hospitals their own version
of their Next Step Leadership Program so that they can matriculate people and
(23:16):
develop their skill sets the moment that they see they have team lead ability.
Now they can operate and opt into our Next Step Leadership Program and be on
a fast track in leadership development within the organization.
The more you develop the talent within and the more that people see that you're
willing to invest in them, the harder it is for them to want to leave you because
(23:37):
they're going to remember how much time you spent with them.
And they're going to compare that even when someone's giving them a higher paycheck,
they're going to literally consider, okay, if they're giving me a higher paycheck,
but with no training and development, but here I can literally become the best leader I can be.
And the next time I hit the market, I can even get a better offer than in this,
(23:59):
those are things that they're going to look at, okay?
I'm glad that we talked about that. I'm going to take a sip of my tea.
All right, y'all. Y'all can tell I was excited. I can tell you I'm excited and
I'm excited simply because.
(24:20):
I feel like I was holding my breath that whole time to my abs are tight.
I'm excited because I y'all I if you can't tell, I live for this.
I live for talking about leadership and why next step leadership is important.
So I'm going to slow down my pace a little bit because my excitement is kind
of bubbling now. Now, I've been working on this for a week and I've been wanting
(24:42):
to get this information out to you.
So I'm going to slow down my cadence a little bit.
But but I hope you can tell and see why this stuff is important.
So now I want to segment into my next section session talking about next step
leadership versus battlefield promotions.
To fully appreciate the value of next step leadership, it's useful to contrast
(25:06):
it with the common alternative, which I typically deem as battlefield promotions.
Promotions battlefield promotions borrow from military terminology refers to
situations where individuals are rapidly promoted to leadership positions out
of immediate necessity,
often without adequate preparation.
(25:29):
And in health care, this might occur when a key leader suddenly departs or when
a crisis demands quick decision making.
While battlefield promotions can sometimes uncover hidden talent,
they often come with significant risk.
Lack of preparation. The newly promoted leader may lack the skills and experiences
(25:52):
needed for their new role.
Increased stress. The promoted individual may feel overwhelmed and unsupported.
Team disruption. Our other team members may feel resentful or uncertain about the new leadership.
And for performance issues, the lack of preparation can lead to poor decision
(26:13):
making and suboptimal outcomes.
Next step leadership, in contrast, ensures that when leadership needs arise,
you have a pool of well-prepared candidates ready to step up at a moment's notice.
This. Here's a couple of advantages.
One, smooth transitions.
Leaders are prepared and confident when taking on new roles.
(26:37):
Number two, continuity.
Institutional knowledge and cultural values are preserved and enhanced.
Number three, improved performance.
Well-prepared leaders are more likely to succeed in newer roles.
Number four, enhanced morale.
Team members see clear paths for advancement and field value.
(26:58):
And number five, reduce cost.
Developing internal talent is often more cost effective than external hiring.
As bridge builders, your role in implementing a next step leadership is crucial.
You need to implement a next step leadership program. You need to work with this.
(27:18):
You're the ones who can build bridges between current and future leadership
needs. between individual aspirations
and organizational goals and between potential and performance.
Implementing next step leadership.
Here's a key strategy. This is typically what we would do. We create a leadership competency model.
(27:45):
We implement our framework of skills, knowledge, and behaviors required for
leadership success in your organization that aligns with your organization's
value and strategic goals.
So an example, at a larger hospital system, we created, we implemented the leadership
competency model that included things like strategic thinking,
(28:05):
emotional intelligence, change management, clinical excellence.
They use this model to guide all aspects of their leadership development program,
from selection to training to performance evaluation.
And what we do, we have a progressive pathway with our next step leadership
program. Our progressive pathway, you have everyone starts in at foundational.
We don't care how long you've been in leadership. If you're in the next step,
(28:28):
if you're in that next step program, everyone starts at foundational because
we cannot assume what you know or what you don't know.
If you knew it, we wouldn't be needed to be there.
Everyone starts off as the mandatory stop is foundational. Then we go to strategic.
Then we go to an executive.
And as bridge builders, you play a key role in developing and refining this
(28:50):
competency model, ensuring that it reflects real world skills.
The next one we focus on is implementing a formal identification process.
Right. We have assessments and certifications of leadership that we build within
your organization that allows for you to be able to see within your organization
what steps people are at and what we can assume that they know for a fact.
(29:13):
There is a standard in every other thing, regulatory, regulatory standard and
compliance standard, everything in health care, except for the standard of leadership.
And although leadership based on space, position, opportunity based on city,
culture, whatever, although there are different ways to artistically show your
(29:37):
leadership capabilities,
there are still fundamental truths of leadership that everyone should abide by.
How you color between the lines is up to you.
For an example, you cannot play basketball like you do rugby.
You cannot play basketball like you do soccer. There are fundamental rules and
standards that we all must go by in the game of basketball.
But how you operate and play the art of basketball is totally different.
(30:01):
Those are things that we have to do. OK.
Twice a year with with the specialty clinic, we implemented a talent review
process where leaders across organization organizations discuss high potential
individuals in their teams.
And they use the standardized assessment tool that we provided to evaluate potential
(30:21):
against their leadership competency model.
So once we know the leadership competency model based on our SIPs leadership
standard, now we can test where they are in that standard to let them know what
their deficiencies are so we can, in fact, plug and play to make them better.
OK, the third thing that you need is you need to provide a diverse development opportunities.
(30:41):
You got to have cross-functional projects, leadership rotations,
stretch assignments to be able to develop different skill sets within your organization.
You should be moving people along to lead at different things.
So they're capable of running a department.
The key should be that everyone gets that is capable, accountable,
and they're willing to become the best at what they do as a leader and as a person.
(31:06):
Those people should be getting cross trained within that entire department.
Everybody should know exactly what to do just in case anyone were to drop the
ball. you can fill in. Very simple.
Nobody should be so specialized at what they do that they can't fill in or help out in other areas.
(31:26):
That would create bottlenecks within organizations that a lot of organizations struggle with.
You got to offer strong mentorship programs.
You got to pair them with their strongest leaders. You have to offer real leadership
experiences. Y'all listen, some leadership.
Is not a sport that you learn from a book or just a podcast.
(31:48):
Leadership is an inactive game. You got to be active.
You have to be actively involved in developing your leadership bones or your
skill sets, or you will not get better.
You have to actively be held accountable to certain standards.
You have to actively be open to be critiqued, positively critiqued for the betterment of you.
(32:09):
It's a crucial role in understanding that in every position that we hold,
somebody is going to come after us.
Regardless, you can try to hold that position and you can try to burn everybody
to make it hard for you to lose your position all you want.
But it's harder to just stay stagnant in a position than it is for you to grow out of it.
(32:32):
It is easier to grow to your next level of growth than there is for you to try
to just maintain and hold your position down.
So you got to be trying to ask yourself, what am I, what job am I doing?
How well am I doing at developing the next talents that come after me that can
(32:52):
succeed me in the position that I'm currently in? Very simple.
And creating readiness tools and success or challenges to see if somebody is
ready for the promotion.
And here's the thing, when you're building inside your organizational promotional
track, a couple of things that you want to focus on is just because it shows
(33:14):
that they may be ready now doesn't mean that you have to promote them now.
It just means that, hey, I know that you're ready when the opportunity arises.
Because turnover happens like clockwork in healthcare, there's always an opportunity.
And just like in sports, yeah, you may be sitting on the bench right now,
but if you get an opportunity, let's say you're Tom Brady and you're waiting
(33:38):
on that person that's in front of you to mess up.
And if you get promoted and you show out, guess who gets the job? You.
We got to enjoy the sport of leadership because the sport of leadership says
the next best man is up. Who's next up?
Whoever's best, who's ever best for the organization's goals,
(33:59):
whoever's best to take the innovation and take this position to the next level.
Whoever is best is who's next.
And this will keep everyone that's in that leadership role on their toes to get better.
How can I show I'm a better team player? How can I show I'm willing to develop
(34:19):
talent? How can I show that I'm willing to show my ability?
Because when I get elevated, a new position can show.
Now we're going to talk about we're going to talk about very quickly.
We're going to talk about the impact of next step leadership.
One, there was a study done by Burson and Associates that found that organizations
(34:43):
with strong leadership development programs were 1.5 times more likely to be
in the top quartile of financial performance.
So you're going to see improved organizational performance. Two,
according to Gallup, organizations that have implemented a strengths based approach to development.
See, 72 percent lower attrition rates, which means people aren't leaving.
(35:06):
So you get higher employee engagement.
Number three, a study done by the Journal of Health Care Management Focus found
that health care organizations with robust leadership development programs were
two point four times more likely to be rated as highly innovative by their employees.
Employees. So you get enhanced innovation.
(35:27):
Number four, the Journal of Nursing Administration found that hospitals with
strong nursing leadership development programs had 15 percent higher patient
satisfaction scores and 20 percent lower rates of adverse events.
So you get better patient outcomes. And lastly, a McKinsey study found that
organizations with strong leadership pipelines were able to fill critical roles
(35:51):
two point five times faster than those without.
Out, allowing them to respond more quickly to changing market conditions.
The scariest thing in health care or in any organization is when you have administration
and leadership that waits until something happens to develop talent.
The best organizations prepares before. You may say, Dr. Jake, but what if they leave?
(36:15):
That's fine. If you're a leadership developing organization,
if somebody leaves, that's great for the industry because you got someone who's next up. Thank you.
Someone who's next up. Now. I will be remiss if I didn't talk about the challenges
(36:36):
and considerations to think of when you're developing a next step leadership
program inside of your business or organization or health care facility.
Because it doesn't come without challenges. Number one is always resource allocation.
Developing your own next step leadership program requires significant investment
(36:56):
in time and resources. You have to be committed to long term commitment.
This is where we step in at Sips Healthcare Solutions.
We already have our next step leadership program. Matter of fact,
it is called Next Step Leadership Program. And we implement our curriculum.
We implement our trainings and development, give you access to our online campus.
(37:19):
We implement all of these things, our own competency models to ensure that they
align with your organization goals.
So that resource allocation isn't as extensive and expensive as possible, because guess what?
You got to hire a research team, development team, course trainers,
instructors, development team.
You got to cross change it. You got to do all the all the checks and balances.
(37:41):
And we can just plug and play our next step leadership program into your organization.
Number two, balancing current and future needs.
It's a crucial to strike a balance between developing future leaders and meeting
current operational demands. It's hard to do both.
That's why working with partners such as ourselves, we're able to partner with
(38:03):
the facilities and say, hey, listen, we can focus on both current needs and
future and future needs at the same time.
Number three, avoiding favoritism.
The process of identifying and developing high potential individuals must be
fair, transparent and based on merit to avoid perceptions of favoritism.
You have to have some type of readiness survey or readiness assessment where
(38:25):
we can identify who is capable and who could be ready that we may not be seeing because of favoritism.
Number four, managing expectations.
Not all participants in leadership development programs will become top leaders.
It's important to manage expectations and provide valuable growth opportunities
for all employees. And lastly, number five, maintaining diversity.
(38:47):
Leadership development efforts should actively work to promote diversity and
inclusion, ensuring that the future leadership reflects the diversity of the
workforce in patient population.
As a bridge builder, you play a crucial role in navigating these challenges.
You can help bridge, build bridges between different stakeholders,
(39:07):
between current and future needs, and between individual aspirations and organizational goals.
Here's a role of a bridge builder in a next step leadership.
You got to identify potential. You have to create opportunities.
You have to mentor and coach. You have to champion development.
You have to model continuous learning. You have to foster collaboration.
(39:29):
You have to drive innovation.
If you do not have those seven things, you are not a bridge builder.
You're not as good as a leader as you think you are.
A great leader has five. Good leader has five to seven of these.
A great leader has six to seven of these.
You're always focusing on who's next up, who can replace you,
who can you work on, who can you develop as the next great?
(39:50):
Because it takes a lot of the load off of you when you're developing the next
people that's next up. So in conclusion.
In today's rapidly evolving health care landscape, having a strong pipeline
of prepared leaders is not just an advantage, it's a necessity.
(40:11):
Next Step Leadership provides a strategic, proactive approach to ensuring your
organization always has the leadership talent it needs to navigate challenges,
seize opportunities and deliver exceptional patient care.
As bridge builders, you are the forefront of transformation.
You're not just leaders, you're leadership developers, mentors and champions
(40:36):
of growth and innovation.
By embracing and implementing next step leadership principles,
you can create a legacy that extends far beyond your own tenure,
shaping the future of health care for generations to come.
Remember, the journey we're on through this podcast is just one part of your
development as a bridge builder. I encourage you to check out my book,
(40:58):
Bred to Lead, for a deeper dive in these concepts.
It's on it's available now on Amazon and at major bookstores.
And it's packed with additional insights and strategies to support your growth
as a health care bridge builder.
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Bred to Lead.
If you found value in our in today's discussion, please share it with fellow
(41:20):
bridge builders who might benefit. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Before we go, I want to remind you about the exciting opportunities that we
offer with Sibs Healthcare.
Our Next Step Leadership Program for healthcare professionals is designed to
(41:42):
help organizations implement Next Step Leadership principles and build strong
leadership pipelines within their organization.
We offer comprehensive cohort based programs tailored to unique need needs of
health care organizations.
Whether you're looking to develop frontline supervisors, middle managers or
executive leaders, we have the
expertise and resources to support your leadership development journey.
(42:06):
Remember to participate in order to participate. Your hospital needs to sponsor
a cohort. This investment in your team will pay dividends and improve performance,
higher retention rates, and better patient outcomes.
Until next time, keep building those bridges with purpose, authenticity, and heart.
(42:28):
The future of healthcare depends on bridge builders like you. I am your host, Dr.
Jake Taylor Jacobs. This was Bred to Lead, and I love you, and there's absolutely
nothing you can do about it.
Music.
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