Leadership: A Critical Practice Success Factor*

Everyone agrees that strong leadership is a key component of a successful practice. The work by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner in their program, “The Leadership Challenge," is a great place to start.  

So how can one define leadership, or, better yet, can one learn to be leader?  The answer to both questions is yes.  It is fairly easy to identify business people or politicians as “good leaders,” it can be difficult to determine precisely how they achieved their leadership status. Is it a genetic trait?  Maybe.  But in all likelihood these individuals learned how to be good leaders. While “natural” leaders do exist, most successful leaders have learned through trial and error and understand how to assimilate experience into their leadership style. Almost anyone can become a good -- if not a great -- leader by following a number of general guidelines which “teach” those in charge what it takes to be a good leader.  Today, I will explore the first key principle to leadership as defined in The Leadership Challenge.

Challenge the Process

By default, physicians are the leaders of the medical practice.  Most want it that way.  Many physicians became physicians because of the entrepreneurial and pioneering aspects of owning and operating a business.  The very nature of practicing medicine leads physicians to search out new opportunities and assist patients with outcomes.  The mental, physical and emotional demands of running a practice require the physician leader to always be prepared.  Are you?  I have yet to meet a physician who was not quite comfortable in challenging a medical process.  In fact, most physicians are quite creative in developing innovative treatment plans.  But, do you treat your business with the same creativity?  In other words, “Do you challenge the process? Answering these questions can help you determine your "challenging the process" quotient.

• Do you treat every aspect of your practice as a journey, or are the various business tasks status quo?
  
• Do you assign meaningful and, sometimes, challenging assignments, or, is your day one of routine?
  
• Do you recognize individuals in your office who take well-calculated risks or are your employees hesitant to deviate from the norm?
  
• Do you look for ways to improve the work you do?  Does your staff?  Do you empower your staff to look for ways to improve business processes? 
  
• Are you looking for ways to stay up to date with new technologies to improve work flow?
  

If the answers to these questions indicate you are leaning towards, "Yes, I challenge," then you are on way to solid leadership. If not, think about how you can integrate a “challenge-the-process” philosophy of leadership in your practice.  Think about these suggestions to aide you in challenging the process.

• Look at your practice as an adventure for you and you staff.
  
• Look at how you currently do things, e.g., patient scheduling, how you answer patient inquiries,  If some process could stand improvement, do it.
  
• Reward and recognize those staff members who take risks.  Remember, a well thought out risk that fails, still deserves recognition.
  

My next installment to PrimoroBlog will explore the next step in effective leadership, "Inspiring a share Vision."

* Adapted from The Leadership Challenge, James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner