The adverse effects of CEO turnover on a healthcare organization include threats to pursuing the organization’s mission, negative effects on hospital-physician relationships and additional drains on the organization’s staff and financial resources.
To help identify proven approaches that can benefit hospitals and their boards, The Synergy Organization, a national metrics and evidence-based healthcare executive search/leadership assessment firm, conducted an in-depth research study to identify what Best Paractices strategies CEOs and their boards use to increase longevity and their success.
From this data, The Synergy Organization identified the “Six Building Blocks of Lasting Leadership.” The components of the model are summarized below:
(1) Leadership: In rallying others to build a better future, the most effective leaders create a clear and compelling vision that everyone can understand.
(2) Relationships: The willingness and ability to proactively interact with one another in a reciprocal manner to share information and promote mutual gains is critical to organizational success.
(3) Communication: This component focuses on clear, open and transparent conversations with people at all levels of the organization. CEOs must be viewed as approachable, and their words and actions must support the hospital’s mission consistently.
(4) Selection: Effective selection is defined as the systematic process of surrounding oneself with talented colleagues and applying their individual strengths to promote measurable gains toward achieving established goals.
(5) Measurement: CEOs of the most successful organizations use a variety of objective metrics to evaluate their team processes and progress to maximize efficiency and productivity.
(6) Flexibility: Effective leaders keep one eye on the future, are dissatisfied with the status quo, and are committed to moving their organization forward.
Adapted from “Building CEO-Board Relationships That Last,” by Kenneth R. Cohen, PhD, October 2008, Trustee Magazine. Click here for a full copy of this article.
