Healthcare Leadership in This Virtually Connected World

Leadership: Inspiring High Performing Virtual Workforce Teams

The best leaders build trust-based relationships, motivate employees, and have the ability to overcome adversity.

Successful leaders are great listeners, understand the importance of communicating clearly, inquire about work-load and progress without micromanaging and trust the team.

During these times of accelerated change and uncertainty, healthcare organizations and teams have been forced to acclimate to so many adjustments to their work and home life that leadership takes on a whole new meaning.

Generation Y’s or ‘millennials’ are the up and coming management leaders. Looking more closely at this group, Generation Y accounts for more than 50% of the global workforce. This group represents and is built for tomorrow’s virtual workplace – which has seemingly been cast upon us over night with our new normal. This legion was raised in an increasingly connected world and as such, they grew up with skills that are incredibly important. Gen Ys are inventive, agile, innovative, entrepreneurial, resourceful and technologically skilled.

How this age group works and why they work is fundamentally out of sync with the traditional expectations of the healthcare organization. They don’t have just one specialization – they have many. They don’t tend to stay at one place for very long. They don’t need an office – they are happily connected to their work anywhere they can get a hot spot.

Why is it that so many young and aspiring healthcare associates are still being managed like they are on an assembly line? If you trace far back the echoes of organizational design of the traditional workplace, especially the evolution of healthcare, one might find themselves in a manufacturing setting during the Industrial Revolution. This time in our history was defined by many things, most prominently societies advancement to building in scale. Another development which came from this period in history of accelerated expansion was that organizations had to hire managers to supervise coordinated teams.

By the early twentieth century the concept of management had become widely accepted and by the 1940’s through the 1950’s we were well on our way to perfecting the concepts of management theories and strategies. It was during these decades that Austrian-born, American management educator, author and consultant Peter Drucker began to recognize trends in the foundations of the modern business corporation. One of these movements was that we were moving away from the mere production of goods and delivery of personalized services to the investment, utilization and improvement of advanced data and information to help inform decision making.

Peter Drucker coined the phrase ‘Knowledge Work”. Knowledge Work is “the most valuable asset of the 21st-century institution, whether business or non-business, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity.” He proposed a new managerial contract as part of his teachings. When you consider that when all the knowledge and value of your institution walks out the door each and every day or closes their laptops in their home offices, the command and control mindset can’t work any longer. The models of the past don’t make any sense. Not for start-ups or large corporations or health systems in which the next generation is trying to advance knowledge and science via creativity, entrepreneurial work or information-based innovation.

Tradition Versus Innovation

Why is this a factor? Tradition may be an impediment. One way to define tradition is the stifling of innovation, ritualistic strategies and conventional beliefs. It’s easier than the unknowns associated with change. We do what we do, because that’s the way it’s been done in the past. Doing anything simply because that’s the way of the past is self-limiting to growth and progress. Framed around the concepts of management, one who ‘rests on your laurels’ and considers further effort of improvement unnecessary is risking stagnation or obsolescence.

Theory Y Framework

It is fitting for today’s managers and those in the future to develop a focus on management with a “Theory Y” approach conceived by Douglas McGregor while he was at the MIT School of Management in the 1950s. McGregor conceived “Theory X” and Theory Y describing contrasting models of workforce motivation applied to managers of organization development, behavior and communication. Theory X assumes individuals approach their job filled with mundane tasks, that they avoid work and they dislike their responsibilities. Theory X explains the importance of intensified managerial supervision and rewards, while Theory Y highlights the motivation that comes from career satisfaction and encourages individuals approach their responsibilities without direct supervision. Theory Y assumes associates are determined, self-motivated, that they implement self-control and enjoy their roles and professional callings.

Given the proper conditions, an employer conducting their business in a Theory Y framework can help their employees achieve self-actualization. This assumes the most effective conditions. Think of a Theory Y approach to leadership while so many teams and staff are finding themselves unexpectedly working from home. Start from a place of complete and utter trust. Allow your teams to develop and define their goals and timetables to achieve success. The assumption is they want to flourish and are committed for the right reasons. They want to define their success by the same standards your organization defines success.

Virtual Leadership Strategies for The Remote Team

Provide your teams with space – not so much physical space in today’s unique times - but creative, emotional and strategic space to flourish. As long as each individual’s work is being completed on-time and with the highest standards of quality, why is tracking of ‘traditional’ work hours an important metric? Depending on the individual’s role at times it can be demeaning and humiliating.

Consider the practice of co-creation or building & developing as a team or in a collaborative environment. The distributed model of all associates working remotely demands a new approach. Rather than assigning a task or responsibility with the guidance of making sure each individual’s role is done right the first time, consider broadening your trust in the team enthusiastically and allowing the collaborative whole to bring closure to the task at hand.

Leverage the potential of leadership. Often times groups, departments or teams look to certain individuals within the many to be the steward of success and to help guide the collective toward their end-goal. A person or persons to help insulate the broader team from criticism or negative feedback loops.

Encourage a client-centric culture, whether the client is internal or external. People want to contribute to a workplace that derives and defines success based on the collective achievements of the organizational community. It’s about the emotional commitment and connection each associate has to the organization. A place where the individual can bring their “whole-self” to work, whether this is a virtual and remote allegiance or a physical, on-site presence.

Finally, it’s imperative to create an environment in which excellence in the work-place is encouraged, acknowledged and celebrated. This can take a thousand shapes within all sizes of organizations, but everyday successes in the workplace can be identified and applauded. It’s leadership’s role to develop frameworks of culture to appreciate these successes and support tactics of awareness to foster greater potential. In today’s setting, with so many working from home and others who may be temporarily furloughed, acknowledging milestones of success is even more significant.

In certain facets of healthcare, the time is now to break the cycle of doing things the old way. It’s realistic to think that this change will come from the collective’s ability to understand the difference between outcomes and output. Healthcare has, for many years now, been focused clinically on outcomes or the science around the measurable consequences of one’s health, function and quality of life that results from care.

In today’s acceleration to a virtual work-world, that has been thrust upon so many, in such a short window of time, leaders must adapt first to effectively acclimate teams to operate remotely and efficiently. We all have to be flexible in our leadership practice. It’s imperative to manage with an enhanced focus on the individual. We can’t just see the sum of our teams or our team’s teams. To the best of our abilities, we should work to understand each person’s ambitions and how they wish to succeed on their own terms during these times of change. Your associates want to push boundaries and move the needle and are passionately committed to their own work.

To push boundaries today, in this remote & virtual world we’re adapting to, we need to embrace the use of technology like never before. Healthcare has always been a laggard with technology investments, relative to other vertical markets, but today in 2020, the revolution of change has been cast-upon all of us. Technology is now even more important to help foster a sense of community and collaboration in healthcare - across clinical and administrative teams and with patients and providers and everywhere healthcare is needed.

In a management capacity, you still need to manage your fulltime or part-time staff the same way virtually. You still should be focused on recognizing and supporting each individual’s unique successes and behaviors and meeting your team’s all the way to assure their virtual success. Consider modifying your behaviors to encourage performance and creative success versus expecting others to flex to your remote style or challenges.

As a leadership team, how can your organization adapt to these new virtual business challenges? How can today’s accelerated level of change we’ve all been thrown into work to our advantage? In short, with a lot of internal collaboration, feedback, training and support. If you want your teams to do their best work and foster a culture of excellence in our newly distributed and physically disconnected work-world, we have to bring out the best in ourselves first. Rather than standing behind your teams telling them to go, it’s best to stand in front of them and convey a let’s go together approach. Creativity in leadership best-practices has never been so essential. Your teams want to know that you have their support, no matter what. This comes with open lines of communication, training and mentorship to overcome obstacles of change and work from home challenges, some may be struggling with.

If healthcare leadership teams are encouraged to provide mentorship and training in areas your associates feel they need support in, they will better appreciate the cultural community you’ve worked so hard to establish. We know the organizational community still exists but for those who are working in isolation now, it can be difficult to maintain that sense of whole. If your leadership team is not learning from one-another there may be pockets where teams are stagnating. Training programs that encourage mentorship and development professionally, academically and personally will help solidify success.

Don’t hesitate to continue to challenge your teams to accomplish and succeed with their ‘stretch-goals’ and initiatives. Audacious objectives that push teams and individuals outside of their comfort zone, but allow them to find a great sense of accomplishment when the achievements are realized or milestones met are just as important today as in the past. This is where the real growth happens. Most importantly, have confidence to get out of the way. Motivate and inspire your teams and step back to allow the magic to happen. Each individual deserves the opportunity to shine and distinguish themselves.

Think about a leader in your life. Any leader who has had an immense impact on who you are or how you go about leading others. Perhaps she was a coach, teacher, colleague, family member, former manager or a friend. If that person came to you and asked for something, would you help her and do so to the best of your abilities? Of course. Why? Because there is a special bond between you and this person that makes your commitment to her unique and special. It’s this bond that we should all aspire to develop in those we lead in today’s unique times. Finding a way to enhance our role in this relationship-paradox and this newly interconnected world is what should define our focus on leadership altogether.

Leadership has the opportunity to redefine cultural connectedness. As a change-agent, motivate and empower your teams in creative ways. You are privileged to manage the next generation of leadership now. Think about how you can empower success, derive potential and embrace this change that has been presented. Your leadership approach has never been more valuable.