Ep: 020 -The Leadership Paradox in Healthcare: Why Your Experts Might Be Holding You Back

Welcome back Bridge Builders to Bread to Lead, the podcast transforming healthcare leadership. I'm your host Dr. Jake Taylor Jacobson. I'm thrilled that you're here. We're currently ranked as the 30th top business and leadership podcast nationwide and it's all thanks to listeners like you. Bridge Builders, if you haven't already grab a copy of my book Bread to Lead on Amazon, it's packed with strategies to elevate your leadership game. If you got questions or ideas for the show, visit us at bread2lead.com. Now what are you waiting for? Let's dive. Now the applause is for the fact that on this podcast we are stepping our game up and I'm extremely excited about it. I'm excited about it because I know you all heard that introduction sounding all professional. I'm excited about that. This podcast was actually started as a speakerphone, a megaphone if you will, from the book Bread to Lead, our book Bread to Lead that's in Amazon right now really trying to help transform leadership all over the world, specifically in healthcare and we're honored to be ranked number 34 today. Yesterday was number 30. For some reason we cannot break the top 30 but I'm excited that we are consistently staying in the 35 and below range and then for all categories because of you listeners we are ranked between 150 and 156 in the entire country when it comes to business leadership. I think that's very important because a lot of the lessons that we've learned in our healthcare journey as a company what I've learned as a corporate fixer can absolutely help all people that are listening to this podcast. So again another applause for you because you deserve it. I want to give a shout out to all of the bread, a bridge builders out there that's spreading the podcast in all of these hospitals all across the country. I'm super excited about how committed we are being as it pertains to changing healthcare all over the world. I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna be honest with you I'll do my intro in a second but I think I found my calling in healthcare. I think I love being a corporate fixer specifically in a healthcare space because with turning around a hospital where bettering patients lives, creating safer places for people to go and get worked on and to get made well so they can go out and protect their family. So welcome back bridge builders to another eye-opening episode of Bread to Lead. I am your host Dr. Jake Taylor Jacobs, COO of Sips Healthcare Solutions, principal managing partner of Bisco Capital. For those new to our community I've spent my career as a small business and corporate fixer diving into struggling businesses and corporations and now having the privilege to do the same thing in the healthcare space with Sips consoles and I have another celebration. Sips Healthcare has been ranked number one in providing services and solutions for central steel processing and perioperative services and solutions. We're number one in the country. I'm excited to not only talk about it but I'm excited that what we're doing is being recognized by our peers. You cannot buy this ranking from Black Book. You cannot ask for an interview. They do an anonymous survey and collect data from people that are in the field and the people that are in the field have ranked us number one. I'm super excited about that. I just had to say that. And so you know as a corporate fixer I've historically helped businesses and corporations transform their operations and now healthcare. My particular focus as you can tell I just gave you know the announcement of our number one ranking as Sips Healthcare Solutions. It lies in perioperative services and central steel processing two areas that are absolutely critical to hospitals, operations and patient safety all across the world. Now for some of you that are listening to my podcast that are not in the healthcare space that is dealing with anything that is before, during and after surgery. So anything around supporting a surgery that is the primary space where my company where we come in and ensure that the patient safety and infection rates are low to ensure a healthy return of the patients to their families. Today we're tackling a topic that's been keeping me up at night if I were to be honest and I bet it's been gnawing at many of you too that are in the healthcare space. We're going to talk about a paradox that's plaguing periop in central steel processing departments all across the country. A paradox that's costing millions in lost revenue stifling innovation and leaving talented professionals burnt out in disillusion. And here's a million-dollar question that I want to bring to you that we're going to kind of mull over this entire podcast episode and we're going to ensure that we answer this question as we continue to walk through it. My question is are you placing technical experts in leadership roles in your periop and CSP departments and wondering why these crucial areas aren't thriving? Again the question is are you placing technical experts in leadership roles in periop and CSP departments and wondering why these crucial areas aren't thriving? If you're nodding your head right now don't worry you're not alone. In fact you're in the majority but by the end of this episode you're going to have a whole new perspective of leadership in periop and CSP and more importantly you're going to have actionable strategies to transform these departments yourself. And I just want to start something okay we want to start with a scenario I see all too often in hospitals across the country and listen in order for us to put our pictures on you know there used to be a show called Borny I don't know if it's still around and what he wanted to do when he got the children to imagine something different he sing a song said just imagine just imagine all the things that we could be imagine all the places we can go and see. Imagination's fun for you and me and the reason why I love that song is because being a practitioner in leading organizations you have to kind of create these imaginary simulations in your mind to see what the result of a decision that you're making and how it affects not just your department but other departments that depend on the effectiveness and the efficiency of your department. And all too often we have an idea in our head we say ah that's a great idea we put it to paper we put it out there on the floor in our departments and we wonder why they are not taking it it's because we haven't thought about it we haven't imagined the scenario playing all the way out in all of the areas that could in fact be an issue we're not dealing with that before we bring it to the department so listen let's imagine that you're the CEO of a mid-sized hospital your perioperative services department is struggling turnover times between surgeries are too long first case on time starts are abysmal insurgents are complaining about instrument availability and quality your central sterile processing department isn't faring much better either they're plagued by high error rates long processing times and staff turnover so what do you do you look for your best surgeon and the one with the most impressive track record the one who knows the OR like the back of their hand surgeon or nurse because in perioperative services you typically would have a CNO a nurse kind of oversee perioperative services okay and you promote them ahead of perioperative services for CSP you take your most experienced technician the one who can assemble even the most complex instrument sets in their sleep and you put them in charge of central sterile processing fast forward six months and things are worse than ever or efficiency is down cost have continued to climb in that star surgeon they're talking about quitting medicine all together in CSP error rates haven't improved staff morale is at an all-time low and your new manager is drowning in administrative cost and task excuse me administrators the administrative tasks that they never were trained to handle what went wrong you put your best experts in charge and the question that I know you're probably asking right now is isn't that what you're supposed to do we're bridge builders that's the leadership paradox we're going to unpack it today because here's the hard truth being an expert in surgery or an expert in nursing or an expert in sterile processing doesn't automatically make you a great leader of the periop or CSP department in fact sometimes it can make you a terrible one now before you start thinking I'm anti-expert let me be clear technical experts are crucial to any periop in CSP department we need them they're the ones who ensure surgeries run smoothly who guarantee the sterility of instruments who push the boundaries of what's possible in these specialized domains but and this is a big but that can't not lie you other brothers can't deny I'm sorry I had to they're not always the ones who should be leading transformation in your periop and CSP departments let's break this down in the world of periop and CSP leadership we've got two distinct types of leaders subject matter thought leaders and transformational leaders both are important both bring value to the department but they are not interchangeable and when we try to use them interchangeably this is when things go awry let's start with the subject matter thought leader in periop and CSP these are your experts in periop these might be your top surgeons your top nurses or nurses your ace anesthesiologists in CSP these are your technicians who know every instrument sterilization protocol inside out they excel at driving technical results and they're the go-to experts in their niche but here's the thing about subject matter thought leaders in periop and CSP they typically focus on what and how how do we perform the surgery more efficiently what's what new sterilization techniques can we implement to improve turnaround times these are crucial questions and we need people who can answer them however subject matter thought leaders often keep their gaze too narrowly within their domain a surgeon might be focused on optimizing their specific procedures without considering how changes might impact the overall flow of the OR a CSP technician might be laser focused on perfecting a particular sterilization process without seeing how it fits into the broader broader context of the entire hospital operations that's where transformational leaders come in these leaders operate at a higher level they're not just concerned with how to do things better within the existing frameworks they're questioning the frameworks themselves they're connecting the dots across the departments they're fostering innovation and inspiring teams to adapt to change transformational leaders in periop and CSP are masters of the why and the who why are we structuring our OR schedule this way who needs to be involved to improve communication between periop and CSP how can we inspire our teams to embrace new technologies or processes now here's where things get interesting bridge builders the reality is that only about one in ten professionals have the rare combination of technical mastery and transformational leadership ability let that sink in only about 10 of the periop and CSP work floors likely has the capacity to be both a subject matter expert and a transformational leader this isn't just my opinion this is backed by solid research studies on leadership from organizations like Gallup and Harvard Business Review consistently show that a small percentage of individuals possess high levels of competency in multiple leadership domains it's rare to find someone who has both deep technical expertise in periop and CSP and the ability to inspire and lead large scale organizational change but the question should be why is this combination so rare so rare well it comes down to the fact that the skill sets required for being a subject matter expert in periop or CSP often contrast sharply with the needed the needed skills for transformational leadership think about it what makes someone great what makes someone a great surgeon or CSP technician they're often highly detailed oriented focused on perfecting specific techniques or processes they excel at working within established protocols and systems now what makes someone a great transformational leader in periop or CSP they tend to be big picture thinkers able to see how changes in one area might impact the entire surgical workflow they they're skilled at building bridges between departments and inspiring diverse teams to work towards a common goal at navigating the complex dynamics of hospital politics these are different cognitive and behavioral strengths it's like asking someone to be both a sprinter and a marathon runner can it happen sure but it's rare and it requires a unique individual who's invested significant time and effort in developing both skill sets equally this rarity is sometimes something i've observed time and time again in periop and CSP departments across the country there's often a clear gap between people who are technically uh astute as an expert in their field and those who can inspire and lead large-scale change now why does all of this matter why should you care about the difference between subject matter thought leaders and transformational leaders in these departments and it's simple because when we confuse these roles when we ask technical experts to lead transformation we create the gap and that gap that's where departmental misalignment happens that's where we see stagnation burn out in yes millions and lost revenue and profit when you have two subject matter experts one may be an or subject matter expert maybe a nurse maybe a surgeon one may be a spd central store processing department expert and now you have two subject matter experts who believe in what they do so much and they believe that their department is the sole reason the hospital runs this subject matter expert believes that their department is the sole uh a glue of the entire hospital and both are right and wrong at the same time both need each other one may be more beneficial or more important in one aspect while the other is more beneficial and important in another aspect but when you're so focused on being a thought leader in defending your domain or your department this is the issue that happens and this leads to a lack of connectivity from one department to the next let me give you a real world example i recently came across a case study of a large urban hospital that was struggling with efficiency and quality issues in their perioperative services and central store processing departments they've been grappling with long turnover times between surgeries frequent delays due to instrument issues and rising costs in both departments the hospital had tried various approaches implementing new scheduling software bridge of bringing in lean consultants and even purchasing new equipment for csp but the problem still persisted when the case was analyzed it was found that they had put their top surgeon in charge of perioperative services and their most experienced csp technician in charge of central store processing these were highly skilled professionals true experts in their field but they were approaching the problems from a purely technical perspective they were so focused on optimizing individual processes within their departments without seeing the big picture of how these departments interacted and impacted the overall patient flow the surgeon in charge of periop was excellent at streamlining specific surgical procedures but struggled to address broader issues like staff scheduling interdepartmental communication and strategic planning the csp technician turned manager knew every instrument and sterilization protocol by heart but was overwhelmed by the administrative and leadership aspects of running the department this is a classic example of misalignment that happens when we ask subject matter experts to take on transformational leadership roles in periop in csp and the cost of this misalignment they're staggering costing hospitals millions of dollars first there's the financial cost in this case the hospital was losing millions annually due to inefficiencies delayed in council surgeries and the need to purchase duplicate instrument sets to compensate for slow processing times then there was the human cost the surgeon in the csp technician who were brilliant in their domains were stressed and burnt out trying to manage departments in ways they were not trained for staff across both departments were frustrated and resistant to changes that didn't seem to address the root problems and perhaps most critically there is the cost to the patient care inefficiencies in periop and csp don't just impact the hospital's bottom line they can lead to delayed surgeries increased risk of surgical site infections in overall lower quality of care we'll take a break and we'll be back Bridge builders are you struggling with implementing transformational change in your healthcare organization at sips healthcare solutions we understand the unique challenges of healthcare leadership our executive coaching and leadership development programs are designed to help you build a balanced leadership team that leverages both subject matter expertise and transformational leadership skills visit sipshealthcare.com to learn how we can help you bridge the leadership gap and drive meaningful change in your organization welcome back bridge builders before the break we were talking about the costly misalignment that can happen when we confuse subject matter expertise with transformational leadership ability now let's dig deeper into why this misalignment happens and how we can address it one of the main reasons we fall into this trap is that it seems logical on the surface if someone is an expert surgeon or nurse practitioner or csp technician surely right they're the best person to lead change right but this thinking ignores a crucial truth leading change in periop and csp requires a fundamental different skill set than being a technical expert in surgery or stir a process let's break down the key differences let's start with focus subject matter thought leaders focus on depth a surgeon might be focused on perfecting a particular surgical technique a nurse may be focused on ensuring patient safety in the or csp technician might be dedicated to optimizing a specific sterilization process sounds good right but their focus is on depth of their industry or depth of their domain not the interconnected domains that all affect one decision but transformational leaders on the other hand they focus on the breath the width they need to understand enough about the multiple areas from surgery to anesthesiology to stereo processing to hospital administration to see how they all fit together in the big picture of patient care let's talk about the difference in communication style thought leaders in periop and csp often communicate in the language of their expertise they're comfortable with medical jargon and technical specifications but transformational leaders need to be able to communicate complex ideas about surgical workflows or sterilization processes in simple terms that resonate with diverse audiences that are not from that domain from frontline staff to high school executives even to patients let's talk about the difference in how thought leaders versus transformational leaders problem solve thought leaders excel at solving technical problems within their domain give them a specific issue with a surgical procedure or a sterilization protocol and they'll likely come up with an excellent solution transformational leaders however are adept at solving systemic problems problems that cut across multiple domains they're looking at how to change the system itself not just fix the issues within the existing domain that they're residing in relationship to change there's a difference thought leaders often drive incremental change within their domain they might focus on small improvements to surgical techniques or minor adjustments to sterilization processes transformational leaders on the other hand drive radical change they're about reimagining how the entire periop or csp department could function differently better innovatively and lastly let's look at how each thought leader versus transformational leader how they deal with team dynamics thought leaders often work best with teams of other experts in their field a top surgeon might prefer working with other experienced surgeons and surgical nurses a skills a csp technician might be most comfortable collaborating with other technicians transformational leaders however need to be able to work with and inspire diverse teams across the organization they need to be able to bring together surgeons nurses anesthesiologists csp technicians and administrators and more aligning them toward one common goal patient care now here's where it gets tricky in periop and csp we often promote people based on their technical expertise and don't worry i've seen this across many different industry sectors they this is typically what would happen the best surgeon becomes the chief of surgery the best nurse becomes the chief of nursing chief nursing officer the best knowledgeable csp technician becomes the departmental manager and in many ways this makes sense we want leaders who understand the intricacies of work being done in the or and and see a csp but if we're not careful we can end up with a leadership team full of subject matter thought leaders and no transformational leaders and it happens all the time and when this happens we see periop and csp departments that are technically proficient but strategically stagnant they might be performing surgeries or processing instruments correctly according to best practices but they're not innovating they're not adapting to changes in the healthcare landscape they're not inspiring their staff to reach new heights of efficiency and quality so how do we address this issue how do we ensure that we have the right balance of thought leaders and transformational leaders in our periop and csp departments the first step is recognition we need to acknowledge that these are different skill sets and that they're both are valuable we need to stop assuming that being an expert surgeon or csp technician automatically qualifies someone for a leadership role in these departments next we need to start intentionally developing transformational leadership skills in our periop and csp departments this means investing in leadership development programs that go beyond technical skills we need to be teaching things like strategic thinking the ability to see the big picture of how periop and csp fit into the larger hospital ecosystem we need to be teaching change management understanding how guide how to guide these complex departments through significant changes in processes and technology we need to be teaching emotional intelligence the capacity to understand and manage one's own emotions in others in those of others crucial in high stress environments of the or in csp we need to be teaching communication skills the ability to articulate a vision for departmental improvement and inspire others to follow we need to be teaching system thinking understanding how changes in one area periop or one area in csp might affect other departments throughout the entire hospital ecosystem and we also need to rethink our organizational structures in these departments instead of always putting the top surgeon or the most experienced csp technician in charge we should be looking at creating leadership teams that balance subject matter expertise with transformational leadership skills for an example instead of making your top surgeon the head of periopteral services or your top nurse the head of periopteral services or your top surgeon over the or you might pair them with a transformational leader who has a track record of driving organizational change in healthcare settings the surgeon can provide a deep subject matter expertise that's needed while the transformational leader can focus on the bigger picture of how to innovate and improve the entire periopteral process in csp instead of promoting your most skilled technician to department manager consider bringing in a leader with experience in process improvement and change management this leader can work closely with the technical experts to drive departmental change while ensuring the high standards of instrument sterilization are maintained now you may say dr j how does that affect how does that affect our department our technicians our specialists they have to be able to grow they have to be able to promote up we have to rethink or innovate what we consider leadership positions you may have somebody that's an operational manager that's a transformational leader and in the same breath you may create an equal a peer who's the clinical technician of the department their job is quality their job is teaching standards their job is to make sure everyone is skilled technically while the person running the organization is engineering efficiency within the department and they work as a unit not as one especially when it's hard to find a transformational leader that has the ability to be both now i can already hear some of you thinking but dr j where am i supposed to find these transformational leaders for periop in csp you said that they're rare and you're right they are rare but here's the good news while the natural ability to be both a subject matter expert and a transformational leader might be rare transformational leadership skills can in fact be developed this is where intentional leadership development comes in we need to be able to identify high potential individuals in our periop in csp departments people who show aptitude for strategic thinking who are good at building relationships across departments who show a knack for inspiring others and we need to be investing in the developing and developing their transformational leadership skills this might mean sending them to an executive education program i.e. with sips focused on healthcare leadership it might mean setting up internal mentorship programs i.e. our next up leadership system that we implement and we develop inside of hospital systems where they can learn from transformational leaders in other parts of your organization it might mean giving them opportunities to lead cross functional projects to develop their big picture thinking the key is to be intentional about it don't just assume that your top performers and periop in csp will naturally develop into transformational leaders give them the tools the training and the opportunities they need to develop these crucial skills let me tell you this and we'll go to a commercial break when you're hiring someone it is your job as an organization to develop their skills to help your organization and a lot of people are hiring subject matter experts thinking it's the end all be all when in fact when you hire a subject matter expert that has more room to grow we need to be putting them in development leadership programs immediately we need to be processing how we actually grow talent within i have people in my organization that are great specialists at what they do and when i get on them they think that i'm upset about what they do i'm i'm upset about what um what skill says they're lacking in development because they're only seeing their department from their specialty man i do my job i do this yeah but you're not thinking about when you are late on your task what other departments are slowed down and affected because you're only thinking about your domain and in the hospital sector that is not one thing that you should be focusing on especially when it comes to patient lives we'll be back bridge builders developing transformational leaders is crucial for the future of healthcare at simps healthcare solutions we offer comprehensive leadership development programs designed specifically for healthcare professionals from executive coaching to immersive workshops we can help you cultivate the transformational leadership skills your organization needs to thrive in today's complex healthcare landscape visit simpshealthcare.com to explore our leadership development offerings and take the first steps toward transforming your organization welcome back bridge builders we talked about the difference between subject matter thought leaders and transformational leaders in periop and csp we've discussed the importance of developing transformational leadership skills now let's talk about how to put this into practice into your departments now one of the things that i believe separates our podcast from any other podcast is we give actionable items that you can go and implement here's one of the biggest reasons why one we want you to trust coming to cips for your leadership development for your staffing needs turning around your departments imperating processes and systems but we cannot do that without giving you actionable items that you see are helping your department it gives you a chance to kind of get coaching and advisory from us from a far in a way so that you can see the value of what we're bringing how we can help you turn your organization around here's the deal first let's address a common concern i hear when i talk about this topic many healthcare leaders that focus that are focusing on transformational leadership mean they think that i mean devaluing technical expertise and let me be clear that is absolutely not the case that is emphatically not the case technical expertise is a is crucial in these departments we need skilled surgeons knowledgeable or our nurses and expert csp technicians subject matter thought leaders play a vital role in driving excellence and innovation in their domain the key is not to choose between technical expertise and transformational leadership but to create structures that leverage both effectively here's a framework i often use when i'm working with hospitals businesses corporations to optimize their department's leadership structure one identify your current leadership landscape start by assessing your current leadership team who are your subject matter thought leaders who demonstrate trans a transformational leadership qualities and where are the gaps to define clear roles be explicit about the different roles of thought leaders and transformational leaders in your in your departments make sure everyone understands that these are distinct but equal valuable roles three create balance balance leadership teams for manage for major initiatives or departmental programs apart departmental leadership excuse me create teams that include both subject matter thought leadership and transformational leaders this allows you to leverage deep expertise while also driving meaningful change number four invest in leadership development partner with us to develop a robust leadership program that focuses on building transformational leadership skills specific to periop and csp this should be available not just to those informal leadership roles but to high potential individuals all across the departments we want to align incentives ensure that your performance evaluation and compensation structures reward both technical excellence and transformational leadership skills you get what you measure and reward so make sure you're incentivizing the behaviors you want to see foster a culture of collaboration create this number six create opportunities for thought leadership and transformational leaders in these departments work together and learn from each other this could be through cross functional projects mentoring programs or collaborative problem solving session embrace adaptive leadership recognize that different situations and periop and csp may call for different types of leadership sometimes you need deep technical expertise to solve a problem other times you need transformational leadership to drive change build flexibility in your leadership structure to allow for this to happen now let's go back to the case study i mentioned earlier about the hospital struggling with efficiency and periop and csp departments remember they had to put their top surgeon in charge of periop services in their most experienced csp technician in charge of central stereo processing and they were still facing significant changes the breakthrough came when the hospital decided to shake things up they partnered with us so we can create a cross functional leadership team that paired these clinical technical experts with transform transformational leaders who had expertise in operational management organizational change this team was tasked with looking at periop and csp not as isolated departments but as integral parts of the entire surgical patient journey these results were remarkable the transformational leaders brought fresh perspectives and innovative ideas that implemented strategies like creating a joint dashboard for periop csp allowing real-time visibility into instrument processing status and or schedules this improved communication reduced delays caused by instrument availability issues using sonar by a synco it allows for everyone to have the dashboard and to see exactly where all the equipment's are and where all the schedules are so that everyone can be on the same it's sonar's platform almost looks like at being at an airport when you look at the airport and you see the times and delays that's exactly what sonar's technology looks like which is why we were proud partner with sonar in a synco reach out to brian reed the ceo of sonar or reach out to one of their representatives if you want a tracking system that can connect with both the or and spd number two we want to implement uh we wanted to implement a culture change program focused on cross departmental collaboration and continuous improvement this helped break down silos between periop and csp fostering a sense of shared responsibility for patient outcomes here's the deal if you're only in your domain every single day every single second every single minute every single hour and you only talk to people in your world you think that your world is the only thing that matters i liken it to how growing up if you grow up a specific way and you never encounter other people in their experiences in life you would think that the way you grew up was the ultimate worst way to grow up or the way you grew up was the absolute best way to grow up until you start to communicate with other people from different backgrounds and different different cultures and different spaces and different places until you start to have those interconnected conversations you think that your life your circumstances your culture is the best or is the most depressed or whatever it is until you start talking to other people that have worse circumstances then you can start realizing well maybe i'm not that bad or maybe i'm really not that good and how can i break through these silos that create this change in organizations and in real world abroad the third thing redesigning the physical layout of csp to optimize workflow and reduce unnecessary movement disimprove efficiency and reduce staff fatigue everything will be great and lastly developing a cross training program between periop and csp staff to build mutual understanding and respect this not only improved collaboration but it also provided staffing flexibility during busy periods the subject matter experts were crucial in ensuring that these ideas were implemented in a way that maintained or improved clinical quality and adhered to all necessary standards and regulations the surgeon could spot potential issues with or workflow changes while csp technicians ensured that new processes met stringent sterilization requirements within six months let me tell you what the hospital saw or turnover times decreased by 20 delayed due to instrument issues dropped by 50 first case on time starts improved by 15 staff satisfaction scores and both periop and csp increased significantly perhaps more importantly this new approach sparked a cultural shift in organization staff in periop and csp started seeing themselves as part of the same team all contributing to ultimate goal of excellent patient care now i know what some of you are thinking dr jake this all sounds good in theory but my periop and csp departments are different we all have unique challenges and you're right every hospital is unique but the principles we're talking about today are universal does it take a little extra work to get it going yes does it take a little extra work to keep it going yes but so does being inefficient take extra work so does being frustrated every day take extra work so does being stressed out at the at the place you spend more time than you spend with your family take extra work so if you want something to work you invest in it working so whether you're a small rural hospital or a large urban health system whether you're focused on csp departments are different i mean uh whether you're focused on specific surgical specialty or you're a general hospital the need to balance technical expertise with transformational leadership in periop and csp is absolutely crucial so let's talk about some common objections i hear when i bring this topic up with healthcare leaders dr jake we can't afford to hire new transformational leaders for periop and csp my response is you can't afford not to the cost of misalignment in terms of surgical delays and instrument error staff burnout and missed opportunities for innovation far outweighs the cost of investing in leadership development or bringing in transformational talent the easiest thing to do is to allow us to assist we can build help you build out your leadership development program with the programs we already have so you're not building it from scratch we can build up a next up leadership system to where you're able to manage your talent and see what their capabilities are and we can assign transformational operations specialists that can help drive initiatives and projects and create change while your hospital staffed subject matter expert can ensure the quality of that change another uh common objection dr jake our surgeons and csp technicians won't accept outside leadership my response this is where change management comes in it's crucial to communicate that bringing in transformational leaders isn't about devaluing technical expertise it's about creating a structure that allows that expertise to have an even bigger impact on patient care and departmental success i liken it to sports just because somebody is great at scoring the ball doesn't mean that they're great at orchestrating the entire team which doesn't mean that they're great at calling plays and strategies as a coach everyone plays a role some get paid more than others but the team is who wins and that's what matters here's the third one dr jake we don't have time for leadership development in periop and csp we're too busy putting out fires my response is if you're consistently and constantly putting out fires in this critical department that's a sign that you need transformational leadership more than ever transformational leaders can help you move from a reactive to a proactive stance addressing the root causes of issues rather than just treating the symptoms here's another one periop and csp are too specialized outsiders won't understand our challenges my response i did and i'm an outsider while these departments certainly have unique aspects many of the challenges they face managing change improving efficiency enhancing enter departmental communication are universal fresh perspectives from fresh eyes from fresh transformational leaders even if they come outside of health care can be invaluable to driving innovation and lastly we've always promoted based on surgical or technical expertise it's a part of our culture my response culture can change sometimes it needs to change for organizations to thrive this doesn't mean abandoning your commitment to clinical excellence but it means redefining what leadership looks like in your periop and csp departments now let's talk about how you can start implementing these ideas in your periop csp departments one assess your current state two identify potential transformational leaders when you say assess your current state dr j what you mean are you top heavy with technical experts do you have transformational leaders in key positions are there gaps in your leadership capabilities what about identifying potential transformational leaders look for individuals that already have the knack to see big picture that already are building excellent relationships across departments that are adapted navigating change and helping others through it who inspire and motivate their colleagues who think creatively about solving complex problems i can't say this more invest in leadership development that's active not just leadership development programs that you study you read something you pass a test and you're like hey i'm a leader but programs like ours that are in action with our leadership programs you can't even get our certification our sco sips certified health care operations executive designation without going through three phases of assessments in three phases of many certifications that build up to our sips standard without proving you a great foundational leader leading a team without proving you a great strategic leader learning how to run a department without proving that you're a great executive learning how to look at the entire ecosystem of the hospital well dr jake i'm not i'm not promoted in those positions yet just because you're not promoted in those positions can't mean doesn't mean you can't take additional tasks to be able to train you on how to operate most people want to be king before you're trained to sit in the seat you don't wait until you're designated the role before you become the role you become the role before your designation we have to rethink organizational structure pairing technical experts with transformational leaders will be key in co-leadership together creating new roles focused on driving organizational change and improvement and establishing cross functional teams we got a line incentives are you rewarding are you rewarding both technical excellence and transformational leadership make sure the incentives align with your leadership balance communicate communicate communicate make sure you're articulating the rational behind the change the value of both subject matter experts and transformational leadership how these new approach how this new approach will benefit the department staff and ultimately patients and lastly lead by example as a leader you need to model the balance of technical expertise and transformational leadership be willing to bring in diverse perspectives consultants advisors it does not mean that you're not great at what you do but it is you being a being aware of all of your deficiencies so as if as a leader leading you your your department as a director executive department the executive director or vp you know right now either you're transformational or you're a technician whichever the opposite of you go and get your counterpart to help feel that gap it's almost like marriage we got a break and we'll be back bridge builders transforming your leadership approach is a journey not a destination at sips healthcare solutions we're here to support you every step of the way our team of experienced healthcare leaders and organizational development experts can help you assess your current leadership landscape develop customized strategies for cultivating transformational leaders and implement changes that drive real results visit sips healthcare dot com to learn more about how we can partner with you to breed a new generation of healthcare league welcome back bridge builders as we wrap up today's episode i want to leave you with a call to action the healthcare landscape is changing rapidly and nowhere is this more evident than in periop and csp the challenges we face in these departments from advancing surgical technologies to evolving sterilization standards to increase pressure for efficiency requires a new kind of leadership we need leaders who can dive into complex clinical and technical issues in surgery and sterilization and we need leaders who can who can see the big picture who can inspire change who can guide our periop and csp departments into the future most importantly we need to create structures that allow these different types of leaders to work together effectively leveraging their unique strengths to drive excellence and innovation in surgical services so here's my challenge to you take a hard look at your leadership team and your leadership development practices are you cultivating both technical expertise and transformational leadership skills are you creating opportunities for these different types of leaders to collaborate and learn from each other if not it's time to make a change i think michael jackson says i'm starting with the man in the mirror i'm asking him to change his way and no message could have been any clearer if you want to make the world a better place take a look at yourself and make a change yet i'm just playing no i'm not you got to start with yourself and remember bridge builders periop and csp leadership we're not just managing departments or schedules we're shaping the future of surgical care in our communities we owe it to ourselves our staff our patients to build leadership teams that can meet complex challenges of modern surgical services head on as always i'm here to support you on this journey and our next episode we'll be diving deeper into specific strategies for developing transformational leadership skills in the periop and csp settings you don't want to miss it until then keep leading keep innovating and keep pushing for excellence in everything that you do the future of surgical services depends on leaders like you who are willing to challenge the status quo and build periop csp departments that are truly bread to lead thank you for tuning in to another episode of bread to lead don't forget to subscribe to our podcast to ensure you never miss an episode and for those bridge builders ready to embrace authentic leadership check out our next step leadership program at cips healthcare it's time to invest in your future and become the genuine leader your organization needs wait before you go let's shine a spotlight on our partners at asenko asenko is revolutionizing surgical asset management with their innovative sonar system as the first surgical asset management platform built for operational efficiency and quality across every department asenko is helping healthcare organizations optimize their surgical operations with transparency and integrity visit asenko ascen dco.com to learn how sonar can transform your surgical asset management until later peace