Matt

Krzmarzick
Why is Bersin arguing leadership is the biggest gap? What is the gap and what do
you propose we do about it.
Due to the ever-growing needs to healthcare and auxiliary services,
companies are looking to grow their presence locally and globally. Besides replacing
the retiring mid-level and senior leadership, they must hire additional leaders on all
levels to expand their presence. In addition to hiring new managers and leaders,
they must train and develop the current employees. According to the data, 86% of
the healthcare and auxiliary companies, which were surveyed and investigated,
were said to lack in the appropriate leadership and programs necessary to develop
future leaders. Specifically, this gap which Bersin identifies is a combination of
retiring baby boomer generation in the healthcare industry, the abundance in
untrained leaders or bosses and the erroneous spending of dollars in the
healthcare industry towards unsupportive development techniques.

One of the biggest problems facing the healthcare industry is that the

industry is ever changing and developing. Leaders must have certain critical skills in
order to lead a successful company; these include: business acumen, collaboration,
global cultural agility, creativity, customer-centricity, influence and inspiration, and
building teams and talent.(Bersin) Not just one or a few of these specific skills are
able to make a successful leader, but all of these are required in order to make
him/her succeed and be effective. The leader must be able to show competence or
excellence in these skills while still having the responsibility of creating synergy

between their employees and managing their division. These same leaders need to
be dynamic and adaptive to the ever-changing industry.

A contributing factor towards the leadership gap is the mentality of boss

versus leader. As Dwight D. Eisenhower said, Leadership is the art of getting

someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
Historically, there have been large amounts of negativity towards ones boss. A boss
stands at the top of the mountain while others climb, but a leader paves the way and
motivates their employees to climb it. Countless employees in the healthcare
industry, not in all cases though, have hated their boss because they believe they
lack necessary leadership qualities. Healthcare companies need to develop their
management to be leaders, instead of bosses.

In order to fix these gaps in the healthcare industry, a company must do

implement a multi-part plan that will be integrated at all organizational levels. Step
1 is to work on recruiting and retaining excellent employees. Leaders arent born;
they are made. By recruiting intelligent and driven people, companies have the
responsibility to teach them the necessary hard and soft skills, which were
mentioned above by Bersin. Step 2 in this multi-part plan is to develop a
personalized development plan, which teaches the future leaders these skills. The
company should be investing in their capital, resources and time in their employees
to continue to improve their organization. This development plan should follow
these steps:
1. Define the pipeline in the organization. Companies in the healthcare
industry need to realize that the best way to obtain excellent leaders is for

the company to train them themselves. As Bersin stated, the United States
Department of Defense has a massive need for strong leaders and they fulfill
this need by training them internally. This ideology is also relevant to global
organizations; the best way to expand globally is to create leaders locally
with a global and cultural awareness.
2. Continually evaluate the future leader and analyze the current status or level
of the necessary skills.
3. Implement a mentor program throughout the company. For example, the
Chief Operating Officer, assuming they show excellence in their work and
daily life, will be a mentor to a few business managers. This allows for lower
level management to be trained, but it also stimulates communication
between many levels of the company.
4. Investigate all of the funding that is being used on current development for
future leaders. Ask for honest feedback on current training seminars and
conferences and eliminate all non-essential spending. The feedback will be
collected through individual and group meetings with the future leaders and
the Development Committee (mentioned later). This will not just cut down
on expenses, but open up more funding for newer and better opportunities
for the future leaders.
5. All future leaders lacking in certain skills will attend mandatory training
seminars. Specifically focusing on Lean, Six Sigma, I2S2 type programs and
skill development mentioned by Bersin.

Step 3, the final part of this multi-part plan is to create a standing committee
dedicated to the development of the management and leaders of the organization.
This committee will consist of members from all levels of the organization, although
mainly consisting of high-level management and senior leaders; there will be a
presence of low-level managers. This Development Committee will focus on the
reviewing process of individuals, decide the budget for the development of leaders
and review and change the development strategy of the company.

Companies need to develop leaders at all levels in their organizations

o Bringing on younger leaders for the next generation to developing
senior/experienced leaders to stay more relevant
Leadership in the 21st century is ever changing
o New leadership challenges
Global fluency and flexibility
Innovation
Understanding of rapidly changing technologies, disciplines
and fields
Shortage of leaders is one of the biggest impediments to growth
o Rapidly growing businesses
Companies are not equipping the leaders in their businesses with the critical
skills they need to succeed
o Business acumen
o Collaboration
o Global cultural agility
o Creativity
o Customer-centricity
o Influence and inspiration
o Building teams and talent
Building leadership pipeline requires a high level of sustained investment.
$3,500 a year for mid level and $10,000 for senior leaders for development
Boss vs. Leader
DoD needs leaders and does an excellent job at developing them
Starting points
o Engage top execs to develop leadership strategy and actively govern
leadership development
o Align and refresh leadership strats
o Develop on all levels

o Develop global leaders, locally

o Develop a succession mindset

1. Retention and hiring future leaders
2. Make them go through
3. Develop strategy for teaching current leaders

Evaluate them

Teach them

Lead not boss

I2S2, other leadership proven things
4. Not sending leaders to stupid conferences
Watch spending your dollars
Make them count, go to proven plans or make your own
5. Pipepine