The ACHE Executive Program will be offered through a series of interactive virtual course work, panel discussions, professional leadership assessments and individualized coaching/career advising sessions.

The Executive Program is divided into three cohorts designed for director and vice president-level leaders (executive cohort), senior vice presidents and those taking their next steps to C-suite (senior executive cohort), and physician leaders who are transitioning to administrative roles (physician executive cohort).

Program attendance is limited to maintain an intimate learning environment. A limited number of scholarships are available for individuals whose organizations lack the resources to fully fund their tuition. Scholarship applications are due April 23. For more information, please contact your regional director.

Please consider donating to the Fund for Healthcare Leadership in 2021. The Fund wholly supports the Thomas C. Dolan Executive Diversity Program and provides scholarships to talented individuals who lack the resources to acquire the skills and training needed to effectively lead through today’s challenges and into the future.

Take the next important step in your career by advancing to Fellow status and take advantage of our Board of Governors Exam fee waiver offer (a savings of $225). To receive the waiver, qualified Members must submit their completed Fellow application, $250 application fee and all required documents by June 30. Visit ache.org/FACHE to learn more.

In 2021, the Thomas C. Dolan Executive Diversity Program is expanding with the Career Accelerator Program. This new component is designed for diverse mid-careerists to help advance their careers. This six-month program will provide education, mentoring and networking to prepare diverse leaders for higher level positions in hospitals, health systems and other healthcare organizations. The program will include career development assessments, specialized learning opportunities and interactive virtual networking.

The application period for the 2021 Dolan CAP will open in early April and the program will begin July 1.

We are pleased to offer members three new, free online communities for physician executives, Asian healthcare leaders and LGBTQ healthcare leaders. The communities’ platform makes it easier than ever for peers to connect in real time, tackle issues together and ask important career-related questions. Members can participate in discussion threads, share resources and best practices, and crowdsource innovative ideas and solutions.

To join, follow these steps:

1. Log in to my.ache.org.
2. Under “Helpful Links” on the right-hand side, click the last option, “My Communities.”
3. Click the “Add” button to choose the online communities you wish to join. An MD or DO degree is required to join the Physician Executive Community.
4. Watch your inbox for your welcome email and instructions to access your new community! The email will arrive within 24 hours.

We had a very successful Congress with more than 9,200 registrations! We hope you enjoyed your education sessions and your conversations with local members in the Chapter Chat Rooms. All members who attended have access to the platform for on-demand viewing until April 20 to earn ACHE Qualified Education credit. Some sessions will be available individually for purchase later—stay tuned for further information.

Here are a few interesting facts from the event:

• 9,234 registrants.
• 127,659 total comments posted on the conversation wall.
• 10,809 total user-to-exhibitor connections.
• 4,076 chat messages posted during sessions.
• 3,665 Fellows in attendance.
• 2,395 responses to polls, quizzes and surveys.
• 1,364 CEOs registered.
• 1,328 attendees at Convocation.

Please mark your calendars for 2022 Congress on March 28-31, 2022.

ACHE-WI Leadership Development (LDP) Cohort XI members hosted virtual site visits with leaders from the Milwaukee VA Medical Center and Children’s Wisconsin, and a leadership panel with successful LDP alumni from both organizations. The full day event was followed by a team social and celebration of the year together as a cohort.

The day started with a site visit overview led by cohort member and host Marshere’ Shackelford from the Milwaukee VA Medical Center, followed by a VA 101 presentation with Zoe Krause, Employee Education Training Specialist. Vocational Rehabilitation Services were discussed with Anne Marie Nelson, Program Manager, and VA Suicide Prevention Initiatives were shared by Laura Acompanado, LCSW, Suicide Prevention Coordinator.

The afternoon kick-off and Children’s Wisconsin Introduction was led by cohort member and host Yvonne Renick, Herma Heart Institute Clinic Manager. An interactive session focused on Career Journey & Insights was a highlight with Lisa Jentsch, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, VP Patient Care and Service Lines.

Cohort member and co-host Duška Stanić moderated an inspiring and engaging panel discussion featuring LDP Alumni, who shared their wisdom and lessons learned along their pathway to success as healthcare leaders. LDP Alumni leaders from Children’s Wisconsin included Aaron Kinney, DBA, FACHE, Executive Director, Herma Heart Institute; Mike Flaherty, Business Manager – Ambulatory Specialty Care; and Luke Belter, FACHE, Business Manager – Surgical Services. LDP Alumni leaders from the Milwaukee VA Medical Center were represented by Dr. Christina Orr, DPT, Assistant Medical Center Director, and Chris Gries, Supervisory Health Systems Specialist, Chief of Staff’s Office.

The site visit with Children’s Wisconsin continued with Career Journey & Perspectives of the Administrative and Medical Dyad Leadership Partnership discussions, with valuable insights from Juliet Kersten, VP Ambulatory and Regional Services and Dr. Peter Bartz, MD, VP Ambulatory & Section Chief Cardiology.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to make this program a success!  Cohort members wrapped up with a team social to celebrate individual achievements, and collective accomplishments throughout this past year of unique challenges in healthcare and beyond.

Congratulations to our newest alumni of the ACHE-WI Leadership Development Program! * Madalyn Buschman * Rachael Cochart * Emily Dilley * Chet Doering * Craig Dreikosen * Yvonne Renick * Marshere’ Shackelford * Duška Stanić * Joseph Stearly *

ACHE-WI is looking for experts within our membership to participate as a panelist or moderator at our upcoming virtual Face-to-Face credit events.

The moderator sets the tone, the pace and control of the content, staying ever-vigilant in keeping it relevant for the audience. It is the moderator’s responsibility to make sure the panel is lively, engaging and worthwhile.

The panelists are experts on the topic and can share examples and tools with the audience. They can share successes and lessons learned.

Our topics are as follows:

• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, April 15, noon
• Disruptive Innovation in Healthcare Delivery, May 20, 4pm
• Sustainability of Healthcare Organizations: A Plan of Action, June 17, noon

Learn more about the topics here. If you have the experience in any of these areas, please volunteer to participate as a moderator or panelist by completing the form below by Friday, March 12.

Complete the Call for Speakers Here

Note: You will need to provide a bio and photo with your submission.

If building their careers is a priority and not just wishful thinking, executives can consider starting every year knowing what they want to put on their resumes at the end of the year. When I share this advice with my staff, it is often met with a perplexed look, as those on the receiving end wonder if the CEO just told them they will need to be looking for a new job. The truth is quite the contrary. I offer this coaching advice to my most promising, up-and-coming or seasoned executives.

Careers are built on a series of accomplishments. The most powerful resumes are not a list of jobs held but, rather, a series of accomplishments achieved while in those positions—metrics progressed, programs built, market share gained and margins improved. Hiring managers want to see those accomplishments become progressively greater in scale and scope as well as complexity. Here is the twist: The same is true for performance reviews, raises and internal promotions.

I will take a risk on promoting a promising individual who has demonstrated a consistent drive and capability to get things done. I will likely not promote executives who have simply managed their areas of responsibility but have not taken it to the next level. This holds true even if they met their numbers, managed through crisis, successfully handled complex human resource issues and kept the lights on. That is all good. We need a lot of people who can do that; however, it is not my goal to prove the merits of the “Peter principle.”

One of the most impactful check-ins is a periodic progress report at a regularly scheduled meeting of key members of the leadership team.

Individuals may believe they deserve a promotion (e.g., “I have been a director for 10 years, and I deserve to be a VP!”). Unless they can demonstrate the ability to deliver tangible results and benefits for an organization beyond their current position, however, individuals should not be promoted.

Setting and Tracking Goals
There are numerous factors to consider when crafting annual goals. Making the goal a derivative of an organizational strategy, an interest of the executive’s direct supervisor, one that is shared with other executives or one that requires resources wholly contained within the executive’s area of responsibility are excellent options. Garnering required resources and support is more easily achieved when the goal incorporates these considerations.

Executives should know the metrics or impactful qualitative outcomes they want to achieve upfront. It’s also helpful to visualize the accomplishments derived from goals on their resumes. Then, individuals can ask themselves whether those achievements will be impressive on their annual performance reviews or to a hiring manager, regardless of whether a job search is in their career plans.

Executing Goals
First, executives are encouraged to communicate goals to stakeholders who will hold them publicly accountable. Second, delegate responsibilities to stakeholders with clear expectations, specific milestones and regular check-ins. One of the most impactful check-ins is a periodic progress report at a regularly scheduled meeting of key members of the leadership team.

Third, engage a peer who also has an interest in this goal. Share the journey. And fourth, make sure no significant resources beyond what is built into the annual budget are needed. Promises for additional resources evaporate quickly when finances get strained.

It has been all hands on deck as healthcare organizations absorb shifting government recommendations, institute policies and procedures for safety, procure adequate personal protective equipment, build testing capabilities, and care for COVID-19 patients, all while managing steep financial losses. A key for leaders is managing these day-to-day issues while keeping their goals top-of-mind and steadily progressing throughout the year.

Whether a job search is on the horizon or not, driving toward accomplishments that merit inclusion on their resumes will keep leaders focused on their career and perhaps even optimistic as they head into a performance review.

–Adapted from “Accomplishments Build Careers,” Healthcare Executive, Alan S. Kaplan, MD, FACHE, CEO, UW Health, Madison, Wis.

As leaders, we are called on to pivot quickly in a crisis—often more rapidly than we are comfortable with—finding new ways to meet goals and encouraging adaptability among team members. Now more than ever, it is the skill of resourcefulness that can provide value to organizations and drive leaders and their teams to a higher level of success.

Resourcefulness in Action
In times of crisis, resourcefulness is even more essential. In November 2019, Great Plains Health experienced a cyberattack that shook the organization at every level. The 116-bed, independent health system was fortunate to have good leadership and expertise in its information systems department, on its medical staff and among the senior leadership team to guide the organization through the incident. Successful handling of this crisis also came from the resourcefulness of its leaders.

The Great Plains Health team showed resourcefulness largely by leaning on the relationships and trust it had previously built with regional and national experts on its EHR, security and software suppliers, insurance carriers, media, physicians, leaders of other health systems who had experienced similar cyberattacks, and a great many others. Without strong relationships and the ability to weave those relationships together in a meaningful and effective way, the health system’s cybersecurity incident could have been catastrophic. Intentional or not, the work that went into critical relationship-building before the crisis even occurred strengthened leaders’ resourcefulness skills and became invaluable in a time of need. Relationships are an essential component of resourcefulness, and leaders are advised to spend time developing them.

Just three short months later, the COVID-19 crisis began to emerge. The healthcare organizations managing this crisis well are those who have strong, resourceful leaders in place. They own their roles and the outcomes that they can directly affect through effective accountability. They plan ahead using good time management practices and develop game plans for varying situations by effectively pulling together stakeholders and facilitating discussion and quick resolution.

In the early days of the COVID-19 surge, the Great Plains Health team quickly realized it would need to rely on a different way to deliver patient care. Telehealth was the answer, but it took a team willing to be open-minded to a new and different way of delivering care to pull it off. It also took a team that had strong, existing relationships with physicians, outreach clinics and hospitals, patients, and telehealth vendors.

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, it has been resourcefulness that has allowed the health system’s leaders and team members to stay nimble and find workable solutions to many challenges. When the organization was short on masks, it figured out how to set up a reprocessing center. When it struggled to secure face shield shipments, it collaborated with local schools and libraries to use 3D printers to make its own. When hand sanitizer ran low, the health system worked with local liquor distilleries to find an alternative.

Fine-Tuning Resourcefulness
Leaders at every level can also enhance their resourcefulness skills by taking on projects or assignments that require them to stretch outside their comfort zones, working specifically in the areas of relationship-building and problem-solving. Leaders can also strengthen their resourcefulness by scanning industries outside healthcare for creative solutions and new ideas. Surrounding oneself with intelligent people at all levels and from many different disciplines to create contacts who can be called upon in crisis can help a leader become more resourceful. Finally, senior leaders can identify resourcefulness in emerging leaders and help them grow this skill so it can be naturally drawn upon during a crisis.

What Does Resourcefulness Look Like?
Resourcefulness in leaders emerges when they do the following eight things:

1. Help their organizations look beyond how they’ve always done things and become focused on doing things differently in the interest of doing better.
2. Are unapologetic for needing help finding solutions to challenges. The best ideas often emerge when multiple disciplines and varying levels of leadership come together.
3. Are willing to get in the weeds and learn how things work. When leaders can truly understand problematic processes, they are better able to find more effective solutions. Leadership in healthcare does not come from sitting behind a desk; it requires walking around and finding out how and why the work on the front line is done.
4. Dare to ask questions instead of settling for “oh, they’ll never go for that.” Supporting research and good presentation go a long way in persuasion.
5. Are open-minded to new possibilities and understand that not every problem is solved by adding full-time employees. Resourcefulness is about optimizing the organization’s existing resources and working with them in more effective ways.
6. Relentlessly build a network of professionals whom they genuinely care about, learn from and trust. Through this network, they can develop an inner circle of problem-solvers in varied professions, organizations and industries that they can call upon for counsel.
7. Practice good time management and get things done. They rise above the state of busyness and fiercely protect designated time to think through challenges facing the organization.
8. Humble themselves and remain steadfastly focused on organizational improvement, not on their egos and turf.

When healthcare executives cultivate the skill of resourcefulness, they become better leaders and ultimately create better outcomes, especially in a crisis. When healthcare leaders get better at being resourceful, the field as a whole improves.

–Adapted from “Resourcefulness: A Key Leadership Skill,” Healthcare Executive, Fiona Libsack, FACHE, chief development officer, Great Plains Health, North Platte, Neb.