PODCAST INTERVIEW: HOW DO YOU DEFINE LEADERSHIP AS A HEALTHCARE EXECUTIVE?

I had the privilege to sit down with Christopher M. Ekrem MBA, FACHE with EqualizeRCM to discuss how to define leadership as a healthcare executive. In the short video below, I share the six factors that I consider when assessing my own leadership effectiveness.

Chris Ekrem: [00:00:00] Since you've already been a CFO to a COO, a CEO of a hospital, a large hospital as well, and a health system CEO. I thought, today we could spend some time talking about, you know, how do you define leadership as a healthcare executive?

Rodney Reider: That's a great question Chris. All these years, we've competed and your systems were tough competitors.

And we're having this conversation now it's truly fascinating. Networking is important. So how would I define leadership? There's so many great terms out there right now that people use, you know, servant leadership and you go through the list of all great. I believe definitions, but I had to, for myself to find it more so that I take the qualities that are encapsulated in leader.

So I really look at six different things and I think about myself to be accountable for it, but also for others that I'm trying to hire or even grow. As being a mentor, but really visible leadership. Are you out there listening to find out from the people who are doing the work, what they need, how can we can approach [00:01:00] it?

Are you listening to the, obviously, the patients, the customers, and the community key piece, this is what lives there. So publicly, you're out making it happen. Keep her the culture. Every time we step into an organization, there's already an existing culture and there's this thing, culture. We need to take the best part of that and build on it, strengthen it, protect it, and then add those pieces.

That we think, or we see need to be really enhanced and that's the piece key piece, or keep it the culture. You don't lose the historical factors. Cause there's a foundation there that has been built up over the years. They need to make sure you take advantage of, and you look at the future of how you can enhance that.

Third thing is a leader should definitely be a source of encouragement, energy and inspiration. People look up to you every time a CFO walks into a room or walks into any type of meeting or on the floor, they are setting the tone, any of the leaders, but the CFO has such a powerful impact that sets the tone and that that tone can become something that translates to everybody in the room and throughout.

So that [00:02:00] encouragement, that energy and inspiration has to come from the leader cause this contagious that's the key. The other side of that is.

You have to be a person that reminds everyone about reality. You're not going to have the rose-colored glasses on saying, everything's great because you're being encouraging, but you can be encouraging and saying, and yet here's what we have to accomplish. Here's how the market's changing. Here's where needs are.

Here's what we need to focus on as a team. This is reality. How are we going to deal with that? How are we going to straight forward, set up a plan and take out. Hold ourselves accountable and make things happen. But that start that momentum to make things even more positive than they already are or can be.

The final thing is as the leader, you start the direction you are the person who sets the direction, taking all these other things into account from, from your strategy to listening, to looking at what the reality is, you set the direction you set the tone to make things happen from there. So those are the six things I really look at for being a definition of leadership today.[00:03:00]

Tagged: podcast, leadership, healthcare, executive