When Kasey D’Amato, PA, coaches a healthcare practice struggling with its team, she listens for patterns. As part of her “meet and greet,” D’Amato asks employees about their experience at work. She pays particular attention to their words, writing positive and negative feedback in two columns. When people are happy, energized and excited about what’s ahead, she knows there’s a strong culture. When she hears similar reports of dissatisfaction across an organization, she knows there’s a leadership problem.
“If all of the words on the negative emotional state are coming up company-wide, that’s a leadership issue. It’s a culture, and it’s coming from the top,” says D’Amato.
For healthcare practice owners, a leadership problem is an uncomfortable reality. It requires looking in the mirror when employees aren’t taking initiative, morale is slipping or turnover is a recurring challenge.
D’Amato, a physician assistant and former chief of staff to a physician founder, has built three businesses from the ground up. Today, she works with healthcare providers and other business leaders as an executive coach, helping with practice growth, leadership development and career strategy.
“Leadership and management aren’t the same. Managing people is an operational task we need to succeed in business. However, that does not make a great leader,” she says.
How to Develop Self-Awareness as a Healthcare Practice Leader
Leadership can be taught, says D’Amato. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have a job coaching and speaking for healthcare practice and business owners.
Developing leadership skills begins with a willingness to examine your own patterns. “Self-leadership really becomes about self-awareness,” says D’Amato.
For example, when an employee isn’t performing as expected, an owner might conclude that the person lacks initiative, motivation or work ethic. When the same problem recurs with different employees, D’Amato recommends asking different questions:
- Have you clearly defined the role?
- Does the employee know what success looks like?
- Have you created processes that allow the person to succeed?
- Are you providing the right amount of support?
The goal isn’t to assume every problem is a leadership failure. Instead, it’s about developing enough self-awareness to recognize what you can change as a leader in your organization.
Leading vs. Managing: How to Help Your Practice Team Grow
Being a manager means providing the operational structure for your business, such as roles, responsibilities and processes. Leadership is about positively influencing people and empowering them to succeed within that structure.
That’s why D’Amato recommends regularly checking in with your team and providing transparent metrics for success. If an employee seems disengaged or underperforming, D’Amato recommends stepping away from the daily task list and holding what she calls an “alignment session” to ask the following:
- What do you want from your career?
- What kind of work would you like to do more of?
- What does an ideal role look like?
The answers may uncover opportunities that benefit both the employee and the practice. For example, an employee who wants greater involvement in decision-making may have leadership abilities that aren’t being developed. Creating an appropriate path toward greater responsibility can help that employee grow while strengthening the team.
“If your challenge is with one person, you can oftentimes figure out how you can find an alignment that aligns with what they want that also benefits the business,” says D’Amato.
The 90-Day Sprint: Fix One Leadership Challenge at a Time in Your Practice
Becoming a stronger leader doesn’t require changing overnight. D’Amato recommends identifying an issue that would make the biggest difference and working on it in a 90-day “micro sprint.”
For example:
- Your employees lack clear expectations
- You aren’t delegating effectively
- Team meetings aren’t productive
- You avoid difficult conversations.
Choose the priority, decide what progress looks like and determine who can help you achieve it.
“You, as the business owner, aren’t expected to know the answers to every single thing. What you are expected to do is be resourceful and bring on the people who do,” says D’Amato.
Why Leadership Development Is Essential to Growing a Successful Healthcare Practice
As your practice grows, so do your responsibilities as a leader. You’re responsible for building a team, creating systems and making decisions that affect employees, patients and the business overall.
Growing from healthcare provider to practice owner takes time, and it’s not something you learn in school or by practicing as a clinician. “We’re all continuing to develop our self-leadership over our lifetime. It’s like a muscle. You’re constantly improving your resilience skills, your emotional intelligence skills, your communication skills and working out that muscle your entire life,” says D’Amato.
Besides getting help from an executive coach, D’Amato also recommends leadership books, such as:
- Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell
- Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
- Start With Why by Simon Sinek
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
As your team and business grow, make sure your protection grows too. CM&F offers professional and business insurance solutions designed for healthcare professionals and practices at every stage and size.
