The Impact of an Executive Leadership Development Program.

THE ABILITY OF LARGE HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS to respond to the rapidly changing landscape in which they operate is in many ways dependent upon the leadership knowledge and capabilities of those heading up the transformation. Although the central direction and core vision for health system transformation is typically concentrated in a relatively tight circle of a few individuals, it is the broader acceptance and execution of the transformative steps that determine the success of the initiative.1 Often, it is less about having the perfect plan but rather expertly executing the plan that has been decided upon that leads to successful organizational change and advancement.1 To address this need, a growing number of health systems have implemented executive leadership development programs (ELDPs) to identify, equip and ultimately unleash potential leaders within their organizations to bring about desired transformation. Until recently the degree to which these ELDP strategies were being implemented nationally was unknown. Ann McAlearny recently reported the results of a national survey that examined the number of active ELDPs, their general structure and outcome measures.2 It was discovered that most programs have been in existence for five to seven years with an executive-felt, needbased approach and relatively vague outcome measures. Most programs allowed the identified executive to structure the program to their needs/desires in approximately 40 to 50 contact hours.2 Additionally the outcomes measures were typically centered on rate of employee advancement, customer and employee satisfaction scores and employee retention. In this report the difficulty in clearly assessing the impact/outcome of these programs was mentioned as a limiting factor.2 Purpose-driven executive development has been demonstrated as important across several areas of business and industry, with skill acquisition and succession planning obvious benefits to the implementing organization.3 Leadership development is seen as a competitive advantage for those organizations engaged in these activities.4 This advantage centers on the ability of the organization to outline and implement objectives efficiently. In health care, these objectives typically involve increasing patient satisfaction and safety while delivering care in an efficient manner. Let’s examine the organizational goal, structure, content and outcomes of a recently developed ELDP in an integrated academic medical center. Additionally, we’ll look at the strengths and areas for improvement in the current models.